It’s hard to imagine Kenneth the Page being mean to anyone, but, unlike his most famous character, Jack McBrayer is no angel.
Out of all the mainstay comedic character actors of the 21st century, McBrayer, beloved supporting star of 30 Rock, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Wreck-It Ralph series, has to have the single most squeaky-clean public image in the business. Now the host of the HGTV reality show Zillow Gone Wild, McBrayer, 52, has maintained the same lovable, folksy, Georgia-born peppiness for his entire career, in spite of the consistent Hollywood workplace abuse that he used to suffer at the hands of Conan O’Brien. However, as McBrayer revealed on last night’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, he picked up a few nasty habits from the old Late Night host, and he’s not afraid to use them on unsuspecting children.
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Despite McBrayer’s upbeat public persona, everyone in show business has a dark side, and McBrayer chooses to unleash his mean streak on his co-stars’ kids. But, don’t worry, these famous offspring absolutely love it when McBrayer gives them an impromptu celebrity roast.
At the top of the interview, Meyers recalled running into McBrayer at a recent reunion for the lauded Amsterdam improv theater Boom Chicago, despite the fact that McBrayer isn’t an alumni of the troupe. Seeing as Meyers and his old improv buddies now all have families, the reunion was an all-ages event, and McBrayer shined with the younger audience.
“Kids love Jack McBrayer,” Meyers said with a puzzled look on his face. “But you have a very strange approach to getting kids to like you.”
McBrayer explained, “Okay, hear me out: I am… I tease kids.”
“You’re mean to them!” Meyers corrected. “Every time my son walked over to you, you went, *condescending voice* ‘You again?’”
As McBrayer admitted, that’s not exactly how people usually want the star of a kids’ movie franchise to talk to children. “On paper, this sounds horrible,” McBrayer started, “but they know I’m just playing, and what I love is that they play back!”
“They wanna go over and be mean to you!” Meyers said of the kids’ response to McBrayer’s burns. “I think they just love that there’s this person that they feel very safe around who’s just so shitty to them.” Meyers added of the kids’ insult comedy routine, “You literally are like, ‘Oh my God, is your story not over?!?!’”
As the pictures of the entire Boom Chicago reunion kids’ table crowding around McBrayer for a hug demonstrate, clearly, kids have thicker skins than we give them credit for, and there is a real untapped market for kid-oriented roast comedy. If only Jack Donaghy were an executive at Viacom, then Kenneth could definitely get Comedy Central Roasts: Kids’ Edition greenlit.
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