Bee Social: Fat Guy Stuck In Internet Launch Party

If you’re reading this right now, be warned: there’s a fat guy in your Internet. He’s stuck there, and is trying to fight his way back out to reality. So, y’know, watch your pr0n passwords.

Last night was the launch party for Fat Guy Stuck in Internet, Cartoon Network’s newest live-action show airing on their Adult Swim block of programming. Originally created as a series for the monthly short festival Channel 102, Fat Guy follows Ken Gemberling (John Gemberling), a hotshot computer programmer that gets sucked in to the Internet after a freak accident (he poured a beer on his keyboard to prove his badassedness). While trying to find his way out of the Internet, he’s persued by a bounty hunter, hired by his boss in the real world, to hunt Gemberling down and bring him back to pay for the equipment Gemberling destroyed.

These parties are always a sort of victory lap for the people involved, and every part of the back room at Village Pour House was packed in with people eager to celebrate along with the show’s stars and staff. Co-creator/co-star Curtis Gwinn bounced across the room from conversation to conversation, excitedly chatting up his feelings about the show and making sure everyone was having a good time. John Gemberling, the other half of the creative/starring team behind the show, beamed like a proud father while talking up his baby.

Hotshot programmers get all the ch1x

But what of the food? Every table was littered with candy, and the Pour House provided quesadillas, mozz sticks, chicken fingers…basically, a room full of fat guy stuff. One of the pre-show highlights of the evening was watching attractive, well-dressed girls try to look good while inhaling mini-cheeseburgers. There’s a reason they’re not served in the clubs I don’t go to.

Also seen darting through the crowd were some of downtown’s New Comedy Elite™ - Eugene Mirman, Victor Varnado (who has an upcoming role on the show), and Chelsea Peretti.

When last night’s episode aired, a roar emanated from the party. There was a lot of hard work that went in to the show, and it shows. Fat Guy is another of a new string of shows on the block that are drifting away from the post-ironic nature of its earlier programming, and towards a new definition: post-post-ironic? It maintains a lot of the trappings of its predecessor, but also isn’t afraid of emotion.

Fat Guy Stuck In The Internet airs Sundays at 12:15 on Adult Swim. You can catch Gemberling, Gwinn, and co-star Neil Casey with their improv group, Death By Roo Roo, Friday nights at 11:00 pm at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.