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The Last Man On Earth

Article
By Ollie Nicholas
06/02/21

Subtitle

What would you do if you were the last person on earth?

Contents

1. The Last Man On Earth

2. I'm Not Used To This

Will Forte in The Last Man On Earth, Courtesy of Fox

If you’re struggling through long days at home during lockdown, watch the post-apocalyptic comedy series, ‘The Last Man On Earth’. It will certainly boost your mood and holds an eerie relevance to the pandemic situation that we find ourselves in. It’s definitely got that binge quality to it and is beautifully accompanied by tracks from The Kinks throughout. What more could you ask for?

Subtitle

What would you do if you were the last person on earth?

Contents

1. The Last Man On Earth

2. I'm Not Used To This

If you’re struggling through long days at home during lockdown, watch the post-apocalyptic comedy series, ‘The Last Man On Earth’. It will certainly boost your mood and holds an eerie relevance to the pandemic situation that we find ourselves in. It’s definitely got that binge quality to it and is beautifully accompanied by tracks from The Kinks throughout. What more could you ask for?
1. The Last Man On Earth

What would you do if you were the last person on earth? I suppose this questions bears some thought now that we are over a year into a deadly virus that has killed approximately 2.22M people worldwide. I’m not suggesting that coronavirus will make anyone the last person on earth, especially as the we begin to roll out the vaccine, but the whole ordeal has given us a warning as to how easily the human race could be wiped out. If not this virus, maybe the next.

Quite fittingly, I have been watching the post-apoaolytpic comedy series: ‘The Last Man on Earth’, which was created by and stars SNL alumnus, Will Forte. Quick fact about Will Forte: His real name is Orville, but he understandably goes by his middle name because Orville is a ridiculous name. Coincidentally, Orville also happens to be the name of my father who, like Will Forte, is also wise enough to go by an alternative name. If we can learn anything from this, it is that we should stop calling our babies Orville because it’s not 1871. Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be an article about stupid names, its supposed to be about The Last Man on Earth, which is a show that’s got me through the past couple of weeks. With that said, I’ll admit that this might not be everyones cup of tea.

It’s safe to say that Will Forte’s sense of humour hasn’t always been the most appreciated, with many of his sketch ideas for SNL considered to be “too odd to air”. Personally, I’m a big Will Forte fan. His goofiness makes me laugh like nothing else and his ability to combine it with a touch of sincerity creates a warming sense of optimism. I loved the quirkiness and originality of his sketches on SNL and also his more subdued performance alongside Bruce Dern in Nebraska, which is a beautiful film, perfect for a Sunday morning accompanied by a coffee and a cigarette.

Despite some uncertainly surrounding his sense of humour, the Last Man on Earth is his time to shine in a perfect marriage of zany humour and the truths of human nature. His character, ‘Phil Miller’ is the image of an unkept man with Forrest Gump style hair and beard, sporting nothing more than a pair of boots and a heavily stained hoodie with some underwear to match. Phil Miller recognises the positives in his circumstances, and if there’s anything positive about being the last man on earth, it’s being able to let yourself go. No one’s going to tell you that you’re drinking too much or that you’re putting on too much weight, all you would have to do is avoid catching yourself in the mirror. Also, whilst we’re discussing positives of being the last man on earth, think of all the dumb activities you could participate in. I know that I’d be tearing around in a Ferrari, scoring goals at Wembley and maybe even blowing up a couple of buildings just for the fun of it. Phil Miller clearly shares my philosophy as he descends into alcoholism and becomes a collector of legendary artefacts including the US Constitution, Monet’s paintings and Michael Jordan’s iconic Chicago Bulls jersey. However, it quickly becomes apparent that these things mean very little without anyone to share them with. Sure you could live in Buckingham Palace and blow up The Shard, but seeing that building collapse into the Thames would feel pretty empty if you couldn’t watch it with anyone. When I finally blow up The Shard, I hope that I’m surrounded by loved ones because that’s what it is all about.

The reality of loneliness isn’t so funny. Even the most introverted of people need occasional human interaction to, at the very least, remind themselves that they exist. I’m not sure how I’d react, but Phil Miller opts for the ‘Wilson’ strategy, taken from the film, ‘Castaway’ where Tom Hanks befriends a volleyball whilst stranded on a desert island. The only difference in The Last Man on Earth is that Phil goes for ‘the more the merrier’ approach by humanising around 15 sports balls, all with their own names and personalities. Sadly, despite his merry gang of balls, his hope begins to deteriorate, and with two years of solitude under his belt, Phil accepts that there is no one coming to free him of his isolation. His only option now is to take his own life so he may join the rest of the human race that left him behind. Phil’s chosen method of suicide is to drunkenly drive full speed into a boulder, which is an incredibly Will Forte method of suicide. In the same circumstance, I’d probably go for a backflip off Big Ben, but each to their own. As Phil’s car approaches the boulder which will surely crumple like a coke can upon impact, he see’s a cloud of smoke in the distance which reignites a glimmer of hope inside him…

2. I'm Not Used To This

I think that I am so impressed with this show as I view it through the lens of my own outlook on comedy. The notion of being the last man on earth is an absolute goldmine for sketch comedy, I’m jealous that they came up with the idea and I didn’t. I’ve been trying to film some sketches of my own in lockdown but its proved quite difficult. My budget has stretched little further than a green screen and I’m often left in my room pondering whether something is actually funny or not. As I struggled between humour and insanity, it often felt like I was the last man on earth. If someone makes a joke in a room with no one to hear it, is it funny? I can tell you now that the answer is probably not. The sketches that I was trying to produce were based around the notion of me having my own late night chat show. The process was painful with countless hours of filming culminating in about fives minutes of material that was actually funny. My greatest struggle was simply getting going which seldom happened, and when it did happen the camera would run out of battery or memory, or the lights would overheat, or my next door neighbour would start mowing their lawn. You can’t really go next door and say: “Please can you stop mowing your lawn because I’m trying to film a chat show in my bedroom”. Despite the experience being painful, I feel like I did gain something from it. Not exactly sure what that something was, apart from knowing that I will be spending more time outside this summer.

However, seeing Will Forte’s sense of humour really hit the mark in The Last Man On Earth has prompted me to have faith in my own sense of humour. As mentioned, Forte had a turbulent start to his career, not make the cut working for David Letterman, writing for failed sitcoms and struggling during the early years at SNL, but he got there in the end and he did it his way. The aim of the game should be to produce stuff that makes you laugh and then in turn it hopefully makes other people laugh. If you lack ingenuity, you may fool people for a bit, but you’ll only end up hating yourself and then eventually everyone else will probably end up hating you too. I found myself laughing way more than I normally would at some of the jokes in The Last Man on Earth simply because I knew Will Forte wrote them. Many of the jokes in the series are stupid and often unnecessary but that is true to his personality and that’s what I’m rooting for. With that in mind, I just want to get out there and try out some of my own stuff, and even if it crashes and burns, I’ll do it my way.

  • 6th February 2021
  • The Last Man On Earth
  • By Ollie Nicholas

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Ollie Nicholas (@ollienicholas)

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