Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis
Genre	Comedy, talk show
Presented by	Zach Galifianakis
No. of episodes	21 (and 1 special) (list of episodes)
Release
Original network	Funny or Die Comedy Central (special)
Picture format	16:9 HDTV
Original release	January 4, 2008 – present
External links
Website

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis is a talk show hosted by comedian Zach Galifianakis and featuring celebrity guests. Episodes last several minutes, in which the interviewer (Galifianakis) and guest trade barbs and insults. In addition to the online series, an additional episode was filmed for Comedy Central as a television special.

Format

As the show's title suggests, host Zach Galifianakis conducts celebrity interviews sitting with his guests between two potted ferns.^[1] The set intentionally resembles a low-budget amateur production for public-access television,^[1] with on-screen graphics containing deliberate comical errors. For example, in a 2014 episode, Brad Pitt's name is spelled "Bart Pit" and his film 12 Years a Slave — the winner of the 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture — entitled "12 Years a Salve."^[2]

Galifianakis maintains an awkward and often antagonistic demeanor with his guests, asking them bizarre, inappropriate or insulting questions mixed with offhand non-sequiturs. The guests' responses are mostly improvised, despite pre-interviews.^[3][4] Episodes often include a segment in which Galifianakis awkwardly interrupts his guests to promote a sponsor's product—examples include bananas, the video game Need for Speed: Shift, and (most frequently) Speed Stick deodorant; some advertisements, like the graphics, are based around aspects of or events related to the interviewee. The episode featuring Hillary Clinton included one of Donald Trump's campaign commercials.

Several episodes also feature a button placed on a table between Galifianakis and his guest which, when pressed by Galifianakis, does various things such as play music or drop slime from the ceiling. Guests frequently act antagonistic or inappropriately towards Galifianakis as well, most often calling him fat and making fat jokes about him, mocking him losing his virginity late, or behaving drunk or threatening or pretending to ignore him or getting physical with him or walking out of the interview early.

The series' theme music is Dave Blume's arrangement of Bernard Herrmann's theme from Taxi Driver, which is on the original Taxi Driver soundtrack album but was not included in the film.

History and reception

Barack Obama interviewed on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, 2014

The show originated as a short film on Scott Aukerman and B. J. Porter's Fox sketch pilot The Right Now! Show, a spin-off of their Comedy Death-Ray live show. After the network declined to pick up the show, the duo put the short up on the website Funny Or Die, where it made a successful transition to an internet series.

Discussing the show on ABC News Now, Galifianakis said, "The sycophantic way that Hollywood machine runs – it's fun to make fun of it. That's how Between Two Ferns started." Guests aren't told what will happen in advance, according to Galifianakis, "They agree to come. There is no discussion beforehand...It just happens, no real prep, no organization whatsoever." He said, "inappropriateness is really fun to me...That is kind of the take on Between Two Ferns – inappropriate humor."^[5]

The Chicago Tribune described it as "surreal improv...a talk show that's more of a charming critique of the faked intimacy of celebrity interviews than a talk show."^[6]

A 30-minute television special, Between Two Ferns: A Fairytale of New York, aired on Comedy Central on May 6, 2012. The show featured interviews with Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, and Richard Branson.^[7]

The episode featuring President Barack Obama was timed to encourage Americans to sign up for health insurance at Healthcare.gov—with Funnyordie.com becoming at one point the top referrer to the government site.^[8] The September 2013 episode featuring Justin Bieber also received significant media attention. The show opened with Galifianakis telling him, "It's really exciting to talk to you. Especially right in the middle of your public meltdown."^[9]

The 2014 episode featuring Brad Pitt, in which he was referred to as both "Bradley Pitts" and "Bart Pit," was called one of the funniest episodes by media. Galifianakis referred to Pitt's latest film, Fury as "Furry", and asked Pitt, "Is it hard for you to maintain a suntan...because you live in your wife's shadow?" Galifianakis also asked Pitt if his relationship with wife Angelina Jolie was anything like "Ross and Rachel" from Friends, the show that made a star of Pitt's ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.^[2]

In a January 2016 interview with the Los Angeles Times, while promoting Baskets, Galifianakis discussed the status of Between Two Ferns, stating: "I don't know what else to do ... [Between Two Ferns'] kind of run its course a bit." Galifianakis also expressed desire to interview the Pope on the show.^[10] In September 2016 Between Two Ferns' first new episode in almost two years, featuring then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, received over 30 million views in its first 24 hours, the highest viewership in FunnyorDie.com's history.^[11]

Episodes

Special (2012)

A special episode aired on television on Comedy Central on May 6, 2012.

Awards

References

External links

• Official website
• Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis at the Internet Movie Database