Ep# 37 - The Late Jerry Lewis: Cracking Up & The Nutty Professor Cartoon

If you know Jenna, you know she will never say no to a conversation about Jerry Lewis. She already made Carlo watch three of his films for a previous episode of Notes From the Back Row, and she even covered a Martin & Lewis movie in one of our Halloween episodes. So safe to say this will not be the end of you hearing about Jenna’s strange love-hate relationship with comedic legend, auteur filmmaker and all-around weirdo Jerry Lewis.

So when Ben Nash, film studies postgraduate student and MUBI Notebook contributor, offered to talk about Jerry Lewis as an avant-garde filmmaker, how could she say no? In this episode they discuss two of his lesser known films: the doomed-to-television yet surprisingly funny sketch comedy film Smorgasbord aka Cracking Up (1983), and true visual vomit of an early 2000’s low budget CGI nightmare The Nutty Professor II: Facing the Fear (2008). Enjoy as Ben waxes poetic on why he believes Jerry Lewis deserves his place in the Auteur Hall of Fame, and cries as he recounts having watched the cartoon Nutty Professor twice in a row for the sake of this podcast.

Also this beautiful graphic he created will make more sense after you listen:

Is that not enough incentive for you?

A new episode of Notes From the Back Row will be released every other week. If you have a new movie premiering, drop us a line – we might be interested in setting something up with you too!

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