Draft for Publish on 2026-10-05

Jake Young (0:17)

With the smash success of Zack Kramer's Resident Evil, the comedy to horror pipeline has never been more relevant in America's ears and eye holes. But what makes the clowns, the merry makers, the goof lords, into the new Svengali's of terror? That's what we're here to discuss. I'm Jake Young. With me, Mike Lawrence and Holden McNeely. Let's talk silly to spooky and why it works.

Holden McNeely (0:41)

That was amazing. I didn't have to follow it.

Mike Lawrence (0:44)

We're on a public access show.

Jake Young (0:45)

Yeah, dude. From time immemorial, mankind has yearned for silly, slappy, ooky gookies.

Holden McNeely (0:55)

Oh my God. Yes, we are here to talk about a fun rabbit hole that I feel like I got into this past week.

Mike Lawrence (1:01)

From Ha Ha's to Hoo Hoo.

Jake Young (1:05)

From Booyayoyoyoying to Boo's.

Mike Lawrence (1:09)

Booyayoyoyoying.

Holden McNeely (1:14)

It's about timing.

Jake Young (1:19)

I mean, we do have to, there's more to it than that.

Holden McNeely (1:22)

I will say that. I was a little worried about like, I'm like, this has so been talked about before in terms of that. It's, yes, it is about timing and building of suspense and release and surprise and all these things. We can get more into detail with that, but really actually came away with more insights than just that. And I'm excited to talk about it today.

Jake Young (1:40)

So I think a lot of people point to Jordan Peele as like kind of the, like a comedian is doing a scary, how could this be? But also there's been, horror and comedy have been like so linked as long as-

Mike Lawrence (1:55)

Ever since Abbott and Costello met Frankenstein.

Well, you know, it's interesting. I was looking up like, you know, examples of this. And one of the ones that came up is, you know, a guy we did an episode on, which is Kevin Smith, of going from, you know, the stoner comedies and all that. But we're here today to talk about people who did it successfully.

Jake Young (2:20)

Yeah, it's kind of ironic. Yeah, he's just sitting there with yoga hosers being like, come on, come on, I did it first.

Holden McNeely (2:27)

I think people were impressed with Red State and And Tusk. I think it did give him some legitimacy, interestingly enough, because I feel like back in the day, you make horror movies, you're a schlock artist, but now you make a good horror movie or something, at least people respect enough, and you're elevated, you know? And the way horror is seen has completely changed. But that said, yeah, you've got him, Bobcat Goldthwaite was another one because he did release, I haven't actually seen Willow Creek. I'm a huge fan of his other movies. I love God Bless America was one that really I got really into when it came out back when we were living in New York City.

Mike Lawrence (3:05)

Oh man, I love Bobcat, he is a friend. You are so wrong.

No, he's a, yeah, that's the one where they go like on the road with the singing competition. I love World's Greatest Dad.

Holden McNeely (3:19)

Yeah, World's Greatest Dad is a lot of fun too.

Jake Young (3:21)

That's horrible, that's horrifying for different reasons.

Mike Lawrence (3:23)

But that's the thing, he was always like, Impressive.

Holden McNeely (3:26)

I almost like don't put him in a different category because he again was always really dark in his work.

Mike Lawrence (3:31)

Shakes the clown. Shakes the clown.

Holden McNeely (3:32)

It was all kind of, it was pretty hand in hand once he made a full on legit horror movie. Kevin Smith, a little more so was like purely comedy, social commentary, comedy stuff, and then slid over a little more hardcore into it. But I think the real crew here is Jordan Peele, Zack Craig, or Phillip who brothers, Curry Barker. That is like the four some that came out in a very tight timeline more recently, where you go and they all come maybe not from totally similar backgrounds. It's either YouTube or television sketch comedy, but sketch comedy specifically in both cases. And I do think it's very important to note.

Jake Young (4:13)

And those are related because I guess one of the major ways that comedy and horror kind of marry each other is the, you kind of always have a straight man being thrust into a uncanny situation and the tension between, you know, the audience being like, get out of there. Like, you know, don't just- Literally get out. Yeah.

It's, it's, I'm thinking of Zach Kroeger's Gallant of PCP sketch from Whited Skids You Know, where it's just like immediately you're just like, oh, there's a gallon of PCP. Like there's danger already. And just the, the, the, the, the way that the character just has to experience heightening and heightening and heightening and just still have to be trapped in that scenario.