John Hodgman: Ragnarok (Video 2013)

John Hodgman: Ragnarok: Directed by Lance Bangs. With John Hodgman, Scott Adsit, Cynthia J. Hopkins, Joel Ronson. The deranged millionaire John Hodgman plays his last Ragnarok stand-up comedy show on the last day of human history: December 21, 2012.

“John Hodgman with a Brooklyn stage to himself and a pretty good premise (a comedic monologue on the eve of the Mayan apocalypse) sounds like a good time. Meh, not so much. The brainy Hodgman struggles to stretch the premise of himself as a wealthy eccentric survivalist lecturing to unprepared Brooklynites out to what we can assume was a contractually obligated hour. He pulls an English fourteen year old out of the audience (who suspiciously seemed like he had stage experience) and just gets nowhere trying to improvise with him. He pointlessly pulls u0026quot;30 Rocku0026quot;u0026#39;s Scott Adsit on stage for stooge work with Adsit clearly somewhat at a loss as to something witty to respond with. Eventually, he throws mayonnaise packets at the crowd which goes over about as funny as it sounds. The occasional good line does bubble up particularly in the prepared materials but any funny gets lost by those moments where things come to a stop and he searches for the next idea. In short, even if expectations were more modest, this still wouldnu0026#39;t live up to them.”