One evening last month our friends Iron Fist and Bad Monkey were in town, so Dave3 and I met up with them to take a walk over to our favorite vegetarian restaurant in New York City, located in Greenwich Village. We were chatting about GoD’s, SMM ’08 feature, for which Bad Monkey had contributed an entry about Mike Myers‘ next comedy The Love Guru. Seconds later, as we neared the restaurant, Bad Monkey came to a halt, pointing to something down on the concrete sidewalk. I don’t know how he noticed it in on the poorly lit block, but there it was — a faded mock-chalk sketch of Myers as Love Guru‘s Guru Pitka with a barely readable release date of June 20 under it.

Further down the block were more instances of the same image; on our way home, we found yet another several streets away. (See the left side of the image here at right.)

I had to wonder why Paramount’s marketing division thought that this was a great way to get the word out about The Love Guru? In order for this ad to have any meaning, one would already have to know about the movie. Perhaps they just wanted people already in-the-know to be reminded of the movie’s release date, but then why is it barely readable? And I’m really curious if those spots of blackened old gum were there already when they put the ads down or did someone spit their gum out right onto it seconds later? This is NYC, it only takes one second for an improperly disposed of piece of gum to become forever embedded into our sidewalks.

A few days later, we can across yet another piece of The Love Guru‘s marketing campaign, this time in the form of a flyer taped to a lamp post in SoHo advertising sitar lessons given by the Guru Pitka.

Guru Pitka Will Teach You Sitar

The Guru Pitka will inspire you to play sitar with the confidence of a young Ravi Shankar. The Guru Pitka is not only an accredited sitar teacher, he is also a spiritual teacher affiliated with no one father and has combined many disparate disciplines into a unified movement of human potentiality and equipoise.

Interested?
Visit TheGuruPitka.com

This ad at least lists a web address to visit, which brings you to the film’s viral site, one dedicated to The Guru Pikta. The site contains images of The Guru Pikta, along with his biography, as well as his inspirational wisdoms — Mini Sutras, Word of the Week, Yoga Poses, and Where To Exhale.

Just last week, I received a generic email from Paramount inviting me to “rejoice and celebrate” the launching of The Guru Pitka’s site, as well as his pages on YouTube and MySpace.

But are these ads really generating a buzz for the movie?

They’ve certainly caught my attention. And while I did find it interesting to read about The Guru Pitka’s backstory and laughed just a tiny bit at the jokes, I can’t help but think this movie is just … ridiculous.

I’m a big fan of Mike Myers from his SNL days and loved the Wayne’s World movies (of course) as well as the first two Austin Powers movies, where he played a 1960’s British spy taken out of cryogenic freezing decades later. In these latter films, Myers lampooned many popular stereotypes of British people (e.g. exaggerated snotty accents, horrendous teeth, etc.), but did so in a hilarious and original way. The Austin Powers movies were more a spoof on the James Bond movies than a satire of an entire culture and religion, and while Myers was comedically playing a Brit, he is at least half British! Powers didn’t insult people’s sacred beliefs the way Guru overdoes it with the Hindu religion. I’m not saying that people should be overly sensitive where they can’t take a joke or allow for artistic license. I’m 100 percent Italian, and while I’m not too thrilled that most Italian film/TV characters are mobsters, girlfriends of mobsters, or heavily accented restauranteurs who serve mobsters and spout classic lines like, “I putta the special cheeza on the pizza for youa,” I’m at least able to laugh at mob comedies like Analysis This. Depictions of other races, etc., played for laughs ought to be sensitive enough not to provoke anger or funny enough that it doesn’t matter. In other words, if you’re going to openly mock a race, class, nation, sex, and/or religion for the sake of comedy, then please, at least BE FUNNY.

From the trailers for The Love Guru (which you can watch here below) it seems like Myers is using every cliched joke (offering a little person a shrimp, then accidentally calling him a gnome) and penis innuendo to get a laugh, but it’s just not funny. Right away, we learn that the American-born Guru Pitka grew up in a tiny Indian village called Harenmahkeester and that as a child he wanted to join the Tugginmypudha Ashram so that girls would like him. Also, the videos on the YouTube page are filled with sexual acronyms of the Guru’s spiritual wisdoms; for instance, the Guru says that the way to deal with people who degrade you is to tell them to “Be Loving & Openhearted With My Emotions.”

If you’re not rolling your eyes already, then maybe this is the movie for you.

In closing, I think The Love Guru crosses the line from breaking comedic taboos into offending other cultures. And while their viral marketing and online presence might be grabbing people’s attention, it’s doubtful that it will endear people to the character who don’t already like him.”

Readers, what do you think? Are these ads helping the film? Will moviegoers be drawn to the theater for The Love Guru come June 20th?

Trailers