Even the title of this movie warned me, but call me a glutton for punishment or (considering how much people love a train wreck) call me human… I trekked to the theater and messed with the Zohan anyway.  I walked into the theater expecting something happy/fun/cool like this and walked out needing some of these to numb the pain.  But mostly I walked out worried about Adam Sandler. 

I am worried about a number of aspects related to Adam Sandler right now: his mental health, because he was a writer for the movie and I am unsure how he thought this was funny while he was penning it; his seeming to have given up on comedy all together when I always thought he was hilarious; and the fact that he may have thought catching things with his buttcheecks and sleeping with geriatric women was funny is disturbing.  What the movie lacked in true humor it made up for with awkward stereotypes that I am not even sure really exist, odd sight gags that fell flat but continued to be repeated, and a thinly veiled political message that is so important it should have been more carefully handled when crafted into humor. 

I think parodies are one of the greatest art forms because they are pieces of info-tainment that highlight the truths and absurdities about problematic social or political issues – a difficult task but striking when it is done correctly.  I bow to parody (much better than the easy info-tainment that I gorge myself with on lazy Sunday afternoons).  Zohan failed as a parody when something so much better could have – and should have - been done.  Sandler plays an Israeli counter-terrorist in the movie… there really isn’t much humor in that, but in Sandler’s skillful hands it could have been.  I am sad and disappointed, but at the same time – they warned me.