WTF Happened to Will Ferrell?

As comedian Will Ferrell walked across the magnificent stage of The Kennedy Center to accept the greatest honor an America funny person can receive, The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, something happened that made us all remember why he is getting this prestigious honor. The award instantly slipped from Will’s hilarious fingers, shattering this legendary humorist’s bust all over the floor. An obvious gag, that was so damn fitting to what Will represents in the history of the art of doing silly stuff. Without breaking character for a second, Will hilariously tries to pick up the pieces as the world just sat back and laughed… but not laughing at him, we were laughing with him. The appeal of Will Ferrell comes from his innocent “I don’t give a f*ck” attitude that elevates simple stupid jokes to performance art. As Mr. Ferrell once said, “What I recognized when I started doing comedy was that I’m probably not the wittiest, not the fastest on my feet, but the one thing I can guarantee is that I won’t hold anything back.” And that funny philosophy of not holding back put this man on top of the comedy world, delivering hit after hit before he hit an inevitable wall.
Let’s find out: WTF Happened to… WILL FERRELL?

But to truly understand what happened to Will Ferrell, we go back to the beginning. And the beginning began when he was born on July 16th, 1967 in Irvine, California. He took some acting classes and did some small theater before joining famed LA-based improv group The Groundlings in 1994. After some one-offs on sitcoms like Grace Under Fire and Living Single, he became a cat… Ferrell closed out his now-iconic Saturday Night Live audition by mimicking a cat pawing at objects on the floor, getting applause and a job during season 21, standing out in a largely new cast. In retrospect, Lorne Michaels even put him in the top 3 cast members ever. Here he would perfect impersonations of George W. Bush, Ted Kaczynski, Neil Diamond; Alex Trebek, Janet Reno, and more. Other famous characters and sketches include his Spartan cheerleader,”, his cowbell-clanking Gene in “More Cowbell” and one half of the Butabi Brothers, a sketch that flopped at Groundlings but was such a hit on SNL that it spawned a feature, A Night at the Roxbury, a surprising financial hit. He would also turn up in other big screen spins Superstar (1999) and The Ladies Man (2000).

During his tenure on SNL, he also popped up in 1997’s Men Seeking Women, the first two Austin Powers movies (1997 and 1999), 1999’s Dick (stealing scenes as Bob Woodward), The Suburbans (1999), Drowning Mona (2000), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) and 2001’s Zoolander, marking an early big screen go at playing dress-up, which would become a bit of a signature. There, too, was the short-lived animated series The Oblongs.

When it was time for Ferrell to leave SNL – and a $350,000 salary – in 2002, he wasn’t so sure if his movie career would tank. After all, many had tried and failed to launch into movie stardom post-SNL. Enter the only tank he would see for years: Frank the Tank, the runaway fan favorite character from Old School (2003) that nabbed him the first of many MTV Movie Award nods and showed he would bare it all – literally – for a laugh. He would hop his way into genuine superstardom with that same year’s Elf, which he figured could have just as easily killed his career instead of pulling in $250 million, and becoming an instant Christmas classic (2022’s Spirited, on the other hand, won’t exactly be an annual favorite.)

Will Ferrell was officially a marquee name. Really, how often were people still going to the movies for one comedy star? He had become the face of the genre, a brand in and of himself. When you saw Will Ferrell on the poster, you knew what you were getting: an abrasive, dense, loveable know-nothing with a sense of humor that fit the mold of frat houses…which pretty much pinpointed his fanbase, too. And its a beautiful thing. There was only one question: “I’m Ron Burgundy…?” Another signature character emerged with Anchorman (2004), which Ferrell has autobiographical ties to in that he studied sports broadcasting. The movie –and character– were hits, solidifying Ferrell as one of the most reliable faces and voices in comedy. (The 2013 sequel tried to squeeze too much out of a good thing far too late, as did “The Ron Burgundy” podcast launched in 2019). That same year, he played the Woody Allen surrogate in Melinda and Melinda, a role that didn’t fit him.

2005 brought a unique mixture for Will Ferrell. After teaming with his Wilson Brother buddies – also staples of the Frat Pack – in The Wendell Baker Story, he got his first kick in the pants with Kicking & Screaming and Bewitched, both of which earned him his first Razzie nominations. These were bad projects that were below him, that limited the antics his fanbase loved, that didn’t cross demographics the way he hoped. There would be awards redemption in The Producers, earning a surprise Golden Globe nod. But his undeniable shining moment, meatloaf and all, was in Wedding Crashers, giving just about the funniest cameo in modern movies, proving that sometimes a little Ferrell goes a long way, a less is more situation. Another hit later on came in the form of shorts, co-launching with Adam McKay the comedy site Funny or Die, particularly with The Landlord, still one of the funniest shorts ever put on the web. Helping to bring in a new era on online internet world wide web comedy that still goes on to this very day…

Ferrell would try to branch out as well with dramedy Winter Passing. Such ventures into drama found fare that would range from passable to buzzworthy, as was the case with his Golden Globe-nominated performance in Stranger Than Fiction (2006), which saw Ferrell at his best. He would try this offbeat mixture again with 2010’s Everything Must Go, an under-appreciated performance that showed he could handle drama but still wasn’t strong enough for us to really take him seriously.

While Ferrell was working on proving himself adept at drama, he couldn’t escape having to be a star of comedies. He constantly felt the pressure to get a laugh – he often tells stories of people coming up to him and yelling, “Do something funny!” – perhaps a reason why he would dabble in drama. Such fare could be jarring to viewers, especially when the experimentation wasn’t clear. This is what happened with A Deadly Adoption (2015), a straight-faced TV movie that went well above most peoples’ heads. Part of the reason – other than Ferrell starring in a Lifetime movie – was that he had just finished up The Spoils of Babylon (2014), a spoof of cheesy, over-the-top stuff he wouldn’t normally be associated with. That a sequel to Spoils came out just within weeks of A Deadly Adoption wasn’t only perplexing, it showed that Ferrell may not give a damn if he makes you happy. “I’ve always loved making other people laugh, but I’ve never needed it. I’ve never had the need to have to make you like me.”

And so no doubt comedies were his true comfort zone. Around the time of the mid-2000s ventures came the hilarious blockbuster Talladega Nights (2006), his first $100+ million movie since Elf. And this showed that Will and John C Reilly worked wonderfully together. Although introduced with Anchorman, this launched a string of movies that banked on Ferrell getting laughs through unexpected professions and/or goofy wigs, playing a figure skater with a dumbass haircut in Blades of Glory (2007) and a basketball player with a ‘fro in Semi-Pro (2008). So desperate to play dress-up, it came off as unconfident in the material (see also: the luscious locks in 2020’s Eurovision Song Contest). And while his core fanbase could stomach it, Ferrell was clearly losing steam in terms of creativity. The only saving grace here was 2008’s Step Brothers, an immediate hit that was nearly peak Ferrell, again showing us that Ferrell and Reilly were the perfect comedy team.

2009 brought the bomb Land of the Lost which was embarrassingly awful and is a great example on how not to use Mr. Ferrell’s skills, in addition to going back to the George W. Bush well, reprising him on Broadway to a surprise Tony nomination, which is a great example on how to use Mr. Ferrell skills. Ferrell would kick off his decade with another hilarious hit, the Mark Wahlberg collab The Other Guys (2010), launching a pairing that led to Daddy’s Home (2015) and its 2017 sequel, neither of which captured the unlikely magic of The Other Guys but people still went to watch. 2010 also saw him returning to voice work for the first time since Curious George (2006) with Megamind as the titular villain, later on joining The Lego Movie (2014) and its 2019 sequel.

He would try his hardest to replace Michael Scott on The Office and 2012 brought Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, also a funny Spanish language flick Casa de mi Padre (done so to get people to ask, “Why did you do this?”, which we did and its actually really funny).

Following this, he demonstrated one of his greatest flaws on a most embarrassing level: showing he couldn’t just do anything and have it be funny – like The Campaign, which let Zach Galifianakis ride his Hangover wave. On paper I am sure it sounded like a surefire hit, but it wasn’t. Same with 2015’s fish out of water comedy Get Hard. I’m sure the studio thought they had comedy gold on their hands, but no, audiences were getting tired of this humor and could kinda feel that producers were getting lazy when it came to his casting and wrongfully assumed that throwing Ferrell in the barrel would equal instant gut-busting laugher. But no, Will needs the right character in the right film. 2017 brought another film that just wasn’t right called The House, a dud with fellow SNL alum Amy Poehler.

He would re-team with co-star John C. Reilly yet again, which should have been another perfect comedic duo performance but was an absolute disaster. In some ways, it stopped Hollywood from believing in comedy – the film was 2018’s Holmes & Watson. Will played Sherlock, Reilly played Watson. It was a pathetic lazy attempt to cash in on the brilliance of Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. It feels like nobody put any thought into this one. I’m sure the filmmakers thought that just putting them in wacky old times clothes and having them scream and flop around on screen for 90 minutes would be enough, but this needed more cowbell.

In 2019, he and longtime partner Adam McKay split over casting decisions for HBO’s Winning Time. Ferrell would fare well on TV regardless, landing four Emmys so far for producing, notably Succession.

Ferrell even tried out dramas again, although his remake of Force Majeure, Downhill (2020), didn’t quite land. 2023 was another prolific one for Ferrell: lending a voice in Strays, he was in Quiz Lady and perfectly popped up Barbie as the head of Mattel, hinting that he’s still got his chops given the right material. I think this is the type of character that Will will be stuck with for a while and that is not bad thing at all, cuz he’s fracking brilliant in Barbie.

So what is Will’s destiny? What type of roles will Will choose next? But that is not up to us: it’s up to Will Ferrell. And more often than not, it’s on brand. He wants to try out a risky drama? It makes sense even if we don’t understand it. He wants to put on funny clothes and headgear? Of course he does! He wants to play ball with the Cubs and do a drum battle with the Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith (no doubt his long-lost twin)? How do we watch?! He even recently performed DJed at a college frat party and even hopped on stage at a charity even to bust out his tune “Boats N Hoes” along side his step bro Reilly and Snoop Dogg which was so funny it made us all want a Step Brothers sequel but ya know what… lets not ruin that and just appreciate and enjoy that Will is enjoying himself. We don’t need a Step Brothers 2 because we are living Step Brothers 2. Will Ferrell seems like the type of guy who just wants to have a little fun while he is on this planet and his thirst for a good time (on and off the screen) is contagious and funny. Fun is fun. I think most of Will’s sense of humor can be broken down to him saying something like, “Hey. Look how much fun I am having. Isn’t that hilarious?”

Will Ferrell was once told by his father, “If [something] doesn’t work out, it’s not you, and don’t ever be afraid to just hang it all up and do something else.” Considering his strange offshoots, what else could we imagine him doing? Whether he’s an oversized elf or an anchorman or a step brother or a racecar driver or whatever Frank the Tank has going on – good or bad – we want him in comedies, cinema always needs a clown…. the movies need him – but as we all know now, it can’t just be any movie.