I’m not sure who out there has been clamoring for a follow-up to Joe Dirt, the 2001 white-trash comedy starring David Spade, but whoever you are it seems you’re getting your wish, as Sony’s subsidiary streaming service Crackle will produce and distribute a sequel “as a feature for fans everywhere.” And yes, Spade will reprise his role, in case you were wondering — the sequel was his idea.
According to Crackle GM Eric Berger (via Deadline), “David Spade had a fresh and unique vision for Joe Dirt 2 that he could have brought anywhere and we couldn’t be happier that he brought it to Crackle for a first-of-its-kind, worldwide release.”
Alongside Spade, the original 2001 film starred Brittany Daniel, Dennis Miller, Christopher Walken, Jaime Pressly, and musician Kid Rock in a tale about a witless moron (Spade) searching for the family who abandoned him at the Grand Canyon as a young child. It is, at its heart, a stupid movie about a stupid character who winds up in stupid situations and makes stupid jokes because he doesn’t know how to be anything other than hopelessly stupid.
For whatever reason, that worked for me. I was a fan of Joe Dirt. I can admit to that. I was once an immature early adolescent — the movie came out when I was 10, and I saw it no more than a couple years after that, and have since seen it many times over. I’ve laughed countless times at its immature characters and crass humor and absolute frivolity toward its subject. The movie is stupid, no doubt, but I also found it funny and sort of sweet. But does that mean we need a sequel? What more is there to do here?
I have no doubt in my mind that news of a Joe Dirt sequel would have made me giddy 10-plus years ago, but despite fond memories of watching the movie endlessly on HBO with my brother, I’ve moved on, and I assume others have as well. While I enjoyed the original film, that doesn’t mean it needs a sequel. Unfortunately, no one can seem to convince Hollywood of that.
