I love the Barry Gibb Talk Show. A lot. All in all, I’d have to say its definitely my favorite recurring sketch of the last 5 years. I consider the sketch to be a continuing work of genius, improving with each episode. Dick in a Box may be the flagship of Justin Timberlake’s increasingly impressive SNL resume*, but The Barry Gibb Talk Show has always been the real star in my eyes. If you want 5 minutes straight of hard laughter, it doesn’t get any better**. Until recently, I thought all my friends felt this way. This reassuring oasis of mental comfort was ruthlessly destroyed a few days ago by a certain friend of mine. Who, you ask? It’s not important. I don’t want to name names. This isn’t about that. I just feel like telling you his name would be counterproductive, all right? Don’t make a federal case of it. He’s a friend of mine and I don’t want to cause him any problems. You know what, fine, let’s just call him David H.
*I know Timberlake has caught some flack for his frequent SNL appearances. Some people say it seems contrived, and that Timberlake is using SNL to look cool. That may be true, but SNL is using Timberlake in exactly the same way. It’s working for both of them. I’m gonna go ahead and give credit to Timberlake for at least recognizing that SNL is cool. That’s more than most can say. And he actually is a pretty good host. His episode is usually among the funniest in its season, this season being no exception.
** The Michael Showalter Showalter actually might be better.
Me and David H were bustin’ a hang recently and he said he thought I overrated The Barry Gibb Talk Show. This thought had never occurred to me. I started telling him all the reasons I thought it was funny, and he agreed for the most part. He just wasn’t gung-ho about it. It made me wonder if maybe other colleagues of mine felt this way. I’m certain all my friends think Barry Gibb is funnier than Dick in a Box. I gotta believe that. But I’m interested to hear what people have to say on the matter. I’m going to start asking people I know their opinions of The Barry Gibb Talk Show. I’ll let you know when I’ve discovered a consensus.
Anyway, I wanted to use this blog as a platform to extol the many virtues of The Barry Gibb Talk Show. This will eventually lead to a comparison of Justin Timberlake to Lindsay Lohan, if you can believe that. Stay tuned!
OK so first of all, I’m a sucker for any good talk show sketch. I think its basically the best sketch format there is, and Jimmy Fallon’s Barry Gibb is the funniest host character I can think of. I don’t know what to think of Fallon generally, but he is truly brilliant in this role. I assume the character has little if anything to do with the actual Barry Gibb, but that makes it funnier in a way. The weird tension with him and Robin is almost certainly based on nothing, and thats some of the funniest stuff. The way Fallon says, “Robin please,” is totally hilarious. And then he’s always got an equally hilarious way of enticing Robin to resume participation in the show. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Fallon and whoever else were sittin’ around coming up with this stuff. They must’ve been laughing so hard when they discovered this bizarre brotherly concern angle. It’s the same every episode, and its always just as funny as the time before, if not more so.
The duets they do to introduce the guests are obviously incredible, but in some ways I think the random outbursts are even funnier. Like in this last one when they started doing the karate thing. At the end they’re basically just screaming, and Robin ends up a little scared. It’s subtle, but its there. Timberlake plays the character pretty well in my opinion. Another subtle touch is that he doesn’t just sing at the same time as Fallon, his voice is usually a little delayed, like he’s not quite sure what he’s supposed to sing. Like song could break out at any time and he’s just trying to follow along as best he can. The result is that he occasionally says the wrong word or makes the wrong sound. Again, it’s subtle, but I actually think its fairly impressive for someone like him to pull off. Granted Fallon is clearly the star and carries the sketch, all I’m saying is Timberlake does a solid job. And really, I like the fact that he’s willing to play second fiddle to Fallon on a show he’s hosting. I think it shows humility.
As David H astutely pointed out, Fallon’s screaming, threatening Barry Gibb character basically just follows the trail blazed by Will Ferrell. That is true, but Fallon really gets it right. And certain aspects of the character are totally his own creation, i.e. the weird, halting speaking style and the uncontrolled bursts of falsetto peppered throughout his sentences. His threats are always the perfect mixture of creativity and perverted violence, and his arrogance (“I sang a duet with Barbara Streisand!”) is icing on the cake. I also love the brief back-and-forth with his guests that precedes each meltdown. That aspect was especially good on this last sketch.
Hell, Even the opening song is hilarious. On multiple levels. The lyrics (“I’m still gonna talk to you, I don’t care what you say”) are ridiculous, and it goes on for way longer than seems natural. I remember I was in Quintiles the first time I saw a Barry Gibb Talk Show. The longer that song went, the more sure I was that I was about to witness something awesome.
OK, I feel like I’m rambling here. I could go on forever. There was a specific point I wanted to make. Timberlake obviously isn’t that funny or cool, and I can’t really say I’m a fan of his. But he compares pretty favorably to other starts of his ilk. He allows himself to be made fun of (immigrant sketch), and at least seems to realize what is funny, even if he isn’t. When he laughed while Fallon was in his face singing that “please talk to your brother” song, it was genuine. As opposed to Lindsay Lohan’s infamous fake laugh in that Debbie Downer sketch. She knew it was funny because other cast members were laughing, so she laughed too. Only hers was obviously fake and wasn’t even during a funny part. It was sickening. Timberlake’s laugh was real. That’s a good start.
