Jason Weisberger is Boing Boing's publisher. He often does what he ought, instead of what he should. On instagram and twitter he is @jlw

  • http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

    In addition to maybe #lolwork, Archer is the best show on television.

  • ChicagoD

    That show is brilliant.

  • http://www.facebook.com/heather.cristofaro Heather Cristofaro

    “Can it be fired with an erection?”

    <3 Archer

  • Grey Devil

    Archer is a pretty great parody of old school spy shows from TV, and adeptly parodies other conventions. Yes its very crass humor, but it’s always funny.

  • http://twitter.com/MadelineAshby Madeline Ashby

    I feel it necessary to mention that “the rest of the cast” is basically the cast of “Arrested Development.” If you liked that show, you will also enjoy this one.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kmelton Keith Melton

       Rest of the cast? Two main cast members, one occasional and one guest star who were on AD don’t really equal ‘the rest of the cast’.

      • http://twitter.com/MadelineAshby Madeline Ashby

        That’s true, it’s not the entirety of the cast. But “Archer” itself has a pretty small cast, so two mains, one occasional, and guests are a significant proportion.

        • http://www.facebook.com/kmelton Keith Melton

           I wouldn’t call Archers main cast of 9 (Archer, Lana, Cyril, Ray, Pam, Cheryl, Mallory, Krieger, Woodhouse) a small cast. That’s fairly large for an average sitcom. And within that main cast you only have two actors who were on AD. I wouldn’t consider 25% a significant proportion.

  • http://twitter.com/knitmeapony knitmeapony

    Creating a Pam Poovey cosplay was perhaps the highlight of my 2012 congoing season.  Especially since I discovered I can do a pitch-perfect “Holy shitsnacks!”

  • jarmstrong

    Woodhouse. That is all.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Emma or Rosemary?

  • http://www.geekman.ca GeekMan

    Love Archer. Can’t wait for the next season. I don’t think however that the show is in the 60′s so much as it’s a present-day (or perhaps even near-future) where the USSR never broke up, and the cold war is ongoing. The American response has been to outsource their intelligence services to public-private consulting agencies, such as ISIS. It’s all fascinating alternate-timeline stuff to think about, and the action scenes are great and tense, but on top of all of that there’s side-ripping comedy. Fantastic writing. 

    • Ronald Pottol

      As Archer himself said, “what day is it? The real question is what year?” He was born while the OSS was still around, which was dissolved on September 20th, 1945, and his butler served in WWI, the head of ISIS clearly has an Apple Lisa on her desk, the mainframe still has tape drives, but they have reasonably current cell phones, and are culturally fairly modern. 

      So it is some smear of the last 50 years.

  • bishophicks

    My wife and I absolutely love the show.  It’s not for everyone, though.  We bought the Season 1 DVD for some friends who enjoy a lot of the same quirky/raunchy stuff we do and they absolutely hated it.  The thing you have to know is that all, ALL of the characters are awful, awful people with not one redeeming quality among them.

    My favorite episode is when Cheryl lets coworker Pam get kidnapped in her place (actively encourages the kidnappers when they start to take the wrong person).  It is then revealed that Cheryl is actually heir to a billion dollar fortune (“Well, half a billion because I have to split it with my stupid half brother!”).  The contrast of the spy outfit positively drooling over the wealth of (and possible security fees for) one worker while simultaneously doing and spending as little as possible to rescue the other employee is hysterical.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Huntington/1389561896 Brian Huntington

      That episode is genius. Isn’t that when we first meet/learn of Babou? And see Pam’s back tat for the first time? Pam with her captors is just the best. 

      • bishophicks

         ”Who taught you how to punch? (spits blood)  Your husband?”

        Yep, this is when we first learn about Babou, the ocelot.  And that Cheryl had been late to work so often and with such bad excuses (“My ocelot was sick”) that she didn’t attend her parents’ funeral because she thought she would be fired.

      • Halloween_Jack

        The back tat is from Byron’s “The Destruction of Sennacherib”:

        For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
        And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass’d;
        And the eyes of the sleepers wax’d deadly and chill,
        And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

    • GawainLavers

      I like show (the zeppelin episode may be my favorite so far), although some of the humor is just “raunchy for the sake of raunchy” (raunchy — what a lame-ass word), and since I’m generally jaded and unmoved by that it has flat moments for me.

      It’s like the end of Venture Bros. Operation P.R.O.M., or the South Park movie: I found them much funnier “bleeped” than the actual dialog, which is never quite as horrible as my imagination.  “Heard profanities are funny, but those unheard are funnier” as I believe the poem goes.

      • http://singedrac.livejournal.com Singe

         Uh hello, airplanes? Yeah, It’s blimps, you win. Bye!

  • Glen Able

    My first experience of this show was an episode that may have allegedly been downloaded from the internet.  Unfortunately it was a DVD bonus version of the first episode, in which Archer himself had been replaced by a T-Rex who just made various roaring and moaning sounds.

    I was very confused.

    • Mark Stephan

      Hahahahaha Classic Archer… :|

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Huntington/1389561896 Brian Huntington

    Any Archer fan should check out Frisky Dingo. It’s a little hard for some people to go to the less-polished animation, and it won’t seem as fresh, having already seen Adam Reed’s sense of humor in Archer (Archer and Frisky Dingo are much closer in tone and style than either of them are to Sealab 2021), but Frisky Dingo is an awesome send-up of Superheroes and Villains. Killface is just the best. 

    • http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

       I watched all of it before Archer, and it’s not anywhere near as good as Archer is.

      • Trig Discipline

        Totally agree.  It’s not bad, and it has its moments of brilliance, but it’s nowhere near as good as Archer.

    • surreality

       Disagree! I love Frisky Dingo but am still trying to get into Archer. Different strokes for different folks though.

  • bcsizemo

    lana, Lana, LANA!
    -WHAT?
    DANGER ZONE!!!

  • signsofrain

    Archer: I have to go. But if I find one single dog hair when I get back, I’ll rub…sand…in your dead little eyes.Woodhouse: Very good, sir.Archer: [pause] I also need you to buy sand.Woodhouse: Yes, sir.Archer: I don’t know if they grade it, but… coarse.

  • planettom

    It actually took me awhile to realize that Archer and Bob from BOB’S BURGERS were the same voice actor, H. Jon Benjamin.    

    • signsofrain

      He’s also Coach McGuirk on Home Movies. (Which is also an amazing show)

      • GawainLavers

        And The Master from the Venture Bros.  Recognized him immediately from that.

        • http://devojane.blogspot.com devophill

           Also the talking can of soup from Wet Hot American Summer.

          • disky00

             And Ben from Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.

    • jhoosier

      Sadly (or not?), I can’t disconnect his voice from the character Archer.  Same with Jessica Walters, since I saw Archer before watching Arrested Development.

    • eris_kallisti

       Speaking of Bob’s Burgers, there’s going to be an Archer crossover episode. I shit you not.

  • TrollyMcTrollington

    Season 1, great. 2, less so.  3, weak sauce.  They really turned down the raunch and edge.

  • Kaveh Maguire

    One of the best shows ever. I can’t wait for the next season to start!

  • Trig Discipline

    Funniest show on TV, bar none.

  • http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

    God, I love Archer. Wittiest dialog on tv. I’m also waiting for the next season, which is…when? Justified returns next month, and those two usually ran back-to-back…maybe then?

  • Kingboy

    “Phrasing” is a common one word rejoinder ’round these parts, pretty much entirely due to Archer.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyLWrKh2fB0

  • http://twitter.com/MadelineAshby Madeline Ashby

    I forgot to add: RAMPAGE!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=name&id=1118134806 Doc_S

    Erm. Aisha *Tyler*.

    Archer took a while to grow on me. I took it at face value at first, and it sucked. Then I realized the humor wasn’t really the stories/characters themselves per se.

    “Bloody mary, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and in the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen.”

    • http://twitter.com/MartianEmpress Rezeya Montecore

      Exactly. I had a lot of trouble selling it to my feminist friends at first, too, because Sterling himself is borderline-rapey and there’s so much race and gender humor, some of which is pretty crass and sounds awful out of context. Hell, I had a little trouble selling it to myself, too. 

      But watch a few more episodes of Archer and it becomes pretty clear the writers have their hearts in the right places and are cheering for the right people. It’s hard to see Sterling as an authorial POV character after a couple of episodes. But Pam’s what really made that show for me. Cheap fat-lady joke to CELTIC WAR GODDESS in only three seasons! :D

      • Halloween_Jack

         My crush on Pam is profound and unstoppable.

  • Dave Noisy

    Archer fans should also check out the Australian show Danger 5. Very similar vibe with real people. =)

    • http://twitter.com/MartianEmpress Rezeya Montecore

      Danger 5 is so good. 

  • Ronald Pottol

    You should also get your hands on “How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written”, it’s as if Sterling Archer is right there with you, drinking your booze, groping your significant other. Highly recommended.

    • http://boingboing.net/ Jason Weisberger

      Thanks. I’ll read it shortly!