The new school of film and TV comedy consists of throwing lots and lots at the wall and printing what sticks. In certain situations with particularly precious filmmakers, that can lead to overlong bitsin . But when you have someone as funny as T.J. Miller, it can result in five minutes of side-splittery. In an outtake from Silicon Valley season 3, episode 1, “Founder Friendly,” Miller’s Erlich Bachman pays a visit to Stephen Tobolowsky‘s rival tech guru Jack Barker and greets him with a few jokes about his age. Here we see five minutes of unused old-guy put-downs.
Here, Miller was given a ton of very specific, very ageist references to belittle Tobolowsky’s character, each delivered as seriously and as intensely as possible. Some of the jokes are just about him being out of touch, while others make it seem like Barker was born in the 1910s. I’ll disagree a bit; Buster Keaton had a heyday for sure, but Harold Lloyd did too.
The best part about the video (which hearkens back to Patton Oswalt‘s Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation) is that, even though they often cut to Tobolowsky’s befuddled, blank expression, you can tell in some of the shots over his shoulder that the veteran character actor is trying to stifle laughter, his body shaking all the while. Can you imagine if they’d kept all of these jokes in? Who cares if the episode’s suddenly twice as long when you have Miller scoring gold time and again?
What’s your favorite turn-of-the-century insult from the video? Let us know in the comments below!
Enjoy Patton Oswalt’s animated filibuster below!
Image: HBO
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!
