Sign up for our free newsletter
Free D.C. news, delivered to your inbox daily.
Last week, the struggling Newseum opened one of the more blatantly pandering exhibits in local museum history: a show dedicated to Anchorman, the 2004 Will Ferrell vehicle that’s remained stubbornly fixed in the popular imagination, mostly for its litany of moronic one-liners (“I love lamp!”). Arriving just a month before the premiere of the movie’s sequel, the Paramount Pictures-sponsored show exists to tempt visitors through the Pennsylvania Avenue NW’s facility’s doors. (A perfectly valid endeavor for a museum, but still.)
Even scarier than the prospect of hundreds of bros wandering downtown wearing T-shirts that read “I’m Kind of a Big Deal” is the example set by “Anchorman: The Exhibit.” If it’s a success, who knows what ideas it’ll put into the heads of board members at other museums? Pretty soon, the programming at local cultural institutions could look a lot like this:
Encino Man at Natural History Museum
On display: ICEE machine from convenience store scene (“Wheeze the juice!”)
In the gift shop: Lighters (“flamaaage!”)
Space Balls at Air and Space Museum
On display: Original “Pizza the Hutt” costume
In the gift shop: Bumper stickers that say “I Heart Uranus”
Dances With Wolves at American Indian Museum
On display: John Dunbar’s handlebar mustache
In the gift shop: Lakota phrasebook
Kung Fu Panda at National Zoo
On display: Pandas (easy!)
In the gift shop: Postcards from the Valley of Peace
The Hunger Games at National Children’s Museum
On display: Stanley Tucci’s wig
In the gift shop: Bones of children
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter at Ford’s Theatre
On display: Lincoln’s vampire-slayin’ ax
In the gift shop: Awesome top hats
Snakes on a Plane at College Park Aviation Museum
On display: Snakes
In the gift shop: Snakes