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Comedian Nick Kroll nearly left viewers scratching their heads with his off-the-wall conceit for the ridiculous reality phenomenon about friendship, competition, and cold hard cash. Kroll portrayed himself in the clip as Jeff, the clueless game-show host, offering contestants a million dollars to be his friend while threatening to backstab his newfound pals. Followers have found this post, with the caption “Grateful for this journey #makingfriends #youandmeforever,” very cringe-comedy and social satire, which, of course, meant laughter from the followers.
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Nick Kroll takes on many roles in his shows like Big Mouth and The League, so he is quite comfortable with this type of absurd humor in this newest venture. In the video, Kroll continues to stumble through vague and contradictory descriptions of what the show is really about. “‘I’m not here to make friends.’ No. You’re here to make friends. Making friends is the name of this show,” he said with far more misplaced confidence than he should ever have dared. Jeff is desperate for friends but holds up his host side by saying, “If anyone will be friends with Jeff, they will win a point… But I will stab him in the back. That’s your prerogative, either way.”
It references all those tired shows of artificial relationships, cash incentives, and manufactured drama and takes them to absurd extremes. The Good Will-Lister cries for friendship and promises possible friends a very light lunch of chicken salad, though judging from his delivery, the entire lot felt pretty pathetic to him as well. “The prize is $1 million cash dollars,” said Jeff. An unseen voice promptly asked, “What about taxes?” to which Jeff answered casually, “I’ll pay em.”
Followers were quick to call out this humor style familiar to many of Kroll’s characters. One even went so far as to draw comparisons to Coach Steve Lite, referencing the charmingly endearing clueless character from Big Mouth. Another chimed in, adding, “he’s so coach steve coded,” reinforcing the image of Kroll as the perfect blend of innocence and slight menace.
The fictional Jeff unexpectedly became a centerpiece of discussion in the comments. Some viewers found the character curiously compelling despite his faults, with one fan writing, “Honestly Jeff seems like a guy you need in your life.” “I bet if you called him at 2 am, he would be there!!” The ironic appreciation of the character’s potential loyalty despite self-admitted backstabbing really speaks to Kroll’s ability to craft conflicted, funny personages.
Other comments revolved around the potential real-world appeal of the show itself: “Honestly good idea for a show at the end the best of best friends win,” one commented, half-joking at how much fun it would be to movie friends try to win money together. Another viewer put forth the proposition directly to Kroll: “I’ll be your friend but is the $1 mill still on the table?”
A comparison to reality show competitions was provoked by the video. Another said on the money, “This is Ru Paul’s best friend race,” drawing commonality with the drag competition’s emphasis on friendship versus competition. One more took it in a more philosophical way: “This is hurtful to survivor. How do we make friends and be popular if we don’t survive by winning and making everyone else lose?”
Fittingly, Kroll captioned the post as a sincere reflection on his journey. The hashtags #makingfriends and #youandmeforever added a layer of irony, which either meant Kroll was 100 percent sincere or had been trolling from the start, both doomsday scenarios being likely in the hands of that particular comedian.
Reactions like that are very telling because it places Kroll in a very unique space in comedy: there are his characters, terribly off-putting yet terribly charming, terribly absurd yet terribly recognizable. His audience embraces them on the level of surface comedy as well as the more subtle commentary on modern relationships and entertainment culture. It is doubtful this particular “show concept” ever comes to anything more beyond this video, but as far as character comedy is concerned, it has done everything his audience thought it would: awkward-everybody-laughing moments with a small consciousness that this is too close to home for all of us.
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Nick Kroll continues finding humor between real connection and performance, between friendship and transaction. His up-to-date video proves that even a premise about buying companionship can become strangely compelling when filtered through his particular comedic lens. This type of content is reminiscent of the hilarious throwback clips he often shares.
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