So, yes, obviously, it is a little ridiculous to call someone who is already a featured player on SNL by the age of 30 underappreciated. I acknowledge that. But it genuinely concerns me that people might not understand the work of Kyle Mooney.
“Sure, that’s funny, he’s funny. I laughed. It’s funny.” NO. Do not damn him with faint praise. Speak only when you know what you are about to say or shut your mouth entirely. It’s exquisitely tuned; it is a symphony written on a grain of rice, and I wish to helling Christ I could find a better way to describe what’s so unique about Inside SoCal and the Chris Kirkpatrick videos.
What I want to do is say that he interrogates a certain type of white maleness that is normally ignored as the default, but without saying “interrogates,” “default,” or “white maleness,” both because academic speak is deeply unlovely and also because this barely begins to describe what it is that he does. It’s like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself without chloroform.
Two different jokes about Southern California don’t have to compete, but I will simply say that it is utterly wrong that the Californians sketch is the better-known and better-loved of the two. We have made the wrong choice; we are living in the wrong timeline.
“Fucking Lauren Reed, the whole Lenwood house.” The details are finely wrought in gorgeous filigree. Every name and location rings with the hearty echo of Truth. Whatever the male equivalent of vocal fry is, Kyle Mooney has found it; that peculiar mix of upspeak, self-conscious bass notes, and indirect eye contact that characterizes a certain variety of lovable, terrible maleness are all beautifully reproduced here. You know this man. He is rarely right about anything, but you never have the heart to correct him. He is utterly predictable and yet full of surprising emotional depths.
“Why aren’t blunts, tall cans, newer-style movies, my mp3s, the boys, lifting, TV, Madden, Halo, bomb-ass Mexican food, sick clothes, or my girlfriend Bree bringing me happiness? Instead I feel empty, and a fear for what tomorrow will bring and shit.”
You love him, despite yourself. He is your boy Todd.
This…this I am afraid to watch, sometimes, and yet I do it almost weekly. Kyle’s carried the Chris character over to SNL for videos like The Fight and Chris Kirkpatrick For Student Body President, where he’s taken on some of Todd’s softer qualities. Here you see him in true form.
The worst possible outcome of your watching this with me is mistaking this for a slight, three-minute monologue by an unpleasant and unsettling character. In Chris Kirkpatrick, Kyle is noticing things on purpose that are designed to escape notice. (I feel myself on the verge of saying “default” and “unconscious” and “reflexive”; let us hurry onward.) Chris’ anger is ridiculous, his posturing is threatening, and his voice when his uncle calls brings tears to my eyes every time. Everything I can think to fear or resent or feel tender about in straight white maleness is here, in one goateed youth, and he’s flailing nunchucks around in inexpert frustration, and I want nothing more than to take his weapons away from him and watch him smoke cigarettes for hours.
Tags: inside socal, kyle mooney, television, transcendent goodness
Dammit, Mallory, now I guess I have to give that guy another chance. You could heartily recommend eating poison, and I’d be here all “Well, I guess I haven’t given arsenic a fair shake. Maybe just a little, if Mallory says it’s good.”
Right? Does she even know the power she wields? I’m watching these videos and trying SO HARD to not be repulsed.
Thank you. The first couple of times I ever saw Kyle Mooney in SNL sketches, I was completely dumbfounded that he made it. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone so laser-focused on their cue cards as Kyle was in the He-Man and Lion-O sketch and the Chris Pratt/Aidy Bryant rap flirting sketch.
But if Mallory says he’s good, I’m willing to give him another shot, and I actually really enjoy these videos. Maybe he’s just better at pre-taped sketches?
I have met this guy so many times. So. Many. Times. He comprises approximately 25% of the dudes on campus.
I desperately, desperately need to leave SoCal.
I don’t even find these funny because they just feel like a documentary about all the reasons I’m glad I don’t live in Orange County anymore
I feel like I should start some Instagram account that’s basically just pictures of IRL Todds. I could just sit outside the student center and get 20 pictures in an hour.
My childhood boyfriend, whom I do feel a lot of confused fondness for, basically is this Instagram account for me, a window into the life that could have been. His daily posts on FB just feel exactly like this sketch. Literally looking at it right now it’s: “Place is epic! [selfie with burritos],” six beach pictures, pizza with the bros, surfing pics, beach party promo pics, picture of his giant new tattoo of a Native American woman on his arm (“Came out sick! So stoked!!”).
(TBH it used to be 9000 pictures of beer pong and girls in bikinis, but he went through rehab last year and now it’s a lot more “So blessed for my bros!!” and “Lovin life!” so it’s hard to really be mad about it. I am sincerely happy that he and his racially offensive tattoo are enjoying pizza and surfing with the dudes.)
Of course, I make fun of other people’s facebooks but my own is total New England liberal queer stereotype, all “[derides popular singer while maintaining unhealthy fondness for ’90s alternative novelty act]”, 20 posts about same sex marriage, nostalgia for local movie rental place, selfie with a veggie dog at Fenway, “ugggggh grad school,” “[links to the Toast]”
Is it any good if you don’t understand the SoCal local references?
Yes, absolutely. It’s a Type you’ll see everywhere.
I see this type at the University of goddamn Virginia.
THIS, THIS, THIS!!! As someone who went to high school in the mid 90s with a million Todds in SoCal, this skit SLAYS me every single time. It’s so finely, precisely rendered it gives me goosebumps!
THANK YOU I SAY THIS ALL THE TIME. Usually to my boyfriend, who thinks these are “kinda funny” but doesn’t understand at all why I think they’re genius. I’m starting to think he doesn’t see it because he’s too deep inside it. I would have said he’s not really this guy, but maybe all white men in their twenties are this guy to some extent?
I grew up with, like, wanna-be SoCal dudes on the east coast of Florida. So, imitation SoCal dudes, which involves less Mexican food and which adds a heaping of pathos. These guys are my brother and his friends. Huge inspirations were Spicolli and the movies Endless Summer and Point Break (oddly, to me at least). Also big were BMX bikes and ninjas and skateboarding. Anyway, I get the wanting to hug them. But, like, briefly, you know? Because they considered surfing in the ocean as a way to get themselves clean. And then there’s the pot. Lots of stinky pot hair.
I don’t want to go on, but this gives me so many mixed feelings. It was entertaining and at times, outright hilarious, but for so many of these dudes, it was really difficult to move out of this life. Twenties, rad, thirties less so, I guess, but then one day they’re 40 and unable to speak or act like grown men. Not all of them, but a lot, my brother included. I don’t know, I need to watch more videos and really delve into it. Or not – hits close to home. Mixed feelings!
Shiiiiit yes Claudia. The 40 year old guy who has to skateboard to his job at the sports bar because he got another DUI and his parents aren’t buying him another car. The Dudes who take a girl out to the taqueria for some equis and chips, and rub their girth the whole time and when the check comes they’re looking at her, “You got this one, babe?”
He nails the ethos and the pathos of the coastal Californian boy-guys so well. He is their Andy Kauffman.
I’ve never been able to articulate what I love about Kyle Mooney’s work but you nailed it precisely. I grew up with the NorCal variation of Todds, which are quite similar to the SoCal version except that they “hella” a lot more.
also “days,” as in “hella days” (meaning any length of time determined to be too long)
Every civilization needs a season when it’s forced to huddle in terror against the elements—a season when Nature herself steps in and says, “No, mammals, this world is not yours, not really.” I guess what I mean is, look what year-round temperate weather does to these people. LOOK AT IT.
Sincerely, The Midwest.
Man I spent my early 20s in Vermont and these dudes can survive all environs
On the moon, practicing their dust-surfing and their bomb meteorite-tacos.
SINCERELY, THE MIDWEST
god bless, you have just articulated everything I love about my home region, and why we tend to turn out such NORMAL people. Coastal dwellers have always confused me, ever since a well-meaning Cali girl asked me, “oh, do stores carry gloves and hats every year where you live?” and I looked at her, and carefully enunciated “yes, because it gets COLD. They’re not fashion statements, we need them to *survive*.”
gotta love them, and if I ever visited SoCal I’d probably sell my right leg to stay there in geographical paradise, but the people drive me absolutely crazy.
Amen! the Kiss video is the greatest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpF9moIJfYM
this article = God’s work
‘BERTO’S!!!!
Oh god I went to UCSD and this is SO. FUCKING. SPOT. ON.
“You’re Chris Bin Laden, on the run from the fuckin Twin Towers”
As someone who grew up in Phoenix, which is essentially San Diego by the Desert, this is too familiar to be funny. Replace Rigoberto’s with Filiberto’s and the Pacific Ocean with the Salt River, and this is like a solid 25% of Dudes I Have Known.
Worth noting, though, is that the ArizonaBro will oftentimes have a slight frisson of Jesse Pinkman, which is either charming or slightly alarming depending on your perspective.
By far my favorite thing about these is that Kyle Mooney named his teen dirtbag character after the BEST member of NSYNC. No way is that a coincidence. Kyle Mooney definitely has his priorities straight.
I’ve never really known any bros beyond the most casual of levels. most of my close friends have been tense chainsmoking women and disastrously self-conscious straight boys. I get the cultural touchstones through osmosis, but I don’t think I’m primed to really love this stuff.
So Jesse from Breaking Bad, is what I’m hearing.
“So then I bought a bible.”
“That’s gangster.”
“Yeah man, you wanna hit this?”
“Yeah, for sure.”
This is brilliantly true, and, maybe the funniest thing / extreme sports / SoCal cultural parody ever created. As I live with one foot in each world, you can call me next week and check to see if I’ve stopped laughing yet. Spot on. HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT HIM!? Thanks Mallory 🙂
“Take a Knee” is my maybe my favorite thing Kyle Mooney has done to date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9U2WmJ3jmI
Using the bible to free a stuck basketball made me cry with laughter the first time I saw it
There are so many wonderful things about this short I can’t even pick a favorite! How have I never seen it?
Oh my god, I didn’t even realize that I’m homesick for SoCal bros until I watched these. This fills me with such joy/nostalgia and dumped me into a hole of Inside SoCal youtube videos. I think the pre- SNL ones are superior. All their mannerisms are spot on. I don’t think the other SNL guys quite get the nuances of the SoCal bros, at least in the clips I’ve seen.
“Sporty” is hilarious…I smile just thinking about it. “Nooo! Not my team!”
After watching that video, I decided I’d marry Kyle Mooney.
mallory ortberg you are the best goddamn thing on the internet, every time