“Funk’d” is like watching an episode of its main inspiration, “Punk’d”, which isn’t a good sign. On the bright side, at least Ashton Kutcher isn’t a part of this, but then there’s the dark sides, and not just the Lord of the Sith’s either.
Keeping in tune with the source material, Boba Fett decides to play a prank on Vader before he leaves in his TIE fighter to lop some rebels off the face of the universe. Fett has two stormtroopers in his employ who are more than eager to do this because there’s never that many chances in the Empire to play a joke on the Darth Vader. Fett decides that before he goes out there, Vader must submit to a sobriety test. Vader’s threatening black outfit is well represented here (save for the red eyes), but the outfit can’t be the only element expected to carry the entire short. Fan filmmakers would obviously have a very hard time trying to get James Earl Jones to do the voice of Vader and that’s understandable but here, Vader isn’t very menacing at all. He sounds like someone doing an audition to be Vader’s voice for “Funk’d”, but doesn’t carry that edge that would cause these jokester stormtroopers to shake in their shiny white uniforms.
The celebrity angle that “Punk’d” is known for is well covered here, but the jokes are far and few between, making this one effort that doesn’t seem like much an effort. To me, a parody not only acknowledges its source material, but also tries to make something new out of it. “Funk’d” definitely acknowledges its source material heavily, but there’s nothing new that makes it worth watching.
