Will Forte notes that some of those Last Man On Earth jokes were "a sad thing to get right"
Aux Features Business_Finance
It’s been almost two years since Last Man On Earth—a fanciful Fox sitcom in which we all chuckled merrily at the idea of a global pandemic totally destroying the fabric of our planetary society—aired its last episode, giving us a typically bonkers cliffhanger to send Tandy et. al out on. Since then, star Will Forte has been working on that MacGruber TV series, and also, presumably, doing what everybody else has done, i.e., praying to the big Mask God in the sky to keep the death particles out of our lungs.
People have noticed, though, that the show—which begins in 2020, well after a virus has knocked the human population down to handfuls of folks—does have certain similarities to our current world situation, from Tom Hanks being one of the first people to contract the resident sicknesses in both realities, to scenes that take place during the early days of the pandemic that show guest star Kristen Wiig dosing herself with hand sanitizer and constructing her own makeshift hazmat suit to go grocery shopping. Observer did an interview with Forte about all the show’s spooky predictions this week, with the former Saturday Night Live star noting that jokes about improvised PPE, especially for nurses, were “a sad thing to get right.”
Forte also discussed the minor pangs of guilt he feels over spending four seasons making light of something with so much potential for real-world tragedy:
It was very interesting to be in that headspace for four years and then to have a couple years away from it gave a little bit of perspective. It was a scenario I felt kind of close to. Obviously in our show we took it to a crazy extreme where most of the people on earth died. Thank God, it’s looking like the world is not going to suffer that. This massive amount of casualty is so heartbreaking. There is a little bit of guilt that I feel for having fun with it. We just thought this is a situation that would never happen with the scientific advancements that we have today. I look back now and certainly we took it to an exaggerated point. It’s never going to be a situation where seven people live and everyone on earth dies, but still you feel guilty. My heart goes out to everyone who lost people. Sorry that we used this premise for four years of making these jokes.
Forte says that he and some of the show’s other writers also passed a few group emails around, noting the similarities to their show. Including one other element from that Kristen Wiig episode: “Even us dumb comedy writers knew people should be wearing masks.”
44 Comments
Hello? Hola? Bonjour? Chinese hello?
你好！
Ni Hao!
My wife died at the beginning of the pandemic, last March, but I don’t hold any animosity towards him or the show for making light of it. From great tragedy comes great comedy, and comedy has helped me process my grief.I may even go rewatch it.
I know this wasn’t the point, but so sorry for your loss.
Thank you. It’s gotten easier, especially after I discovered how much I enjoy cardio exercise and it’s wonderful therapeutic benefits.
I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for this show, mostly because so much of the first season was filmed in my neighborhood and my house is visible in the background of one of the shots.
To think how much dumber real life was. Not once did they joke about arguing if the virus was real or how much more important it was to get the economy back up and running.
Maybe they did and that’s why it killed almost everyone.
Somebody has said that zombie shows won’t be realistic unless somebody is wading into the zombies screaming “zombies don’t exist and pretending they do is a violation of my rights!” They’re not wrong.
Or claiming that a zombie bite is nothing major. “I’ve been bit by dogs and I’m just fine; I’m sure being bit by a two legged moaning dog is pretty much the same thing”.
Zombies are just crisis actors from antifa BLM working for killary.
Just read the truth in the ZAnon chat rooms, unless you aren’t ready for the truth? The Deep Zombie state is making everyone sheeple.
Trying to make Trump look bad.
Clearly the least realistic thing about zombie fiction is pretending that zombies’ brainivorous diet is sustainable given what we now know about a significant portion of the human population.
There are some brains in the US. They’re high in fiber.
Clearly the least realistic thing about zombie fiction is pretending that zombies’ brainivorous diet is sustainable given what we now know about a significant portion of the human population.
One of the reasons I fell so hard for World War Z (the novel, not the movie) was because it had notDick Cheney as a pariah for the notBush Administration’s response to the zombie apocalypse, which was to say it was just a form of rabies and then tout a rabies treatment as the cure (that, plus notKim Jong Il simply having everybody in North Korea’s teeth pulled).It’s amazing that we got a form of that from Trump in this pandemic, with him saying it’s just like the flu, and touting malaria drugs as a treatment. However, if Brooks had predicted part of the right wing response would be a claim that “What we really need is for everyone to get bitten by a zombie, so we can achieve herd immunity!” I think people would’ve thought the book was a little ridiculous.
Last Man on Earth saved those for Last Man Standing.
One thing this pandemic has ruined is asteroid movies. Now, if there was a life-destroying asteroid, I do not think the world would band together to stop it. Instead, half of the government would say the asteroid was a hoax while they buy stock in a company that builds bunkers.
Wow… this show was meant to have jokes…
holy shit…it was a comedy?
Never watched the show, it wasn’t something I would have normally fallen into, but I take issue with his comment at the end about being dumb comedy writers. In my experience, comedy writers have probably been the most prescient and psychologically perceptive people you’d ever meet. I get the context of the joke he’s making there but I wanted to be clear about how brilliant and capable so many of them are.
Them being comedy writers and all, I’m pretty sure that was, you know, a joke.
I’m getting whiplash with that haircut…
I loved the running background storyline on the show that basically all the survivors had massive drinking problems and or pill problems from dealing with isolation and grief, something else the writers got right it seems
I also liked the runner about introducing a major guest star every season premiere who is then killed off within minutes.
that was never not funny to me, which I feel a little bad about
It got me every damn time. “Oh look, Jon Hamm!” Boom.
It was always great, but that one was truly sublime.
Especially funny that January Jones got to kill him.
I think the long play of Lewis learning to fly a plane and then going down in flames literally seconds after takeoff was the funniest thing the show ever did.
Lewis’s plot was amazing. I still can’t believe they ended it that way. I miss this show.
Reminiscent of the opening of each episode of Police Squad!, where they’d kill the guest IN the credits.
I’ve always thought it was funny that one of those instantly killed major guests was Will Ferrell and they hooked him up with Mary Steenburgen, which means she has played his mother (Step Brothers), stepmother (Elf), and love interest.
I would not fault any Will Ferrell character for whatever feelings they have for the amazing Mary Steenburgen
Watching her in Time After Time always gets me a little tight in the saddle
Watching her in Time After Time always gets me a little tight in the saddle
I remember when this started thinking of Last Man Standing. I felt it was very prescient, and was scared of it bonkers accuracy.
Same. I’m surprised that this show didn’t get mentioned more when the pandemic started like the movie Pandemic or Outbreak.
Checked what seemed to be an official trailer for this series, and it heavily featured Morricone’s “farewell to cheyenne”. So I have a question :Does the series itself recycle soundtracks like that ? Or is it only a trailer thing ?
“My heart goes out to everyone who lost people. Sorry that we used this premise for four years of making these jokes.” That’s really nice. I’m not being sarcastic. It’s a nice, self-reflective thing to say. He had every reason to believe that we would be able to find our ass with both hands if the real deal hit. Hell, I’m a medical school professor, and I thought we would be able to find our ass with both hands. (I might spend too much time around competent people.)
When your career has turned into The Onion.
Sorry Onion. You can go back to being two steps ahead of comedy now.
I enjoyed this show. It was a lot more fun than the real pandemic.