Bob Odenkirk may be most known and beloved as the star of Better Call Saul and its big brother Breaking Bad, but he began his career in a comedy — as a writer on Saturday Night Live and other late night shows, and later as a performer on The Ben Stiller Show and Mr. Show With Bob and David. So it’s no surprise than when challenged to give a TED Talk on a mystery topic, armed only with slides that are also a mystery until he cues them up, Odenkirk drew on decades of improv skills to deliver something wonderfully strange.
In this segment from Wednesday night’s episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden, Odenkirk was the closing talk after impressive efforts from host James Corden, bandleader Reggie Watts, and his fellow guest on the show, The Righteous Gemstones star Edi Patterson. After Watts’ slick address, armed with an inexplicable British accent and his trademark sound effects, and some unjustified slander of Steve Buscemi and Girl Scout cookies from Patterson and Corden, Odenkirk found himself delivering a surprisingly persuasive lecture on The Benefits of Eating Bananas With The Peel.
“It’s not what you think!” he rebuked the cackling audience, like a high school principal who accidentally read a joke name at assembly. “It’s not sexual!“
Presented with prompts including a Fast & Furious 9 poster and an anatomical heat map, Odenkirk managed to bring it home with an impassioned quote from Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s “W.A.P.” (“It’s not sexual!”), and somehow only broke once.
I’m not going to be gobbling and swallowing a banana peel any time soon, but it’s certainly food for thought.
