The Lazy Genius Podcast - #10: Fictional Lazy Geniuses with Emily P. Freeman

Episode Date: July 5, 2016

Emily and Kendra talk again but this time about their favorite lazy geniuses on television. Spoiler: a lot of them are jerks or kind of annoying. What does that mean?! But really they're just people who don't spend a lot of time worrying about what others think, and that can't be bad. Do your favorites make the list? Where to find Emily: Instagram: @emilypfreeman Emily P. Freeman online Where to find Kendra: Instagram: @thelazygenius The Lazy Genius Collective online This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, lazy geniuses. I'm Kendra Adachi and you're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. Here we help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. This is Season 1, Episode 10, our final episode of the season. And my guest today was my guest last week, Emily P. Freeman. But today, the tone is a little bit different. We are going to be sharing our favorite lazy geniuses and lazy genius moments from television. So this is very unimportant, important work we're about to do to close out the show. So thank you for listening for this entire season, for being part of this podcast.

I hope you enjoy this final episode. So I want to hear who your favorite lazy geniuses on television are. Ready and go. Okay, number one. Yeah. Are these in order of like favorites or just? No, I can't do that. Yeah, okay.

I figured. There's just like ones that I thought of. And which is interesting because I'm interested to see if your definition of lazy genius is the same as mine. This is true. Because in TV, I was surprised at my choices because I'm like, kind of all of mine are a little, they're kind of jerks. And I didn't know how to feel about that. Some of mine are too. Maybe we have some of the same ones. Okay. Continue. But not my first one. Right. Okay. My first one is Phoebe Buffet from Friends. Oh, that's a good one. Yes. So she is a genius about being a sister. Like there was nothing lazy about her care. her brother and his wife's triplets.

Like, genius. Like, she loves her long-lost brother. She never knew about. And then she's like, yeah, I'll surrogate carry your triplets. But she's very lazy about carrying what other people think. Because if you remember, she and Rachel go running through Central Park. And she's like, come on, it's fun. And runs with, like, all her limbs.

Like, just like, whatever. I'm just lazy about running. I don't care about form. Right. And Rachel's, like, boring and, like, who, and runs really, you know, normal. and then she's embarrassed and won't run with Phoebe and it's this whole thing. But Phoebe's whole thing is like, listen, let's be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't matter.

Like caring what other people think about how I run. Right. Phoebe. Lazy genius. That's great. That's great. I really like that. I don't have Phoebe.

I don't have anyone from friends. That's good because I have two. Okay. Tell me your second one. Well, do you want to go? We go back and forth. Okay. Yeah.

My first one is Ron Swanson. I have Ron Swanson too on my list. Yeah, because basically the fact that he basically figured out how to not do his job. He's lazy about work. But genius by hiring Leslie. Right. And by hiring April as his assistant. Remember when he had to answer his own phone?

And so he just pulled it out of the wall and threw it because he's like, I'm not going to answer this. And then he hires an assistant who will be like, Ron died. Sorry. Like, you know, it's just, it's he's, and he doesn't, he doesn't waste time worrying about what people think about him eating bacon and eggs constantly. You know, like he just does his deal and, but he's not, but he's not an idiot. Like, Ron's a really smart guy. He's a genius. Yeah, he's totally smart.

And he's a genius about being, what's the silver character he does? The silver character. Silver, the player, the jazz guy. Oh, oh, I'm so sad. Duke Silver. Duke. Duke. Yes. Good job. I mean, that takes effort to have a double life, you know, and like he's really skilled. He's a genius saxophone player or whatever that instrument is. I'm the worst at my brass instruments. It's not a trumpet. It is a saxophone. Okay, good. Yeah, that's genius. But like, he's kind of lazy, too, because he doesn't want anybody to know. He wants to have his own, his own thing, secret life. Right. Ron Swanson. He might be. up there with the laziest genius of all. He's pretty lazy. Well, one of mine is lazier than Ron Swanson, and it is Gina from Brooklyn 9-9.

Gina's fantastic. Tell me why Gina's on your list. Well, here's the thing. Actually, Gina is, here's what I have in my notes. An argument could be made for Gina. Okay. But I don't have a lot of reasons why, because honestly, she's mostly just lazy. She's mostly lazy.

And so I didn't have a lot of reasons why she was genius. Well, here's my thing. What are your reasons? Well, she seems to solve more problems than youth give her credit for. Like a lot of episodes, Jean is the one behind fixing it all. Like when the high school kids came in and Rosa and Amy were trying to like get them into the police program and failing miserably. and you know they Gina offered to help and they're like no we got this

she's like fine fail you know like because she she always one thing I love about Gina is she knows that she's the smartest person in the room even if she's not and it's all cloaked in laziness which is why she fools us

right with her genius like you know she's in school you know like no one knew she was in school like she's trying to get her edge further her education and nobody knew it because they thought, well, Gina's just lazy. But Gina actually like, Gina knows what's up.

Gina does know what's up. She knows what's up. She's a great lazy genius. She's John's favorite character on the show. And, you know, in the beginning, the beginning credits the song, dun dun dun dun, dun. Oh, it's one of the greatest thing songs ever. She has like the little, the little dancey move with her arms.

Yes. Every single time, John and I both have to do the dancing move with her because it's so catchy. This one of, we don't do the dancing moves. Cause and I don't. But we both do. this like like um like head nod thing whenever the song comes on you can't not move your body somehow you have to move along it's just as the way goes yeah it's such a good theme song such a good thing song okay what's who's another one on your list well since we're on brooklyn nine nine

rosa herself Rosa is is I want to be Rosa she wastes no energy none on anything that she doesn't think matters right I mean it's like not even a facial tick energy Like there's no movement. There's no, nothing extra. And it's like she's too lazy to care what anyone thinks, which I feel like is a theme in this whole lazy genius situation. Right. Is that being lazy about caring what people think. Right.

Is a big qualification for whether or not your lazy genius. Agreed. Agreed. But you still know who you are. You know, these people all have a pretty strong sense of self. Yeah. Like Rosa Diaz, it doesn't get much more like confident. really.

Nope. Than her. I love her. She's fantastic. She's so good. That's a great choice. She's not on my life. I try to not choose more than one person from one show.

See, that's good. I knew you would do that. Just to like limit myself. Right. And I chose basically two people from three shows. It's okay. It's true. Well, it takes us back to friends because another lazy genius is Joey Tribiani.

Right. Here's why. He was a genius. put a lot of energy into, like, protecting his little sisters, number one. Like, he was, like, fierce about his sisters. He was a genius about being a friend. And he was a genius about watching TV. Like, those are the things that were important to him.

And sandwiches. Being good friend, eating good food, Joey doesn't share food. I mean, you know, everyone knows Joey doesn't share food. It was like really, really passionate about this watching TV. But he was very lazy about decorating because if you recall, he. built a TV cabinet that actually covered the doors to the bedroom. I remember that. Because he didn't care about what it looked like.

He just needed a place to put the TV, which is what he was genius about. Right. Right. And Joey, for being someone in show business, I'm not sure that it was that he didn't care what people thought. I think he just wasn't quite smart enough to know. Right. Like I thought about like, you know, he would put skills on the back of his headshots that

he didn't have. I don't actually think that. I think that was lazy. I don't think that was so genius. Right, right. But it was lazy. How do you feel about the quick diversion? How do you feel about the Joey Rachel relationship? I don't know that I know how you feel about that little diversion in the show. Yeah, I never, I wasn't a huge fan of that situation. Just because, I don't know, Ross and Rachel is just where it needs to be. I felt like. Right. But I mean, I respected the, the effort. And I felt for Joey. I think I cried real tears. Actually, every time I see that, the episode where like, Joey loves her and she has to say and all the things. But yeah, they try things. It's like, okay, this has been on the year too long when they start to inbreed.

Right. That's good. We should send that note too, all the networks. One of mine is from the office. My one choice from the office. I don't know that it's who you think it is. Who is it? Mine is Stanley. Oh, well, yeah. Stanley. I have two. He's one of them. Okay, good. Yeah. Well, he's clearly very, very lazy. Like, is he just lazy? He's not just lazy. He's not. Well, he's figured out, remember when he fell as, when he would take a nap, he wore glasses that had painted eyes on them so that he could fall asleep behind them? That's pretty genius. But another thing, there was the episode when Ryan, hold please, the episode when Ryan goes with him on a sales call. Right.

Oh, that was good. Stanley knows how to work the people. Like, he can do his job when it's necessary to make the sale to do his job. He's totally, yeah, he totally can. He is motivated by bonus checks and time off and Purszel Day. Like, genius. Yeah. When it comes to like, I have to get my check.

When he had to like schmuse Michael to sort of, you know, maybe get a raise, he was on it. Yeah, he was. Genius. Yeah. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces

can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Who's your other one from the office? Creed. Creed, Braden. Oh, totally, Creed. I mean, he's a freaking lazy. He doesn't do his job the whole year until, and then something messes up.

And he caught, like, when they, so, so there's, his whole thing is quality assurance. He has to make sure the paper's right. And the one time he, he, uh, the paper gets sick. out with the strange and inappropriate watermark. Oh, that's right. On the prom invitations to the high school, Creed like calls the place where he was supposed to go that day to make sure everything was okay, which of course he didn't because he's lazy. Right. But the genius move was he called to find out who was absent that day. Right. And then when they said, he's like, oh, who was it again? And then he blames it on that person who was absent. Right. Genius. And also a little bit psychotic.

Oh, totally. But still lazy genius. But still lazy genius. I feel like lazy genie. Lazy genie have some common themes. They do. They're like artless. My next one is Sawyer from Lost. That's a good one. Yeah.

Because he, yeah, he does what he wants. He doesn't care what people think. But he is a mastermind behind a lot of things. Like he's the one who, you know, everybody thought like everybody thought they had Sawyer pegged in season one. You know, he's just like, he's just the loser, hot redneck guy who's going to be a jerk to everybody. But he's the one who orchestrated that whole thing with like Charlie attacking sun in the garden.

Remember to like make it when she was planting stuff? Like somebody attacked son. Oh, wow. Yeah. It created this whole thing in the in the camp of like someone's after us and blah, blah, blah. And he used that. He just wanted to get his hands on the guns. So he created that whole con to get his hands on the guns.

That's right. And he was a congenious. He was a congenious. He was. And he crafted a persona that was. unassuming because you just think like he's just he is what he is right easily dismissed right exactly like he wouldn't think through plans and stuff right he would think right he's just a haughty with a body and no brain the dog on it that Sawyer had a good lazy genius brain he did that's good

yeah that's good well I think as I as we go through and I've thought about like the lazy geniuses it was so it became so obvious who wasn't a lazy genius right like that kind of came up Monica. No. What's her name from Brooklyn 99? What's her name? Amy. Amy.

Yeah. Like it's like the opposite. The opposite. That came to the surface. Yeah. Very clearly in these shows. Here's one though that looks a little different than the ones that we've said so far. Okay.

And that is Kenneth the page from 30 Rock. I thought about 30 Rock. Tell me about Kenneth. Okay. So yeah, no one else from 30 Rock is the lazy genius. They're all lazy idiots or like psychopaths. But Kenneth is not terribly lazy. lazy in terms of like his work ethic.

Like he has an excellent, excellent work ethic. He's not lazy at all. No, no. But he, but he is lazy. He's got kind of a Joey Tribiani thing where he is a little lazy about what people

think about him, but not in a stupid way, just in a, in a blissful ignorance kind of way. Like it just doesn't matter. Yeah, he chooses his absence from caring what people think, but even though he's like a big dork.

Right. And he's not the smartest guy. Yeah. on, you know, at first glance. But there are a few episodes where Kenneth surprises you. And you're like, wow, you know, it's like Jack Donaggy said, one day we're going to all be working for him or we will die by his hand. And I feel like that's the best description.

Oh, that's so good. Of a lazy genius. This is like you don't, you don't always know. The laziness sort of covers up. Like, you don't always know. It's cloaked. What you're going to get. When it cloaks the genius.

Yeah. And the lazy cloaks the genius, those are the ones you have to look out for. Yeah, you got to look out for Kenneth the page. Which I have a confession. I have still not seen every episode of 30 Rock. Like there are entire seasons that I still haven't seen because John and I started watching after it went off the air. So we made it like halfway through the series and then something interrupted it. I don't know.

Real life. I don't know. Real life. But I also, I think I am, yeah, the good wife. Oh my gosh. Don't even get me started. Sorry. But I think that I have been subconsciously saving.

30 Rock in the back of my mind. Like, for example, the walking on water, the book by Madeline the Ingle that I really like, I haven't read the last two pages. No. No, because I'm like, oh, I haven't finished that yet.

It still feels alive within me because I can go, like I still have something new of it to read. That's a lazy genius move in and of itself right there. Don't finish the very last thing of something so you can still make it part of you. It can still be alive.

You have something to look forward to. So that's what I think 30 Rock is for me. is I'm sort of saving it. Right. Yeah. How many more do you have? I have two more. I'm done because we had some overlap.

We did. Okay. Yeah, we both said Ron and we both said Stanley. Stanley. And Gina. Yeah. I have two more quick ones. One is maybe from Arrested Development.

Oh. Yes. I haven't seen all those episodes either. I've only seen season one. She never does her own homework. She cons her way. into an executive producer gig at a movie studio as a 17-year-old. So good.

Like, she is an absolute genius. She's the one who's, like, behind. Like, she's got all these elaborate plots and stuff. But the point of all of the plans is so she doesn't have to do what she doesn't want to do. I mean, sometimes that takes more work. It does. It's true. And I think she kind of learned that the hard way if you make it through the entire show.

Yeah. Well, it's like, you know, somebody who almost made it on my list was Nick from New Girl. Oh, yeah, but Nick does make it a little too hard sometimes. He makes it too hard. It's like, just call a plumber. Right. You don't need the duct tape and the stand on your left foot. And then like if you just hold this faucet at this 60 degree angle because he's lazy about, but then it's like he becomes this crazy obsessed person. Right. Like when the apartment was hot and he rigged up all the fans. Oh, that's the, that was the best. It's like, that's to impress a girl too. He's a lazy genius. But it's like the opposite. Yeah. He's a stupid. It's like he's a. I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. But tries too hard. Right, right. A hollic. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I have such feelings for Nick Miller. Okay, who's your last lazy genius?

Frank Barone from everybody who loves Raymond. The dad. The dad. I feel like there are probably a of sitcom dads over the years who could fall on the category of lazy genius. Yes, exactly. He's obviously extremely, extremely lazy. Like, one of the laziest television dads or ever was. Like, he comes up with as many reasons as possible to not wear pants. But he, some of his genius is illegal. Like, the, when he drove the car through the house and he tried to come up with a way to scam the insurance company so that he wouldn't have to actually pay. any money to fix the house. So, you know, there are some ideas he has that are very smart, but also very illegal. But, but there are things that he does that are like, like, Frank could be

such a one dimensional character. He could just be kind of like the, you know, the old man, granddad who just sits there with his pants unbuttoned and just burps after meals, which is about 80% of what he does. But the other 20% to me is, is like he sees things that not everybody always sees. Like he seems like he knew. He knows when Deborah's lying about stuff. He knows when Marie has hidden something, but she doesn't want to take responsibility for a problem. But he doesn't necessarily like bring it up. Like he doesn't, he just, he's a really good observer. And I think that a lot of geniuses have to be, are good observers. And Frank is a, is an odd choice, but still an excellent lazy observer.

Very accurate. I thought of one more, but you haven't seen the good wife because you mentioned the good wife. And so it made me think of a lazy genius who's on the good wife. You can totally say it even though I haven't seen it. Howard Lyman. He is an older attorney. And he's very lazy. Like literally he takes a nap every day with his pants off in his office on his sofa.

That's fantastic. Do you know the actor who plays him? Do I have a... Jerry Adler. Jerry Adler. I'm going to look it up. Keep talking. You couldn't look him up.

And really, he's lazy because he's literally just lazy. Like he just doesn't do a lot of work. But he's a partner and so they can't really get rid of him. But he will come through. Like sometimes you think like you count him out because he's just this sort of goofball, you know, old men who sleeps with his pants off. And, you know, people want to sue them because they say you're sexually harassing me because you have your pants off. He's just an old man taking a nap on a sofa. It's ridiculous.

But yeah, but he, like, in the end, sometimes he'll come up with, like, the best ideas or he'll be like, solve the case, you know? So it's he, and he's figured out how to stay, how to keep a job without doing much work. So there's one for all you good wife fans. Are you doing okay now that it's over? I mean, I'm going to. I'll be okay. I look forward to a future day when I'm going to be okay. Did you like the finale?

I feel like I shouldn't comment on that. Okay. Because you haven't seen it yet. Okay. So I don't want to color anything. I think most of my feelings are because it's over. I'll say that. Because it was a fun show to watch.

I mean, it was, you know, I don't know, fun is the right word. It was a well done show. And John and I both liked it. So that was, it's limited the number of shows that John and I both like and will watch together. And that was one of them. And so now that that's gone. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. Not only have you lost the show, but you've lost one of your few, like, marriage shows.

A date night. Well, hopefully you can find a new show soon. I think we will. Well, I think this was really a really good list. And now I'm not sure, like, part of me is really proud of being a lazy genius because of these lists. Because these are most of my favorite characters on the show. But they're also kind of the meanest. Yeah.

And the ones that you're the most annoying. Or the most annoying. Or the ones that you wouldn't. like trust in a crisis. Right. Like I'd trust Ron in a crisis. I wouldn't trust Gina in a crisis. Yeah, not Gina.

She would just kind of walk away. She would just leave. Be like like mic drop and just leave. Like you guys figure it out. I got dance class to get to. But Phoebe and Joey, I mean, they're both kind-hearted. They are. You're right.

They wouldn't walk away. And Sawyer, while a con man and a terrible person. Yeah. Yes. Really has a heart of goal. Yeah, he does. He does. I think we've got a well-rounded list, though at first glance, it might seem questionable. I'm really glad that this was your idea. This topic was your idea. And I'm really glad that you were the executive producer of this and came up with it because it was so fun to think about. Thanks for closing out the first season of the Lacey Genius podcast. And we all take a bow. Well, and that's it. Thank you so much for being part of

this community for listening to this podcast for this first season. It's been so fun to do. I hope that we get to do a second one. Having a little baby, you just never know how things are going to go, but thank you so much for listening and for taking part. Now that this podcast is over, in case you only know us through the podcast, you can still find lots of lazy genius thoughts and tips and ways of doing life at the lazy genius collective.com. And you can find me on Instagram at The Lazy Genius and on Twitter at Hi, it's Kendra. That's K-E-N-D-R-A. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And we'll see you when we see you. Bye. If you ever felt like you were living just a B or B-plus life, it's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B-minus or a C-plus life because when you're living a B- or B-plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough.

Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.