#this asshole pulled the writer and co creator of the show into this bullshit SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HATE THE ACTOR PLAYING DENT

[montanabohemian]

anyway, some asshole on twitter was whining about the prosthetics for harvey dent in the upcoming gotham knights show claiming the character and story of dent to be ableist.

i invite you fucknuts to touch grass and never be allowed to be around comics ever again because you don't have basic reading comprehension skills.

[nettvnow-blog]

Joe Menconi | Blurred

Kyle Anderson and Joe Menconi are changing the way men do comedy, especially in the web series world. While the community is flooded with your typical bromance or asshole characters, Joe and Kyle bring humor in their flaws as they take on more exaggerated versions of themselves in Blurred. With season two premiering tonight, jump down below and see what co-creator Menconi has to say in our exclusive chat.

netTVnow: Where did the concept for Blurred come from?

Joe Menconi: Well Kyle and I are roommates. We have been wanting to make something together for a while and had a running Google doc full of bits and situations that kept coming up or that we simply thought were funny. We were going to just try and shoot a few sketches but said screw it and wound up going for the web series. On paper it was over ambitious and we were probably quite stupid for thinking we could pull it off. But we just wanted to make something we liked and that we thought was funny. It’s really just a heightened version of us in the show. We weren’t trying to change the game we just wanted to get out quality content and look to build on it. And also to have a link to send our parents so they knew what the hell we were doing out here.

netTVnow: What led you two, to working together?

JM: We actually both went to the same college (Indiana University) but didn’t know each other too well. I left after two years to do improv in Chicago while Kyle had been making comedy videos. Once I made the move to LA we had a lot of mutual friends telling us to connect. Like I said, we wound up becoming roommates and are basically brothers now. Like Ryan Seacrest and Carson Daly. But we found we had a similar voice comedically. Maybe it was delusional confidence but we felt like we had good chemistry that would hopefully read on camera. 

netTVnow: Is this your first web series, if so what were you surprised to find about working in that medium?

JM: I was in a small web series about a year and a half ago when I first moved to LA and again, Kyle had made digital content as well. I think we were surprised by how many web series were out there. It’s been cool finding this indie film and web series community. People are doing really cool stuff. It’s awesome that anyone can make something and it can be seen at any time. That of course can work the other way because it’s pretty diluted and hard to get your stuff seen. There’s a lot of bad content and a lot of good content. Which I guess is the internet in a nutshell.

netTVnow: All the episodes are great, do you guys have a favorite one? Mine’s definitely the first one when you do the handshake from Parent Trap!

JM: Thanks Michelle we appreciate that. Yeah ‘Double Date’ seemed to be the favorite. I think the first few and the last one were our favorites. But yeah the handshake was kind of an improvised thing on that day of shooting. We had just written down “montage” and when we got to it we felt like we had to do the hand shake. So two grown adult males tried to perfect it in their apartment in about ten minutes. But yeah we both grew up on the Parent Trap, Lohan version of course. Quaid is unbeatable in that.

netTVnow: I love that you guys can poke fun at the stereotypical guys that we often see on television, what was it like writing the script and putting this together?

JM: It probably looks slightly more intentional than it appears. I feel like for whatever reason that is a trend for guys in shows. Especially around our age. The idea that they have to look cool and always get girls. Which is absurd to me because that doesn’t happen ever. It comes off fake and dishonest when you see that stuff on TV. Unless you’re one of those hot LA guys with the jaw line and the dumb angled face, I don’t know who is that cool.

Neither of us play instruments we're not that dope. The thing I do like is we always are the ones that lose. We’re the butt of the jokes. It’s more fun to live in that space as dudes and also is more relatable. When we write, especially more in season two, we had fun trying to push us into looking more lame and failing harder. We really are two giant, harmless, dumb idiots. We’re always in our heads in real life. So we just tried to heighten that and call it out in the show.

netTVnow: If you don’t mind discussing budget, many web series often work with little to no budget, what was it like for you guys and how did that play a role into filming?

JM: We’re an open book, Michelle. See. That was a dumb thing to say right there. Sorry. But I think the biggest thing it does is force you to wear multiple hats and learn quickly. I think we both learned so much about how things are made from the two seasons we’ve done. We often change jokes on the fly and have to be cool with losing scenes or bits but have to know which ones we can afford to lose.

Problems always pop up. No matter what, it’s inevitable. It was a crash course in indie film making. And as stressful as it was at times it’s so cool to figure out how to work like that. We’re all friends. Our small crew is all friends too, so we enjoy that kind of collaborative process and all of us just trying to figure it out. We were working with a much bigger budget on season two. In fact, we had no budget for the first season, which was great but brought on a whole new bag of anxiety.

netTVnow: What’s your favorite part about web series?

JM: Being able to do your own thing and trying to make the type of show you want to see. There are no rules. It’s like recess in grade school. A lot of people think they know what you “should do” or say “this is how you make a web series,” which is kind of bullshit to be honest. Nobody knows exactly what they’re doing and it has to be true to the people making it.

We personally tried to not listen to that stuff. We really only have one rule - if we both think it’s funny, we do it. Again, it’s cool we live in a time where we can do this thing. We don’t have to just audition next to a bunch of people that are better looking, went to a better acting school than us. We can make stuff happen for ourselves. We trust what we’re doing and have a lot of fun trying to make people laugh.

netTVnow: What can audiences expect in the second season?

JM: For the ‘Joe’ character to be heavier. It wasn’t done on purpose but it’s just the truth. We’re very excited for this season. Working with a bigger budget this time around allowed us to shoot at some really cool locations. There’s a lot more meat to the episodes. They’re significantly longer and it allowed us to tell more of a story in each episode. You still get us being stupid we just were able to add cooler stories over that relationship. We also have some really awesome actors/actresses and comedians this season. People that we’re genuinely fans of comedically. In the first episode alone, you’ll see a lot of really talented human beings. And better looking people than us. So if you don’t like looking at our faces there’s more appealing people to watch. 

netTVnow: Will Kyle and Joe finally get girlfriends?

JM: Wow, we have so many threads to our show I don’t know if we can give it away! No, that’s of course not true. But I think you could guess most likely not. Kyle and Joe are still not ready for girlfriends I don’t think. We were able to show a few realer moments relationship wise which was cool. There’s also a lot more stuff about our relationship this season. We get in a confrontation in one of the episodes and it’s really hard hitting dramatic stuff. TNT type stuff. Blurred knows drama. And you can pull quote that.

netTVnow: Do you guys have any upcoming projects you can share?

JM: I am in a really cool short film that I should be able to see by February - March. I’m excited for it. It’s a very sweet and funny story called One More Thing: A Hoard Alone Story. I got to work with an incredibly talented writer/director named Amanda Kinchen. She’s awesome.

Kyle's currently in production on some hilarious sketches that he's been working on with another comedian. They'll be putting content out throughout the upcoming months. Additionally, Kyle and I are also doing a video series for a new nutrition/lifestyle brand called hustle up. We’ll be going into production on those after season two of Blurred is locked. And we have a couple things we’re working on and are hopeful for. But those are ‘maybes’ which of course means absolutely nothing in this industry.

netTVnow: Is there anything else you guys would like to add?

JM: Thanks for this, Michelle. I don’t think I swore once which I’m proud of and will make my mom happy. But yeah, no just watch our show. Please. Validate us. Season two premieres Thursday, February 16th on our YouTube channel, with a new episode every Thursday following that date with five total this season. I think people will really enjoy where we went with it. @blurredseries on all the socials. We will be continuing to put content on that channel following season two so please continue to check that out and subscribe or whatever we’re suppose to say. Alright, I’m done. Did I do okay? I feel like I talked way too much. Thank you again, Michelle!

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