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'Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World' is a futile search

Most comedians would probably agree with an old truism about humor: You can dissect it like a lab animal to figure out how it works — but like a frog, you'll kill it in the process.

So it's promising in principle to make a comedy about a comic trying to do just that — leave his home turf, where he knows which gags work and which will flop, and do all the wrong things in an effort to figure out what's funny in a completely foreign culture. It's not at all plausible — in real life, any pro would know better than to ask people straight out, "What makes you laugh?" — but it's promising.

Warner Independent Pictures 'Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World' 2 out of 5 stars The verdict: Albert Brooks falls flat as a comedian who's trying to divine what's funny to Muslims. Director: Albert Brooks Starring: Albert Brooks, Homie Doroodian, Shelley Malil, Marshall Manesh, Kevin Mukherji Run time: 98 minutes Release date: Jan. 20, 2006 Rating: PG-13 for drug content and brief strong language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

What isn't clear from the title ("Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World") and marketing of Albert Brooks' new film is that the joke is supposed to be on him. Brooks (playing himself) isn't an enlightened Westerner "looking for comedy" where there is none; he's an American about to learn the painful fact (obvious to any outsider) that you can't master another culture's nuances in a month.

The U.S. government has sent Brooks to India as part of a new diplomatic strategy. Until now, he's told, we've relied on "fighting and spying." Seeing how poorly that has worked, the White House hopes to win hearts and minds through humor; Brooks is enlisted to produce a 500-page report explaining how to make Muslims laugh.

The movie's first big hurdle is that it expects us to buy that Brooks would accept this job. We see how it appeals to his vanity (he's being plied with the Medal of Freedom — "the nice one," Brooks whispers, "with the colored ribbon?") and his practical situation (he's having trouble getting work, as we see in a brutally short casting interview). But the way Brooks approaches the task is just impossible to believe. His first approach is ridiculously simple-minded; Plan B is overcomplicated.

Brooks the filmmaker isn't able to get enough distance from Brooks the befuddled fictional character for us to laugh at him. On too many levels, the movie seems to buy into the character's faulty assumptions. Structurally, for instance, it has a painfully unfunny obsession with the number of pages Brooks and his assistant have written. And while the filmmaker drops the occasional hint that he realizes comedy actually exists in India, he can't be bothered to show it in action as a counterpoint to the variety his character is trying to import.

Brooks's familiar, hapless persona earns a few yuks now and then, and an outsourcing gag is funny if the trailer hasn't spoiled it for you. But the film suffers from the same confusion as its protagonist, and can't find much comedy no matter where it looks.