LOVE THIS GUY

To state that I'm a fan of Danny McBride's work would be an understatement. I think this guy is one of the funniest people on the planet right now, up there with the likes of Kristin Wiig, Sascha Baron Cohen, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone. And McBride is just getting started. His goofy mug might not be totally recognizable yet, but after this summer's impending blockbuster The Land of the Lost opens, he'll really be in the Hollywood spotlight. If you saw last year's two funniest movies -- Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express -- than you might remember him as the loud-mouthed explosives expert in Tropic and as the gun-toting, loyalty-reversing, pot-dealing buffoon named Red in Pineapple.

This guy doesn't just spice up the scenes he appears in -- he OWNS them, completely takes them over, and leaves them in smithereens. At one point, McBride was an aspiring director. He was classmates with filmmaker David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Snow Angels) while in film school, and was offered a spur-of-the-moment chance to act in one of Green's earlier efforts, All the Real Girls. Apparently, an actor had to back out, and Green asked McBride to do him a favor. Thank you, Mr. Green, for getting McBride in front of a camera, because if you hadn't asked him, we might not all be able to enjoy this guy's amazing comedic chops.

McBride was a one-man tour de force in The Foot Fist Way, an amazingly cheap-looking but incredibly funny black comedy directed by up-and-comer Jody Hill, whose latest film, Observe and Report, is getting some seriously strong buzz. The Foot Fist Way was an amazing opportunity for McBride to go all out with a white-trash character that he's now refined to perfection on the new HBO show Eastbound and Down. In Eastbound, McBride plays a washed-up major league baseball pitcher who gets thrown out of the majors and heads back to his hicky hometown to become the gym teacher at his old middle school. Last Sunday's pilot was hysterical, and further proof that McBride and Hill (who co-created, co-wrote, and directed) are a new comedic force to be reckoned with. Their ability to mix the sarcastic with the crude is phenomenal; it's reminiscent of the work being done on the underrated FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

If you aren't familiar with McBride, trust me, rent some of his work and get to know him. You'll be laughing all f'ing night. Here's a link to his IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1144419/