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April 28, 2014 6:42 AM Subscribe
Comedian Andy Daly is an expert at creating naive, offbeat characters with dark secrets. He has appeared in many places (and this AV Club article walks through them all in an interview with Daly), but now has his own show, Review on Comedy Central, in which his character, Forrest, reviews life experiences, from eating 30 pancakes to divorce to being Batman. All 8 of the episodes so far are now online, the funny/dark/uncomfortable parts really start with episode 3: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Andy Daly is also a comedy podcast regular, and ran a one-off series where he played a different character every week (the amazing one where he plays a German travel writer, with many other comedians as guests, is a good place to start).
Daly mentions the Australian show often in interviews.
posted by Optamystic at 7:00 AM on April 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Optamystic at 7:00 AM on April 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
My husband is a huge Comedy Bang Bang fan and I'm not so much, but when Andy Daly plays this character, I laugh so hard I might pee.
posted by Kitteh at 7:06 AM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 7:06 AM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: It's Literally All We Have. But Is It Any Good?
posted by gerryblog at 7:45 AM on April 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by gerryblog at 7:45 AM on April 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
Review reminds me of Porkin' Across America by the Onion.
posted by Poldo at 7:45 AM on April 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Poldo at 7:45 AM on April 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
The "space" segment with Fred Willard in episode 5 is awesome.
posted by mullacc at 7:48 AM on April 28, 2014
posted by mullacc at 7:48 AM on April 28, 2014
I am dying listening to the German travel podcast. My only issue is that I have just seen Jodorowsky's Dune, and that H.R. Giger actually sounds way weirder and way more H.R. Giger-y than the comedian impersonating him on the podcast. However, the discussion relating to how close Werner Herzog, Giger, and Benedict XVI have been to Skokie, IL completely makes up for it.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:08 AM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:08 AM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
outlier, Andy Daly has done a number of interviews on the show and he's mentioned it quite a bit. On the Nerdist Writer's Podcast he and the writers talked about how the original pilot was much closer to the Australian series but felt that playing Forrest as a good person forced to do these things was easier to make a serious out of than a more sociopathic character.
It really is astounding how dark Review gets for Comedy Central but given Daly's character work i guess it shouldn't be so surprising. The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project is so great I keep finding myself listening to it over and over again.
posted by crashlanding at 8:45 AM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
It really is astounding how dark Review gets for Comedy Central but given Daly's character work i guess it shouldn't be so surprising. The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project is so great I keep finding myself listening to it over and over again.
posted by crashlanding at 8:45 AM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Andy Daly is a goddamn genius. I had been thinking about putting together a post on him, so thanks for saving me the trouble, blahblahblah.
Recommendations:
Any of his appearances on Matt Besser's Improv for Humans podcast
The Comedy Bang Bang debut of Patrick McMahon, hapless Irish storyteller
His two appearances on Paul F. Tompkins's Dead Authors Podcast as Robert Louis Stevenson and The Marquis de Sade
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:59 AM on April 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
Recommendations:
Any of his appearances on Matt Besser's Improv for Humans podcast
The Comedy Bang Bang debut of Patrick McMahon, hapless Irish storyteller
His two appearances on Paul F. Tompkins's Dead Authors Podcast as Robert Louis Stevenson and The Marquis de Sade
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:59 AM on April 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
One of his pilots, Added for the 70's replication set.
posted by parliboy at 9:23 AM on April 28, 2014
posted by parliboy at 9:23 AM on April 28, 2014
Thanks for the info - I'm glad that Daly is open about it. I was mostly getting out how there no connection to the original to be found on IMDB or indeed the OP above.
For what it's worth, the Australian original was genius but sometimes uncomfortable to the point of being unwatchable. I never took the critic as a "sociopath" at all, just more of a blank slate - he sets out to review something and submerges himself utterly in it.
posted by outlier at 9:23 AM on April 28, 2014
For what it's worth, the Australian original was genius but sometimes uncomfortable to the point of being unwatchable. I never took the critic as a "sociopath" at all, just more of a blank slate - he sets out to review something and submerges himself utterly in it.
posted by outlier at 9:23 AM on April 28, 2014
I love Andy Daly. His Hot Dog character on Comedy Bang Bang is by far my favorite. I've listened to the episode where Hot Dog first makes his appearance at least a dozen times and it never fails to crack me up, even though I practically have it memorized by now.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 9:44 AM on April 28, 2014
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 9:44 AM on April 28, 2014
I've only seen a short clip of the Australian series, so I can't speak to whether Myles is more of a sociopath than Forrest, but they talked about how in the original pilot, when he's reviewing stealing, Forrest ends up framing his intern for all the crimes and walks away scott free. Director Jeffrey Blitz came on afterwards and said he enjoyed the pilot but wasn't sure if he could watch a full series about a guy that unlikable.
I don't know if I can pick a favorite out of his characters. Hot Dog is great though, Dip-di-dip-do-waaaaaah!
posted by crashlanding at 11:18 AM on April 28, 2014
I don't know if I can pick a favorite out of his characters. Hot Dog is great though, Dip-di-dip-do-waaaaaah!
posted by crashlanding at 11:18 AM on April 28, 2014
Schneedermier Pretzels, the #1 pretzel to reclaim your mouth!
posted by GilloD at 12:39 PM on April 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by GilloD at 12:39 PM on April 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
Review has been great. All of Daly's podcast characters are hilarious (no love for Don Dimelo?), and he was also fantastic on the oft-overlooked Crossballs.
posted by mediated self at 12:47 PM on April 28, 2014
posted by mediated self at 12:47 PM on April 28, 2014
I am dying listening to the German travel podcast.
I envy you so much for getting to hear that for the first time. The August Lindt episode of the Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project is the funniest podcast episode I have ever heard and one of the funniest pieces of media I have ever heard. Take a handful of the best improvisors in the world, make them do terrible German accents that all sound different from one another, then throw them in a room and see what happens. It is so outstanding it is scarcely believable.
The first segment of the Don Dimello episode is equally stellar, but that character treads thin ice and comes very close to being really distasteful. Jason Manzoukis really buried the second segment, and there was no recovering.
posted by painquale at 2:09 PM on April 28, 2014
I envy you so much for getting to hear that for the first time. The August Lindt episode of the Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project is the funniest podcast episode I have ever heard and one of the funniest pieces of media I have ever heard. Take a handful of the best improvisors in the world, make them do terrible German accents that all sound different from one another, then throw them in a room and see what happens. It is so outstanding it is scarcely believable.
The first segment of the Don Dimello episode is equally stellar, but that character treads thin ice and comes very close to being really distasteful. Jason Manzoukis really buried the second segment, and there was no recovering.
posted by painquale at 2:09 PM on April 28, 2014
I'm a huge fan of the Australian series, so I'll definitely have to watch this take (thanks for the post!).
One of my favourite aspects is how your view of the fictional review show changes as the show progressed. Watching the first episode, it (mostly) conforms to our expectations of what a review show is like, albeit an incredibly strange one (worth watching just for the outrageous similes).
As the series progresses the continuity becomes clear: these aren't isolated vignettes, but small windows into the life of a disturbed character.
By the end of the second series I was doubting the existence of the 'review show' at all. The show was the I eternal justifications of a psychopath. I mean, we would all like to kill Kyle Sandilands but we can't all justify doing so in the guise of 'review'.
No one in the real world acknowledges Miles as a reviewer, but are more than willing to act as mirror to his sociopathy. (I vaguely recall that David Stratton might allude to Miles being a reviewer in his first appearance? I might be wrong, but rule of funny anyway).
Anyway, I will watch the US series but I definitely rate the Aussie series. Like a beautiful flower it grows from the seeds of expectation into glorious petals of surprise, but is quickly over-run by the stinging wasps of intrigue before the cringe kicks in like a gardener with insecticide. Five stars.
posted by Prahan at 6:43 PM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
One of my favourite aspects is how your view of the fictional review show changes as the show progressed. Watching the first episode, it (mostly) conforms to our expectations of what a review show is like, albeit an incredibly strange one (worth watching just for the outrageous similes).
As the series progresses the continuity becomes clear: these aren't isolated vignettes, but small windows into the life of a disturbed character.
By the end of the second series I was doubting the existence of the 'review show' at all. The show was the I eternal justifications of a psychopath. I mean, we would all like to kill Kyle Sandilands but we can't all justify doing so in the guise of 'review'.
No one in the real world acknowledges Miles as a reviewer, but are more than willing to act as mirror to his sociopathy. (I vaguely recall that David Stratton might allude to Miles being a reviewer in his first appearance? I might be wrong, but rule of funny anyway).
Anyway, I will watch the US series but I definitely rate the Aussie series. Like a beautiful flower it grows from the seeds of expectation into glorious petals of surprise, but is quickly over-run by the stinging wasps of intrigue before the cringe kicks in like a gardener with insecticide. Five stars.
posted by Prahan at 6:43 PM on April 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by outlier at 6:57 AM on April 28, 2014