Barry Is The Master Of The Background Gag And Season 4 Proves It
Spoilers for "Barry" follow.
Despite how dark and dramatic the show has progressively become "Barry" is a comedy series. The latest episode of season 4, "you're charming," featured a gag that the series has used before with very funny results.
Last season, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) helped put Barry (Bill Hader) behind bars with a sting operation. Despite a promise not to talk to the media, Gene couldn't resist the spotlight. In the previous episode, "bestest place on the earth," he dug his own grave by talking with Vanity Fair reporter Lon O'Neil (Patrick Fischler). Worse, Gene didn't settle for a simple interview — he performed a one-man show recounting his entire relationship with Barry and forgot to request anonymity until after the performance was over.
In "you're charming," the Los Angeles D.A. tells Gene and his agent Tom (Fred Melamed) about Barry cutting a deal with the FBI for immunity. Gene is terrified the soon-to-be-free Barry will kill him and confesses what he did to Tom. After Tom crashes his car from shock, he and Gene head to O'Neil's house to destroy the evidence. While Gene distracts Lon's wife in the house, Tom finds his computer and throws it into the backyard pool.
This all happens simultaneously; as Gene and Mrs. O'Neil start talking, Tom disappears offscreen. The former two settle in front of the house's back window, positioned on either side of the frame's foreground. This leaves enough room in the center for Tom, who surreptitiously re-enters the scene to be visible in the background — the viewer notices him destroying the computer, but Gene and Mrs. O'Neil don't. The viewer's omniscience mixed with the characters' obliviousness is the comic core of scenes like this, as "Barry" has shown several times.
Barry's background gags
The first time "Barry" used such a background gag was its second-ever episode, "Chapter Two: Use It." Barry visits his handler Fuches (Stephen Root) at his hotel and then takes a call from Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg). As Barry is talking on the deck, armed men burst into Fuches' room and attack him. Fuches fails at trying to fight back and get the oblivious Barry's attention.
The framing of this scene is different than in "you're charming." In "Use It," Barry is on the right edge of a frame taken up by a paneled door. This leaves plenty of space for us to look in at the action unfolding with Fuches. The camera even goes to a wider shot once the door gets busted in; our focus goes from just Barry to two things happening simultaneously.
Another gag of this sort is in season 3, episode 2, "limonada." Gene is trying to flee Barry and winds up running through backyards in suburban LA. He stumbles into one that has a whole pack of dogs waiting for him. The inhabitants of the house are having dinner; one is leaving the other because she has "too many dogs." As she says this, we see at least two dozen dogs run past the window toward Gene.
All three of these episodes were directed by Bill Hader himself, so it's safe to say these moments are part of his artistic thumbprint. Hader was already a renowned comedian and actor, but "Barry" let him prove his chops as a filmmaker. "Characters in the foreground oblivious to the background" is cinematic comedy at its best.
Why are these background gags funny?
The background gags of "Barry" could only unfold in a visual medium. They can't be done in prose and while photos or paintings can convey a similar effect, the comedy comes from watching the action unfold; that requires motion. That's what makes these background gags cinematic comedy; they have a similar effect as a split-screen but with the catch of unfolding in the same space.
That makes framing all the important; the viewer needs to see both the foreground and background clearly. "you're charming," which depicts the O'Neil's house via an unbroken tracking shot, even establishes the pool ahead of time by showing it through the back window. Even before the joke hits, the scene is foreshadowing the relevance — that is some good fundamental filmmaking.
Sound is no less important. Notice Fuches' muffled screams in "Use It" — the fight is audible but not clear because Barry isn't paying attention. If you make the sound too loud, that illusion is gone. The reduced sound also adds to the comedy; in "you're charming," Tom shouts "Hi-yah" when he throws the hard drive in the pool, which is funnier than him doing it silently.
So which "Barry" background gag is the best? I'd say the physical comedy is best in "Use It" — it's the longest and most complex of the three scenes. However, the impact is undercut because the scene cuts between Barry and Sally (who's in another location). This is unavoidable since they're on a phone call, and we need to hear both sides of the conversation, but the goal of these gags is simultaneity in the same setting. The later scenes are quicker, but more tightly constructed, again showing Hader's growth as a filmmaker.
"Barry" airs on HBO Sunday at 10pm ET and arrives on HBO Max at the same time.