Why “At Home With Amy Sedaris” makes me laugh until I cry
I can’t help it. I have always dug surrealist, offbeat humor; comedy packed with intellectual meat complemented by sides of post-everything edginess. And one of contemporary television’s lovingly weirder offerings is TruTv’s “At Home With Amy Sedaris” (new episodes every Wednesday 10pm EST/9pm CST).
The program, currently airing its third season, is the Emmy-nominated actress/comedienne/writer’s brilliant and inventive satire of Martha Stewartesque homemaking slash talk shows — a bevy of eclectic segments ranging from party snack dish planning to “how to” craft lessons to interior decorating tutorials, tied together under the motif of themed episodes (i.e. Halloween, first dates, summer picnics, etc). Accompanying Amy, impersonating a distinctively diva-ish (but fictional) version of herself, is a collection of misfit “neighbors”, such as the self-absorbed troublemaking Chassie Tucker (played by Cole Escola), the eerily knife collection obsessed Tony (David Pasquesi) and a host of recurring sharply original female roles (Patty Hogg, Ronnie Vino, Nutmeg, etc) portrayed wonderfully by Sedaris herself.
AHWAS features stellar writing, top notch performances, great set design and an impressive rotation of guest stars (particular favorites have been Michael Stipe appearing as a strange facsimile of himself, Justin Theroux moonlighting as a ghostly seductive sea captain and Michael Cera portraying the awkward objective of Amy’s cougarly affections). Equally enjoyable are the show’s intermixed fake commercials pushing laughably ludicrous products like a German maple syrup that may or may not have had ties to the Third Reich and the repulsive looking and sounding Captain Briny’s Hammily Waggily Brand Picnic Ham.
But you know what makes me laugh harder and more honestly than anything else in life right now? This ridiculous, canned clip of Amy’s show-within-a-show “studio audience” applauding at various times each episode….
They will sneak it in without warning. There may be 3–5 instances of this clip making it in to each show…sometimes immediately after uncomfortably cringy moments. My eyes, often watering with tears of joy, usually focus on the ebullient, balding young man in the center of the frame. Whenever these cheesily happy faces fill our tv screen my wife and I never fail to bust our guts laughing. But not just any kind of guffawing — it’s those rare, natural and treasured laughs that soothe the entire body and flood the mind with much-needed endorphins; in a world sadly lacking in guarantees — these 2 second bursts of the absurd always deliver.
I do not know the source of this clip. Its origin eludes me; is it found stock footage from an earlier era of television? A relic from the 80s that surprisingly hits the comedic mark for ironic reasons? Or did the show’s producers cast and film this approving audience while creating AHWAS — making sure to “age” the clip stealthily so as to belie its 2010s time stamp. Currently the internet is incapable of providing answers to these questions.
(To be honest — I don’t think I want to know. Its mystery only enhances its comical effect)
IN a time where the real world becomes grimmer and more uninviting seemingly by the hour, where even the comedic industry has re-drawn lines of acceptable boundaries — it is refreshing to realize some things are, and will always be, inherently hilarious; funny at its core, invisible and untouched by any sense of offensiveness, division or derision. I thank At Home With Amy Sedaris, its cast and crew for supplying us with the kind of unfettered laughter that can be an infrequent commodity during trying times.
Ms Sedaris and co — please accept my goofily appreciative applause!
