5 Comedies for Hardcore Humor Nerds
The star of Adult Swim’s Delocated exposes the movies and TV shows that leave geeks in awe.
The star of Adult Swim’s Delocated exposes the movies and TV shows that leave geeks in awe.
Jon Glaser is the star and creator of Delocated, the Adult Swim mockumentary about a man in the Witness Protection Program who, paradoxically, has his own reality show. (Think Keeping Up With the Kardashians, only with ski masks and without the shittiness.) But Glaser is hardly new to the comedy circuit. After a stint in the Second City troupe, he wrote for The Dana Carvey Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Human Giant. He’s also the guy who got Don Draper to talk about The Butthole Surfers and a member of A Matter of Trust, a Billy Joel tribute band which refuses to play anything except “A Matter of Trust.” With season three of Delocated premiering on February 2, Glaser gave us some must-see movies and TV shows for all you comedy fanatics.
- This Is Spinal Tap
Glaser’s go-to mockumentary is “of course” the rock spoof classic This Is Spinal Tap. Coincidentally, it was inspired by his second mockumentary pick…
- The Rutles (or All You Need Is Cash)
“I think The Rutles is very underrated. Oh man, it is awesome. Highly, highly recommended. It’s a Beatles parody and it was made in the 70s by Eric Idle and this guy Neil Innes and oh it’s unbelievably good.”
- Louie
“I mean, I don’t want to mention Louie because that’s already gotten enough notoriety and press but of course that’s such a great show.”
- Portlandia
“Portlandia for sure…Fred and Carrie, they’re both so great, but the show’s so good and it’s so well-written and it’s so well-done. I saw a couple of episodes for the new season and it just looks great.”
- Jon Benjamin Has a Van
“I certainly think Jon Benjamin’s show was great. People should definitely watch episodes of that if they didn’t. That was really, really extremely funny. Especially the episode where the sound man got kidnapped. So funny. So incredible.”
The Celebrities He Thinks Would Look Best in a Ski Mask:
Since he wears one constantly on his show, Glaser shared his thoughts on who could pull off a ski mask best. “I mean, Ryan Gosling of course. He would look good no matter what. He’s got sexy eyes and a sexy mouth, so of course he’s going to look hot in a mask. I was going to say Michelle Pfieffer for some reason, I don’t know why. Just completely random and arbitrary but it popped into my head so let’s just go with her. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Pffeifer.”
On Fake Russian Cast Members:
The Jon of Delocated is on the run from Russian mobsters, including one played by Steve Cirbus, who’s apparently a little too good at his job. “He’s so awesome. And he’s not Russian, but I think a lot of people don’t realize that because everybody was asking him at Comic Con, ‘Talk! Say something!’ They just wanted to hear how he really talked and I think some people were surprised and shocked. It was really hilarious.”
Trading Insults With Jon Benjamin:
Glaser did comedy with Jon Benjamin, a.k.a. the voice of Archer, in the past under team names such as The Fuggedabuddies and The Funnies. A lot of their stand-up devolved into name-calling each other, but Glaser can’t remember any particularly biting barbs. “Certainly it’s all on stage. It’s not real…I really can’t think of anything. Probably because it’s fake I don’t take it personally. But if it was real, then of course I’d hold on to it and remember it and I would never let it go. I’d be very unhealthy about it.”
On Coming to Terms With His Dead Father’s Involvement in ZZ Top:
Okay, maybe his book My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top wasn’t entirely true. Or even a little bit true. Still, fake grief can be just as raw. “From a pretend standpoint, yeah it was a very emotionally difficult thing to deal with. As you read in the book, I had a very hard time in a false world that does not exist dealing with it. It certainly inspired me to write this fake book.”
On the Response to His Book and the Word “Neat”:
“People who have seen it like it. I’m always happy when it gets mentioned because I feel like it was one of those things where – to get to make a book was pretty exciting for me. You know, it’s a weirdo process because I’ve never done it before and it’s just so much work…But in the end it was well worth it because I think the book turned out great, I think it looks great and just to have a book out there is pretty neat. Pretty neato…I hate when the fucking word ‘neat’ comes out of my mouth. ‘Yeah it was neat!’ It was a really incredible experience and now I’m going to belittle it by saying it was neat.”
His Conan Characters:
Glaser wrote for Late Night with Conan O’Brien from 1998 to 2003, and played a variety of sketch characters during his tenure. They include Jon of The Slip Nutz and Ehud the Shofar player. But his favorite? “Wrist Hulk was one of my favorites…[why I enjoyed it was] I think just the stupidity of it. But I guess that’s an answer for a lot of the stuff I ended up doing on the show – just the ridiculousness of it. And that was the fun thing about working on Conan was that you just came up with any stupid idea that didn’t go anywhere but you could do it on the show because that was the show. It was just these short little bursts of whatever. Including, you know, ‘Here’s this guy whose wrist gets inflamed and green.’”
On Paul Rudd’s Death in Delocated’s Pilot:
In the first episode of Delocated, the Russian assassin who’s after Glaser accidentally shoots an innocent bystander, who just happens to be Paul Rudd. Glaser’s character proceeds to mourn him in the best way he can: by recalling his most obscure, absurd film roles. Like Tennis, Anyone? and The Locusts. “It was really great that he [Paul Rudd] was also into referencing that. ‘Oh yeah, Locusts, wow.’ My only regret about that is that it wasn’t longer.” So is The Locusts really one of Glaser’s favorite movies? “Oh yeah, definitely. Locusts is in my top 50 movies.”
Why Eavesdropping Pays:
“I was walking my dog probably a couple years ago and I’m overhearing these guys in front of me talking about Yankee Stadium, and it was the final season [at the old stadium]…so these two guys are talking and one guy says, ‘I heard they’re gonna get, uh, I heard they’re gonna get Billy Joel to play the last night at Yankee Stadium.’ And the other guy says, ‘I’ll tell you who’s gonna play the last night at Yankee Stadium. THE NEW YORK YANKEES IN THE WORLD SERIES!” And I was just behind these guys with my dog, trying not to laugh. It was awesome.”
Delocated season three premieres on Adult Swim on February 2 at midnight. Seasons one and two are available on DVD now!