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Promotional art for The Ugly Truth
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

The Ugly Truth

Erik Griffin

Showtime · 2017 · 61 min

Erik Griffin vents about weight, calorie counting, and *The Purge*.

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Erik Griffin is not going to lie about his physical conditioning. He opens his first hour-long special hobbling onto the stage on a sprained ankle, quickly explaining that he did not get the injury playing a grueling game of pickup basketball; he stepped out of his car wrong. It is a fitting introduction to an hour spent confronting the realities of middle age, weight, and the social contracts people pretend to uphold.\n\nFilmed at the Laugh Factory in Long Beach, California, the special arrived in 2017 during a busy stretch for Griffin. Best known at the time as Montez on Workaholics, he had recently transitioned to playing stand-up Ralph Carnegie on the Showtime 1970s-era drama I’m Dying Up Here. This special, which also aired on Showtime, lets him drop the period-piece persona and lean into his natural, exasperated stage presence.\n\nMuch of the material centers on the indignities of dieting and the realization that ranch dressing is essentially the devil’s love juice. He spends a significant chunk of the set looking at the concept of The Purge, arguing that everyone secretly keeps a mental roster of people they would execute if the law vanished for a night, and suggests that service-industry workers would be the first to disappear. Griffin’s style relies on a slow, rhythmic build, punctuated by sudden bursts of irritation. He is comfortable sitting with the audience’s discomfort, particularly during a prolonged riff about how society finds obesity inherently funny in a way it does not with other terminal health conditions.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Wanting to be in shape for the special

    Concedes early on about his appearance and discusses the emotional and psychological toll of how society perceives fat people.

  2. Having less sympathy for tragedy victims if they were fat

    Comically imagines scenarios such as an obese Jesus or Anne Frank.

  3. Friends becoming 'the food police'

    Describes how friends monitor his diet the moment he says he's trying to lose weight, and the challenge of hearing fat insults directed at his acting characters.

  4. Comment card in Heaven

    Fantasizes about dying, entering Heaven, and submitting suggestions on a comment card to God to make human life more bearable.

  5. If 'The Purge' were real

    Argues it would force meter maids, TSA agents, and customer service reps to treat people better year-round, while maintaining a list of who should die and admitting his own purgeable offense.

  6. Honesty on specialized dating apps

    Demands people stop misrepresenting themselves and instead be upfront about their personal quirks and craziness.

How it plays

Tone
Darkly humorous blended with light playful silliness.
On stage
Sharp wit and sharp tongue, candid, facing his ugly truths both physically and mentally.
Pace
Raucous hour of stand-up.
About
Modern romance and dating apps, Body image and being overweight, Society's perceptions of weight, Food policing and diet, Lingering resentments, The Purge

What the critics said

Praised by The Comic's Comic for shining when peeling back layers on emotional and psychological impacts of societal perceptions while turning dark moments into playful silliness.

In the room: Leaves crowds laughing uncontrollably.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: tvguide.com, nuxt-movies.nuxt.dev, themoviedb.org, thefutoncritic.com, thecomicscomic.com, vulture.com, letterboxd.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.

Backstory

Part of Showtime's promotional rollout of solo specials for comedian cast members starring in the 1970s stand-up drama series I'm Dying Up Here.

Details

Released
Taped
The Laugh Factory, Long Beach
Runtime
61 min
Where
Showtime
Director
Scott Moran
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents (2013)
After
AmERIKan Warrior (2018)

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