“Mythic Quest misplaced lots of good folks… once we fired them,” says David Bricklesbee (performed by David Hornsby) within the first episode of Mythic Quest Season 4.
The office comedy a few dysfunctional sport growth studio does not waste any time referencing the most important sport business development of the previous two years: mass layoffs. Bricklesbee, the studio’s government producer, addresses the challenges the fictional studio has confronted since final season, like Covid. Specifically, the finish of Covid, which introduced the tip of sky-high income and thus mass layoffs.
While Season 4 does not focus closely on the layoff scenario (which continued this week, considerably satirically, with Ubisoft, who produces Mythic Quest, shuttering one other studio and shedding practically 200 staff), the subject does pop up infrequently all through the season.
“This isn’t 2020. The Covid bubble has burst,” David says in one other episode when requested to rent extra workers members.
“Dude, the videogame business made 56 billion {dollars} final yr,” says Rachel Meyee (performed by Ashly Burch).
“Yeah, down from 60 billion. We’re down 4 billion {dollars}. Do we all know if one other world pandemic is coming?” David says. “I imply, we hope. I imply, not for the dying and all that stuff, that is horrible. But we made a lot cash.”
During a Mythic Quest press junket performed over Zoom, I spoke to a number of of the present’s creators and writers: Rob Mc Elhenney, co-creator, government producer, and actor who performs Mythic Quest’s founder Ian Grimm (and co-creator of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia); Megan Ganz, co-creator, government producer, and author; and Ashly Burch, author, co-producer, and actor. I requested them concerning the problem of threading the needle in the case of making jokes about such a critical matter.
“This is precisely the sort of factor we speak about on [It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia] yearly,” Rob McElheney mentioned. “We’ve acquired 20 years of expertise of all the time strolling that line. Especially for those who’re making satire, it truly turns into a little bit bit simpler, since you’re recognizing that these usually are not actual folks that you simply’re speaking about. On Sunny, it is basically a stay motion cartoon about sociopaths. But in Mythic Quest, it is actual folks in an actual business.”
“We talked about lots of various things that had been occurring within the business this season,” mentioned Ashly Burch. “There’s the [Season 4] episode about AI that is not precisely associated, however talks lots about business layoffs. It’s sort of troublesome, it is exhausting to make it humorous.”
“It’s a tough factor for us to take a look at, particularly as a result of lots of our central beloved characters are administration, in order that they’re a part of the people who do the shedding, versus lots of the people who get laid off,” mentioned Megan Ganz.
“It was a little bit bit exhausting, however we attempt to discover comedic slants on it,” Ganz mentioned. “Like, our [QA] testers are actually two outdated white guys [played by Sunny alums Andrew Friedman and Michael Naughton] as a result of we figured that was a humorous solution to touch upon… The solely sorts of jobs that they are going to have the ability to get now are these low degree jobs,” mentioned Ganz. “But it’s a troublesome matter.”
“It is one thing I take into consideration lots, particularly with the quantity of layoffs that occurred final yr and what number of firms had been affected,” Burch mentioned. “And if we get a Season 5, possibly we are able to discover a humorous angle into it. But it is simply such a miserable factor that is occurring within the business.”
“If you make a comedy, as everyone knows, there’s a huge distinction between making one thing the topic of a joke or the butt of a joke, and that’s one thing we’re all the time asking ourselves. Well, wait, what is the joke? Is the joke concerning the business and the hypocrisy inside the business?” McElhenney mentioned.
“Is it punching down? Or is it punching up? Those are all the time the questions that we’re all the time asking ourselves, and we wish to consider that we get it proper 100% of the time, however we do not,” he mentioned. “We typically swing and miss, and typically we swing and the fist lands proper again squarely on our nostril. We do our greatest.”
