Satirist and director Chris Morris on "The Day Shall Come"

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2019

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lately, Chris Morris has been basing a lot of his absurdist comedy on real life world events. His new film, The Day Shall Come, is kind of a farce about terrorism and the FBI's efforts to fight it. The film tells a complex and often bizarre story that is almost entirely based on real things that happened in the counter terrorism world. Chris Morris joins us to talk about his new movie. He'll chat about reading court transcripts, talking with journalists, even attending trials to really understand what goes on at the Bureau. Plus, we'll talk about his other brilliant works of satire The Day Today and Brass Eye.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:12.9	I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye.
0:22.4	Chris Morris is an absurdist, sort of.
0:25.6	I mean, just about everything he's made has been absurd.
0:28.3	He was the host and creator of the day today, the BBC News parody, where he'd read headlines
0:33.9	like, sacked chimney sweep, pumps boss full of mayonnaise.
0:38.7	Then there was Brasson, another brilliant news parody, where he'd con-elected officials
0:43.4	into warning kids to stay away from a fake drug called cake.
0:48.8	I say he's only sort of an absurdist, though, because as time has gone on, his work has
0:52.9	gotten more and more deeply rooted in reality.
0:56.6	His last two films revolve around the world of terrorism and counter-terrorism.
1:01.2	In preparing for them, he read court transcripts, talked with journalists, even attended actual
1:06.0	trials.
1:07.4	His newest is called The Day Show Cup.
1:10.2	It's a story about a guy named Moses Alshabaz, played by Marcian Davis.
1:15.2	Moses leads a small religious group, a very small religious group, called the Star of
1:20.6	Six.
1:21.6	He talks to God through animals, lives on a commune in a little apartment in Miami with
1:27.6	his family, and he preaches for a black revolution, one that won't be achieved with guns or
1:33.0	explosives, but with crossbows, and a lot of duck walking.
1:38.4	Shabaz eventually catches the interest of the FBI.
1:42.6	With the help of informants and undercover agents, they begin to not only infiltrate
	...

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