Last night’s American Idol Gives Back Fundraiser was a strange sort of beast: On the one hand, what a fantastic way to raise money and teach the country about those millions of sick and unfortunate people in Africa and elsewhere. On the other hand, do we really need to see a poor dying woman be whisked away to the hospital with the Grey’s Anatomy Snow Patrol song playing in the background? And while we found Ryan Seacrest to be respectful and gracious to those sick and poor families he visited, something about Simon Cowell‘s face, as somber as it was, really pissed us off. He never seemed moved… just kind of sweaty.
Still, it was an exciting two hours of celebrity cameos — amazing how the show could turn on a dime, from a woman’s death, to the guy from Will & Grace lip-synching and “being wacky.” But what about Ben Stiller‘s segment? What the hell happened to Ben Stiller? There was a time when the guy was hilarious. But watching his little movie title shtick followed by a purposefully bad rendition of “Reminiscing” was more strained than a constipated Robin Williams.
Are we alone here? Was no one else even a little bothered that the most bubble gum show on television was tackling something as serious as the AIDS epidemic? It was a great idea, they raised a ton of money, but we wished it would have been just a touch less cheesy. For once.
Then again, any less cheesy, and we would have been denied the best moment of the entire show:
Holy ess. We already purchased this on ITunes.
