We get some Weird Al knock-offs from the host of Comedy Bang! Bang!
Photo: Matthew Imaging/IFC | Licensed to Alpha Media Group 2012
After testing it out as an Upright Citizens Brigade show and a podcast, Scott Aukerman is taking Comedy Bang! Bang! to the natural next step: off-Broadway puppet show TV talk show. The show — which also features Reggie Watts as the resident bandleader — comes to IFC on Friday at 10:00 p.m. Based on our chat with Aukerman, people shouldn’t rule out some spirited Top 40 song parodies. The self-described “king of of pop parody” (check out his take on Halohere) gave us a few spoofs of recent tracks. Be warned: The king also calls them “uniformly horrible and not funny.”
Somebody That I Used to Know (by Gotye)
Some Plant That I Used to Grow
What Makes You Beautiful (by One Direction)
What Makes Poo Beautiful
We Found Love (by Rihanna)
I Found This Glove
Photo: Chris Ragazzo/IFC | Licensed to Alpha Media Group 2012
On Emulating Famous Host and Bandleader Duos
Well the thing about most hosts and bandleaders is that they are secret enemies. So the difference is Reggie and I are literally best friends. We have an apartment together, we have a room, we share bunk beds. For me it’s not like a typical host bandleader relationship because they all hate each other. We love each other, so I would say it’s like, what if you combined every character on Friends into two people. So I think I would obviously be Monica, obviously be Rachel, and maybe a little bit of Joey. Reggie gets everyone else.
On Powering Through the Shooting Schedule
There are certain shots you can see in the show, where I am so sleepy my eyes are literally closing. We had to shoot around me sleeping a lot. Because I’m sitting in a chair for a lot of the show, it is very easy to fall asleep while having a conversation with a guest.
On Chasing Chris Elliott
I tried really hard to get Chris Elliott on the show. He’s an idol of mine. In fact he doesn’t live in California, so I offered to pay for his flight personally, because it was beyond the scope of our budget. He unfortunately didn’t have time to do it, but he’s someone I would love to have on.
On What He Would’ve Asked Chris Elliott
Do you like me? Have you seen my show? What did you think of the first episode? Did you watch it online? Did you see it on Facebook? Can we be Facebook friends? Can you like my posts?
Comedy Bang! Bang! premieres on Friday, June 8 at 10:00 p.m. on IFC!