Glenn Beck-Acquired Comedy Film Is A ‘Waiting for Guffman’ Rip-Off with COVID Jokes

(Note: this story has been amended to reflect Glenn Beck's participation in Blaze Media -Ed.)

When TikTok star Chris Guerra sold his comedy film Re-Opening to Glenn Beck-affiliated Blaze Media, we imagine the pitch went something like this: “Re-Opening is a COVID mockumentary for unvaccinated people who have never heard of Christopher Guest.”

Following in the footsteps of Beck’s former employers and current competition, Blaze has taken a page out of FOX Nation’s playbook by branching out into comedy projects for the first time since Beck launched the platform in 2018. Re-Opening is Blaze’s initial movie acquisition as the media company plans a slate of comedy projects to diversify its current offerings of articles covering the trans lobby’s Bud Light psyop and podcasts about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Guerra, the co-writer, co-director, co-producer and star of Re-Opening, is a veteran of the legendary Los Angeles improv theater The Groundlings and a prolific TikToker best known for his “Facebook Marketplace Nightmare” series. With a cast full of fellow Groundlings alumni, Re-Opening is a heavily-improvised comedy film about a small theater and its eccentric director who has a grandiose vision for the company’s first performance post-COVID lockdown. Complete with all the facemasks and body bubbles of the early pandemic hysteria, Re-Opening is, ostensibly, a reimagining of Waiting for Guffman with gags swiped from a 2020 episode of Louder With Crowder.

Obviously, trailers aren’t everything, but certain details in last week’s teaser (specifically, COVID St. Clair’s vests) make Waiting for Coughman look like a shamelessly derivative attempt to repackage all the pandemic jokes that, along with mask mandates, went out of style over a year ago. Basically, it’s the perfect project for Glenn Beck’s base.