Three constantly-high slackers, a dead-end telemarketing job, and a whole lot of horrible
people.
Workaholics was one of the best shows about a group of dudes doing a lot of nothing.
Now that Blake, Adam, and Ders have said goodbye to Rancho Cucamonga, it's time to take a look
back and everything that made Workaholics possible.
“You gotta / You gotta gotta / You gotta be fresh.”
Come together
A couple of the Workaholics creators have been making eachother laugh since they were
little kids.
Kyle Newacheck—the guy who plays drug dealer Karl on the show—and Blake Anderson grew
up together in northern California.
Their first collaboration was an elementary school-era comic called Funyun Protectors—about
anthropomorphic Funyun snack rings who were also superheroes.
They started performing together in high school and after graduation moved to Orange County
to attend community college, which is where they met Adam Devine in an improv class.
Anders Holm joined the group when he met Devine at Second City in Los Angeles.
The next step?
Making web videos.
Mail Order Comedy
Back in 2006, they launched their Mail Order Comedy sketch group, which was fairly successful,
even before they landed on TV.
They had a bunch of comedy shows, did tours, and were basically going places.
Among their creative YouTube ventures and their own website, they created two MySpace-exclusive
comedy shows.
Remember MySpace?
If you do, you're probably old.
“Hi, my name's Jasmine and I’m on MySpace.
I know we’ve never met before, but we should meet because we live close to one another.
Is this a scam?!”
Once upon a time, it was the Facebook of its day, so it hosted a lot of exclusive media,
including music, comics, and even web series, like the ones the Workaholics guys did.
"Special Delivery" was a prank show, because every comic has to get the prank stuff out
of their system at one point or another.
"Crossbows and Mustaches" was an action/comedy show that combined two of the finest things
ever created by mankind.
Of course, MySpace couldn't last forever, so the Mail Order Comedy team went on to make
bigger and better things, experimenting with the ideas that would eventually become Workaholics.
The flophouse
While taping the first season of Workaholics, Adam and Blake were convinced that the show
was going to be a flop.
To save money for the rainy days ahead, they actually lived in the disgusting party house
where the show was taped, while Anders lived in a real home with his girlfriend.
Devine and Anderson moved out when the show's success enabled them to afford proper shelter,
but Anderson says the old place has become a flophouse where their friends and family
have crashed.
Anderson's younger brother lived there for a while, as did Devine's best friend from
high school.
Nevertheless, Devine says the place remains infested with giant, newborn-sized rats.
“There was one like twenty four hour period that we killed something like 18 rats.”
“Yeah, we called it ‘the night of many kills.”
It's Always Sunny in Rancho
A show about a bunch of terrible people doing horrible things?
Of course Workaholics is called an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia rip-off, which is basically
a Seinfeld ripoff anyhow.
Workaholics has been called that since before it even aired, and that was by the creators.
Even better?
They said it straight to the cast of Sunny.
According to a MovieWeb interview with Blake, before the show even aired, the cast of Workaholics
drunkenly rushed up to the cast of Sunny at a ComicCon party to tell them that their upcoming
show was basically a rip-off.
For what it's worth, the Sunny crew reacted positively, and if there was ever any doubt,
Sunny's Glenn Howerton cast it aside on Twitter.
Straight Outta Mordor
The Season 1 episode "Muscle I'd Like to Flex" begins with a stylishly shot rap video sequence
in which the guys perform a song about being wizards while dressed in long robes, beards,
and floppy hats.
“Don’t make this wizard mad, don’t make this wizard pissed / I could kill a hill giant
with a flick of my wrist.”
In the plot of the show, they're rehearsing for a performance at a Renaissance fair, but
the wizard rap schtick isn't new.
Under the name The Wizards, they recorded and released a full album of wizard rap called
Purple Magic in 2009.
In fact, they wanted to pitch a show to Comedy Central about "gangsta wizards," before a
network executive told them to go with their other idea, a show about slackers, instead.
Pong gone wrong
In 2011, Blake Anderson lived out a real-life event that sounds like it could've happened
on an episode of Workaholics.
At a wild house party in Los Angeles, he raised the stakes in a game of beer pong by attempting
to dunk a ping-pong ball... by jumping off the roof.
The whole thing was captured on video and ghoulishly sold to TMZ.
“Owww!”
The accident resulted in a pretty serious spine fracture.
“Well he broke his back for those of you that don’t know.”
“Snapped it!”
“Whoopsies, whoopsie-doozle!”
“He’s got that like, Dr. Octagon spine now.”
“I do.”
Anderson underwent back surgery but made a full recovery and didn't miss a single episode
of playing a character who would've done the same thing.
Arrested Development
One of the most surprising cameos on Workaholics came courtesy of Mitch Hurwitz, TV writer
and creator of Arrested Development.
After the first season of Workaholics aired, he contacted the troupe and told them they
were "doing great work" and that he'd "like to be a part of it in any way."
They offered Hurwitz the opportunity to write an episode, but he wanted the chance to act—so
they wrote the part of Cool Eric, the human resources guy, for him.
"I love people.
To say that another way, I LOVE people!
That one’s got a little more fun to it.”
Hurwitz later repaid the favor by casting the three main stars of Workaholics in cameo
roles as airline employees in the 2013 revival of Arrested Development.
The end
Despite the fact that Comedy Central probably would have let the series live forever, Anderson,
Holm, Devine, and Newacheck all decided that the seventh season of Workaholics would be
the last.
In a statement, the crew thanked Comedy Central, its executives, and the show's fans
"for turning us from Boyz II Men.
It was an incredible run but we've decided to leave on a HIGH note.
Get it?"
While the show has ended, the team's collaborative efforts have not.
They're working on an action comedy film called Game Over, Man for Netflix, and the conclusion
of their show will leave them more time to focus on bigger projects.
Written by Anders Holm, the movie has been described as an action-comedy akin to "Die
Hard in a hotel."
Which, honestly, sounds pretty fresh.
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