Chop & Steele 2023 Movie Review
Chop and Steele may very well be the biggest and most successful creations of Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher. Having grown up together, Pickett and Prueher realised that they both had the same likes and dislikes and the same sense of humour. As adults, they decided to pursue comedy as a career and although their methods were unconventional, they had some (very) modest success.
Then they came upon an idea, writing press releases and sending them to television companies, the duo created some very unique and yet non-existent characters with some extraordinary abilities. Perfect for the morning show on your local TV network, but also perfect for comedy because their talents were just as made up.
This got the attention of viewers and for a time they saw the funny side, however one television company did not and so Chop and Steele created by Pickett and Prueher became a question of taste. Chop and Steele is also the title of the documentary about their rising careers and their brief brush with fame.
Showing all that they do, the two grown men with the silliest sense of humour wanted to make people laugh. So, gathering as many VHS tapes that they could find, they soon began a tour called The Found Footage Festival where they premiered these weird and wonderful tapes for a paying audience and they loved it.
The problem was that while all this was going on, the very nature of comedy was being debated on a national scale.
They had become an overnight hit and were getting closer to the establishment than they had ever been before and they weren’t comfortable. Their documentary may start out as very funny and imaginative, but soon it becomes about how hard it is to make comedy – especially if you’re in danger of being sued.
Backed up by Bobcat Goldthwaite, Reggie Watts and David Cross, Chop and Steele are shown to be more than just two characters put into the line of fire for all the wrong reasons. However, despite a lull in the documentary with their changing careers and the pandemic, you may start to think about what happens when the wrong people don’t think that you’re funny.
