Nick Swardson blames poor performance of Bucky Larson on moron critics who really wanted to hate it
Unfazed by the rare zero-percent “fresh” rating Rotten Tomatoes has bestowed upon Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star, Nick Swardson has pinned the lackluster and occasionally brutal critical reception for his dick-jokes-and-dental-prostheses comedy on the fact that critics just naturally like to hate on stuff. To do otherwise, Swardson argues in an interview with Splitsider, would be against their very nature. “I knew the critics were going to bury us,” Swardson says. “It was a softball. They were waiting—waiting to hate that movie. It's kind of funny that they get their rocks off on reviews like that.” Not that those many spent critics with their crusty, balled-up negative reviews would even know from funny: “Comedy is so subjective, you know what I mean?” Swardson adds. “To sit there and technically pick it apart is so stupid.” In fact, he continues, Swardson's movie isn’t stupid—you’re stupid:
“A lot of reviewers aren't going into that movie to like it. They don't want to like it. None of those reviewers was psyched to see Bucky Larson and laugh. They go in with the mentality, ‘Fuck these guys for making another movie.’ They go in there to kind of headhunt. It makes me laugh because it's just so embarrassing. It makes them look like such morons.”
Swardson then contends that these moron critics “can't review Avatar then review Bucky Larson”—which builds off his earlier comment, “They review The King's Speech, then they review Bucky Larson”—essentially arguing that judging an individual film’s merits against a larger context of cinematic history is completely impossible. It’s a bold move, blaming your movie’s poor reviews on the idea that the entire premise of film criticism is a total sham. But above all, Swardson wants you to know that, really, he doesn’t care, really: “We've never made movies for critics, so we could give a fuck.” Indeed, Swardson made Bucky Larson for the people—specifically the average of around eight people per theater who saw the movie on its opening weekend. You know, the smart ones who recognize that comedy isn’t always about technical proficiency, or how a storyline stacks up against the airtight likes of Avatar, but often about people in hideous wigs shouting at each other. Everyone else is a moron.