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| Photo: © Jeff Schear / Getty Images |
News of the recent passing of writer/actor/director Harold Ramis has gone surprisingly viral on the internet. Social media has exploded with tales of the supernatural,
memorials, and reflections on his famous films such as Ghostbusters and National Lampoon's Vacation. John Stewart left a
moment of Zen tribute, Stephen Colbert declared him a
"Role Model", and even President Barak Obama released an
official statement quoting Caddyshack, hoping that "he received total consciousness". Including such fantastic films as Animal House and Groundhog Day, Harold found great humor with death. One of my favorite lines from his film 'Stripes' is,"Tito Puente's gonna be dead, and you're gonna say, "Oh, I've been listening to him for years, and I think he's fabulous." Well, I wouldn't know any better way to honor my childhood hero than to dedicate an entire 'Throwback Thursday' #TBT to Harold Ramis.
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| Photo: © Barry Williams / Daily News New York |
The Chicago Tribune story immediately appeared up on my feed. It's no secret why; I love Ghostbusters. My reaction (I assume) was similar to anyone else who had just learned that they had just recently lost an idol. I was speech-less. For a guy who often shares too much on the internet, I didn't want to post anything. My next thoughts were regretful, "Well, there goes Ghostbusters 3! Wait, did I just think that? What a horrible thought on so many levels!" Though I kept the callous and selfish response to myself, over the next few days I later found out that every person who loved and idolized Ramis felt exactly the same thing! And why wouldn't they? It probably would have been exactly what he had thought. An
interenet meme circulating acknowledged this, "I wish Harold Ramis was alive to write a funny dedication to Harold Ramis." His humor certainly reflected a bitter satire; a pathos that as President Obama put it, "questioned authority". “We represent the underdog as comedy usually speaks for the lower classes,” Mr. Ramis once said. “We attack the winners.” This is a style mirrored by today's comic writers from 'Dumb and Dumber' by the Farelly brothers to recent success like Andy Samberg and 'The Lonely Island'. In his first feature film, 'National Lampoon's Animal House', a frightened horse dies of a heart attack in a college dean's office. In 'Caddyshack' a bishop is struck by lightning while playing golf in a thunderstorm. In 'National Lampoon's Vacation' a rancorous aunt dies while mid cross-country journey and later is strapped to the hood of the family's station-wagon. In 'Groundhog Day' Bill Murray's character is forced to repeat the same 24 hours over again with no escape, even in death, later declaring himself a god.
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| 'Junior Ghostbusters' A.W. Cox Elementary School Talent Show 1988 | |
Over the past few days I've had an opportunity to reflect on why his work greatly influenced me. That is, there was something more than his silliness that helped me understand the world. His characters made me more comfortable accepting myself and death. I was often an 'underdog' in sports. In elementary school I didn't really excel at things other than science and math. It's no wonder why my idol was his 'Ghostbusters' character, Egon Spengler. If you're looking for a super-scientist, why not one that fights ghosts? Suddenly it was cool to have big corrective glasses because Egon had them. When other kids might have been afraid of the dark, I was able to take a "Who ya gonna call?" attitude. When I learned that people actually studied ghosts, I took out every book at the library on parapsychology. Sadly when death and tragedy came to my family I was able work through it with much of what I had learned. The years following both of the films me, my sister, my brother, and my friends all found a
fantastic opportunity identifying each of ourselves in Ramis' heroes.
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| Dressing up and playing Ghostbusters never gets old. |
As an adult I'm finding myself going back to my roots for guidance. As I pursue a career in entertainment, I realize that so much of my humor derives from what I had watched over 20 years ago. Even more now, I can see what a great example he was to up and coming writers/actors/directors. “When you’re doing pure comedy, things have to happen that would not
happen in real life,” Ramis acknowledged in reference to 'The Ice Harvest'. “In this movie, we find
ourselves laughing at how horrible real life can be, or at the kinds of
things people say under stress, which may strike us as funny but they’re
certainly not telling jokes to each other." My friend said to me yesterday, "(Harold Ramis dying) will finally get people to
stop hounding Bill Murray about Ghostbusters 3." That is funny and I
think Harold would have thought so too.
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| Harold Ramis © Copyright 2014 Joe Heller |
