‘In the Know’ sends up NPR culture

A cursory glance at right-wing obsessions tells us that “woke” culture drives some people crazy. But is it funny?

Peacock streams the new stop-motion animation satire “In the Know.” Co-creator and producer Zach Woods provides the voice of its star, Lauren Caspian, touted here as “the third most popular radio personality on NPR.” The series reunites Woods (“The Office” and “Veep”) with Mike Judge “Silicon Valley”). Judge is also the creator and producer of “King of the Hill” and “Beavis and Butt-Head.” In short, he’s been satirizing various corners of society for more than a generation.

“In the Know” takes dead aim at all the softspoken hyper-sensitivity and upper-middle-class white entitlement passed off as “awareness” that can make listening to NPR shows so cringeworthy. Caspian seems like a sexless blend of longtime interviewer Terry Gross and story collector Ira Glass.

He’s first seen prepping for a show in his bathroom mirror, getting his delivery right before dissolving into self-adoration. He’s convinced that despite his weak chin, sunken chest and receding hairline, everyone sees him as a god. After regaling his beleaguered staff with tales of his street “activism,” we discover that it basically entails his very self-conscious effort to make eye contact with a homeless (correction, “unhoused”) person on the street. When his assistant offers a simple “Have a good show,” Caspian assumes that he said, “You’re my hero.”

Caspian’s character makes for a rather onenote joke. Unlike Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier Crane, another pompous radio personality, there seems no space for self-deprecation or any room for Caspian to change, grow or redeem himself. His office mates are similarly cipher-deep, consisting of an angry boomer-hating lesbian who appears allergic to everything and everybody, as well as at least two boomer stereotypes, an old hippie (voiced by Judge) and a grayhaired “mom” of a station manager so eager not to make waves that she can’t bring herself to “bother” the police about her husband’s recent murder.

“In the Know” has one interesting twist that may rescue it from its onedimensionality. In every show, Caspian interviews a real three-dimensional human guest, who appears remotely, as if on Zoom. Over the course of the season, Caspian will share entirely too much information about himself with Kaia Gerber, Ken Burns, Finn Wolfhard, Norah Jones, Nicole Byer, Roxane Gay, Hugh Laurie and Jorge Masvidal. Ultimately, these guest spots offer a distraction from “In the Know,” not reason enough to watch it.