When people first started talking about Rob Schneider and what a sensation he was on the comedy circuit, I shook my head in disbelief as…wait a minute. No one has ever talked about Rob Schnieder being any kind of sensation, save for perhaps a burning one. The guy has just never been funny. Ever. He wasn’t funny on SNL. He’s never been funny as the comic relief to action movie guys like Van Damme and Stallone. He’s never been funny in his own movies. He couldn’t even manage one good comeback to a prominent critic with a full frickin’ page ad rebuttal in Variety, and a little after that fiasco, Roger Ebert basically made Schneider his bitch in his review of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigalo by referencing the weak sauce rebuttal and gutting it with one line.
But while he may not be funny, he’s apparently a nice guy and a good friend, and that counts for a lot in this business. Thus, his more accomplished pal, Adam Sandler, has afforded Schneider a host of opportunities to work, and another one has just popped up. As per his usual MO, Schneider will be joining Sandler’s Mossad agent-turned-hairstylist comedy You Don’t Mess With The Zohan as “an East Yistannen cab driver,” who will no doubt uncork an oh-so-witty “You can do eeeeeeeeeit!” in some ker-azy accent during a pivotal moment.
Still, as Devin is quick to point out, there’s hope in the form of the creative team of Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel, both of whom co-wrote the story with Sandler. I just don’t know if their contributions are going to survive the performances of Sandler and Schneider, much less the editing suite. We shall see.