Peacock's Bust Down

Let me start off by sending my love to Jak Knight, and his family. I was Googling the show to get the summary for this article and found out he passed. I was absolutely shocked. He was a great comedian. He passed at 28 years old. Jak Knight created Bust Down and played Jak. He was executive story director and wrote one episode for abc's black-ish season 6, which aired from 2019 to 2020. He also has multiple credits for Netflix's Big Mouth. He voiced DeVon, was story editor for season 2, and a staff writer for season 1. He wrote 3 episodes between 2019 and 2021. Now, I just listed the credits that I think my readers would know of, but there's more. He has quite an interesting career, especially considering his young age. Here is his IMDb page. Thank you, Jak Knight, for your entertaining contributions to the world. Rest in Peace.

Recently (July 6), I watched the Peacock sitcom Bust Down. I heard about it a little bit before it came out, from Zack Fox's Instagram. I thought he was in it, which was my main interest because he was so hilarious on Abbott Elementary. He only made a brief appearance, but his actual role was writer. So basically, I came for Zack Fox who was not really a character, but stayed because I enjoyed the show greatly. I forgot about Bust Down and only remembered it recently when looking for a good sitcom.

This is the description on peacock's website: "BUST DOWN stars Jak Knight, Langston Kerman, Sam Jay and Chris Redd as four casino employees living dead-end lives with dead-end jobs in middle America, and the massive mess they manage to make out of it." This show is set in Gary, Indiana. Here is the trailer.

The beginning of the first episode kind of threw me. There was just so much going on! Chris Redd's character, Chris, (The 4 main characters have the same first name as the actors), is absolutely crazy. he is just a very ridiculous man. At first, I was kind of like, "Ew, get your life together", but he grew on me. A ham character is nothing new, but Chris' brand of ham was a new level of ridiculous I had never seen before. By the end of that first episode though, I knew the show was good and would entertain me, although I completed it in a day, seeing as it only had 6 episodes.

I'd like to discuss the main 4 characters, Chris, Langston, Jak, and Sam, as well as their superior, Chauncey, and Sam's girlfriend, Nina. They each have a certain charm

Like I mentioned before, Chris is the largest ham I have ever come across in my sitcom career. What is a ham, you may ask. Well, I'll explain. I read the website tvtropes, and it has definitely influenced my vocabulary. A Large Ham is basically an over-the-top character. This extravagance can give them different impressions, like cool or weird, but there is still always a tiny air of comedy because of the level of extravagance in their words and actions. For example, Donald Trump is a ham in real life. Another example is the Asgardians in the MCU. If you google the term, you will find more information about it. I need to get back to my review.

Chris is a large ham. I am going to attach some YouTube clips.

In this episode, the characters were at church. This episode was probably one of the funniest. The new pastor was super awkward and the congregation was not messing with him at all. Chris steps in to be the new pastor, and that's where this YouTube clip cuts off. This is such an example of his ham power. From the moment he opens his mouth, you already know it's gonna be some BS. Watch all the way through for full comedic effect.

This clip can also be used for Sam and Nina. Nina is Sam's girlfriend. She's a side character, but quite enjoyable. Sam is a member of the gang. She has an established life with Nina, but cheats on her and regrets it deeply. Sam is the most serious one out of the group. She is still quite funny though, as this clip demonstrates.

Next is Langston, who is the second ham. He is so funny! He is like a whiny light skin stereotype, and it's definitely on purpose. He enjoys gossiping with old ladies at church, as well as social justice, which he usually gets bullied for. The show does not do a good job promoting itself, so there is not much on YouTube. I'm going to screen record the clips I want to use for my favorite moments of Langston.

Ok, so I could not get the screen recording with audio. Whatever, you can always go watch the show. That is what I'm trying to get people to do here lol. There are subtitles at least.

(Okay. I kept getting copyrighted for this video, but not the Jak video for some reason, so I can't show his outburst at the cookout. ☹️ )

Langston is in the other clip from YouTube (They only have 2 clips on YouTube in total. Somebody hire me as publicist, please.) but I don't feel it really demonstrates his comedic factor. I do want to have some video though, so this is it.

Now, we move on to Jak.

Jak is Chris' younger cousin. He's very weird. Langston and Chris are ham weird, while Jak is weird in a manchild way, but I don't mean manchild like a total loser. He's like Andy from Parks and Rec. They're just big kids. In this clip, Jak has waged a war against sperm banks. Why? Watch Episode 2 and find out. By the way, that person talking about moonwalking is Chris, trying to advertise himself as a viable sperm donor to people in the lobby.

Finally is Chauncey, but the clip I want to share of him is a spoiler. Just watch the show! I've done a lot of work here. The life of a blogger is tough. Wow.

Something cool about Bust Down is it is a black show that's not about blackness. Yeah, the characters live normal black lives, but its premise isn't an analysis or representation of the Black American experience. (cough, cough, black-ish... I am looking at you!) No shade to black-ish though, I enjoyed it a lot, it was just corny at times. Meanwhile, Bust Down is just really fun. One reviewer described it as "raw, black tomfoolery" which I think is quite an apt description. They're just some black people who have fun together! Social issues are also addressed but it's in no way corny. I can try to explain it all day, but come on. This show is 6 episodes. Go watch it.

Ok, everybody, please watch Bust Down. Due to Jak Knight's death, there may not be another season, so please watch the season of this comedic genius of a series that he and his colleagues were able to release and relish it.

I believe this post took me around 2 hours. #bloggerlife lol. The thing that took up a lot of time was the videos, because I screenrecorded, cut in Premiere Pro, then uploaded to YouTube. Premiere Pro and YouTube both need time to export and upload, respectively. Then I had the copyright issues and whatnot. Overall though, I'm happy with this post. If you made it here, thanks for reading.