There’s No There There

What wonderful things you could have done with the space wasted on a totally unconvincing article about Adam Sandler’s subtle genius (“Speak Softly and Carry a Big Shtick,” by Paul Brownfield, Nov. 5). The fact that Sandler doesn’t grant interviews and his associates clam up on his behalf may have bewitched Brownfield and led him to conclude that there’s real substance to Sandler, but it doesn’t prove the goof is deeper or more subversive as a comic. He’s not.

His movies are all the proof we need, anyway. They are a clear reflection of his sophomoric mentality and lame comic strategy. He doesn’t come close to ranking with Steve Martin, or Monty Python, for that matter. And he’s certainly no Andy Kaufman when it comes to subversive humor. He’s strictly low-brow, shallow and severely limited in comic talent. He’s dumb and dumber.

What’s galling is that Sandler gets paid so handsomely for catering to the lowest common denominator in our collective funny bone, and then someone like your writer has to figure there’s more to it.

TIM JAHNS

Upland

* When I think of the “dumbing down” of American movies, the face of Adam Sandler comes to mind. I’m proud to say that I’ve never paid to see one of his films, and I never will. That he commands $20 million per picture--more than our country’s greatest living actress, Meryl Streep--makes me ill. But then 10- and 11-year-old boys don’t go to Meryl Streep films.

KYLE COUNTS

San Diego

* Regarding Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song,” I disagree with Brownfield’s comment that Hanukkah is “Christmas’ weak stepsister of a holiday.” I think that the comment was made in jest.

Hanukkah was celebrated at least 180 years before Jesus was born. It marks the rededication of the Temple on Mt. Zion by the Jews and has nothing to do with celebrating the birth of Jesus. The fact that Hanukkah sometimes occurs near Christmas is a coincidence.

STEVE SCHERMERHORN

Stockton