If you've watched the past five seasons of The League, you've no doubt picked up a few additions to your vocabulary. The show, created by Jeff and Jackie Schaffer, has built its own universe of inside jokes and slang, which recur through the episodes. The show is built from episode outlines that are largely improvised during shooting so a lot of the ongoing bits have come from random places rather than a script. "A lot of later things come from stuff that's generated onset doing our live rewrites," Jeff notes. "It's one of the benefits to having a cast that is also all writers. An amazing amount of comedy gets generated every day."
The show enters its sixth season tonight on FXX and we wanted to know the origin of some of the show's most memorable jokes. We enlisted Jackie and Jeff, along with cast members Jon LaJoie, Paul Scheer, Katie Aselton, Steve Rannazzisi, and Jason Mantzoukas, to help explain how these weird ideas came to live in the world.
First appeared: 102 "The Bounce Test"
Backstory: Early in the show, it was established that eskimo brothers are two guys who've slept with the same girl. Taco, played by LaJoie, uses his eskimo brother network to get things done. "I read that episode's outline and I just assumed that eskimo brothers was a thing that was out in the world," LaJoie said. "I Googled it and nothing came up. I was too embarrassed to ask at first. But in reality it was only Jeff." Jeff himself stole the term from writer Billy Kimball in 1992. "I'm not even sure if that's what he meant when he was saying it," Jeff admits. "But it's something that stuck with me forever."
Recurrence: "From then on, eskimo brothers has been an integral part of my character and his life and his world," LaJoie says. "Which is insane and also totally makes sense for Taco." A few seasons later, LaJoie wrote a theme song for the term and enlisted the help of Snoop Dogg, who created the official eskimo brothers salute. "People come up to us at live shows and tell us they are eskimo brothers with their friend," says Scheer, who plays Andre. "I don't want to know that. Nor should you be that psyched about it!"
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First appeared: 208 "The Tie"
Backstory: In season two it emerged that whenever Rannazzisi's Kevin is frightened he gets an erection. "That's one where I was like, 'Wait, what happens?'" Rannazzisi says. "And then I had to put a dildo in my pants and walk down the street with it. It played really well. People still yell 'fear boner' at me at standup shows." Scheer clarifies, "A fear boner is different than an anticiperection, which is when you get erect before the time is right."
Recurrence: The idea of the fear boner has spun off into other incarnations, including murder boner, which is something Rafi claims he gets when he's threatening a human life. "I was just hyping on the fear boner," Mantzoukas, who plays Rafi, says. "It was an improvised bit knowing what they'd done before. The lexicon of this group apparently involved monikered boners." Jeff notes, "Fear boner has created a flowering tree's worth of other types of boners. You have to be careful not to use those too much. They have to be supported by the story."
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First appeared: 105 "The Usual Bet"
Backstory: "Frittata" was a fill-in during an episode in which Taco and Ruxin make fun of a person who appears to have slightly lesser intelligence. "We can't use the word 'retarded,'" Rannazzisi says. "So very early on Nick Kroll was like, 'Instead of retarded I use frittata.' It was funny and that's what we do now."
Recurrence: This one makes its way into a lot of episodes, usually organically and often in reference to Taco. "It has really gotten into our vernacular," Scheer says. "It's a subtle one that people don't always realize. That was never a word before this show, but now I hear other people saying it. It encompasses a lot of different words and a lot of different insults."
First appeared: 210 "High School Reunion"
Backstory: Toward the end of season two, Taco is on a mission to document Ruxin's vinegar strokes. "That was in the script," LaJoie says. "The explanation was right after the use of the term and completely makes sense. It's the face that you make right before orgasm that looks like a teaspoon of vinegar was put up to your nose." Jeff lifted the term from his own fantasy football message board after a friend used it in passing. "I was like, 'That's amazing,'" Jeff says.
Recurrence: Part of the joke is that Taco believes you can see into someone's soul during their vinegar strokes and ends up staring a lot of characters in the face during orgasm. "One of my favorites was that I got to look at Jeff Goldblum as he pretended to orgasm," LaJoie says. Aselton's Jenny got her own chance in the season-four premiere. "I was like, 'Wait, I'm sorry — I'm pregnant and masturbating in a car and the guys all catch me? Okay,'" Aselton says of shooting her vinegar strokes scene. "I swallowed all my fear and horror and then that face came out. Masturbating and opening my eyes to Nick Kroll peeking in through the window, with a camera right in my face, was pretty horrifying."
First appeared: 106 "The Shiva Bowl"
Backstory: Kevin, who has a history with the namesake of the league's trophy, Shiva, ran into an alley and screamed her name in the first season. For Jackie and Jeff, it was a logical addition to the story that Kevin wouldn't be able to contain his excitement at seeing his high school girlfriend again. Not so much for Rannazzisi. "I remember getting that script and being like, 'What does this mean? I don't understand any of the references,'" Rannazzisi says. "We shot the scene where I can't control myself and I have to Shiva blast. They were like, 'Just do it.' I ran out and I screamed, 'Shivakamini Somakandarkram.' It took me forever to get the name right."
Recurrence: Rannazzisi has been happy to pass the torch on this one. "Usually someone else will do it once a year," he says. "I think Kroll did it last year. I don't look forward to that every year." It's a source of ongoing amusement for the creators, though. "Watching our cast try to learn the name was amazing," Jeff says. "One of the things we love about the show is that it's all about what these guys used to be like in high school. They're still like that. You're coming into 15 years later. We like that they have a deep history and we don't have to explain it. A Shiva blast is one of those things."
First appeared: 204 "The Kluneberg"
Backstory: In the second season Rafi made an offhand reference to his friend Dirty Randy, a porn director. By season three, the Schaffers had turned the aside into an actual character played by Seth Rogen. "That's the perfect example of a League bit," Mantzoukas says. "It began with an improvised moment. That became a riff for me — the idea that Rafi is this horrible asshole but for Rafi there's a guy like that in his life."
Recurrence: Dirty Randy has appeared in several episodes, including one last season in which Rafi and Dirty Randy got their own spinoff that involved a drug-fueled trip to Los Angeles. It was so well-received that the duo will have another spinoff episode this season. "It's mind-blowing that a secondary character can create an even more unrelated character and the show creators and the network would allow them to have their own episode," Mantzoukas says. "That, to me, is absolute craziness."
First appeared: 105 "The Usual Bet"
Backstory: In season one Taco insisted that he needs to stock up on a product called Three Penis Wine. It sounds like a joke, but apparently it's not. "It's something Jeff and I discovered in our travels," Jackie says. "A crazy Asian product that actually exists that people tend to bring back as a souvenir. There are all sorts — three, six, nine. We don't think it goes higher than nine."
Recurrence: The disgusting drink made its way back on the show several times since, usually in the hands of Taco, who became the leading distributor of Three Penis Wine in the greater Chicago area. At one point Ruxin even drank it to help successfully impregnate his wife. "The stuff that we chug on the show looks really gross and it tastes really gross," LaJoie notes. "But it's just water and some weird stuff."
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First appeared: Online infomercial following 105 "The Usual Bet"
Backstory: Taco has no real job but does run his own questionable company. "We wanted to do something about Three Penis Wine," Jackie says. "When we decided to make an infomercial for it, Taco Corp was born. And then it just seemed obvious that Taco Corp should be responsible for all sorts of efforts, whether it's the ringtones or Ruxin and Sophia's wedding video." Jeff adds, "The idea that someone can be so industrious and do so little reminds me of every other human being on the planet. He just happens to be going into a van, not an office."
Recurrence: Taco has been responsible for all sorts of endeavors, but one has stood out among the rest. "I have to say the best idea he's ever had was Neckflix, which is basically Netflix for ties," LaJoie says. "That was a smart, calculated idea for Taco, who is usually doing things like turning his van into pubic hair barbershops. And, what I ended up hearing through Twitter, maybe a year after that, two guys proposed the idea of a Netflix for ties on Shark Tank. I'm pretty sure they're just fans of The League."
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First appeared: 306 "Yobagoya"
Backstory: Yobagoya was initially the name of the fast food joint that serves beef buckets beloved by Kevin, but transitioned to become a slang term for pooping your pants after Kevin has an unfortunate reaction to his meal on the side of the road. "There's a restaurant in Southern Los Angeles that serves beef bowls," Jeff says. "We're not going to say the name for legal reasons. It is disgusting. We used to always joke that the name of the restaurant is the sound your body makes an hour later. It worked into the story and what happened is exactly what we wanted to happen: It went from a noun to a verb."
Recurrence: "In life I poop my pants very rarely, but on the show it seems to make a lot of people laugh so Jeff has me do it at least once a season," Steve says. "Last year I shit in the ocean and that brought about the term 'Seabiscuit.' That was improvised by one of the knuckleheads." Aselton adds, "Steve really put his dignity on the shelf for that one for the sake of comedy. The show is usually compromising all of our dignity and humanity, but in the end it is ultimately a very funny thing so it works."
First appeared: 311 "The Guest Bong"
Backstory: In season three we found out that Taco has a habit of keeping spare bongs at other people's homes, which he refers to as guest bongs. "In the pilot we gave Taco that little unicorn bong so he has a history of weird bongs," Jeff says. "We needed Mr. McGibblets to pull a gun on the guy that Kevin had sent to jail. But why would Taco be in somebody's basement or attic?" Jackie adds, "We came up with the idea that Taco leaves bongs around town. He thinks he's being a good guest by leaving a bong in your house."
Recurrence: More and more of Taco's guest bongs have emerged over the past few seasons, much to LaJoie's delight. "I've never had a guest bong," he says. "I've had friends who had bongs you could borrow, but I've never like turned someone's salt shaker into a bong and hid it in their house. In the new season I mentioned it in a scene. You can always keep throwing things like that back in and the audience likes it."
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First appeared: 202 "Bro-Lo El Cunado"
Backstory: Throughout the show Rafi constantly refers to Kevin as Brian. "Jason didn't know our character names and he was like, 'You, Brian,'" Rannazzisi says. "It may have been a real mistake in the first take. But then he went with it." Mantzoukas adds, "I was making up nicknames for everybody. It's such a stupid joke, but it makes me laugh when it occurs to me that I can call him Brian again. Rafi will not be deterred. And Rafi's not just happy that he knows Brian's name, he actually thinks Brian is his best friend in the group."
Recurrence: This has continued in almost every episode in which Rafi appears. "We corrected him in the beginning but now we just assume that's how everybody knows me in Rafi's eyes," Rannazzisi laughs. "The fact that he still calls me that and calls Pete 'Tall guy' doesn't have to be explained."
First appeared: 305 "Bobbum Man"
Backstory: Dan O'Keefe, one of the show's writers, tapped into his crazy childhood to manufacture Bobbum Man, a bizarre fictional character Pete uses to torment Kevin during season three. "He would pretend to be Bobbum Man to freak his little brother out," Jeff explains. "Somehow that came up and we were like, 'We're doing a show about that.'" As usual, the actors were mystified at first. "Acting in that was bizarre," Rannazzisi says. "They had a certain idea of how they wanted it played and portrayed." The other characters got fictional characters as well, including Andre's Crawdad Man. "It was totally improvised," Scheer says. "I did a Cajun accent the first time and Jeff was like, 'Keep doing that!' I liked that Andre had this very defined character in his mind."
Recurrence: Both Bobbum Man and Crawdad Man have returned in subsequent episodes. "Scheer and I wrote that episode last season where Andre takes standup classes and one of his characters in the class was Crawdad Man and everyone boos him," Rannazzisi says. Scheer adds, "Andre thought this was his Borat. One of the recurring jokes is that Andre has all these bad voices he does. This new season is no exception. He has a Tyler, the Creator impression that I hope makes it on the show."
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