Conover series offers funny crash course on government
Adam Conover is certain that laughing and thinking at the same time is both possible and downright synergistic.
He tested the approach in “Adam Ruins Everything,” in which he punctured conventional wisdom on matters ranging from charity to jaywalking. He’s back with “The G Word” — that’s “G” for government — a six-episode Netflix series now streaming that’s aptly described as a comedydocumentary hybrid.
Comic and writer Conover digs into how the U.S. government affects our daily life in surprising, reassuring or dismaying ways. Pop quiz: Who gave us the beloved Global Positioning System that renders a sense of direction obsolete? The owneroperator feds! Other topics include the federal government’s role in food safety and weather and disease control, and local government’s potential.
“I believe deeply that comedy is a way to communicate real ideas, not just snark, not just writing funny situations, but communicate ideas way down inside people,” Conover said, citing George Carlin as inspiration.
Conover strived to avoid using “The G Word” as a political bullhorn, although Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions is among its makers. The former president trades punchlines with Conover in an opening skit that addresses the connection.
“I felt it was an essential part of the show,” Conover said, and reflects the independence he sought before signing on as the series’ co-creator, writer and host.
This interview with
Conover has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: “The G Word” is based on “The Fifth Risk” by author Michael Lewis. How similar is the series to his 2018 nonfiction book? A: Michael Lewis goes where the story takes him, and he ends up amazing himself at the incredible power and responsibilities of the U.S. government. It employs 1 out of every 16 Americans and very few have any concept of what it does. I’d read the book and loved it. But there’s actually only one story that we used directly from it, and that’s the story of the National Weather Service and weather companies’ attempt to undermine it. The rest of (the series) came from our own elaboration on the perspective and subject matter from the book.
Q: There are die-hard skeptics when it comes to the government and other institutions. How do you try to reach those people beyond being funny?
A: I put myself in the position of, “What if I was watching, what would I think?” I mean, an entire show about the government, is this going to be some piece of propaganda that says the government is great? No, it’s not. But we’re going to take a cleareyed look at all the good and bad ways the government affects our lives, and then I challenge the audience. I say, “Isn’t it weird that we have this national screaming match every single election season, yet most of us don’t know what the government actually does? Don’t you want to know?” Most people will go, “Yeah, I do.” Then they’ll come into the tent, and then I have a chance.
Q: What inspired you to blend humor and the documentary format? A: Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” was the guy I watched every single night. A part of it was because he pioneered a new way of doing comedy, that comedy could be about real things in the real world and could actually move the cultural needle on those issues, could make people think differently. … A big part of my approach has been what can I take from that reality-based comedy and open it up about the rest of human knowledge. … The original piece, that I feel I invented myself, is the idea of doing it in a documentary format where we use all the tools of visual storytelling. I grew up watching shows like “Bill Nye the Science Guy” and Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos.” Where did all those shows go?