As per the title. Sometime in the past couple years, this Hardwick guy has somehow started turning up in every media arena I happen to stumble across. Talking Dead, Talking Bad, some game show on Comedy Central, various things on G4 or Esquire or whatever that channel is called this week, and it turns out that’s that’s just traditional TV. Seems he’s a multimedia sensation. I went to his Wikipedia page (of course it goes on forever), and found this:
Well, fer cryin’ out loud, there’s the source of half the current unemployment rate right there. Didja ever think there might be other stand-up comedians, MCs, actors, writers, musicians, podcasters, television personalities, and voice artists looking for work out there? Choose any two, job hog.
Personally, I’m not much of a fan, what with his reproachful skinniness and his hipster near-beard and his hyperactive, puppylike demeanor, but obviously I’m in the minority. I was baffled by this, just as I am always baffled by people not agreeing with my every opinion, until I read further down his bio and uncovered this tidbit:
OK, so now I get it. Y’all are celebrating the fact that it would be simply impossible to have a more American background than this Hardwick guy. Well, I’m still seeing and hearing way too much of him. Wake me when he’s over.
G4 is still G4. Though rumors have it shutting down in January. After they axed all the original G4 programming, they waited until almost time to launch and decided “hey, not enough providers carry G4, so let’s kill another station instead” and wound up killing off Style. They killed two networks with one rebranding! I’m gonna miss the Lost reruns when G4 finally gets shuttered, though…
Anyway, back to Hardwick, he also has a talk show on BBC America.
He’s a very competent, charismatic host. He has a quick wit and a deep interest in particular kinds of nerdy programming, something most hosts do not have. He’s the Ryan Seacrest of a particular sub-genre of TV, and does it very well.
It comes in bursts. For six months of the year he’s barely visible outside of his own Nerdist projects.
I don’t find him all that funny, but I do appreciate his enthusiasm for all things nerdy. He does a pretty good job of hosting shows like Talking Dead, in that he is knowledgeable about the show and the genre, he interacts well with guests, and he keeps things moving along. GuanoLad’s Ryan Seacrest comparison is a good one.
He is all over the place right now, though, and I agree that it would be nice to have a little more variety when it comes to nerd/fandom shows.
It wasn’t until a few days ago that I realized that all the different people were him. I was listening to him doing some stand-up on my radio and liked it so when I got back to work I tried to find the clip. Imagine my surprise when I got half way through typing his name into Google and in the drop down box I saw Chris Hardwick Talking Dead. I thought to myself…Oh, that did sound like him…I don’t watch the show, but I see the commercials. Okay, makes sense. And then I typed some more and saw Chris Hardwick Nerdist…wait what? I’ve only ever seen one episode of that on TV because it was with Wil Wheaton and Nathon Fillion but I didn’t even think about it being with the Talking dead guy, wow, he’s everywhere.
Plus, if the segue he used in his stand up act is true he does a ton of voice work for cartoons.
While I like the Nerdist podcast, he’s an affable friendly interviewer without being – most of the time – slobbery. But I’ve not really cared for him elsewhere.
I actually enjoyed the first episode of the new Comedy Central game show but found the next day when I tried to watch the second episode that the concept was already worn out for me.
I guess so, but on the last Talking Dead, throughout most of the show he looked as though he thought Marilyn Manson was, at any moment, just going to detonate right there on the sofa.
Well, chalk it up to the extreme fragmentation of the modern media audience, I guess. As mentioned, he’s basically the current poster boy for the hipster nerd. Will Wheaton apparently was his college roommate: there ya go.
I’m now wondering why he hasn’t had a guest shot on Big Bang Theory yet.
Just to fill in his bio a little bit, he’s the son of professional bowler Billy Hardwick who was ranked at #12 on a 2008 list of 50 greatest bowlers of all time. Chris is also a great bowler and appeared as a child on some news program demonstrating his skill.
Chris Hardwick was also the original host of Singled Out w/ Jenny McCarthy on MTV back in the mid-90’s.
I had a crush on him on that show and remember thinking he was way too bright for it. I don’t remember examples, but I remember he made some really witty ad libs and they totally flew over the heads of McCarthy and the hormonal contestants.
I still have a bit of a crush on him. For one thing he has great nerd abs.
