Actor and comedian Will Ferrell has pointed out an Elf related joke that no one seems to have got in his most recent comedy, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. With the Christmas season now upon us, Elf remains one of the most popular festive comedies and features Ferrell as a human boy raised to adulthood by Santa’s elves.
The 2003 film was only the second feature of Jon Favreau’s career, and it’s been widely reported that he and Ferrell did not get along during the film’s production. Unfortunately, this troubled relationship has prevented a sequel to the film from being made, with Ferrell apparently refusing to work with Favreau again. Thankfully Ferrell’s issues with Favreau haven’t spoiled his own ability to acknowledge and appreciate how much Elf means to fans. In fact, the film continues to be a part of Ferrell’s life to such a degree that while co-writing Eurovision with Andrew Steele, Ferrell put in references to the Icelandic belief in elves (Huldufólk), something that Rachel McAdams’ character Sigrit is highly invested in. When Lars (Ferrell) and Sigrit make it to the Eurovision finals, Sigrit believes it’s due to elves.
But while Sigrit holds a very staunch belief in elves, Lars cannot stand them. He hates everything about the tiny beings, and Ferrell consciously gave the character this trait because of Elf. While speaking with Variety, Ferrell admitted that he thought Lars’ elf-hating would be hilarious thanks to his previous role as Buddy the elf. Instead of being an ironic reference to Ferrell’s involvement in the beloved Christmas film, it turns out that no one really got it – at least, not according to Ferrell:
You know what’s funny? Nobody got the subtext to that. We were trying to put in this bit about how Lars has issues with elves and elves are stupid and thought, “That’s going to get such a funny laugh because of Buddy the Elf.” But it just went over everyone’s head. It was supposed to be such an obvious joke that we should have my character just hate all things elf-related, and I starred in “Elf.” And that just kind of flew by.
Perhaps Ferrell is underestimating just how many people love Elf and his portrayal of Buddy because surely his past connection to elves was obvious to Eurovision’s audiences. In fact, some could even argue that Lars’ disdain for elves and anything that has to do with them is a subtle but significant rebuking of the idea that another Elf film could ever exist. After all, Ferrell did co-write Eurovision, and creating a character who holds a tremendous dislike for elves is an easy way to indirectly get his point across.
At any rate, regardless of whether or not audiences caught on to the Elf joke in Eurovision, both films found tremendous success. In the case of Eurovision particularly, Ferrell landed a certified comedic hit for the first time in years. Hopefully, this degree of success will continue on Ferrell’s upcoming projects, as the comedian has always been an audience favorite.
Source: Variety