Hey, Seth Rogen: Assassination Isn't Funny

In four days, The Interview pulled in $15 million, Sony Pictures says in a press release. That's in the period through Saturday, during which, Sony says, the film was rented or bought two million times online, deadline.com reports. But its success so far isn't something to be proud of, writes David Rogers at Politico. It's all about "a real live person" being assassinated, and that's not funny. "When did assassination become a subject for American humor?" Rogers wonders. "This is a nation that still mourns Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, and Martin Luther King."

"If America is to be a moral force, doesn’t it have to look inside itself as to what killing really is?" he asks, questioning how we'd react if, for instance, "North Korea made a comedy about white racists plotting to assassinate Obama." As for the president's own comments on the movie: Obama may make light of the Seth Rogen effort, but killing, Rogers writes, is "a shadow on your soul that you carry forever." He compares the silly film to another recent movie, Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, which tells the story of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Kyle was killed last year: Would he find The Interview funny? Rogers asks. Click for the full piece, or read another stance from a critic who calls the film "an insult to satire." (More The Interview stories.)