merylinabarrel

I just discovered maybe the greatest video podcast of all time. It's called Jim Dupree: Enthusiast and it's made by my sort of blogfriend Dan Misener and his comrades in Toronto. Basically Dan, who looks like a cross between Stephen Ashcraft and David Giffels, stars as Jim Dupree, a character reminiscent of Ricky Gervais' boss character from the British version of The Office mixed with one of the correspondents from The Daily Show and maybe a touch of John Hodgman.

Like the Daily Show correspondents, Jim repeatedly tries to make ridiculous points and the cameraman/interviewer Glenn (in the role Jon Stewart often plays) is constantly questioning the likelihood that anything Jim is saying is actually true. In each episode, Jim is an enthusiast about a different topic, so we get Jim Dupree: Time Travel Enthusiast or Jim Dupree: Pizza Enthusiast and he basically walks around the city, talking to the camera about these various topics, throwing together sweeping generalizations, revisionist history, stupid jokes, bursts of song, flat-out lies, sections of completely nonsensical chatter and stories from his past that sound an awful lot like certain scenes from Home Alone 2.

It works so well because they play it completely straight, even when saying the most insane things, like in Jim Dupree: Chips Enthusiast.

"You look at the back of a package of chips and it says 'artificial flavors,' but they're lying. They can't explain where the flavor comes from. Some potatoes just taste more like barbecue and some just taste like salt and vinegar."

There are twenty-four episodes so far and I believe a new one comes out every two weeks. Each is about ten minutes long and most include at least one shot of someone eating a burrito with a line in the credits about where the burrito was purchased. They also all end the same way, with Jim turning and walking away from the camera as twinkly music swells. It's just so great because this character is perfect, the guy who thinks he's so smart and interesting and funny and aren't you lucky to know him so you, too, can glean knowledge as he reveals secrets about the world of fences and Christmas and HDTV. And he's just so enthusiastic.

"People don't know this actually, but the word 'dog' is an acronym. D-O-G. The D stands for 'domestic,' the O is 'old-world' and the G is 'god.' Domestic old-world god. 'Dog' is basically a slur."
"I don't believe that. Are you sure? Where did you read that?"
"Who's the dog expert!? Who's the dog expert!?"
"You are, but I think that you're trying to pull the wool over my eyes."
"I'm not a sheepdog ...get it? Sheepdog."

So yeah, the Jim Dupree: Enthusiast page is here, but you can just search for Jim Dupree in the iTunes Music Store to get the episodes, which are free of course. You should at least watch one of them and I would recommend Coin Enthusiast and then maybe after that Dog Enthusiast, Pizza Enthusiast, Wind Enthusiast and Chips Enthusiast, which are all my favorites.

I'm actually totally jealous that I didn't have an idea like this first, though I know that if I had, I never would have been able to execute it this well. And this could almost literally go on forever, Jim Dupree: Trucking Enthusiast, War Memorabilia Enthusiast, Tonsil Enthusiast, whatever. Bravo, guys.