Hey, remember that time Jim Halpert played an all-time great prank on Dwight Schrute on The Office in Season 9, in which he got his buddy Steve (played by the fantastic Randall Park) to play himself? And Dwight was so confused at the time, thinking he was going batty?
Well, John Krasinski — who played Jim, of course — brought the prank back to promote his upcoming movie IF, which he wrote, directed, starred in and produced. He got Park to come in and sit with Ryan Reynolds, pretending to be … John Krasinski! It’s all very funny.
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Check it out below, along with the original prank that had us all quite amused back in the day:
Tom Brady nearly came out looking like the hero of this skit — until they mentioned his politics.
Tom Brady wasn’t safe from ridicule on “Saturday Night Live” this week. During a cold open called “What Still Works,” a character played by Kate McKinnon interviews guests on a quest to find out what parts of the country are still functioning properly.
She rules out government, the stock market, social media and the coronavirus vaccine rollout (via an appearance by O.J. Simpson) before calling the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, played by John Krasinksi, to the stage.
She immediately tries to set up Brady as the antidote to the rest of her guests. He’s in his 10th Super Bowl despite being 43-years-old. He joined a Buccaneers franchise that has historically struggled and its fortunes changed. He’s expected to win — and he wins. Tom Brady still works.
Brady admits to McKinnon that, despite all this, few people root for him. And she says she’d be rooting for Brady because he’s “the only damn thing this country can still rely on.”
But, of course, there’s a hitch.
“And it’s not like you’re a weird Trump guy or anything, right?” McKinnon asks.
“Thanks for having me,” Krasinski says before bolting.
Brady’s relationship with Trump took center stage in 2015 when he was spotted with a “Make America Great Again” hat in his locker. When asked if Brady hoped Trump would be president, he showed support for Trump in his election against Hillary Clinton.
“I hope so. It would be great. There would be a putting green on the White House lawn, I’m sure of that,” Brady told reporters.
“Then the whole political aspect came, and I think I got brought into a lot of those things because it was so polarizing around the election time. It was uncomfortable for me, because you can’t — and not that I would undo a friendship — but the political support is so different than support of a friend,” Brady said in an interview with Howard Stern on SiriusXM in April 2020.
There hasn’t been a lot of good stuff that’s come out of 2020.
But there was Some Good News, the YouTube show started and hosted by actor John Krasinski that gave us some happy stuff to watch and learn about during the COVID-19 pandemic. We got so many smiles from the celebrity cameos (including Joe Buck), the art made by people of his show, the Hamilton and Office reunions, and so much more.
But with the holiday season upon us, Krasinski brought us a gift — a Some Good News holiday special that dropped on Sunday with Dwayne Johnson (The Rock!) and some cameos from Justin Timberlake and George Clooney, plus a whole bunch of good, heartwarming stories:
Actor, director and soon-to-be-former Some Good News anchor John Krasinski may have heard all of those criticisms from those who labeled him a “sellout” for taking his YouTube show and selling it to ViacomCBS.
In a chat with his former The Office co-star Rainn Wilson, he didn’t specifically talk about the accusations, but he did explain why he sold it in the first place.
“I was only planning on doing eight of them during quarantine,” he said, “because I have these other things that I’m going to be having to do very soon, like Jack Ryan and all this other stuff. But more than that, it was something that — writing, directing, and producing, all those things, with a couple of my friends was so much.”
“I knew it wouldn’t be sustainable with my prior commitments,” Krasinski added. “So I knew the two options always were going to be that I leave it off at eight in my office, which I would love to keep doing the show from my office forever. It just wasn’t sustainable.”
This makes the most sense. If he was just a guy who found fame through Some Good News, perhaps selling it would feel weird. But he’s got a lot of other irons in the fire, and continuing to produce/write/direct/star in the series was just too much.
For eight weeks, we’ve been blessed to watch episodes of Some Good News with actor John Krasinski hosting from his home, sharing some amazing things happening during a horrifically awful time in the world.
After it appeared he signed off for a while in episode 8, there was, uh, some news about Some Good News: ViacomCBS acquired it, with Krasinski reportedly bowing out as host but staying on as executive producer, per Deadline.
That led to some accusations of selling out from social media, and we here at For The Win have some thoughts on that. Here’s a debate on the topic:
No, Krasinski isn’t “selling out”
I honestly don’t know all the behind-the-scenes stuff with how Some Good News was produced. But I can imagine it was a heavy lift for Krasinski and whoever he was working with to put together these huge episodes and magical moments. There was the technical work to get everyone on video chat, the collecting of viral videos, writing the script, etc.
So it wasn’t going to last forever, and frankly, I’d rather have more SGN than no SGN. And let’s all remember entertainment is a business. Something as magical as this was never going to sit in its own bubble forever. My hope is with the actor still attached, it’ll keep its mostly amateurish feel to it and the heart that made us go back every Monday to see what Krasinski and Co. pulled off. — Charles Curtis
Krasinski should have let it be
Not everything needs to be flipped for a profit.
The appeal of Krasinski’s SGN was that it had a homemade, low-budget feel that gave the product it’s authenticity. Krasinski nailed the formula from the start — a Weekend Update style broadcast that focused on good things, was intermittently funny and relied heavily on famous guest stars.
That people immediately wanted to take it off his hands and repackage it for a ton of money is not a surprise. Neither is the fact that he sold it, though I really wished that he had let it die. SGN was a delightful internet show, and turning it into some kind of network packaged special is sure to backfire. What made his clips go viral was their sincerity. That’s impossible to replicate at the hands of a behemoth like Viacom. The show also had a singular editorial vision and zero advertising.
Now, all SGN viral clips are going to be brought to you by Tide or Geico or some other major company desperately trying to squeeze even more money out of you. SGN was a great thing because it was just Krasinski goofing around in his house and getting his famous friends together to spread a few smiles for people stuck at home. He should have just let it be that, and remain a positive, happy memory for people. Now, it’s going to turn into corporate, unwatchable schmaltz. But hey, at least a rich man got a few bucks richer. — Hemal Jhaveri
Joe Buck’s play-by-play of a race to empty the dishwasher is so good.
In these scary and uncertain times as people are hunkered down in their homes (as much as possible) during the coronavirus pandemic, John Krasinski has been bringing some fun and heartwarming moments to the internet with his new YouTube show, Some Good News.
Krasinski’s shift to sports in this episode begins just after the 5:20 mark, while Buck joins in about two minutes later, impressively calling a woman playing a version of pop-a-shot with her laundry and some guy racing to empty his dishwasher in less than a minute.
After Buck’s delightful appearance, Kransinski went on to talk about why, in this world without sports, he misses baseball so much.
“For me, and I’m sure a lot of you, the calendar year just really doesn’t feel the same until that Opening-Day pitch is thrown out,” he explained while introducing highlights of kids playing baseball.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, @johnkrasinski.
Krasinski also celebrated the people in healthcare who are tirelessly working during the COVID-19 outbreak. And he even brought in David Ortiz, the Red Sox and people around Massachusetts for a surprise during a trip to Fenway Park.
John Krasinski seems to be eyeing a spot in “Fantastic Four.”
It’s immediately obvious that John Krasinski is a good fit for the Marvel universe.
His work in comedy (“The Office”), thriller/action (“Jack Ryan”) and thriller/horror (“Quiet Place”) make for an impressive body of work, and one that would fit nicely into what Marvel seems to do so well: putting the universe at stake without sacrificing jocularity.
So it should come as little surprise that Krasinski made an appeal to the MCU overlords in an attempt to get him in on the action-packed universe. Krasinski seems to be eyeing a spot in the reboot of “Fantastic Four” as Reed Richards (or the elastic Mister Fantastic).
“You’re like, ‘Do you have any interest in not shattering people’s dreams?'” Krasinski told TotalFilm.com in a recent interview. “I would love to be in the Marvel universe. I love those movies because they’re fun, but I also think they’re really well done. And certainly a lot of my friends are in those movies. I have no idea what [Marvel] are thinking. But if they are considering me for Mr. Fantastic, continue to consider me because I would love it.”
Would he have any interest in directing one?
“Oh man, directing one of those things? I don’t think I’m your guy,” he said. “But if I was to act in one? I’d have so much fun.”
Perhaps Krasinski is too good of a fit: another handsome, jacked, white man. And perhaps Marvel needs to stray away from his type as they get into Phase 5. Krasinski was in the mix to earn a role as Captain America, which ultimately went to Chris Evans. Krasinski even admitted he was glad to see Evans get the role, because it allowed Krasinski to work on his abilities as a writer and director. But perhaps he’s still got some FOMO, because he’s practically begging to get into the MCU.
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