Rewatched TNG and Police Squad a while back and Leslie Nielsen is just flawless — never cracks, never smirks, never gives the slightest hint of being in on the joke. Don’t know if he’s the best ever to do it, but I’m having a hard time thinking of anyone better.
He was so great at it in part because he started out playing staid professionals in dramatic roles, and just kept that same deadpan energy. It's why I think Neeson can do it too
You make a great point- some of the other, lesser lampooning movies that Nielsen did that were similar, like Reposessed, failed in part because they had his character do goofy faces and reaction shots
I also guess it's something you couldn't really recreate anyway outside of satirizing how seriously the procedural genre (police, legal, medical) takes itself.
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I’m enthusiastic about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvVFvqd3lqA
"who's going to arrest me, other cops?"