What’s Matt Berry’s best weird What We Do In The Shadows line reading?
From Tuscon, Arizon-ya to "New. York. Cit-ay," here are Laszlo Cravensworth's greatest hits
TV Features Matt Berry
Matt Berry as Laszlo in What We Do In The Shadows (Photos: FX) Graphic: Karl Gustafson
As anyone who’s watched FX’s relentlessly funny vampire comedy What We Do In The Shadows knows, there’s no one who attacks a line of dialogue quite like Laszlo Cravensworth/Jackie Daytona himself, veteran British comic actor Matt Berry. Words do bizarre things in Berry’s mouth, random syllables stretching and distorting, always in the most delightful of ways. And so, in honor of this week’s season finale, we’ve asked The A.V. Club staff a simple question: What’s your favorite weird Matt Berry line reading from What We Do In The Shadows?
55 Comments
definitely when he was “psychoanalyzing” The Guide in this season’s premiere and he would end each sentence with this odd and hilarious inflection that I can’t put into words, you just have to hear it. The guy is a fucking genius performer and I’m so glad I get to watch him for at least 2 more seasons.
I laugh every time I see the word “sexual” because I now pronounce it “sek-sual” in my mind.
Laszlo after hearing about the New Jersey Devil’s low hanging balls and button cock—”fantastic” with just the right amount of respect and/or breathy arousal. Glorious and sublime.
when he and Nadja were having sex in this season’s premiere and when he saw Nandor watching he told him “come join us, there’s room in the back” with a wink…Christ that was fantastic.
Matt Berry absolutely kills in everything he’s in. One of a kind!
You mention “New York Citaaaaaaaaaaay” and then it doesn’t get a slide? For shame.Also surprised there was no mention of the absolute ubiquitousness of the “good time boyeh” reading as TikTok meme. It’s everywhere.
Matt Berry’s voice is a gift to the world.I haven’t seen this show yet, but his ‘Nice Try Thriiiyeece’ and “You Midwesternnnnnn floozy!” from his Community episode definitely have a little patch of real estate in my brain.
wow, thanks for reminding me that he was in this episode, which is really a great one. strongly recommend this show, starting (as with most comedies) around halfway through the first season.
Some say I’m a lucky grifteeeeerrrrr…Some say I’m the king….
I can’t find a video, but this one made me explode with laughter:
Every show this man is in is full of these gems. Matt Berry is a dialogue assassin.
His best ever odd pronunciations are in this video.
Very NSFW language.
The bit about “colonial hopping dogs” is priceless.
Well, I think we’ve found the only logical heir to David Attenborough.
Fuck yes!
That was amazing; thanks for sharing!
Makes me wish he did a regular series, like zefrank.
Cahsta Rica.
From my favorite episode, “The Curse”:“Says here some girl called Arianna disobeyed Bloody Mary, and now she’s dead. They ripped her guts out and dropped them on the front doorstep of her parents … I’d say we’re fucked.”
I’m in awe of the way he said “have you been watching Star Trek?” to Nandor in the Private School episode. I have no idea how he puts the stress on “Trek”, but it’s so out of place it’s perfect.
can we also talk about how Berry has absolutely stolen and run away with the “FUCK” crown from Samuel L. Jackson? I can’t remember a time that he used that word without it landing like an assassin’s bullet.
Berry was, weirdly enough, the voice in Advil commercials in the last couple of years (though I’m noticing a different voice now). I wish his gig doing that had lasted into some hypothetical future era of full swearing in commercials, because I kept imagining the ending tagline being “pain says you can’t, Advil tells pain to fuck off.”
I wish Advil understood that if I heard that line in a commercial, I’d stop buying generic and buy Advil LOL
In his advert voiceovers in Toast of London there is a relaxation of rules allowing swearing in late-night adverts, and Berry’s character takes to it with a gusto.
Matt Berry can find the comic potential in a single 3-letter word. (Why don’t they stream Toast of London here anymore, by the way?)
Best detail is him glancing back at the script after a few takes.
“I probably don’t need the script, it’s just a word.”*checks script*XD
I love this one. The porn voiceover with Ray is great too.
“Trust me! Gay is in, gay is hot! I want some gay! Gay it’s gonna be!”
This has nothing to do with What We Do In The Shadows. His entire career is an excuse to give the absolute strangest line readings. I’m so curious how or why he decides to deliberately fuck up phrases and words. It’s interesting that he doesn’t seem to do it at all with his music. So is he taking the piss? Just trying to make everything funnier? Simply amusing himself? Whatever it is, I love it.
He said in an interview that he “finds pompous accents inherently funnier”. He was promoting Toast of London at the time, but it applies to most of his work.
He has a method you know
It feels on-brand for Matt Berry to be a pompous comedic character actor (although he did actually stop that when playing a working-class copper in late 19th Century London in Year of the Rabbit) but is also a genuinely talented musician and singer, not a comedic or joke one (even when Benedict Wong shows up randomly in a music video).
Year of the Rabbit still had some weird-ass Berry-isms. So much show that he got some kind of weird “additional material by” credit, I think because he improvised so much, they had to address it in some way. But yeah, he’s a damn talented musician who is very hard to categorize. Definitely some Zappa in his musical DNA, though.
Sometimes the simplest pleasures are best.BAAHHHT!
the first year of the show my kids (who were and still are at the “it’s so uncool to care” stage of teenage-hood) would spontaneously yell “BAT!” and then run around flapping their wings and we’d all cackle uproariously.
My 11 year old daughter who has never seen the show does the Laszlo “BAT!” whenever she sees a bat.Similarly, she has never seen Harley Quinn, but will do the Clayface “I am the Aqua-MAN!” (or Super- or Bat-)
When he meets his own ghost and agrees to help it have a “final or-GAsm” it’s a moment of beauty.
I sincerely hope that in five to ten years everyone pronounces it New York Citaaayyyy and there’s not a damn thing NYC residents can do about it.
THE AV CLIUB OVEREXPLAINS THE JOKE
Bing-ham-ton.
Like it is part of the Hamptons…
Year of the Rabbit is a real, if short lived gem.“I’ll hit your head so hard they’ll find it on the fucking moon”“We need to be quicker than a vicar’s wank!”To a class of 9 year olds “ Now, who wants to see how we fish opium out of sailor’s arseholes? “
Year of the Rabbit was sadly underrated, and it was great because Berry actually didn’t play his normal type. He was working-class, didn’t break the accent and kept the weird diction out in favour of the most ludicrous lines.
It’s almost like it’s Matt Berry playing Steven Toast playing Laszlo Cravensworth. I always half expect Ray Purchase to pop out of somewhere.
I think you misspelled “Ray BLOODY Purchase.”
I did enjoy when Alan the Homeopath put Ray Purchase in his place.
Well, well, well…
“She speaks the bullshit!”
The entire cast is great, but…Matt fucking Berry. ”fantastic”
It’s a crime he hasn’t been nominated for an Emmy.
A few overlapping clips in here, but I’ve been having a rough time at work lately and just rewatching clips of Laszlo pronouncing things strangely for that daily dose of serotonin.
Movies are nowadays showing so much online casino game. However some sites on the internet says they are the best Arabic betting site. Is it true?
https://bestarabiccasinos.com/mwq-mrhnt-lrydy/ for example