Ricky Gervais and W.C. Fields - Connections Deeper Than Dentistry

The ability to create comedy is one of humanity's signature triumphs. And I am grateful that mankind also invented motion pictures (with and without sound) to capture humor and allow generations (both current and future) to enjoy it.

That said, let's jump way ahead to a particular pair of comedy movie stars - past and present.

From the past, one of my all time favorite comedians is W.C. Fields. Several books have been written about him and his uniquely caustic comic style, but there is no substitute for simply watching the man himself in action. So you should do so at your earliest opportunity!

Fields' characters tend to fall into distinct categories - including the flamboyant liar/braggart with a fondness for drink that has become his immortal stereotype (see "My Little Chickadee", "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man"). My fave "type" is the hen-pecked husband/father/son-in-law who is trying to survive a wickedly, often hilariously complex world (see "The Man On The Flying Trapeze", "It's A Gift", "You're Telling Me").

Another of Fields' types is the near-total misanthrope with a pulverizingly hilarious wit. This character roundly disdains most people, issuing devastating verbal asides muttered when the target is just out of earshot. And that's where Ricky Gervais steps in. The creator of "The Office" is in fine form in the extremely funny film "Ghost Town," playing a self-absorbed character immensely sure of his superiority even as his actions reveal the comic absurdity - and the emptiness - of that stance.

In "Ghost Town", Gervais plays a New York City dentist whose near-death experience enables him to see ghosts - and the spirits of Manhattan have a lot of unfinished issues that only a human partner can help them with. But their unwilling accomplice has built a life around denying other living people exist, let alone dead ones. How the dentist must connect with the undead to forge a path to a new life is the basic story, and offers Gervais playing the contemporary equivalent of a Fields film.

So how is Gervais' dentist - Bertram Pincus, a worthy nom de plume on par with Fields characters like J. Pinkerton Snoopington and Egbert Souse - channeling W.C.? It's in the way he casually tosses hilarious insults and routinely looks to gain the upper hand. Pincus will semi-gleefully cut in line to steal a taxi ride, and vacuously apologize while pushing the "close doors" button on the elevator while a package-laden woman runs to catch a lift, both bits recalling various Fields adventures in one-on-one exploitation. Gervais' style is more deadpan than W.C., but his gruff, comically acidic exterior hides a man seeking humanity (though on his own terms) in a fashion that is pure Fields. And both comics play characters that continue to fight their largely imaginary wars even as they ruefully acknowledge that defeat could be just around the corner.

Ultimately, it's seeing another average, slightly rounded, pasty-faced man with a withering wit in a dentist's smock that provides the most direct Gervais-Fields link. Fields made perhaps the greatest film on dentistry:"The Dentist" sharply skewers family issues, modern technology, golf and sex in a snappy twenty minutes. Seeing Gervais essay a Fieldsian comic style while wearing his professional uniform in many scenes outside the office is simultaneously reminiscent and pretty funny on its own ("I'm a dentist, I just came from work...this is how we do it, baby" he explains at one point).

Enough chatter. If you haven't seen "Ghost Town" with Ricky Gervais, go and rent it. And if you have not seen W.C. Fields, you've got a whole lot of catching up to do. Fortunately, in both cases, you'll have a great time.