Will Ferrell:Comedy At It’s Best

Sometimes you run away from what you’re best at when you see other people fail. Will Ferrell was no different. After watching his father struggle through life in show business, Ferrell decided that he did not want anything to do with the industry but instead, he wanted a steady full time job. If you’ve seen any popular comedies from the 2000s, you know that Ferrell’s plans for life went the complete opposite direction.

Will Ferrell grew up in a divided household, his parents divorced when he was eight years old. Regardless of his situation though, he always stayed optimistic. “I was the type of kid who would say, ‘Hey Look at the bright side! We’ll have two Christmases,” said Ferrell in an interview with Good Morning America. It’s not uncommon for children to take on certain behaviors to cope with divorce, Ferrell just happened to build a lifestyle, and career, from it. “Growing up in suburbia, in safe, master-planned Irvine, there was no drama so we had to create it in our heads. My main form of entertainment was cracking my friends up and exploring new ways of being funny. I didn’t have to have the survival mode instinct like other comics, who grew up in tough neighborhoods. I had the opposite. For me, I grew up in Mayberry, and the humor broke the boredom. And there was a lot to make fun of,” Ferrell told the Orange County Register, a daily California newspaper.

Although Ferrell graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in Sports Information, he knew that broadcast wasn’t where he wanted to be. After screwing up a few part time jobs, and taking his mother’s advice, Ferrell moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. Ferrell’s first professional gig was with Saturday Night Live He joined the show in 1995 and immediately became a star, Ferrell’s magnetic personality and witty sense of humor allowed him to act his way into the hearts of millions. Some of his most loved impersonations on SNL included, U.S. President George W. Bush, Singer Neil Diamond, United States Attorney General Janet Reno, and Game Show Host Alex Trebek. In 2001, Ferrell became the highest paid cast member of Saturday Night Live.

During his seven year tenure with SNL, Ferrell appeared in several movies such as Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Zoolander. In 2002, Ferrell left Saturday Night Live to build a movie career. Since 2003, Ferrell has been acting in some of the funniest movies to hit the silver screen. One of my personal favoritesis Elf, it was named the top box office film in 2004 at the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards. He has also starred in hits such as Anchorman, Starsky & Hutch, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers, and The Other Guys.

Aside from comedy, Ferrell has played in a few “less comedic” roles; they still involved comedy, they just weren’t centered on it. His most recent role was in Everything Must Go, a film about a man who loses everything one day only to find more along his way to recovery. “It was really refreshing to be still in that way, as opposed to running around and acting crazy, as much as you love it, or hopefully love it. But, yes, it was very freeing. And in terms of whether this was a conscious choice to do something less comic, this was more just an individual project that kind of came my way…I’ve never experienced anything like that. It was great,” said Ferrell in an interview with AskMen.com.

Some of Ferrell’s latest ventures include producing his own films, such as the upcoming football comedy Three Mississippi. So the question is: will Ferrell ever retire from his funny man persona? Take this as your answer, the highly anticipated Anchorman sequel titled, Anchorman: The Legend Continues is scheduled to be released in 2013.

-Stormm Van Rooi