Peacock is bringing joy back into viewers’ lives with the upcoming variety special Would It Kill You To Laugh?, starring Kate Berlant and John Early, as its subtitle proudly notes. Having worked and laughed together for a decade now, the comedic duo is launching an hour-long special with a wacky yet realistic premise: sitcom stars reunite on an awkward talk show – hosted by Meredith Vieira – years after the end of their hit series and the legal battle that ensued in its wake.
Early is known for his hilarious work on shows such as Search Party and the currently airing The Afterparty, while Berlant is set to star in Prime Video’s upcoming series A League of Their Own and film Don’t Worry Darling. Their partnership long precedes any of those, though, as the actors and comedians have been friends and creative partners since they met in New York in 2012. Not only have they appeared together in Search Party and shows like Life & Beth before, they’ve also worked on shorts together such as 2019’s Rachel. After all that, though, Would It Kill You To Laugh? will be their first full-fledged special.
Screen Rant spoke to Berlant and Early about the various sketches they chose for the project, the trajectory of their partnership, and how they hope to grow as actors and writers with hopefully their own scripted series in the future.
Screen Rant: I know you two have been working together for a decade, but how did this comedic partnership begin? At what point did you just click?
John Early: It was actually more of a sexual partnership before it pivoted into comedy. [Both laugh]
Kate Berlanti: It’s so often that happens. We met on set of a friend’s short film in New York 10 years ago, and we really did just instantly fall in love and connect. We had just a shared language that was kind of uncanny.
John Early: It was surreal. There was an overlap in cadence and worldview, and it was very [much] like a mirror, long lost twin thing. It’s well documented, but we really just had like a two-week sleep over. I came over to Kate’s house, and after two weeks of hanging out, it was just like, “I could just spend the night and make this easier.”
Kate Berlanti: Yeah, he basically slept in my bed for like a year. Probably two years. Being single in New York is impossible!
John Early: When I would run out of underwear, I would buy new packs of Haines at Rite Aid or Duane Reade in Williamsburg. It was very sweet; we were very inseparable for a long time.
And pretty much immediately – literally, day one, we were like, “Sketch show!” We were like, “We’re gonna do a sketch show.” Our ambitions have varied over the years, but I think there’s a reason why this is one of the first projects to really get some traction. I think we’re very cut out for sketch; we have a million trillion ideas.
Which I love. There was already so much great stuff in just this special that I’m like, “Is it going to be a sketch show? Will we get more?” What is the projected journey?
John Early: We’ll see!
Kate Berlant: Yeah, we would love to make another one of these. We have a million ideas of what we would love to do.
John Early: We love the sketch special as an art form. I mean, I do. I think it’s kind of an under-explored genre. People do a lot of sketch shows, but there’s something very beautiful about these one-off things that can have their perfect little arcs. There’s something more like romantic about it. I would love to do another one, and to bring back the Beavers and some other characters.
Speaking of the Beavers, what is the collaboration process when you’re deciding what is going to make it in? You have a million ideas, but you can only have 12 in one special? Do you fight to the death, or how do you choose the winners?
Kate Berlant: Luckily, we’re really on the same page. It’s really unusual that one of us wants to pursue an idea and the other person doesn’t.
John Early: We have a very good mutual gut understanding of what’s not working. For this particular project, because it was just the hour and not some endless series where we could just do [anything], balance was important.
We knew the Meredith interview had a lot of competitive, cutthroat energy, so we needed to balance it out with maybe something sweeter like the Beavers or something sillier like the dancing, but we didn’t argue over anything. It’s so cheesy, but it really is just what makes us laugh, you know?
Kate Berlant: No fighting. That’s the simplest thing. Like, the hot caramel thing started as a joke that we just would do at restaurants years ago.
John Early: We’d be like, “Do you guys take hot caramel?” to the waiter.
What sparked the idea of the special first, add how did you bring it to Peacock? Obviously, in the current times, we could all use a little laugh. Were those your thoughts?
John Early: Yes, in a way, in that we really just wanted to do something that was funny first. We didn’t want to do anything too self-serious , and we didn’t want anything topical. We were just like, “Let’s try to make some timeless, funny sketches that are in our sweet spots.”
And we thankfully have a very good friend and ally over at Peacock, who’s always been a champion of us and who we thought to take it to.
Kate Berlant: Yeah, and Peacock really was so amazing. It really has to be said, because they really let us do what we wanted. This really is like directly from us.
John Early: It hasn’t been cranked through an executive machine. They were so hands-off and encouraging, and they got it. They found it all very funny.
More and more, it feels like streaming services are less hands-on than networks.
Kate Berlant: I feel like they are. I feel like we got lucky with Peacock.
John Early: And some are hands-off to a point of utter lawlessness. You watch shows and you’re like, “So there are no rules, cool.” There’s no structure to anything. [But] this felt very considered, and everyone cared for it. It was very sweet.
Meredith Vieira as the talk show host was incredible. How did this happen?
Kate Berlant: Thank God for Meredith. Truly, we went to her completely assuming she’d be like, “No.” And she did it! Her kids we’ve yet to meet, I think, were fans of ours.
John Early: She has kids in their early 30s who told her to do it.
Kate Berlant: Thank God. Think of the children. She was just amazing, and so funny. Such an amazing actress; what a delight.
John Early: And we didn’t have to tell her [anything]. To us, the joke was always that we needed the interviewer to be very serious, and to approach it the way they would approach interviewing… fill in the blank. We didn’t have to tell her that; she just really got it.
I love how it really does feel an expose on a real show, which makes me want to watch, “He’s Gay, She’s Half Jewish.” How much do you know about how your fictional selves fell apart beyond what is presented there?
Kate Berlant: Yeah, we really didn’t.
John Early: That’s the one note we got – not from Peacock even, but from our director [Andrew DeYoung] and people who would watch it. When they were giving notes on the cut, they’d be like, “We want to know what happened.” We were like, “There’s no… We didn’t do the work.”
Kate Berlant: That’s part of the joke too, that we don’t really know. It’s like, “What did happen?” It stays in this murky, fill-in-the-blank place.
Where did the talking urn come from? Who came up with that; who takes credit for this?
John Early: It wasn’t me! It was you or Andy.
Kate Berlant: I don’t remember… But, yeah, the urn talks. That’s just an example of something that was so stupid and made us laugh.
You both have done scripted work outside of stand-up comedy or sketches. When it comes to scripted work, what is it that you look for, or what is it that really draws you to a project?
Kate Berlant: Yeah, I think the people. That’s kind of what ultimately defines whatever the thing is.
John Early: And nowadays, I feel like you really just hope it’s not awful. I think a lot of writing has been so degraded over the past 15-20 years by our generation. And I think it’s really hard to find something that’s not just like – everything feels like casual banter or something.
People who actually have a point of view, and are actually trying to write something beyond them and their friends hanging out, I think is important to us.
I’m very excited for some of your projects in the near future, Kate, like Don’t Worry Darling and A League Of Their Own. I assume this means Don’t Worry Darling will elevate us beyond the usual banter. What can you say about that project and your role in it?
Kate Berlant: Yeah, I’m so lucky to be in it. I don’t want to be overly modest, but it really is a small role.
John Early: And yet the trailer leaned heavily on Kate’s presence.
Kate Berlant: They did bring me in. No, that was totally surreal. Olivia Wilde, I’m so indebted to her that she asked me to do it. And it was unreal.
Florence Pugh is an actress I’ve admired for years now, and to be actually in a scene with a bonafide movie star like Florence Pugh and get to watch her act? And Olivia, by the way, is amazing in the movie. I think she’s such a great actress as well.
We shot at the height of COVID, so it was the most social thing I had done so long. It’s really beautiful and lush, and I think people are really gonna love it.
John Early: And you look so good in period.
John, we recently said farewell to Search Party after many seasons and transitions. What has the experience been like for you, and what are you searching for next?
John Early: Honestly, it was very surprising and sentimental. Like, it’s 10 weeks out of the year for five or six years. It was kind of a scrappy little show, but it was very sad. I was very proud of it by the end, and very moved by the whole thing. It was kind of a modest show that ended up having a lot to say. It just really had an edge and teeth, and I’ll really miss it.
And that’s what I’m searching for next. It has to be at least as good as Search Party.
Kate Berlant: We’re hoping to make a series, which we should spread far and wide.
John Early: Headline: hoping for a series!
Kate Berlant: We love making sketches, and we would love to do an hour sketch for the rest of our lives every year. But also we do have deep ambitions of doing a narrative television show.
Are you shopping around specific ideas yet?
Kate Berlant: We will be very soon.
Finally, if you had to pick one sketch that you want everyone to see, what would it be?
John Early: I think it’s the seduction one. We call it seduction, where [we’re] backstage and Kate seduces me.
Kate Berlant: Yeah, I think that one. We love genre, and leaning into unexpected stakes and emotions. I think that one really came together for us.
John Early: Honestly, I’m shocked to say I love all of them – but not that shocked to say, I really love them. But the seduction one really feels new to me. It’s really exciting to see us in that mode; it feels more like written and cinematic.
Would It Kill You To Laugh? Synopsis
The one-of-a-kind sketch special from A24 will feature famous comedy duo Kate Berlant (A League of Their Own) and John Early (Search Party, The Afterparty) as sitcom stars from the world-renowned television program “He’s Gay, She’s Half-Jewish.” Despite their undeniable chemistry and monumental success, Kate and John’s relationship suffers a very public falling out and eventual legal battle. Berlant and Early will also play an unpredictable variety of characters throughout. Television veteran and Emmy winner Meredith Vieira will appear as a TV Newscaster in the special.
Would It Kill You To Laugh? will be available to stream on Peacock June 24.
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