The smell of (legal medical) marijuana filled the outdoor patio of the Cinefamily Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles, last night, which was April 20—you know, 4/20. Netflix used the irreverent holiday as an excuse to throw a party, Keep Netflix Weird, to celebrate four of its oddest original comedies, with screenings and Q&As: the David Cross and Bob Odenkirk collaboration W/ Bob & David; animated series BoJack Horseman and F Is for Family; and new offering Lady Dynamite from comedian Maria Bamford, Arrested Development’s Mitch Hurwitz, and South Park veteran Pam Brady. Here’s what we caught through the Tangerine Dream and Purple Haze.
1. It’s possible to set up a full tie-dye station behind an independent movie theater in West Hollywood and have nobody notice.
Part of the weed-generation experience was manufactured last night: dye-your-own tees, and opportunities to play Cards Against Humanity while sitting on bean bags went largely unnoticed. But stoner authenticity could still be found: when asked if her hors d’oeuvres were good, the cater waiter said, “Yas, Kween.” And even when faced with an animation photo booth and a Bob Odenkirk–mug giveaway, the crowd of comedy nerds only joined two lines: one to get french fries and one to talk to Mitch Hurwitz.
2. Bill Burr can’t not bite the hand that feeds him.
The iconoclastic stand-up took the stage before the screening of his animated sitcom F Is for Family (Season 2 premiere T.B.A.), making fun of the night’s conceit. “They’re acting like they’re hippies—that global organization,” Burr joked. Still, Burr spoke later of the positive experience he had working with Netflix and mentioned that by the time the outlet came calling, he’d decided he was finished pitching shows because networks were only interested if, in the show, “you were a fat dope and your wife was hot.” Fortunately, Burr took the opportunity to pursue a passion project, a series set in 1973 that explores his own childhood and his father’s character.
The other creators also thanked Netflix for supporting their visions and for producing niche content. Bob Odenkirk, the Better Call Saul star and cocreator of W/ Bob & David (the second coming of cult sketch classic Mr. Show) thanked Netflix for making shows that don't try to appeal to “everyone in the room at all times — that would be a parade. So if you like anything more distinctive than a bunch of noise and color passing by,” watch Netflix. Then Odenkirk screened a clip of Girlfriend's Day, a film he wrote with Philip Zlotorynski and Eric Hoffman, in which he plays a down-on-his-luck writer of greeting cards (Netflix premiere T.B.A).
3. France essentially paid F Is for Family to include the German neighbor.
In order to save money, F Is for Family is animated by French outlet Gaumont. Part of the tax-break deal: a show must include a European character. So Burr and Price created a German neighbor, based in part on a Japanese man who lived in Price’s hometown, when Price was a child, and also on the neighborhood’s ignorance about foreign nationals, at the time. Burr and Price considered naming the character after the German words for tax credit.
Much of the show—which centers around a very angry and maybe emotionally abusive father, in 1973, who nevertheless loves his family—derives from the childhoods of its creators. For example, Burr’s father was also fond of shouting, “I will put you through that fucking wall,” while disciplining his children, once when they were outside. First, the children laughed, Burr recalled, because there are no walls outside. Then, this realization also made their father laugh. Burr explains that that kind of dual expression, both anger and joy, is exactly what the show aims to illustrate.
4. Hollywood is like a friend with a drinking problem.
In Lady Dynamite, Maria Bamford plays herself, facing many of her same emotional struggles, except that in the show version of her life, animals talk to her. Onstage, she explained her complicated relationship with show business, by comparing it to a person with a drinking problem. Then she dipped in and out of her impression of what that person would sound like (think someone in your H.R. department): “She says, ‘I love you so much.’ Then four minutes later, she may have forgotten what we were talking about, and goes, ‘You aren’t on the list and also the hotdogs are for talent only.’” Hurwitz chimes in with his own gripe about the biz: “Everybody’s always doing so well. How many times today have you been disappointed by how great everybody's doing? Adam Sandler’s got another movie already? I gotta get my shit together.”
5. Magic mushrooms may provide you with answers you don't want.
BoJack Horseman (Season 3 premiere T.B.A.) creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg discussed the line he toes by satirizing media while participating in it: “I’m very suspicious of media and narrative. I think it’s done terrible things to the world. In the show I’m trying to be like, ‘Don’t get excited about the idea of happy endings because life is disappointments.” So I try to [make the show] a corrective. But I also get paid to do it.”
After taking multiple shots at Hollywood during Season 1, Bob-Waksberg recalls that he didn’t know where else to take the satire in Season 2. A friend suggested he eat mushrooms to find the answer. So he went to Joshua Tree with friends, and recalls, “The answer that I came to that night: language is a virus and narrative is a trap. Which did not help me at all.”
6. Paul F. Tompkins owns a sparkly pink suit.
In BoJack Horseman, Tompkins plays a golden retriever named Mr. Peanut Butter, who is also sometimes a game-show host. In at least one episode, Mr. Peanut Butter wears a sparkly pink leisure suit. Bob-Waksberg recalls that Tompkins liked the animation so much, he had a real, human-size suit made for himself. Now he just needs excuses to wear it. Invite him to sparkly-pink-suit parties.
