To judge the nationwide impact of the Comedy Central sketch program “The Kroll Show,” which debuted last January, you need only take a look at the show’s most local characters. When comedians Nick Kroll and John Mulaney came up with the idea for “Oh Hello,” a public access show starring two Upper West Side Jewish divorcees, they expected the bit — in which the pair create a prank show called “Too Much Tuna,” serving guests a comically oversized plate of deli tuna fish — to only appeal to New Yorkers. But by Halloween, Kroll was seeing online pictures of teenage girls in Phoenix dressed as the characters.
“When [we] created those guys, it felt like, ‘Well these will never go anywhere, they’re so niche New York characters,’ ” Krolls tells The Post. “To watch all types of people get them and find amusement in them is very pleasing.”
The past year has been Kroll’s big breakout, after a decade of TV guest parts, podcasts and a headlining role in the ill-fated sitcom “Cavemen.” In addition to his eponymous series, which returned Tuesday, the Westchester native also stars on the FX show “The League,” a comedy that’s been compared to a modern-day “Seinfeld.” He has two movies due this year. And, on top of all that, he’s dating Amy Poehler, who will appear on an episode of “Kroll Show” this season (Kroll also has a recurring role on Poehler’s NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” as shock jock The Douche).
Kroll, 35, is tight-lipped but funny when it comes to his relationship with Poehler: He says they met 15 years ago when they both were abducted by a spaceship, and “after a number of experiments we were returned to Earth, with no memory of it, but with an incredible passion for improv comedy, and we stayed in touch ever since then.”
But he does open up about success. His biggest achievement, he says, is bringing along his friends, comedians such as Chelsea Peretti, Jon Daly and Jenny Slate, who have all guested on “Kroll Show.”
“A career is long: You got to fill like 40 years with stuff. There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs,” he says. “[Now] is that moment when I’m able to make exactly the show I want to make with the people I want to make it with.”
The show’s sketches are largely born from characters Kroll developed over the years, like Bobby Bottleservice, a clueless Jersey Shore archetype. But the real genius is in the skewering of the conventions of reality TV, like the manufactured conflict and the endless stream of spinoffs upon spinoffs. For instance, the spoof “PubLIZity,” about two vapid publicists named Liz, spawns a series of increasingly ridiculous tangents: “Armond of the House,” about their plastic surgeon friend Armond (also played by Kroll) and “Roman’s Empire” about Armond’s spoiled son.
Kroll explains that he uses a trigger to get into each character: sometimes, just a catchphrase (such as “very cool, very cool” for Bobby Bottleservice); other times, like with the overweight Liz of “PubLIZity,” it’s all about the costume.
“It’s not hard to [channel] an unpleasant woman when you are putting on tons of makeup, fake eyelashes, high heels and Spanx,” he says.
As for how much tuna is officially too much? “A dollop being one ice cream scoop, three ice cream scoopers is too much,” Kroll says.