“There is more to life than just looking really, really, really good”. This line is thrown out by male model Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) throughout the movie, including at the end. Perhaps it was targeted at Instagram reel influencers two decades into the future. If you see a lot of Instagram reels (unless you have a life), you may have noticed that the early 2000s comedy Zoolander suddenly seems to be figuring a lot in popular meme formats. Because nothing is more original than re-packaging an old movie for newer audiences and making it seem like you’re a genius. But enough about Simon Sinek.
Zoolander is a class movie with the classic comedy stars of their time — Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. Ben Stiller has been in many classic comedies with his name being the most synonymous with Meet the Fockers — or as any young Indian who has gone through arranged-marriage meets would call it, “Tuesday”. He is also known for his epic role in There’s Something About Mary starring a gorgeous Cameron Diaz and a rather unconventional use of hair gel (If you know, you know). Owen Wilson, in turn, has also been known for many comedic films including the Shanghai Noon franchise. Both actors are also known for their collaboration in the Night in a Museum series, or as Chanda and Deepak Kochar would call it “Night in the CBI mausoleum”.
Zoolander is a parody of the fashion industry and the general lack of grey cells amongst our most popular celebrities. It involves an inane plot of brainwashing a brainless male model into assassinating the Malaysian president because his campaign against child labour would prevent the fashion industry from sourcing materials cheaply. Ironically, the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, would have had the same feeling in light of the investigations into him from the 1MDB scandal. The underlying theme is the rivalry between the prima donna male model Ben Stiller (It’s a comedy movie, guys!) and the up-and-coming Hansel (Owen Wilson).
Owen Wilson as Hansel in ‘Zoolander’
A parody is normally done years later when people realise how foolish the past was. But sometimes people are way ahead of their time. The movie has parodied the petty squabbles among celebrities in 2001, but which are being taken seriously by Instagram and Twitter influencers in 2022. Or as Greta Thunberg would tell Andrew Tate, “How dare you” while commenting on the size of his climate change energy. The most memed scene from the movie is in fact when Ben Stiller suddenly sizes up his rival Hansel (Wilson) in the movie shaking his supposedly rock-solid composure about being the best in his field. Perhaps today, a one-million-follower influencer looks at the upcoming influencer to unseat him/her the same way. Or a Linkedin post “7 things I learnt from the post about 14 lessons from Warren Buffet stolen from Readers Digest” looks anxiously at the Twitter thread on “14 things I gathered from the 13 tweets on the cute nostrils on Ankur Warikoo as he tweets about the 16 mistakes of his life”
As Fight Club’s Tyler would put it, everything is now a copy of a copy of a copy (Another movie that saw this coming). I scratch my head when I see the Gen Z of today dancing the exact same dance steps and lip-syncing to songs from my junior college days and acting like they created them. So, yes, you Insta reeler with 500k hits on your “I’m a barbie girl algorithmic video”, I’m the original barbie girl. I saw the song when it came out. I saw the actual music video. I know the exact intonations of “Ooh oh Oooh” and “ah ah ah yeah” and “I love you Ken” at the end.
Perhaps you should take a cue from Zoolander’s use of the epic ’80s song, Relax, don’t do It, every time you feel the urge to regurgitate the same Insta reel that everyone else is doing. Then, you’re not an influencer. You’re just re-writing your 12th standard board exams after memorising the last 10 year’s answers. I wrote mine in 2001, which is also when Zoolander released. Perhaps Derek Zoolander also foresaw a place for Instagram influencers at the end of the movie when he starts the “Derek Zoolander Center for kids who can’t read good and who wanna learn to do other stuff good too” or as Instagram would call it, “Explore”. Now please like, share and comment on this article or I’ll make you follow me on Instagram.
The author, Vikram Poddar, is a Marwari investment banker turned corporate comedian. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the website.