Today in Sure, Why Not? news, we have learned that, thanks to Netflix’s insatiable need for original content, there is now a Between Two Ferns movie. That’s right, Zach Galifianakis’s awkward interview show has been turned into a film. How will that work? Honestly, who cares? It looks hilarious. Of course the actual “between two ferns” bits look funny, but the moment I was persuaded that a Ferns movie can be good is when Lauren Lapkus drops a perfect line reading on, “I’ve never seen a chicken wear clothes”. That is now in the running for Line Reading of the Year, alongside J. Smith-Cameron’s read of “Who says you don’t know how to flirt” on Succession, and the “Sarah’s Channel” double whammy of Claudia O’Doherty’s read on “Which is assault” and Nick Coyle’s sublime “Like and subscribe”. (Why aren’t you watching “Sarah’s Channel”? Don’t just watch the first episode and then email me about how weird it is, the whole thing is twenty-nine minutes, put the time in and it all makes sense.)
Who wants to bet this is an elaborate swan song for Ferns? I will lay real American dollars on this being the way Galifianakis puts Ferns to bed, for good. Ferns is now eleven years old, and Galifianakis—and his creative partners, including Scott Aukerman and Ruben Fleischer—is incredibly busy. He works constantly, doing a lot of voice work and popping up consistently in movies like A Wrinkle in Time and Tulip Fever (???), and over the last few years he has made the vastly underappreciated show Baskets, which feels like Galifianakis hitting a new gear. I bet the Ferns movie ends up being a ludicrously elaborate Ferns finale, because as funny as Ferns is—and it is VERY funny, and has never lost a step—Galifianakis just feels past it now.
But let’s go out with a truly surreal finale, if go out we must. I do love that Netflix is not opposed to burning some money to let people do bizarre personal projects. Earlier this year saw David Harbour indulge himself with the fantastically absurd Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein, and now they’ve torched a few million to let Zach Galifianakis and Scott Aukerman take Between Two Ferns to the extreme. They’ve packed this movie with celebrities, basically everyone you’ve ever heard of, and there will undoubtedly be many awkward moments, the Brad Lee Cooper feud continues, and, of course, there are two ferns. There will also be Keanu, because the Year of Keanu isn’t over yet. Now that we know how willing Keanu is to play along, he is the celebrity I am most looking forward to seeing between two ferns.
