Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are reuniting for a comedy series at Paramount Plus
The mockumentary style series follow two cult Gurus, played by Cross and Odenkirk
Aux News David Cross
Paramount+ has officially announced a new series from the frequent collaborators David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. The documentary-style series, titled Guru Nation, follows the two as they play rival cult leading Gurus who seek to “manipulat[e] the minds of their deluded followers.”
Odenkirk and Cross created the project together and have pulled Borat 2 director Jason Woliner on board as the director of the series. Odenkirk, Cross and Woliner will all serve as executive producers alongside Marc Provissiero, Naomi Odenkirk, Tim Sarkes. The announcement for the series was made during Paramount’s TCA press tour along with a growing slate of new series and series renewals.
While the two have fostered their own successful careers, they are known as a duo for their work on the ‘90s HBO sketch series Mr. Show with Bob and David. The show earned four Emmy nominations, including one for outstanding music and lyrics and the another for outstanding writing for a variety series.
In 2015, the two reunited for four episodes of W/ Bob And David, another comedy sketch series for Netflix. In 2020, one episode of W/ Bob And David was removed because Cross could not make it four episodes without doing Blackface in one of the sketches, which he then refused to apologize for. Let’s see if he can manage it this time.
On their own, Odenkirk has wrapped up shooting the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul, after experiencing a heart attack on set last July. His work as Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman has earned him four Emmy nominations for best lead actor. And just last week, Cross, most known to some for his role as Tobias Funke on Arrested Development, announced he has a new comedy special on the way.
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In 2020, one episode of W/ Bob And David was removed because Cross could not make it four episodes without doing Blackface in one of the sketches, which he then refused to apologize for. Let’s see if he can manage it this time.Ah yes…the great blackface overreaction of 2020 when episodes were purged even when they were openly making fun of the concept of blackface and people who utilize it. I still can’t believe they removed one of the best episodes of Community in that debacle.
Insanity. Just put a damn disclaimer card on the episodes.
I’m just a caveman. I don’t understand your modern world.But, isn’t it kind of racist to remove things from view on the assumption that entire groups of people can’t understand or deal with the context of a joke?
Seconded, that sketch was funny and the Community episode was one of the greats. It makes me despair for comedy that apparently it’s offensive to depict racist characters, even when those portrayals exist to mock racist attitudes. The death of context.
It’ll loop back around. It always does. In the end, we need to make fun of these things. It’s actually in the public interest to ridicule and humiliate hate to take the wind out of it’s sails before it blows up into a hurricane. This will always be true.
The thing that galls me is it isn’t even racism. By definition, racism entails prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism towards people due to their racial / ethnic background. It typically is fueled by feelings of hatred. Having an actor put on blackface in a sketch where they’re portrayed as a horse’s ass for doing so is none of those things. You could argue that the joke is in poor taste. But calling it racism diminishes what that word racism represents.
Yes, that’s the thing to be angry about here and not the racism.
Yep. Main reason I keep DVDs of a ton of old shit.
They also deleted Lethal Weapon 5 and 6!!!
30 Rock, too.
And America’s Next Top Paddy’s Billboard Model Contest, where recurring character Rex is introduced. Plus the Lethal Weapon episodes get referenced in other episodes that are still available. Gotta be confusing for anyone streaming the show for the first time.
There was absolutely nothing for David Cross to apologize for.
In 2020, one episode of W/ Bob And David was removed because Cross could not make it four episodes without doing Blackface in one of the sketches, which he then refused to apologize for. Let’s see if he can manage it this time.Seems like an oversimplification, when the point of the sketch was Cross’s character trying to intentionally do something terrible that would get him harassed by cops.The more problematic part of that sketch probably now being that the cops were always in the right and then that Jay Johnston was the cop that ends up beating Cross up.
I would rather lose one good and one okay episode of television on streaming services than live in a world where white people are still pitching blackface bits in writers rooms. IDK, maybe that’s just me.
Just between 30 Rock and Always Sunny, I think the number is 7 or 8 funny as hell episodes pulled from streaming. Way more than 1 or 2.I’m all for a disclaimer. At least then, the consumer can choose.
I’d rather them not erase things from history. It’s not good when it’s done on either side. Put a disclaimer on them.
Yeah, but they’re not erased from history, they were just removed from the streaming package. The bob and david clip is streaming here: And the 30 Rock episodes are still available to purchase online from several services (including something called “Google Play”) as well as continuing to exist on physical media, widely available for purchase.
Again, I think we agree that removing the episodes was an overreaction. I just think that maybe it’s worth it, at the end of the day.
But see, that’s the thing. They kept clips online. They’re still selling the episodes, digitally and on disc. That just makes removing them from streaming an empty performative gesture, because if they were really against what these shows did, they’d remove them from sale and take clips offline. But they didn’t, so it’s idiotic that they’re continuing to keep them off streaming. All they could have done is edit in a 15 second disclaimer at the start of the episodes.
Again, I’ll grant you performative, but far from empty. While Cross and Odenkirk were against the removal, Fey actually requested that the episodes be pulled, because, I’m assuming, she wanted to be on the list of people who are against white people doing blackface on television. I’m guessing that if she’d added “and Universal television should recall all existing DVD and Blu-ray Box Sets produced in the last 20 years from all retailers and have them destroyed,” or “make sure to scrub the JoBlo Trailers youtube channel and every DailyMotion account you can find!” that wouldn’t exactly have won you over?
At the end of the day, we’re talking about the removal, from some platforms, of ~5 episodes of television. On the one hand, as a huge 30 Rock fan, I get it, we want to be able to run the series, and now you can’t without shelling out upwards of $50 for physical media. On the other hand, if I could somehow scrub all the blackface bits from my Kids In The Hall box sets, or the gay panic bits from IT Crowd and Mr Show, or the ableist jokes from Arrested Development, etc, I absolutely would, because that shit just doesn’t hold up. It’s hard to watch. It’s cringe, I believe the kids are saying. It’s cheugy.
i’m gonna be in the minority here and say it doesn’t really matter what the ‘point’ is.any joke that requires putting blackface on isn’t a good or interesting enough joke to require you putting blackface on.
“any joke that requires putting blackface on isn’t a good or interesting enough joke to require you putting blackface on
Oh good, at least you’re dealing in absolutes and are completely inflexible.
Sure, context never matters in anything. Context is nothing. Everything should pass muster with no context.
Jay Johnston will play their most deluded follower…
Certainly gullible enough.
HE CLIMBED EVEREST!!
Awesome. Love the concept already! This could have easily been a Mr. Show sketch. Kind of reminds me of the dueling Doctors in the “5 voices”.Hope they get a bunch of their old cast as guests and make it even more of a reunion show.Also, I’m sure the wigs will be glorious.
“Also, I’m sure the wigs will be glorious.”zzzz…wha? Are they doing The Americans spinoff?
“In 2020, one episode of W/ Bob And David was removed because Cross could not make it four episodes without doing Blackface in one of the sketches, which he then refused to apologize for. Let’s see if he can manage it this time.”You’ve attempted to entirely misrepresent an event. Congrats.
“because Cross could not make it four episodes without doing Blackface in one of the sketches”
Oh, fuck you, you fucking losers.
In 2020, one episode of W/ Bob And David was removed because Cross could not make it four episodes without doing Blackface in one of the sketches, which he then refused to apologize for. Let’s see if he can manage it this time. Did anyone else find the longform anti-Muslim extremist bit to be just an unfunny slog?
You’re a bad loser.
Right, just shows how empty and reactionary it was because that bit, along with just being an unfunny slog, is pretty offensive too. But since it’s a bad bit, no one thinks about it or remembers it to even be flagged.
SIDEBAR: I see that the dimestore nihilist is back under a minty-fresh new burner. Totally not fucking pathetic at all. 😀
The writing here gets worse by the week. Genuinely fuck yourself Gabrielle.
I’m still annoyed that I can’t watch that episode that got removed. I probably watched it like 8 times before that happened but goddamnit, come on. I really hope a DVD or Blu-Ray release happens at some point where I can have all 4 episodes plus that really special Behind The Scenes 5th episode. Fuck.
Teradaloo, the Bob!
Dump the money truck at the Conchords. Episodes are just as funny after all these years. Plus, no blackface required.