Noonan

The Kumail episode was bad, IMO. Seemed like he didn't want to do any of the things the show required.

Deftones

That was the fun of it. Will was pushing him and making it awkward.

Noonan

Eh, I prefer guests like Conan who jump in the deep end of what they're doing.

Why they hell wouldn't he just give a name for his "HS sweetheart"?

MLBFan24

Yea, I thought not giving up the name was weird. Everyone is expecting a joke name. Just give the punchline.

That's why the Whose Line cast would probably be better for this series. They can pick up on the comedic timing perfectly.

Count Dooku

I just watched John Oliver name and joke about a girl he had a crush on when he was a little boy on Colbert. It certainly seems all fun and benign, but what if this person doesn't want her name bandied about on TV.

It never occurred to me that he would try to make up a funny name, and I don't think that occurred to him either, for whatever reason. It completely came off to me like him responding, I'm not going to tell you stuff about my personal life for the sake of this freak show. And that actually became a much funnier joke than any "funny" name. Plus, whoever the girl was, she had a Pakistani name, and Kumail may have been sensitive about Arnett trying to make jokes about a "funny-sounding" foreign name. Maybe the best joke in the show was him challenging Will to do a Pakistani accent and not sound racist.

Count Dooku

I don't think the premise of the show is for the guest stars to come on and turn it into an episode of Brooklyn 99. They are supposed to play it kinda straight while Arnett tries to derail them. I do agree about guest stars with comedy backgrounds, but no one should come in with the attitude of "You want this to be funny, watch me make this funny."

Noonan

I don't think anyone expected him to give a real name based on his past. Just make something up.

Totally agree on the bolded part. That was the only highlight of his episode. He couldn't improv on the spot very well but that was an excellent job swapping roles and making Arnett break his script.

Neitzl

I thought it was brilliant how Will got out of not sounding racist! That bit had me laughing so much.
I just finished the last three today. I actually liked the Sharon Stone one, she was taking it so seriously but I thought it was pretty funny, and I loved that she got it wrong.

Count Dooku

I understand that he's and actor and a comedian, but he was playing himself, and he was saying something true about his real life. I think the expectation that he would decide to instantly make the turn and make up a name that would be a punchline is odd. You might expect that in a scripted scene, but each actor is feeling this enterprise out for themselves as a they go. They are supposed to be themselves, thrust into an absurd fictional situation, roll with the punches but play it somewhat straight.

People talk about the guest actors doing improv, but if any really started improvising in the scenes, it would completely derail the show. If they started going off on substantive improvised bits, it could through off the scripted structure that the other characters are working with. Imagine if Conan had decided to improvise that he and the teacher were former lovers, or if Kumail had decided to improvise a complete backstory that he and one of Seattle's classmates had served in the military together. They are just supposed to go along with what Arnett throws at them, not start throwing stuff back. Conan got away with his jokes because he wasn't doing anything that was not 100% in character for Conan O'Brien.

Rob V

I love this show so much... if I had a complaint, it'd be that there are only 6 episodes. I hope it gets renewed because it's 30 minutes of a smile on my face.

dex14

Decker

MLBFan24

C’mon, some of those Marshawn deleted jokes were gold! Whose idea was it to delete those????

whotony

I thought the Ken Jong ep was the weakest.
He didn’t do much other then laughing at everything.

Draven

I loved how so many of them got into showing their badge. Sharon Stone was the best at it - I’ve been laughing to myself about it for days. Just watch how excited she was to do it.

I am a sometimes-improv actor here in town and this would be incredibly fun to do. I was in a show once where there were two people and one had memorized the lines for one character in a scene from a random play and the other person had no idea what the play was. So no matter what the improviser said, the one who had memorized the script had to say their next line. It’s hilarious to watch and see this had the same kind of energy. Hopefully there is a Season 2!

RichC2

I agree. I liked the other 5 and enjoyed the variety in personalities, Ken just laughing the entire time was a miss for me.

jpcamb

Am I the only one that did not enjoy this? I did the first episode and with Connan and the one from the girl from Shits Creek and did not find either of the episodes very funny and I love Annie Murphy I think Arnette was a bit too over the top with some of his "acting" which took me out of the show too much.

RichC2

Naw, a couple others quit it pretty quickly as well.

Cellar Door

I'm on the fence about watching any more. I watched the first three (Conan, Marshawn, and Kumail) a few weeks ago and I really only found the Conan one funny--and I'm a fan of Kumail so that was kind of disappointing.

dex14

Decker

Nice!

majorjoe23

Can’t wait!

Abob Teff

Missed this since I dumped Netflix earlier this year. Since my daughter left their account signed in, I checked out the first episode last night. I can see the potential and I am kind of glad read this thread first. Otherwise, I would have checked out and wondered "How could this be so amateurish?" Knowing what was happening made the humor stick. Definitely something you need to "meta-view."

On a side tangent, I thought the MAMA leader had a cute edge to her. Googled and found out ... Mary Hollis Inboden! She was is The Righteous Gemstones as the cheating guy's wife/ex-wife, where I also thought she was cute. Guess I have a new semi-celebrity crush ...

emanon

Then you may also want to check her out in Kevin Can Fuck Himself.

BDB

Brilliant news!