The Gorburger Show: Is it art? Trash? Somewhere in between? At least it’ll make you laugh. Uncomfortably.
The Gorburger Show.
Imagine: It’s a Japanese talk show, that’s been taken over by a blue-furred monster voiced and puppeted by T.J. Miller of Silicon Valley fame (You don’t watch Silicon Valley? Fine. He was Weasel, the barkeep in Deadpool). He brings on guests like musicians Reggie Watts and Thundercat but also has low-key guests like a guy who’s really good at making vape tricks.
Sound similar to Eric Andre? It feels quite similar to earlier seasons of The Eric Andre Show when they still tried to have strange guests like a black guy with a pigeon pretending to be Russell Brand or that actually convincing Jack Nicholson impersonator. However, The Gorburger Show, unfortunately, feels like it simply relies on the fact that you’ve never seen any other parody of a Japanese talk show, or never seen an episode of the Eric Andre show. Then, it just may feel original to you.
In the opening sequence, Gorburger even trashes the set similarly to Eric Andre’s openings, albeit with more gore and production value. But where Eric Andre’s perceived lack of production value makes it more endearing, Gorburger seems, well, overproduced, yet attempting (and sadly failing) to capture the fun of Eric Andre.
Now, both shows premiered at around the same time, so maybe it’s unfortunate for Gorburger that Eric Andre caught on, and was on network television first: Gorburger was originally on Funny or Die, then got picked up by HBO, where a pilot was produced, then somehow the show moved over to Comedy Central.
Don’t get me wrong though. The host, Gorburger, is hilarious. T.J. Miller keeps the questions uncomfortable and the pauses impromptu. You’ll feel just as weirded out as Reggie Watts is as he asks him questions about what animals he’ll eat or shows him footage of his tour of a sex doll factory, and cringe comedy is one of the best comedies.
All in all, I really hope this show does better, and that it helps stand out in a different way than Eric Andre as its own version of how not to do a talk show.
