The new Jerry Lewis

When I was a child, I would look at Jerry Lewis movies and think, how could anybody ever have thought these funny?

In thirty years, will people look back at Jim Carrey movies and think the same?

Carrey is not just a ham, he's an incredibly selfish one. How the Grinch Stole Christmas might better have been titled, How Jim Carrey Steals Every Moment of Every Scene He Is In. Carrey not only chews scenery, he swallows it and regurgitates it, then scoops it up and chews it some more. By comparison, Robin Williams is an actor of serenity and subtlety.

Look through the list of Carrey's movies and see what big name actors have agreed to appear alongside him. The answer is, basically none. Ed Harris was in The Truman Show, but never appeared in any of the same scenes as Carrey. (Several actors reportedly turned down that role.) Morgan Freeman appeared with him in Bruce Almighty, but Freeman will take a paycheck for pretty much anything. Other than those two, most stars have studiously avoided becoming Carrey props.

You probably know people in your own life who always need to be the center of attention. They can be a lot of fun at first, but once their constant neediness becomes apparent, they pall quickly. With people like this, there's only one conclusion you can draw: their parents didn't pay them enough attention.

I'm reminded of all this because this morning's NY Post ran an item on Page Six describing how Carrey had turned up at an aquatic-themed party at the Gramercy Park Hotel in full scuba gear:

How desperate for attention do you have to be to go that far for fear someone might upstage you?

Once upon a time the French thought that Jerry Lewis was a genius. One would think that if the French liked Lewis, they would feel the same about Carrey. But they seem to have suffered a crisis of national embarrassment after their love affair with Lewis and have not become similarly smitten with Lewis II.

We have only ourselves to blame for Carrey. But at least his career seems to have slowed. The national appetite for grown men who act like five year olds seems to be sated, at least for now.