Kal Penn will soon have a chance to try his hand at parodying news on TV — specifically, Fox News — in an upcoming single-camera comedy called Fair and Balanced. Penn will be working with Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz, also of Harold & Kumar fame, for this ABC show.
To clarify, this show isn’t going to be a parody along the lines of The Daily Show or The Nightly Show or the late Colbert Report — it’s a narrative show that’ll lampoon actual newsrooms. According to Deadline, the story follows a fictional reporter who aspires to work somewhere like NPR but ends up working at a show that’s similar to Fox News, hence the Fair and Balanced title. So, sort of like The Office or Parks and Rec, except with a group of clueless newscasters?
The show will take some inspiration from real experiences that Penn’s had on the set of various news shows on which he’s appeared as a guest over the course of his career, both as an actor and comedian, and later as an associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. That’s right — Kal Penn’s had a career in politics and comedy! That said, he hasn’t been a newscaster.
What do you think of this idea by the Harold & Kumar alums? Sound like it could be hilarious, or too depressing? When it comes to Fox News, a parody could really go either way.
(via Deadline, image via Tumblr)
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