The Peacemaker has been the perfect stage for John Cena to prove he has fantastic straight man comedy chops.

I've been watching The Peacemaker on HBO Max, and I gotta just say that this show is amazing. Of course, I see James Gunn's fingerprints all over this thing. It's in the opening title sequence and dance number done to the music of "Do you wanna taste it?" from Wig Wam to John Cena's very confused man-child in Christopher Smith, a.k.a., the Peacemaker himself. However, John Cena has way more range than Chris Pratt does, and I think that the Peacemaker was probably a role that was even funner to play than Starlord (and by fun I mean you get to spout lines of nonsense as dialog). And Gunn has always excelled at casual destruction and mayhem coming across as both a joke and horror at the same time. 

Peacemaker as a show also seems to be casually aimed at my own childhood, which weirds me out but in a good way. Rather...childhoods of people that grew up in conservative small towns with racist people just intermingling with everyone else. A lot of "friends" from my childhood were into big hair bands and stuff like Kiss, but also really into Lynyrd Skynard and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Of course there was Guns & Roses everywhere and Lita Ford screaming "Kiss me Deadly." And they were all into "professional" wrestling. Many of them would claim that they aren't racist or homophobic. But what they really mean is that "the gays" and "queers" are meant as punch lines and their place in society is to be laughed at but not in a menacing way. They'd totally be okay with gays cross-dressing as entertainers with feather boas in some gum drop circus. But they wouldn't be okay with gays being engineers, wearing suits, and being in charge as bosses, CEO's, or powerful business people. So...casually bigoted, but they wouldn't shoot you? I dunno...small towns are strange.

Boys in my neighborhood all had fireworks and pellet guns. There were roman candle fights, throwing knives, and porno mags everywhere. It all sounds so gross now, but that's just the way it was. And Peacemaker plays on all of that with the main character's background. His father is a genius inventor of Iron-Man-like technology, yet he's an abashed racist and down to his core...he believes in white power. It's all hilarious but at the same time, it's like the show is framing things that I know to be true in an odd way. A lot of people who grow up in conservative small towns in America have really messed up childhoods, and it's made our society as hilarious and colorful as this show (if I can be frank). The only sad thing is that caricature of this kind is only one step removed from the real thing. I mean...John Cena's character as this super muscly, casually insulting bully, and toxic straight man who murders bad people but feels really bad about hurting kids and has a trusting and super big heart is...kinda on the mark.

Lastly, John Cena is really showing that he has fantastic "straight man" comedy chops. His ability to earnestly deliver some absolutely lunatic lines with 100% commitment is outstanding, and I have no doubt that his WWE days probably helped a lot with that. He's like a new Lesley Nielsen (if you don't get that reference, look up Naked Gun sometime and don't be too shocked that you see a young O.J. Simpson in a comedy). Anyone else out there get won over by Cena? The Peacemaker honestly has been a shock. I didn't expect to enjoy this show as much as I have. But, it is what it is. I'm embedding the opening title sequence so you can see how fun and ridiculous this show is.