Kevin Nealon’s been a familiar face on television since his days as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” but in recent years, he’s become more known for his work on Showtime’s long-running series, “Weeds.” Those who can’t afford the premium stations, however, may also see him pop up as the host of TBS’s “World’s Funniest Commercials” specials. Won’t you please join us for…
Kevin Nealon: Hey, Will! How are you doing?
Bullz-Eye: Hey, Kevin, good to talk to you!
KN: Yeah, you, too!
BE: So this is not your first time around the block for TBS.
KN: No, it’s not! It’s starting to add up. (Laughs)
BE: So how did you come to hook up with them in the first place?
KN: Oh, gee, let me see if I can remember. It’s been about…oh, I’m guessing eight years now? Seven or eight years. I think they just kind of came to my agents with this offer to host this show, and I always loved funny commercials. You know, one of the reasons – like a lot of people – that I watch the Super Bowl is for the commercials during it, so I was into that. And, also, I went to school for marketing and learned a lot about commercials then, and I was going to be in advertising, but instead I went into comedy. So there’s a big interest there for me.
BE: Do you have a favorite commercial from this most recent special that really stands out?
KN: Well, there are a couple that I like. There’s one…I think it’s for Berlitz Language School, where a guy’s on the phone and he’s trying to find out how to spell “Def Leppard” because he’s doing a tattoo on somebody’s back. And it’s all in subtitles, but the woman goes, “Do you mean ‘deaf’ as in hearing, or ‘death’ as in dying?” He goes, “Um, I’m not sure.” Then he looks to the person’s back, where he’s just made the tattoo “deaf.” That’s a cool one, and there’s another one for Tabasco that’s from Belgium, where they show a streaker running across a soccer field, the cops are chasing him, and then they stop the action and say, “An hour earlier,” and they show him in a restaurant having Tabasco sauce. They kind of back up the whole thing, from the soccer field leading back up to when he used the Tabasco.
BE: So where did you film this special? I know you film them on location in various places.
KN: Oh, yeah, we’ve done them everywhere! Well, not everywhere, but we’ve done them in California, in Paris, New York. This one happens to be in Chicago, which is great, because I love Chicago.
It doesn’t have to be this way, you know. Wiig is still a fabulous impressionist, as she displayed last week with her spot-on Bjork imitation during Weekend Update. The problem is that the majority of her skits involve her playing the most annoying characters imaginable, as if she’s a female George Costanza with Multiple Personality Disorder. It all started innocently enough, with Target Lady (that’s pronounced “Terruget,” thank you very much) running off every time someone brought something she liked to the counter. Those skits aren’t great but they’re harmless enough, and in one case was redeemed by Justin Timberlake, who’s funnier than half the “SNL” cast, but that’s a post for another day.
From there, we got Amy Poehler’s Aunt Linda, a rubber-faced crank whose reviews consisted of making funny faces. Again, relatively harmless, though less amusing than Target Lady. Wiig still had Poehler to compete with for stage time then, and our guess is that since Wiig knew that Poehler was always going to play the cute girl or the clever girl, Wiig carved out a niche for herself as the oddball, the nut job. Since Poehler’s departure, Wiig has become the alpha female of the cast, but instead of dialing things back a touch, she seems to be trying even harder to irritate people. That has to be the explanation for why they keep bringing back a skit that I can’t fast-forward through quickly enough: Penelope, the passive-aggressive nervous nelly that cannot be topped.
Meanwhile, the one recurring skit of Wiig’s that I liked, the Two A-Holes, has mysteriously been shelved. What’s the matter, guys, they’re not annoying enough anymore? And what about those dead-perfect impressions of Judy Garland and Megan Mullally she used to do? I’m not saying that Wiig should completely abandon her gonzo tendencies – though if I’m being honest, I would be perfectly happy to never see any of the above recurring skits again – but would it kill her to take it down a notch? If she doesn’t watch it, she’s going to turn into Melanie Hutsell. Man, if that doesn’t put the fear of God in you, nothing will.
