Reboot's Johnny Knoxville Would Watch A Whole Spin-Off About The Writers

On Hulu's "Reboot" (not to be confused with "ReBoot," the 1994 Canadian computer-animated sci-fi series), in the ongoing conflict between co-showrunners Hannah (Rachel Bloom) and her father Gordon (Paul Reiser), the writers each one hired end up taking sides in the generational battle. That generational divide is an absolute comedy goldmine, from the moments of the senior writers trying to understand the delicacies and intricacies of lesbian intimacy to the younger writers having to deal with listening to the older writers' gastrointestinal issues.

Some of the humor in the writers' room comes from real-life experience. Korama Danquah, who plays the young writer Janae in the series, is actually a staff writer for the "iCarly" reboot (per IMDb), and Dan Leahy, who also plays one of the young writers named Benny, was a writer on a little-known LGBTQ+ talk show called "Culture Q" (per IMDb). Of course, Rachel Bloom herself was both the star and showrunner of The CW series "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." In an interview with Black Girl Nerds, Bloom mentioned that her experience as a showrunner was a big part of why she was interested in the role of the showrunner of the show-within-the-show.

Johnny Knoxville, most famous for his long-running MTV stunt and prank show "Jackass," plays Clay Barber on the show, the dirty stand-up comedian who acts on a wholesome family sitcom, much like the late Bob Saget. Clay is not a part of the writers' room shenanigans, but Knoxville seems to be a massive fan of the writers' room scenes, to the point where he would be happy just watching the writers on their own show.

In an interview with Variety, Johnny Knoxville was asked which things about Hollywood "Reboot" gets right, and Knoxville singled out the scenes in the writers' room for praise. "[T]he writers' room on the show is one of my favorite parts," the notorious daredevil told Variety. "I would watch a whole show on the writers. Horrible things come out of [co-star] Rose Abdoo's mouth — she's so funny. You just have two different generations that grew up with two different senses of humor and what you could say then and what you can't say now. That's real."

In a joint interview with both Rachel Bloom and Paul Reiser for Collider, Reiser talked about how having the younger writers correct the older writers allowed them to make offensive jokes and then negate them by having someone point out that you can't say those things anymore. Bloom, for her part, talked about the generational battle between Hanna and Gordon as a driving force in the show. "It's one of the most fundamental relationships we have, the relationship between a parent and a child," Bloom said. "It's maybe one of the most fundamental formative relationships of our lives. In this generational clash, it's not only a work clash, it's also literally clashing with your previous genetic material. There's nothing more primal than that." So, even more than just providing such a rich source for comedy, the show's generational divide also provides its drama.