Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Why am I ecstatic to be insulted?

Q: Did actor/comic Kevin Pollak call me a dumbass?
A: Oh yeah, but that's not why I'm ebullient.

I've always been a fan of Kevin Pollak, especially because of his consistently awesome guest appearances on talk shows. A little over 5 months ago I saw him interviewed on Attack of the Show. In that interview, he mentioned his own show: Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. (My description of the show in four words: Charlie Rose, but funny)

It has taken me five months since seeing that interview, conducted just after his show's been on for over a year, to get fully caught up with its back episodes. Now I'm someone who eagerly downloads the video podcast as soon as iTunes allows me. The show encourages audience participation; I always knew I wanted in somehow. Last week I wrote in a question:
Based primarily on your explicit preference over Facebook, I recently started on Twitter (@TomQuestion). Besides, “edit” what are your suggestions for beginners?
My question was read, and answered, at about the 9:00 mark of the most recent episode.

It feels pretty cool to be zinged. Every bit of his answer, from the split second he goes cross eyed to him dozing off in the middle of responding, was a treat for me. Without a doubt, my favorite part of his routine was the opening:

Kevin Pollak made fun of my last name! A well set up pun joke, but not in the way I've grown to anticipate.
With a last name like mine, it was impossible to get through a week of high school without a homophobic pun joke at my last name's expense. It was always easy to deflect due to the sheer unoriginality of it.
Pollak's joke will be heard by exponentially more people than anything anyone has ever said previously (and most likely ever in the future), rendering all other insults relatively unheard by anybody.

Thank you Kevin.