Jake Johnson faked post-movie Q&A to avoid his own post-movie Q&A
Jake Johnson’s directorial debut, the dark comedy produced by Lonely Island, will be released on January 3 Self-sustainability, had a one-day debut in theaters ahead of its January 12 release on Hulu. Those of us who showed up for the cinema screening got a surprise bonus: a 10-minute post-credits Q&A session, styled as a mock talk show, In Bed With Lamorneorganized by Johnson’s friend and New girl co-star Lamorne Morris.
As a post-credits joke, the fake talk show was quite hilarious, a perfect combination of all the shortcomings of post-screening Q&As. The questions are rote, stiff “How did you come to make this movie?”-style softballs, and Morris is clearly not interested in the answers. He interrupts Johnson, accuses him of not casting Morris in the film, and becomes distracted admiring the photos of himself placed around the bed.
No matter how hostile or distant his host is, Johnson tries valiantly to promote his film by answering the questions, but he comes across as a slightly arrogant, stuffy shill. It’s a perfect, if slightly exaggerated satire of the kind of artificial interview segment with contractual obligations that no one really enjoys – not the participants, and not the audience.
If you’re experiencing Jake Johnson’s crazy FOMO right now, good news: a significantly shorter version of the Q&A is now online and you can watch it here.
Even though I saw the longer version as a post-film sketch, the online version works well as a teaser for the film – Johnson playfully tries to lay out the basics of the plot, and the direct, dry humor here is a great preview of Self-sustainability‘s comedy brand. Johnson, who wrote, stars in and directs the film, plays Tommy, a middle-aged man whose life is so boring that when he is approached to appear on a reality show where hitmen hunt him for sport, he immediately agrees. In the rest of the film he tries to outsmart those assassins over the next month. It doesn’t star Lamorne Morris, but other former co-stars and comedian friends of Johnson do, including Anna Kendrick as a woman he meets while trying to find other people being chased by hitmen.
Neon, that has picked Self-sustainability ready for theatrical release, posted another clip of In Bed With Lamorne on Twitter – in which Morris and Johnson briefly discuss their working relationship with Kendrick.
Considering that the longer version of the fake talk show contains many jokes that aren’t seen in any of these clips, it’s possible that more segments from the shoot will eventually appear as promos on social media. If you keep an eye on them, you might eventually be able to edit the whole thing together In Bed With Lamorne super cut.
Self-sustainability streaming on Hulu starting January 12.