Ghost Dad: A Bothersome Movie

I thought I was successfully able to repress those memories, those 83 minutes of terrible memories from a time 20 years ago. But now, for the sake of a review that maybe ten people will read, I have gone back and unearthed that which has never really gone away, that which festered beneath the surface of my psyche, those images, those vain attempts at humor. It's time we brought back... "Ghost Dad."

Synopsis in a nutshell: Bill Cosby is a widower. Bill Cosby has some kids. Bill Cosby has a tough job. Bill Cosby DIES. Bill Cosby becomes a surprisingly functional ghost. Bill Cosby tries to keep his job and raise his children. Hilarity ensues?

As a kid several things bothered me about this movie. There is the death scene, for instance. Bill Cosby (and I don't even know his character's name -- more on that in a moment) hops in a taxi cab. The driver turns out to be an insane Satanist. Now, you and I both know that cab drivers are awful, awful people, so I didn't let the devil-worshiping portion of this contrived situation-in-the-making bother me too terribly. What did bother me was that Bill Cosby, in an effort to gain control of things, angrily declares himself to be Satan. It sort of made sense in the context of the situation, and as an adult I can see that it wasn't that big of a deal, but to a kid, to myself 20 years ago, the last thing you want to see is a raging Dr. Huxtable admit that he is the Prince of Darkness. [Interestingly enough, Bill Cosby portrayed the Devil in 1981's "The Devil and Max Devlin," a Disney film. I think it is all starting to come together now...]

Another thing that bothered me pertains to the fact that Bill Cosby is Bill Cosby in everything he does, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Dr. Huxtable is Bill Cosby, and Bill Cosby is Dr. Huxtable. Bill Cosby is Ghost Dad, and Ghost Dad is Bill Cosby. Therefore, Ghost Dad is also Dr. Huxtable, and these two are fundamentally Bill Cosby. It's like a holy sweater-wearing upper-middle class Trinity. So to an 8-year-old who cannot differentiate when Bill Cosby is being Himself and when he is not being Himself, it was confusing to see him with an unfamiliar family with which, presumably, he had some sort of history that warrants his unconditional love. What would Phylicia Rashad think? What about Theo and Rudy? What about not-yet-fat Raven-Symone? What about his actual wife, Camille? What's going on? HOW MANY FAMILIES DOES THIS MAN HAVE? Obviously this still causes me consternation.

A third thing about "Ghost Dad" that bothered me -- and this one is most critical -- is that "Ghost Dad" is NOT FREAKING FUNNY. Usually I’m a sucker for physical comedy. But the physical comedy of this movie is, in addition to being contrived, a little bit disturbing. Watch Bill Cosby and a Satanic cab driver fall off a bridge (well, okay, that actually is pretty funny). Watch a large bus pass through Ghost Cosby, running him through the crotch of an old lady sitting in the back seat... IN SLOW MOTION. Watch Ghost Cosby get yanked from the earth and onto an airplane lavatory. Watch one of Cosby's daughters also become a ghost. Watch the characters fumble through each of these situations (and more!). Watch your eyes roll up into your head.

Of course, twenty years later, now that my brain has developed an understanding of how basic logic work, there are entirely new things that bother me about "Ghost Dad." Take the 'rules' to ghostdom. I understand suspension of disbelief, but the world you create in film needs to make sense, even if it is not based in reality. In "Ghost Dad" the physical laws of ghost-being are at the same time rigid and loose, specific and arbitrary. Ghost Cosby has until Thursday to get his affairs in order before he is whisked away to the great unknown, so there's that. He can be seen in the dark but becomes invisible in the light and uses a flashlight to demonstrate this with comical(?) results. He can't manipulate solid objects, BUT THEN HE CAN. At first he can't talk, BUT THEN HE CAN. In one scene he REACHES THROUGH A MOTHERF@#%ING TELEPHONE. Spoiler: he's not dead, but actually got scared out of his skin. The same thing happens to his daughter, so apparently it is easy to do and happens all the time... BUT IT DOESN'T.

"Ghost Dad" begs the tangential question -- why have so many comedians, especially those with a successful background in stand-up, starred in so many unfunny comedies? How does somebody who is universally regarded as funny dedicate himself to the production of a movie that ends up making everybody involved look retarded? It is an embarrassing and sad thing that happens all too frequently. Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Tim Allen, Dane Cook, Robin Williams... the list goes on and on. Successful stand-up comedians rarely make authentically funny comedy films. This is more an observation than an indictment and I don't have any answers that go beyond speculation. I know the dynamic is different between performing in front of an audience and repeating takes for a camera, but a few comedians used to be able to make it work both ways (Martin in "The Jerk" immediately comes to mind, as does Murphy in "Trading Places," and Pryor was funny in "Brewster's Millions," wasn't he?). Perhaps over a period of time the comedian's perspective of what is funny becomes distorted because nobody tells them when they're not being funny. Everybody is along for the ride. The humor is cheapened, the jokes automatic and the laughter canned. First you're selling out arenas, then you're Sinbad starring in "Jingle All The Way."

First you're Bill Cosby doing the awesome Fat Albert thing, then you're Bill Cosby starring in "Ghost Dad."

(sigh)

Anyway, this movie sucks. Go watch "The Cosby Mysteries" or something.

I rate "Ghost Dad" one lousy Jell-O Puddin' Pop out of five.