![]() ![]() Hilarious and insanely accurate." New York Times, By the Book December 1, 2016 In addition to writing films, Lennon and Garant co-authored, Writing Movies for Fun and Profit, a book about the studio system that Anna Kendrick called "The Best Book about Hollywood. Lennon and Garant have written numerous feature films together, including Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Reno 911!: Miami, The Pacifier, Balls of Fury and Hell Baby. On IFC's 2008 list of The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time, Lennon is the author of four: Monkey Torture, Porcupine Racetrack, Mind Match and $240 Worth of Pudding. In 2018, Lennon will appear in the feature films: A Futile and Stupid Gesture, Puppet Master, Half Magic, Dog Days and Clint Eastwood's The 15:57 to Paris.Īs a television writer, his credits include: The State, Reno 911!, Viva Variety and Strangers with Candy. On television he has been seen in How I Met Your Mother, Sean Saves the World, The Odd Couple, Drunk History, The Santa Clarita Diet and Lethal Weapon. Reno 911! ran for six seasons on Comedy Central.Īs an actor, Lennon has appeared in the films Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Dark Knight Rises, Le Divorce, Heights, Conversations with Other Women, Memento, 17 Again, I Love You, Man, Cedar Rapids, Knight of Cups, Bad Teacher, Harold and Kumar 3D and What to Expect When You're Expecting. After his work on The State, he and his writing partner, Robert Ben Garant, created two more popular series: Viva Variety, which ran for three seasons and was also an Ace nominee for best comedy series, and Reno 911!, on which he also played Lieutenant Jim Dangle. The State's hit television series ran on MTV for three seasons and received an Ace Award nomination for best comedy series. He attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he was a member of the influential sketch comedy group The State. ![]() Yes, you do.Thomas Lennon is a writer and actor from Oak Park, Illinois. Sometimes their subtle observations end up being the best parts of the skits, as is the tech guy’s, “You got mail. The Yanker puppets dial up, telling a fast-food place that their chicken came with beaks in it (“I don’t want it if it’s going to be all beaky”) or a tow yard that their car has human shit in the back seat or a tech help line that “I’ve got mail! I’ve got mail! I’ve got mail! I’ve got mail! I’ve got mail! YAY!!!” The service people are the model of composure-and even humor. So the challenge for the actors becomes: Can they get a rise out of these people? Very often, the answer is no. But they are also paid not to get emotionally involved. Which brings me to what might be the show’s greatest revelation: how astonishingly accommodating people in customer service can be! From the point of view of the show, cust-serv people are the perfect victims because they are paid to answer the phone and deal with problems. When he’s done, the sweet, accommodating florist inquires only, “S-P-O-O- N-Y?” Spoonie then tries to prod her into talking about BJs-he gets a little desperate to rope her in, a feeling I vividly recognized from my own crank days-but she refuses, meekly offering her suggestion for an alternative card that might read, “I’m sorry … I love you.” Generally, Yankerville and its inhabitants evoke the harsh, dirty comic worlds of Bloom County, the Garbage Pail kids, and old-fashioned political cartoons in which candidates are drawn as outright monsters. The puppets look like seamy versions of Muppets the show even makes the parallel explicit, featuring a lechy Kermit and a bitter Big Bird with a hacking cough. There’s a city setting, Yankerville, and a repertory cast of puppet crank callers called the Yankers, who teletorture a changing cast of puppet marks (who seem, based on the frequent nose-face mismatches, to be made from pieces of earlier marks). This is the best I can do by way of summary: It’s a puppet show with a script based on the transcripts of actual crank calls. And Crank Yankers may need that confidence to sell viewers on its elaborate concept. It’s got that show’s infectious confidence that it can do no wrong. It’s the creation of Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla, and Daniel Kellison, the happy trio who turn out The Man Show (and who know a thing or two about playing mind games with callers). ![]() Crank Yankers brings back that juvenile feeling of nervous fun-and it’s really a hilarious show.
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