"A huge fuckin tuna comeuppance."
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, hello!
Oh, Hello is a comedy act created by and starring Nick Kroll and John Mulaney as a pair of elderly New Yorkers and longtime roommates. Kroll is Gil Faizon, a small-time actor who's very affable if also poor in hygiene. Mulaney is George St. Geegland, a prolific but not at all renowned author and playwright who may also be a multiple murderer.
The trailer for their Broadway Netflix special can be seen here
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Not to be confused with the band The Oh Hellos.
This comedy act provides examples of:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: A central part of the schtick is Gil and George putting strange accents on words, most regularly pronouncing "Broadway" as "brud-VAY."
- Ax-Crazy: George, who'll violently threaten stagehands at the drop of a hat and most likely killed all three of his wives.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Gil is an aspiring actor, but his specific mannerisms and voice result in him enunciating things very strangely. For example, his audition for the CBS announcer has him dictate it poorly: "This... is... CBSbabyyyyy!" It may be a subversion, however, since Gil was actually offered the job for this audition, despite George claiming he was not.
- Berserk Button: George flips out when the intern messes up the audio cues.
- Big Applesauce: Gil and George live and breathe New York City, dropping very specific references to restaurants, train lines and theatres throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. Also crossing over with Big Rotten Apple, especially when it comes to George's crimes.
- The Bluebeard: George is heavily implied to have killed all three of his wives on the same staircase, each death improving upon the last.
- Brick Joke: In the Netflix recorded performance, George claims that Matthew Broderick is standing behind a closed door and ready to make an appearance, but the play gets sidetracked. Some time later, Gil leaves through the door, revealing a befuddled Broderick waiting for his cue.
- Character Catchphrase: Gil quickly mumbles "Charmed, I'm sure" every time he introduces himself, to the point it's almost a Verbal Tic.
- Cluster F-Bomb: George drops F-bombs with laser-guided accuracy.
- Irishman and a Jew: Played straight with Gil, who, like Nick Kroll himself, is Jewish, but averted with George, who's Dutch-American rather than the very Irish Catholic John Mulaney — and, as George freely admits, basically an honorary Alter Kocker by virtue of having lived in New York for seven decades."I am neither Jewish, nor a woman, but like many men over the age of 70, I have reached that point in life where I am somehow both."
- Jerkass: Of two different varieties, no less! Gil is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who could, very generously, be called Innocently Insensitive. George is just a straight-up Jerk with a Heart of Jerk with clearly malicious tendencies who even verbally abuses Gil on occasion. George does get one significant Heart of Gold moment, at the end of the play when he makes up with Gil and they both hug.
- Kick the Dog: George chews out the Indian-American intern for messing up a sound cue and calls him "slumdog," establishing his ugly side.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: George will occasionally note that he and Gil have distinguishing traits that set them apart as characters. He will usually follow this up by turning to look at the audience to lampshade it.
- The Ghost: Ravi the intern is in control of the lights and audio and gets screamed at a lot by the cast, but he's never seen or heard.
- "No Talking or Phones" Warning: Parodied in the Broadway show, which has Gil and George lecture the audience about theatre etiquette about 17 minutes in. They tell the audience they can take phone calls and text people, but "do it like your dad in temple" (looking back between the phone and the performance). They also say, in regards to coats and hats, the audience can "put their shit wherever they want," and that they can eat a full meal and unwrap their candy slowly and noisily.
- Raised as the Opposite Gender: George's mother apparently raised him as a girl.
- Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: George will frequently narrate the stage direction. At one point, he announces that he's doing so and notes that he's leaning to the side because the stage directions are italicized.
- Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: The pair discuss and demonstrate the trope of repeating things the person on the phone says for the benefit of the audience.
- Running Gag: Making references to Steely Dan and becoming increasingly aware that the audience knows nothing specific about them.
- The Sociopath: George seems like a charming elderly intellectual at first, though that mask swiftly drops to show a more volatile and callous side, particularly when confronting stage hands. There's also the fact that all three of his late wives have died the same way on the same staircase, which he mentions unusually flippantly.
- Small Name, Big Ego: You'd think the two are legends among New York's Bohemian community for how much they talk up their accomplishments.
- Those Two Guys: Despite being the stars of their own Broadway show, George and Gil still fall neatly into this category. It helps that neither have done anything of note and are pretty much laughable background characters in the history of New York's literary and theatre scenes.
- Time-Passage Beard: After flashing forward, the pair note that Tony Tuna now has a mustache to show that time has passed.
- Verbal Tic: Gil makes no shortage of strange, high-pitched sounds, typically when agreeing with George.
