TUTV’s Web Manager invites Grog Show creators Jake Rasmussen and Karl Weimar to an urban picnic and asks them a few questions about themselves, their show, and their process.
For more information about Jake and Karl visit grogmovies.com.
The Grog Show Season 1 Review
The Grog Show, is a half hour comedy series centered on the misadventures of two college roommates. Created by and starring Temple students Jake Rasmussen and Karl Weimar, the series’ first season premiered last year on TUTV. Since then, we’ve watched as Jake and Karl are repeatedly clotheslined by freshman year’s typical hurdles. While these hurdles are familiar—a lack of employment, terrible parties, an inability to get along with a floor mate—Grog’s treatment of them is edgy and unexpected. In contrast to Temple Smash, a more straightforward sketch comedy show in the tradition of Saturday Night Live, The Grog Show’s absurdist sense of humor and self-referential structure makes it more reminiscent of Adult Swim’s Tim and Eric.
A typical Grog Show episode consists of one overarching plot punctuated by several unrelated segments. Most episodes have them at odds with their floor mate, played by Rakel Joyce, who is referred to simply as “The Neighbor.” As Jake and Karl move into their dorm in the first episode (“Neighbor”), they hear a loud noise in the next room. After meeting and unsuccessfully confronting Rakel, Jake and Karl take to sleeping outside on the sidewalk, which they agree is quieter than living next to her. They unanimously decide she is their nemesis, and spend most of the rest of the season deriding everything she says as ‘noisy’ and harassing her in various ways. The best parts of the season occur when Jake, Karl and Rakel are at odds, even as the dynamic shifts in “Relationship,” when Jake and Rakel date and Karl becomes jealous.
Other episodes/episode segments are both self-referential and surreal. In “Cereal,” Jake and Karl get their own brand of cereal, which, in the The Grog Show universe, is just what happens when you get 10 million views on Youtube.com. Episode 2, “Business,” features a short called “The Making of Viral Videos,” where a large film crew endeavors to create a clip for Youtube featuring a ‘fat kid’ tripping over a log. Episodes like these are peppered by a series of surreal pseudo-commercials, in which Karl (playing freelance spokesman “Johnny Popcorn”) endorses everything from a furniture warehouse to a presidential candidate. To anyone who’s ever enjoyed the low budget weirdness of those commercials that come on your local NBC affiliate at 2AM, Karl’s nonsensical catch phrases (“We’re really heeere!”) will sound hilariously familiar.
Later in the season The Grog Show featured shorts of a more serious nature. Often directed by Ryan Geffert, they are more experimental and emotionally charged than the silly interludes that prevailed previously. A film like “The Waitress,” which is fraught with a mysterious tension between an older man and a young waitress, doesn’t quite fit in with the zany humor that is The Grog Show’s specialty. However, for those interested in seeing more creative student films, Ryan’s work certainly fits the bill.
Overall, The Grog Show’s first season is a truly entertaining ride, especially considering it is produced, directed, written and acted by college undergraduates. While you can see Jake and Karl’s comic adventures on TUTV, every episode of The Grog Show is available on Templetv.net, so catch up on the first season and watch the first three episodes of season 2 right now.
