Eddie Pepitone.
A comedian. An actor. A raconteur. The star of incredibly smart and funny web shows called Runyon and Les Chats on Funny Or Die.
But I’ll get back to the shows. First, I want to reflect a bit.
I think it was 2005 when I first heard of and literally heard Pepitone. It was during a show at the now defunct Rififi on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale hosted their weekly show Invite Them Up. In the midst of seeing Demetri Martin and Zach Galifianakis perform — at the time, of course, they weren’t the comedy megastars they are now — this older gent took to the stage. He proceeded to yell at the top of his lungs for what seemed like an eternity. I can’t remember exactly what he was yelling about; i do remember not knowing if I was amused, annoyed or scared. Maybe I was all three.
Today, however, I know exactly how I feel about Pepitone. I like him. A lot. He’s since grown his following from appearances on The Sarah Silverman Program and his regular guest spots on WTF with Marc Maron. But most importantly, he’s my favorite comedian Twitterer. (Follow him here) No other Twitter user has grasped the concept of being funny in 140 characters or less the way he has. The man, whether he points it out or not, has recurring features– the way a television sketch show might have recurring sketches. I’m going to try to break it down. My favorite feature is “Good Cop, Bad Cop,” wherein Eddie is always the good guy. Here’s an example of that:
Another style Eddie employs is his “Tweets of a…” feature, wherein he writes from the perspective of a CIA agent or an “ego-maniacal hat-blocker” or as you see below, a “terrible salesman.”
Eddie also uses lists a lot. One of the recurring list-based Tweet dispatches he does is his “Signs That Things Aren’t Going Well” feature. That might look something like this:
There’s a lot more to Eddie’s Tweets than what I described above. But you get the idea.
Ok, on to the shows. In one, Runyon, he spoofs survival shows by placing himself in a Los Angeles park where he tries to brave the elements in an effort to prove to himself that he’s not worthless. In the other show, Les Chats he and Frank Conniff find themselves in the office break room chatting about decidedly un-manly things in quite the opposite manner. After the jump check out a pair of episodes of Runyon and an episode of Les Chats. You’re welcome.
