by Fred Topel
“You can call me Dani Pudi all you want, with an I.”
-Danny Pudi
The ultimate Community fan encounter might be to be a guest on “Troy and Abed in the Morning” at Greendale Community College. I’ll settle for evening empanadas with Danny Pudi. At NBC’s party for the Television Critics Association, I found Pudi mingling early in the night. We found a corner table to sit at for an interview, and grabbed the hors d’oeuvres that came by.
Very quickly into Community’s premiere, Abed became a scene stealer. His socially awkward deadpan comments pointed out any TV cliché the show would fall into. By episode two, he and Donald Glover made Troy and Abed the standout duo who would close each show during the credits.
Abed remains responsible for much of the show’s meta humor. Abed’s perspective turned the show into stop motion animation for the Christmas episode, and he explained the term “bottle episode” for audiences. It meant the entire cast stays in one location, often used by shows to save costs on other sets.
The sit down interview with Pudi quickly became a meta analysis of interviews. I had some questions prepared but his tangents were more interesting so I followed them. He asked me several questions about my week covering the new TV lineup and yes, he really does talk that fast in real life.
Read our exclusive interview with Danny Pudi on SuicideGirls.com.
