When trying to distinguish drama and sexual comedies there is only one Jewish man who does it the best, Woody Allen. Allen incorporates humorous matters with topics such as literature, sex, religion, psychology and other popular subjects in order to create notable pieces of work for his viewer’s pleasure. He is an icon of popular culture because of his works in films, directing, acting and writing. However prevalent Allen’s film philosophies are there are more people in Hollywood that take after his witty and sharp skills. Of those talents is Ryan Murphy who directed and adapted the screenplay to the movie Running with Scissors (2006) based off the memoir written by Augustan Burroughs himself. This film produces almost every element that Woody Allen would use in his works because of its funny yet dramatic nature.
Many of the jokes in a Woody Allen film are a bit off the wall and obscene, just like in Running with Scissors. To grasp a better understanding as to why their jokes are told the way they are Sigmund Freud writes in Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, “With all obscene jokes we are subject to glaring errors of judgment about the goodness of jokes so far as it depends on formal determinants; the technique of such jokes is often quite wretched, but they have an immense success in provoking laughter (121).” It is natural for individuals to use jokes as an escape mechanism. Jokes are a way Augustan Burroughs is able to get through life because he feels sexually repressed, like Allen acts in most of his films. Freud also states “a desire to see one’s organs peculiar to each sex exposed is one of the original components of our libido. It may itself be a substitute for something earlier and go back to a hypothetical primary desire to touch the sexual parts (pg.116).” When there are feelings of sexual repression it drives one to act depressed, do crazy things out of the norm or use humor as a way of coping. Augustan’s comedic personality is in fact different than Allen’s because it is darker and more sinister, but nonetheless many still very similar.
Running with Scissors also relates to Philip Roth’s novel Portnoy’s Complaint. In the beginning of Roth’s novel he defines Portnoy’s Complaint as “a disorder in which in which strongly felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature (introduction).” The sexual intricacies in the life of Augustan relate to Alex (main character in Roth’s novel) because they look at things in an egocentric light. They both are so self-centered in the fact that they use sexual acts in order to get through the pain in their lives caused by familial situations or controversies. They tend to be selfish at times and only to do things that are sexually self-satisfying to make it through each day.
It would take a 10-page paper to discuss the many ways sexual identities control the lives of all those mentioned. It would not surprise me if Woody Allen was indeed the director of this film. Which makes me wonder if Ryan Murphy tried to channel in Allen’s expertise and use it as his own. Guess you could say great minds think a like… or perverted ones you choose.
Augustan Burroughs
He even looks like a young Woody Allen from the glasses to the side smirk on his face!!!
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