Posted 1:52 PM by Gene

With tears streaming down its face, the ASSPress delivers a eulogy:

“John Belushi, deep down, was a stable guy who knew who he was, had a lot of confidence, wasn’t superficial but with no great internal trouble,” Colby said. “I think that what happened to him was largely due to fame. For a year and a half, he was as big as Elvis.”

Colby is working on a biography of Chris Farley, a later-generation “Saturday Night Live” star who was a drug-overdose victim in 1997, also at age 33. Director Landis had an unsettling encounter with Farley some six months before, in which Farley declared his admiration for “Animal House” and his desire to emulate Belushi.

“I found myself saying, ‘You know, Chris, John is not the best role model. John is dead,”’ Landis recalled.

(Farley’s family runs the Chris Farley Foundation to educate young people about the dangers of substance abuse and how to avoid peer pressure.)

We don't know where to begin. We would say if this immortal comic genius is so goshdarn influential why does the ASSPress have to run this eulogy? Of course we could also say something about role models, of whom Belushi, Farley and Mr. Twilight Zone would not seem to qualify. We could further say there was a time geniuses like Bluto (or is that Elvis?) were allowed to fade away, but because showbiz can't see the forest for the trees and the hacks can't see the trees for the leaves, they get to live forever.

We could further say the peer pressure that got millions laughing at an undying comic master is the same peer pressure that sent a few of his fans to the same place the undying comic master now is.