A movie like The Adventures of Joe Dirt is not the kind of movie that is going to trick you into thinking that it is something worth watching, the way movies like Armageddon try to. David Spade is almost universally associated with low thought comedies, but like Joe Dirt, these are not always all bad. Joe Dirt is the type of movie that comes across as a goofball comedy that is not likely to be very believable and certainly will not promote much cognitive activity, but I respect it because there is a place in the entertainment industry for movies like Joe Dirt. There is a place for bad comedy in the movies, and the reason that I don't hold Joe Dirt's status as a bad comedy against it is because it doesn't try to be anything else. There are so many movies these days that could so easily have slipped comfortably in with this country's truly great films had it not been for the addition of stupid, stupid love stories or idiot comic relief (a glaring recent example being Pearl Harbor) that it's refreshing to see one come along every once in a while that knows where it stands.
That being said, I would like to also point out that I certainly have little to no respect for Joe Dirt outside of knowing its place. It is a comedy full of bad jokes that either are looking for a cheap laugh or, in a disturbing amount of occasions, are making jokes about things that really shouldn't be joked about. The movie is about a guy named Joe Dirt who is proudly the most redneck person you could ever hope to meet, whose parents abandoned him at the Grand Canyon when he was 8 years old. It is not that easy in this country for an 8 year old to get through life on his own, but mostly because it would not be too long before he was picked off the streets by a shelter or the police or any number of institutions. I doubt that he lived in the woods until he was old enough to pretend he had enough of an address to get a job, although that would certainly account for many things about his appearance and demeanor.
After being noticed by a radio show that badly needed some sucker to laugh at for a few hours, Joe gets a spot on the radio show talking about his life, which at first starts out as a hilarious joke for the DJ (Dennis Miller), but ends up capturing the heart of the DJ and the audience and earning Joe several more days of air time to tell his story. He talks of when he went out in search of his real parents, leaving us already aware that he didn't find them or didn't care to know them once he had met them (given the fact that he still seemed pretty parentless), at first accurately portraying what a pathetic person he is, but ultimately his struggle becomes apparent and he starts to come across as some weird sort of tragic hero. Well, a goofy comedy's version of a tragic hero, anyway.
As has been one of Spade's most prevalent skills throughout his career, in Joe Dirt he capitalizes on his weaknesses, making us laugh at how pathetic Joe Dirt is and, at the same time, how easily Spade can portray this kind of person. Kid Rock has a bit part as anther redneck who is trying to steal away from Dirt a stunningly attractive blonde who has probably the most inexplicable attraction to any person in any film in the last 20 or 30 years. This might be considered the point in the film where it switches from the realm of mil romantic comedy and goes full force into the world of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Kid Rock plays a character that he is familiar with in real life, a tire-squealing redneck with little to no education and the total conviction that he is the coolest thing on earth. Unfortunately, by playing this character, he emphasizes the already prevalent detail that his taking a role in this film is an obvious attempt to switch over to acting and away from his flailing musical career. Overall, Joe Dirt has it positive moments. There were parts of the movie that were genuinely amusing (although not very many at all), but unfortunately there were also an enormous amount of parts that were supposed to be funny but were not even by the furthest stretch of the imagination (such as anything involving septic tanks shaped like missiles and buried mysteriously in the desert or anything about Joe's exposed brain).
Someone thought, for example, that it would be amusing to have Joe Dirt say that he was born without the top of his skull, with his brain exposed, which completely mystifies me. This is a completely backwards step in developing the character of Joe Dirt (who they are trying to present as a normal guy underneath his astonishingly dorky exterior), and more importantly, it's not at all amusing, it's a horrible way to try to generate gross out humor. Maybe the writers forgot that people in real life are born like that. Maybe Joe, unlike the writers, sacrificed the top of his skull at birth for some sort of care for his fellow human being, and on top of that (no pun intended, of course), they throw in a hideous mullet wig that Joe has miraculously worn all his life.
So let's recap, Joe Dirt was born without the top of his skull, he was fitted with the most repulsive wig that must have fallen out of the 1970s, he was abandoned by his parents at the age of eight, and now spends his life mopping floors and being laughed at by anyone he comes into contact with (including us). When you consider the human side of the movie, the comedy drains away, which is ironic since the human side is exactly the part of Joe Dirt that the movie tries to bring to light. Joe eventually finds his parents, only to discover from them within a matter of minutes and while surrounded by TV cameras that okay, okay, they left him at the Grand Canyon on purpose, leaving us with the feeling that the last hour and a half was a complete waste and the feeling that, had the writers not so obviously been complete morons, Joe Dirt really had the chance to have been a worthwhile comedy. A slim chance, but a chance nonetheless.
