2009

Ken Jeong • The A.V. Club, 8/14/09

The A.V. Club: At the screening last night, somebody in the audience said, “Hey, it’s that Asian guy!” when he saw you.

Ken Jeong: Yeah, I do feel like maybe the redheaded guy who was the evil principal in Ferris Bueller that you saw for a string of movies. Or maybe the evil principal of The Breakfast Club—you saw him in a ton of movies. I’m the guy that no one knows, but everyone’s like, “You’re that guy in that film thing.”

Michael Ian Black & Michael Showalter • The A.V. Club, 7/15/09

The A.V. Club: So what you’re saying for Michael And Michael Have Issues is that it’s less about getting the art and more about getting the laughs.
Michael Showalter: I would say that is a very apt statement. I would say that the word “art” has not come up once in the last six months.

Taste Test: Trying too hard: potato-chip edition • The A.V. Club, 7/7/09
As a society, we have decided that the simple, salted potato chip is no longer enough. The A.V. Club samples the consequences.

Mary-Louise Parker • The A.V. Club, 6/17/09

The A.V. Club: During the first season of Weeds, you said you didn’t treat the show as a comedy.
Mary-Louise Parker: I never treated it as a comedy. I thought it was a drama. They’re the same thing; life is life, and you shouldn’t play things for tears or laughs. It’s somewhere in between, but they said the network had bought and expected a comedy, so it was something we needed to fulfill. Truthfully, in the beginning, I felt like it was pushing for that. But I never felt like or even wanted to feel like we were trying to push to be some flat-out crazy comedy, because you lose things.

Taste Test: Coconut & "strawberried peanut butter" M&M's • The A.V. Club, 6/2/09
Mars Inc. continues to bastardize Forrest Mars Sr.'s vision for the world's perfect candy.

Tim Kasher of Cursive • The A.V. Club, 4/27/09

The A.V. Club: You talk about Peter Pan syndrome on this album, the feeling of perpetual adolescence. Is that something you’ve thought about a lot?
Tim Kasher: Yeah. I had to get over a hump. I don’t know when it was, like five years ago, feeling like just doing rock ’n’ roll—and that’s really what Peter Pan-ism is—is obnoxious. It’s totally obnoxious. What I do is obnoxious, and I recognize that. I consider myself an obnoxious person. And I think that’s good. I think what I’m explaining is that I came to terms with that. I’m 34 now—I think when I was 30, I had a bout of maturity.

Better Late Than Never: Freaks And Geeks • The A.V. Club, 4/24/09
I finally watch the show that typically draws the reaction of "OH MY GOD, YOU HAVEN'T SEEN FREAKS & GEEKS? YOU MUST WATCH IT RIGHT NOW."

Kirk Hammett • The A.V. Club, 4/22/09
You know what kinds of interviews are lame? Round tables. We generally don't do them, but this was a quick one for Guitar Hero: Metallica. And the company was good: Dudes from Denver Post, Seattle Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer. We'll all mixed in together in the piece, because it would've been too weird to note who said what and when.

Maria Bamford • The A.V. Club, 4/20/09

AVC: In your stand-up, you seem so at ease with bringing up these horrifying thoughts, but when you first started doing it, were you nervous?

MB: Oh yeah, yeah, totally. I felt—I still feel scared that people will misunderstand it, but oh well. It’s almost my wish that people don’t live with secrets or stuff they don’t tell other people, because if people don’t talk about it, you don’t know you’re not alone. I mean, I don’t know, maybe some secrets are good, like what your PIN number is. You know what? I’m going to tell everybody my PIN number in this article. People need to know.

Matt Groening • The A.V. Club, 3/25/09
I can't overstate how huge of an interview this was for me. I am a Simpsons super-fan, and Matt Groening has been atop the list of people I want to interview for years. Even better: I was supposed to get only 15 minutes with him to talk about Futurama, but instead we went for 50 and talked about everything. It couldn't have ruled more.

AVC: Are you feeling at all reflective, with the confluence of anniversaries this year?

MG: [Long pause, sighs, laughs.]You can put in the interview, “long pause.” I’ve been deadline-driven for my whole grown-up life, and that hasn’t gone away. It is nice to be able to reflect about the big picture, about what kind of stories you want to tell, and how to take advantage of success. 

South By Southwest 2009 • The A.V. Club, 3/19-22/09
Day 1: Sweaty Jews!
Day 2: Hip-hop cures all!
Day 3: Metal up your ass!
Day 4: Asian fetishists, meet your new favorite band!
AVC staff wrap-up 

Neko Case • The A.V. Club, 3/10/09

AVC: Do you ever feel like you're done?

There’s not like a science to it, necessarily, but I’m also the kind of person who spends a long time in the studio. I will spend my entire advance just getting it done, which is probably stupid, but I don’t have extravagant taste. I mean, I paid for it, so there you go. 

Danny McBride • The A.V. Club, 2/10/09

AVC: You’ve said that you guys wrote a bunch of over-the-top jokes into the pilot thinking HBO would cut them—except they didn’t. What were they?

DM: Just little things. Like, you can have a guy fucking blowing rails and driving his nephew to school, but if you make an AIDS joke, then you’re out, you’re not allowed to do that. [Laughs.] 

Taste Test: Cajun Squirrel, Chilli & Chocolate, and other bizarre potato chips • The A.V. Club, 2/3/09
Oh you British and your wacky potato chips, er, crisps.