Jim Carrey Resists Urge To Talk Through Ass In YouTube PSA

With the recent news that he had deferred the entirety of his $US20 million fee on Yes Man, the general consensus among the deal-making elite was that onetime King of Comedy Jim Carrey had officially ceded his crown. (All too eager to take his place were a new generation of chubby, Jewfroed actor-writers, who choose to wallow in the basest depths of menstrual blood humour, and wouldn’t know real funny if a pair of talking ass cheeks walked right up and bit them.)

Released from the burden of having to count paycheck zeros, Carrey now has time to concentrate on matters more weighty, like campaigning on behalf of Burmese political prisoners:

The 45-year-old actor-comedian – in rare serious mode – appears in a new public service announcement on behalf of the Human Rights Action Center and the U.S. Campaign for Burma. The goal: To free Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined by the Burmese government for 11 of the last 17 years. [...]

Suu Kyi, who is under long-term house arrest in the city of Yangon, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent efforts to bring down the oppressive military regime that rules over the Southeast Asian country.

While the filming of a short PSA might not seem like a particularly significant gesture, the potential for a highly recognisable star such as Carrey to educate scores of YouTube users who happen to stumble upon his message while searching for the latest “Chocolate Rain” parody can not be underestimated. It’s gestures like these that will ultimately help the Be Ready to Be OK author to genuinely feel OK about himself, as opposed to any temporary and petty pleasure he might derive from, say, lingering over a saved copy of Variety containing Evan Almighty’s anaemic opening weekend numbers.

• Jim Carrey pleads for Nobel laureate’s freedom [USA Today/AP]
• [uscampaignforburma.org]