Pierre Bernard

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Pierre Bernard, Jr. is a graphic designer and comedian for the NBC show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He regularly appears in a sketch known as "Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage", where he complains about issues that concern him. Presumably, he sits in a recliner during these segments simply for the sake of comfort. The issues that he complains about are typically esoteric in nature and mainly deal with comic books, drawing, or science fiction.

The humor in these segments derives from the obscure, inconsequential nature of the topics and Pierre's unemotional delivery of his "rage." The segment may have been inspired by an earlier sketch where someone began selling coins on eBay featuring one of his graphic designs for the "New Commemorative State Quarters" sketch. Conan invited Pierre up to his desk, where he showed his original design and attacked the copycats by saying something like, "You bastards. You think you can steal from me? .... You A-holes are going down," in a completely unemotional fashion.

Contents

[edit] Notable recliner rants

[edit] Drawing pens

In one segment, Bernard complained that a certain brand of drawing pen that he enjoyed was discontinued.

[edit] Bottle Caps

In another segment, Pierre was collecting a certain type of Snapple bottle cap for an art project, only to find that the caps had changed in design.

[edit] Robotech

Bernard complained on one segment about the increasing number of Robotech DVDs. Robotech.com responds.

[edit] Action Figures

This segment sees Bernard complaining about the Justice League Unlimited action figures.

[edit] Case Closed

Bernard complains about The Cartoon Network putting Case Closed on during Cowboy Bebop's usual airtime. He dislikes Case Closed's campy 70's style tunes compared to Cowboy Bebop's jazzy ones which helped him sleep.

[edit] Stargate SG-1

One segment garnered Bernard somewhat of a cult following in the Stargate SG-1 community. The initial segment was a complaint that Stargate SG-1 was better without Dr. Daniel Jackson (played by Michael Shanks). Shanks had left SG-1 after the fifth season only to return for the seventh season, and Bernard felt Jackson's involvement with the team averted too many action sequences.

After the SG-1 production team saw the sketch, they were so excited that Bernard gave SG-1 national TV publicity, that they offered him an extra role on an episode of SG-1 as a technician named O'Brien (for Conan O'Brien). Bernard's filming process was recorded and aired as a remote segment on Late Night. When asked if he would return for another episode, he showed a clip where his character is shot after he greets an off-screen Dr. Jackson.

He was then invited to an SG-1 convention as a famous guest, which was also recorded and aired as a remote on Late Night.

He also appeared in the Season 8 episode Zero Hour as O'Brien, his first appearance on an aired episode.

He then appeared in the 200th episode of SG-1, now as a zombied O'Brien, and is shot by a main character.

In 2006, Pierre was interviewed by The Scifi World with regards to his appearances on SG-1.[1]

[edit] Bobblehead Collection

Bernard decides to begin a bobblehead doll collection. However, after ordering 60 bobbleheads, he finds that some were in fact figures in which the head remains stationary and the body bobbles. Bernard feels strongly that such figures should be accurately labeled as "bobble-body" and not "bobble-head".

[edit] Betty Boop figurine

Pierre wanted to buy a 5-foot Betty Boop statue for his living room, but, after being told by a female co-worker that a life-size statue of a cartoon character would severely limit his prospects of keeping a girlfriend, Pierre decided, instead, that he would settle for an 18-inch figurine of Betty Boop which he found particularly alluring as she is dressed up in a black French maid outfit. Unfortunately, the website where he spotted the black-outfitted version of the figurine had completely sold out of them, and, while he found another website selling the French maid Betty Boop figurine, the uniform itself was red, which Pierre doesn't find to be a suitable uniform color for a French maid. He wanted to call the company that made the figurine, Character Collectibles, but he complains that he couldn't find a phone number anywhere on their website.

[edit] Hot Wheels Display Cases

In a segment that aired on January 11, 2007, Bernard complains about not finding a suitable display case for his Hot Wheels collection, including the famed Arachnorod model. He wants to display the collection in his bathroom, but one case cannot accommodate trucks, and another has distracting hinges.[2]

[edit] Pierre Bernard: Serial Killer

On the March 13th episode NBC aired a sketch of Conan interviewing Pierre Bernard in a mock news style ala The Today Show or Dateline NBC. The cause of the interview was Bernard's real life refusal to allow the show to tape a remote segment at his house with his sizeable action figure collection. Conan contended that this refusal could be explained only by Pierre Bernard being a serial killer. In the interview Conan asks Bernard questions meant to make him look like a killing machine. This is contrasted with Bernard's mostly unemotional responses. As the interview goes on Bernard gets more into the spirit of the gag and at one point admits the he doesn't describe himself as prolific because "I haven't been killing for a long time.".[3]

[edit] Other appearances

Pierre has appeared at other times on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, both as himself and acting as characters. He has portrayed Whoopi Goldberg, the rejected X-Men character, Velcro-eto, and most recently, John Mayer's only black male fan.

As himself, in one of his first appearances (if not the first), he appeared in a sketch where Conan took him, another co-worker, and Joel Goddard on a spending spree in New York City, following the recommendation that shopping was the best thing one could do to help the city recover following September 11. In another segment, a parody of NBC's The More You Know segments, Bernard advises high school seniors to hire an escort to avoid the anxiety of finding a prom date. He cautions, however, before spending the money, to make sure she doesn't have a penis.

In another early appearance, Pierre was brought out in recognition of his appearance in an NBC or Rockefeller Centre newsletter noting his dedication to fitness.

[edit] Stargate SG-1 cancellation

After noting that Bernard has been depressed lately about the cancellation of Stargate SG1, O'Brien allows him to come on the show and rant. In a follow-up sketch to this rant, Conan announces he will do a favor for Pierre by having a Jon Lovitz call the Sci Fi Channel to ask programming executive Mark Stern to reverse the cancellation.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Late Night with Conan O'Brien. NBC, New York.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Nuytens, Gilles; Linda Craddock (2006-07-17). Interview with Pierre Bernard Jr. (htm). Interviews. TSW: The Scifi World. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  2. ^ "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". Late Night with Conan O'Brien. NBC, New York. 2007-01-11.
  3. ^ "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". Late Night with Conan O'Brien. NBC, New York. 2007-03-13.

[edit] External links

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