Rob McClenny: Myth Quest and Always Sunny, both deal with canceled culture

Rob McElhany has spoken nearly ten thousand times over the past year. A fan will praise him It’s always sunny in philadelphia, His FX comedy that is set to become the longest running sitcom in TV history. Then they will add, “I saw Myth finding, And … I can’t believe I loved it! ” But why No They love a fresh sitting of the mind Always sunnyThe Well, It’s about the video game.

“And I like, ‘you liked The OfficeThe ” Says McElhenney. “And they like, ‘Oh my God, the American The OfficeThe I love The Office! ‘And so I say:’ Great. Do you love The paperThe Because that’s what they did in that office! “

Myth finding, Apple TV Plus series co-produced with McElhenney Always sunnyMegan Ganz and Charlie Day, set up in a video game studio, and developing, designing, and marketing a game center on the team. And even one season, with the second arrival on 7 May, the actor-producers understand the hesitation; Video games still have a hard-to-shake mainstream stigma, as if they are an all-or-nothing proposition, demanding people go all in, or leave. But this is a misconception.

“You say like you SunnyThe “She continues. “Wah bhai wah. Are you so thrilled about watching television shows?” The barsThe off course not! It has nothing to do with that. Watching the show for you The people“

A pattern emerges when talking to McElhenney about his work: “Yes, and yet.” A character is an asshole, but also not. Myth finding There is a show about video games, but not really. He never wants to see the complexity of humans – even the one who writes and plays cartoonish – and he is forced to remember that his attitude as a white man in his 40s is a is limited.

This awareness is driving a sense of humor, which is humanistic, and strange, funny.

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When It’s always sunny in philadelphia As mentioned in the conversation, a question often arises: Why was the culture not canceled for the series?

anyone Always sunny The viewer can relate to the struggle of telling what is happening in a given episode without feeling ashamed to have enjoyed something. The protagonists are openly deceptive, homophobic, and a person terrible in all ways can be terrible. Marathoning the show from the very beginning in 2021 meant winning through jokes, which have been considered unacceptable due to changes in social fairs. but as Always sunny Leads on, the characters and the scenario from the gang lead the show’s creative team Too Dame those jokes are unacceptable. Comedy has evolved, as filmmakers have grown up, while characters have not.

Always sunny Could easily be an animated series – the gang would never grow out of their habits. Fine by Joe McElhenney; He will happily tell stories about the inept jerks who carry out hatch schemes at the Philly Bar for 20 years. but Myth finding Gives him space to tell stories, as he calls it “real man”. It is a warts-and-all modern workplace where gender equality, creative arrogance and worker exhaustion run rampant. Those social issues become a springboard for great jokes. In an early episode, the team’s attempt to squash the in-game neo-Nazi problem that quickly escalates into a debate about whether the Mansreaders should also be banned from the game. (Yes, they decide, because they are as bad as the Nazis.) Key Myth finding, McElhenney says, all of these discussions change people.

In Myth findingIn the second season, the characters struggle to develop. It’s not easy for them – a running gag asks the employees of Mythic Quest Studios whether they have just said one thing or canceled them. As their studio’s financial success leads to promotions and changes, some characters find that their behavior does not necessarily translate into new contexts where they have more responsibilities. This is especially true when it comes to Poppy Lee (played by Charlotte Nicadao), an underdog engineer who is ready to take control over Myth findingCreative vision, only to learn that his antics are now read differently, in season 2, he is the boss with McLaney’s big-headed Ian.

“I mean, he’s an asshole,” McElhenney laughs. “But she is not! Suddenly, she was given this huge responsibility, which she always wanted and demanded. But what comes with that responsibility is not necessarily what she really thinks or wants, and then she gets it. Need to know how to treat or react to it Zero role models. She had only one job all her life, and was a role model [Ian]. And this wind becomes a fulfilling prophecy where you’re becoming your own boss, the boss you hate, but it’s the boss you know, so you think maybe it’s just the way [people are supposed to] Owner. And the cycle creates a toxic environment. “

In this, and other explorations of the toxicity inherent in the creative process, McLaney and A. Myth finding The team is particularly satirizing the kind of behavior they want to avoid as creatives. “It’s something I think can and will continue to separate us from other versions of it, which I’ve seen drive me crazy,” McElhaney says. “It’s some kind of character that’s on Moral The center of this kind of story, which proves to the characters and the world that a certain behavior will in fact not only be morally and morally correct in terms of the story and the world, but also make the best product. And I think that’s bullshit. “

Many people have asked him about one Myth finding Specifically, a scene in which Rachel (played by writer Ashley Burch) takes Ian to the office in a Porsche because her boss doesn’t know how to drive a stick-shift car. Ian and Rachel are at opposite ends of the org chart, as well as the conceptual spectrum. She is short, openly generous, queer and a person of color. She is also worried about what she wants from her career. So, when Ian asks her to talk to her about what she wants to do in the company, she is nervous, unable to wrap her head around what she deserves, in such words Will be able to think They eventually argue about privilege, and what it means to advocate for themselves.

“And I’m like, ‘Oh well, okay! He’s hitting a nerve, and the reason that hits a nerve is because it’s born of an actual conversation,'” McElhaney says. “And In it, neither of us was right. But neither of us was wrong. And I think it’s really an opportunity for real people to show up, and then real growth. “

These conversations are the secret to McElhenney’s success – and not his personal success either. They are a credit to his practice of working with people who are different from him, and his willingness to listen and know his reaction.

“There is a philanthropic effort out there,” he says, “to build and help empathy and passion.” But it also has a very real and practical side, which is that it also tends to make the best show, because the characters themselves are also coming from different perspectives.

“Of course, I can sit down and guess what a 23-year-old black lesbian raised in LA can say in a given situation, and I can even get a little closer to it! But without it very Having someone in the writer’s room and saying, ‘Hey, I know we share a lot of things as a human being, but that’s a very specific point of view, I don’t share with this character. Can you really help me and I can help you, and we can work together to make it feel like an authentic voice? ‘When you do this, when you create that environment, you start having really engaging conversations that are not poisoned by any decision, because we are all for the same purpose. “

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Maybe the most arresting thing about Rob McElhany’s collaborative work these days is that the audience seems to rethink the most problematic ones. In the second half of season 2, Myth finding CWs dive deep into the backdrop of Longbottom (F. Morena Abraham), an HR nightmare firmly rooted in the 1970s with a mindset, and cemented from place to place debauchery.

Because he is a product of his time, and he is indifferent to adopting current patterns, Longbottom may be the show’s easiest target. He probably should have been washed out of polite company and professional spaces a long time ago. But for McElhenney, he is an important part of the broader project Myth finding, An extreme example of sympathy he is seeking.

“I think we really try to show Myth finding, ”Says McLaney. “Any person who is not completely a thing. They are very, very complex and complex people. “

He screams loudly for this next part, noting that it’s going to make him “incredibly soft”. But he breathes, and goes for:

“I think since I was my kids, I can’t help it – I do this with people in real life, I do it with the characters as well, because you like every character that you like You are writing. You cannot hate them, you have to find something that you like about them, no matter how disgusting they are. I always see that character as someone’s son or daughter. They were once a young child. They were once a year old, they were once two years old, and no one was born bad. And no one is broken. Things happen, whether biological or environmental. , Something happens during someone’s life that pushes them in certain directions, and then they make their decisions based on that […] It is hard for me as an artist, then pass judgment on you as you try to find out who you are. I am trying to represent you as a real person. “

But again: there is that warning, that which is always present. Sympathy, and yet:

“This is a nuanced conversation, I am not suggesting that there is in fact any level of disgusting behavior, abusive behavior that should ever be tolerated, but at the same time, again to suggest that the canon of their act ‘ Really now ‘is garbage’ is really wrong. Does this mean we need to celebrate it? No. Maybe we just never talk about it again, maybe we just keep it going Do not keep.

“But then to look back, or even look at the present and say, ‘Well, now when I see that person a demon, so lacking in their art, or I’ll never be in their hotel , Or I never want to – I think this is a dangerous way of thinking about humanity. We are dirty. We are dirty. “