The latest comedy icon to join late-night isn’t Jessica Williams or Desus & Mero, it’s the freakish offspring of a Labyrinth creature and Sully from Monsters Inc. Comedy Central announced at this year’s TCA that it’s picked up Funny or Die’s The Gorburger Show for an eight-episode season.
The Gorburger Show is a web series by Silicon Valley‘s T.J. Miller that debuted in 2012, all about a loud alien who takes over a Japanese talk show and forces its guests to teach him about humanity. It previously aired for two seasons, with 19 episodes. The deadpan humour (with a twist!) is pretty similar to IFC’s Comedy Bang! Bang!, which was cancelled late last year, or Funny or Die’s Between Two Ferns. It’s just, this time, there’s an alien involved.
In a press release, Comedy Central touted that Gorburger was adding much-needed “diversity” to late-night television, which was kind of a dumb move. It’s no secret that late-night TV is frustratingly lacking in representation, and Comedy Central has played a part in that. Granted, Trevor Noah hosts The Daily Show, but Comedy Central did cancel The Nightly Show, which did a way better job at tackling issues like race relations. Considering Gorburger is played by a white dude, it’s kind of a stupid, tasteless joke that skirts the problem rather than doing anything about it.
On top of it, I honestly have no clue how they’re going to turn this five-minute joke into a half-hour show. Comedy Central managed to do it brilliantly with Drunk History, which just got renewed for another season, but that’s mainly because the format lent itself to longer episodes. There’s really only one joke in The Gorburger Show; he’s an alien who doesn’t understand human things, and also he wants to murder sometimes. The Gorburger Show is set to debut in the US this autumn.
[The Wrap]