What's your opinion of Amy Sedaris?

[koawala]

If I am ever on a remote island I hope that Amy Sedarsis and Sarah Vowell are there also.

[Cat_Fight]

Comic genius in every way. Except the SWC movie. Ouch. So odd, too, since the series was great and odd. Seeing her with Colbert is always a treat.

[Tuckerfan]

@betenoir

I’d rather hang out with her brother (in France!). But that must be one hell of a family to produce such spawn.

One of their other brothers is genuine red neck, it seems. Gotta wonder what “Bubba” Sedaris is like.

[Evil_Captor]

@Gr8Kat

Have you ever seen the movie SWC and her Jerri Blank character were based on? Here’s an excerpt: http://www.dailymotion.com/tag/fisher/video/x1jl6d_florrie-fisher-tells-a-story

You may say her appearnce as Jerri is off-putting, but she looks just like the woman in the movie. She’s crazy!

I’m sorry, I’m just not buying it. The woman in the movie is a little worn-out looking but normal. Here’s a pic of Sedaris wearing the expression she wore throughout the movie:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/film/reviews/strangers-with-candy-2006

If you think that pic looks just like the woman in the video, one of us is wearing some serious blinkers. And I don’t think it’s me. I think that’s Sedaris making a “crazy comic goofy face” in the manner of someone who has no actual comedic talent. I do in fact think Sedaris has talent, but she is not served well by her willingness to mug so goonishly. It detracts from her humor, it does not help it.

[Kneepants_Erasmus_the_Humanist]

@Tuckerfan

One of their other brothers is genuine red neck, it seems. Gotta wonder what “Bubba” Sedaris is like.

“…nobody kills the motherfucking Rooster.”

Ah, good stuff .

[Otto]

@Evil Captor

In “Strangers With Candy” she wore this weird, goofy expression throughout the movie that completely threw off the movie’s humor, because it was just too much.

I don’t see that her expression is all that different in your link or from when I watched the film on TV than it was throughout the series. Did you see the film on the big screen? Maybe 40 feet across it’s worse.

I’m a fan and I can’t think of wnything I’ve seen her in when I haven’t enjoyed her. I have the first two seasons of the show on DVD but haven’t gotten around to buying the third yet. Some of the episodes, for example the one where she goes out for the debate team, stand with some of the greatest sitcom episodes. I haven’t read the new book but someone gave me “Wigville” for Christmas a couple years back. I recommend it with some reservations.

[OpalCat]

@Evil Captor

I dunno. In “Strangers With Candy” she wore this weird, goofy expression throughout the movie that completely threw off the movie’s humor, because it was just too much. If she’d just dialled it back about three notches, it would have been a much better movie, because the humor was there. As it was she was kinda … Jim Carrey over-the-top.

Never saw the movie, but if it’s the expression she wore through the tv show, it made it completely unwatchable for me. It was so irritating it actually made me angry. I have no idea what she is like otherwise because she so completely turned me off in that show (largely because of that facial expression) that I have avoided her like the plague ever since.

[OpalCat]

@Evil Captor

If you think that pic looks just like the woman in the video, one of us is wearing some serious blinkers. And I don’t think it’s me. I think that’s Sedaris making a “crazy comic goofy face” in the manner of someone who has no actual comedic talent. I do in fact think Sedaris has talent, but she is not served well by her willingness to mug so goonishly. It detracts from her humor, it does not help it.

I agree 100% (and I also see no similarity between the expression of the wman in the video and the hideous face that Sedaris makes in SWC) with the exception that I can’t say that I think Sedaris has talent (Not saying she doesn’t, just that I don’t know if she does). She grossed me out so bad in the SWC tv show that I haven’t seen her in anything else (nor did I watch more than a handful of SWC episodes) so I really can’t judge.

[Sampiro]

@Kneepants Erasmus

I have a serious girl crush on her, although I think her brother is funnier. She can be a bit over the top for me.

Have you read any of his pieces on her? My favorite is the story of her buying the waist down half of a fat suit and driving her dad crazy. (Was she the sister who befriended “Dinah the Christmas Whore”?)

I loved her on My Name Is Earl as the crazy cat woman in love with Randy.

[zagloba]

@Sampiro

Have you read any of his pieces on her? My favorite is the story of her buying the waist down half of a fat suit and driving her dad crazy. (Was she the sister who befriended “Dinah the Christmas Whore”?)

Or the one where she and David are riding the El in Chicago. They come to her stop first. She gets off the train, but just before the doors close she yells back into the car at David “Goodbye! And good luck beating that rape charge!”

[missbunny]

Amy’s SWC character is totally and intentionally based on that real-life woman, but exaggerated for effect. It is supposed to “be” her in a way but obviously they went much further with it in the series and movie. If you watch the original movie made by that woman (whose name I suddenly cannot remember), you’ll see an awful lot of “Jerri” in her (not just the facial expression) and vice versa. Amy has said that all her muscles are in her face and she totally uses them to make Jerri hideous. It’s part of what makes it funny. (She has always done characters with hideous faces - ever seen her Piglet?) I did find the serious a bit better than the movie, FWIW. But I love both. SWC is one of my favorite shows ever and I probably have seen each episode at least 10 times. It’s hilarious, as she would say.

I find her a riot outside of SWC. Letterman loves her and she always does a great show with him.

[missbunny]

@Lucky 13

I like her 'cause she’s weird, but not self-consciously so. She writes (wrote?) a humorous advice column called “Sedaratives” for The Believer, but tends to have an awful lot of guest columnists. Does anyone know if it’s still running?

I’m not sure if she’s still doing that at all but for a long time Paul Dinello was actually writing it. (As her.)

[BoBettie]

I wish she would move into my neighborhood and come over to party with me and be my pal.

[susan]

Amongst those who saw the video were Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello, who saw a resemblance between Fisher and their friend Amy Sedaris. The two men showed Sedaris a copy of the video and, suitably impressed with an impression that Sedaris did of Fisher, they then created a television series based around the concept of Florrie Fisher going back to high school as a student. The result was Strangers with Candy.

Wiki
I was watching the video linked above on my laptop, when someone who looked over my shoulder asked, “Who is that? Jerri Blank?” I see a lot of similarities, with Sedaris obviously exaggerating for effect.