What stupid thing did Andre do to warrant the title Andre Is an Idiot? He didn’t get a colonoscopy and died of stage-four cancer. It sounds like a terrible joke, but there’s something so darkly amusing that is true to the mindset of André Ricciardi. As this documentary revealed, he was an endlessly curious man. This movie was one way he came to terms with death in a manner that didn’t feel too somber. But, similar to Andre’s discovery as his cancer worsened, it’s a project that was amusing, but not as funny as he’d hoped.

André Ricciardi is the type of guy who used his cleverness in advertising and saw it as a waste of time, despite working on such wild campaigns for Planet of the Apes or Katie Couric’s colonoscopy documented on the Today Show. The limitations of the industry are likely what André views as not that impressive when compared to his other accomplishments. Consider how he met his wife through a scheme that started as a fake marriage (going so far as to them ending up on the Newlywed Game) and soon turned into a real romance. It sounds like the perfect rom-com, complete with André’s admittance of loving this woman involved calling up his friend to tell him “I fucked my wife” as though it were a problem. André would probably hate that formulaic type of story, given how he didn’t want his demise to be approached like some soppy tearjerker.

André’s domestic life doesn’t seem that compelling compared to his mind. He raised two daughters and lived fairly comfortably, so his healthcare costs didn’t appear to be an issue. When speaking about death, André’s is a fascinating one, viewing his chemotherapy-lost hair as absurd characters littering his house and thinking up weird ideas about dying. Portrayed through stop-motion sequences, André’s imagination of dying in an explosion or fighting a lion in a colosseum comes to life. Thoughts of a couple’s colonscopy brings about some darkly amusing moments of farts and friendships. The experimental idea of cutting off your head and placing it on a new body sounds surreally intriguing, with André going one step further by imagining himself being grafted onto a 10-year-old body to live a little longer.

André’s sense of humor about his condition holds up surprisingly well, the worse he gets, as his muscles grow thin and his stomach bloats. Even in this state, he still wants to find amusing things to do, like find the many divots of his new form that can hold Skittles. He has such a weirdly comforting outlook on life when it has a deadline so close. In his later stages, he briefly says to his wife, “I can’t do this anymore.” She tries to convince him that life is worth living one day at a time. He was talking about a game of Wordle. That said, he does have a reservation for the audience he plays to. He’s willing to be open with a therapist about all his odd ideas about mortality, but can’t bring himself to admit how bad his cancer is to his daughters. Even a gag he thinks up about placing an “I Voted” sticker on his anus for the doctors to see is one he pulls back on, feeling it would be too poor in taste.

Of course, there is regret that André has for not getting a colonoscopy in his 40s or 50s, which might’ve caught the cancer before it got this bad. He tries to pay for his ignorance by not just admitting his own stupidity (something he’s not afraid to do) but also devoting his efforts to a marketing campaign to encourage colonoscopies. The imagery used of oranges and garbage containers to refer to anus holes is an amusing gag, and one could use a good laugh about something so essential.

It’s hard to criticize Andre Is an Idiot for being such a heartfelt goodbye from somebody who found contentment in death. There’s something rather envious about how André is able to find that peace where he thinks deeply about no longer existing and the thrill of the last words you leave in this world. There’s an amusing sequence where he has special guest star Tommy Chong stand in as his father, presented less as a representation and more as a chance to hang out with somebody cool. But there’s still a pleasing contentment to Andre’s curious mind in this picture, where he can easily go from being okay with non-existence to being frustrated with finding the right word for an electronic game. There aren’t many gags or clever words that Andrei finds on this existential journey, but it’s still impressive what he does manage to dig up for his last video appearance.

Not available on any streaming platforms.

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