Joe Pera Talks With You review
In this article, Garrison Gove will review the Adult Swim series Joe Pera Talks With You.
Joe Pera Talks With You Review
By Garrison Gove
If you are an adult animation enthusiast or an insomniac, then it is very likely that you are familiar with the Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block Adult Swim. Adult Swim is known for producing surreal, experimental, and sometimes disturbing programs, with Rick and Morty, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast being some famous examples. However, among this maelstrom of absurd, shocking, and vulgar humor, is a little-known program that offers an oasis of tranquility and relatability.
Joe Pera Talks With You follows comedian Joe Pera, who portrays himself as a middle school choir teacher living in Marquette, Michigan, according to IMDb. Joe is very soft-spoken, socially awkward, and tends to behave much older, despite only being in his thirties. In other words, Joe is the personification of a glass of warm milk. Joe also has a lot of knowledge of random, seemingly mundane subject matter, and many of the episodes revolve around him educating the viewer on his various exploits, whether it is recounting his excitement on hearing “Baba O’Riley” by The Who for the first time, bringing you along on the “Fall Loop” he drives every Saturday following Halloween, or instructing you on how to properly grow a bean arch. Accompanying Joe are his best friend, Gene; his basset hound, Gus; and his colleague and budding love interest, Sarah, who happens to be a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
On a network that has created shows about flesh-eating border collies, religious domestic abuse, and superhero teams based on ethnic stereotypes, Joe Pera might very well be the most daring thing Adult Swim has produced. After all, most television viewers want action, drama, or raunchy humor. They don’t want to see a thirty-year-old lecturing them about iron. They might even go so far as to label such programming as “boring”. And yet, the series has been met with critical acclaim, being praised for its unique tone and writing. The Guardian's Stuart Heritage wrote "Joe Pera as a character is an island, and the fun of watching it is feeling his own worldview slowly align to yours. He's a soft and soothing presence, a little like Bob Ross, and the series can often veer into something approaching ASMR in its meditative delivery".
On a personal note, I relate to the show very much. Like Joe, I find joy in learning random, mundane facts. For example, did you know that Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state? Or that the Canadian province of Alberta has been kept free of rats since 1950? I didn’t, either, until I learned both from watching the show. We also both appreciate the little joys in life, whether that’s waiting for your bean arch to grow or updating your school’s Wikipedia page. While we are often ridiculed for being boring or focusing on trivial subject matter, the success of the show has given me hope that there are people out there who might not consider us as unusual.
