You know…every few months, Jerry Lewis seems to give some sort of interview or statement that seems rude and nasty and often unconnected with reality. And every time, a lot of people rush to defend him…
He's Jerry Lewis. He made a lot of great movies. He raised a ton of money to fight Muscular Dystrophy. He's always been like this. Comedic geniuses have a right to be cranky. The interviewer was at fault. Jerry's a living legend.
I've done some of this defending and it's getting harder and harder, especially the part about "He made a lot of great movies." Usually, the folks who say that can name The Nutty Professor and nothing else. That's like one out of fifty-three movies, not counting cameos.
And I don't even think The Nutty Professor is that good a movie. It's almost like you got the idea he's a great comedian in spite of his actual body of work and then you were challenged to name his best film and you picked that one because a lot of people said it was.
(I think Jerry's best movie was something with Dean in it. It's hard to pick one because they're all about the same. If I had to pick the best solo Jerry film, it would probably be The Bellboy. There are others I like from a nostalgia viewpoint. They amused me when I saw them not because they were good but because I was ten.)
Look, I'll give him the "raised a ton of money" thing. The telethons were a Guilty Pleasure for so many of us. Other televised fund-raisers attract donations by offering genuine entertainment amidst the appeals for dough. Jerry offered ego excesses, self-pity, tirades against his critics, excessive praise of his friends — no wonder this guy loves Trump — and his oft-voiced worldview that people in Show Business are just plain better human beings than people who aren't in Show Business. Still, he did raise a lot of cash from those lesser human beings who aren't in Show Business and it did a lot of good.
But the other stuff….I'm sorry. "Oh, that's just Jerry being Jerry" doesn't work for me on any level. If Harry next door beats his wife and kicks his dog, you don't just say "Oh, that's just Harry being Harry." Jerry, like Trump, is proof that if you get famous enough, some people will let you get away with anything.
I always wanted to like Jerry Lewis but he's made it too difficult. Too difficult. I'm going to stop trying to convince myself or anyone that he was a great comedian and that his tirades are anything other than the ramblings of a bitter, angry man. If you want to continue to see him as someone to be admired, don't let me stop you…because he needs all the love he can get.
But you know what? No matter how much there has been — and he's been loved more than most people on this planet get to be loved — it has never been enough.