NYCC: FOX Comedy Brings Big Laughs to the Main Stage 

The weather may be cooling down, but this fall FOX is turning up the heat with its stacked Sunday comedy lineup! On October 11, the final day of New York Comic Con (NYCC), the leading men of FOX’s Grimsburg and Animal Control, Jon Hamm and Joel McHale, took the Main Stage for a lively panel moderated by Variety TV editor Michael Schneider. 

McHale and Hamm have been friends for years, ever since McHale bought an Audi from Hamm after he was tapped for a Mercedes partnership. The duo kept the laughs coming throughout the panel with impressions of Will Arnett, attempted calls to Arnett himself and to Community creator Dan Harmon, and general charming anecdotes about their storied careers and what’s to come this fall for FOX fans. 

To kick things off, the two actors touched on their favorite shows on the air right now, with McHale calling out Nirvana the Band the Show, and Hamm noting Widow’s Bay. In the spirit of NYCC, McHale said he’d cosplay as a character from Fallout, with Hamm saying he’s doing Han Solo, joking that the world needs a “Hamm Solo.”

For Season 5 Animal Control, led by McHale, fans can expect the workplace comedy about a group of local animal control workers to get “weirder with bigger jokes,” while still maintaining a “seriousness to the jobs.” McHale says that “The stakes have never been higher with this comedy…It’s a lot like Obsession, but with cute animals.” Hamm also had some kind words to share for his friend, saying that “there’s an inherent sweetness to [Animal Control],” praising McHale for delivering in “the heart of it.”

Panel attendees got to see a clip from Season 5 of Animal Control, in which the team is trying to figure out why they received a poor Yelp review. Simultaneously, one of the characters, Fred, also known as “Shred” (Micheal Rowalan), attempts to navigate his relationship with Emily Price (Vella Lovell), his girlfriend and the precinct’s director. McHale also teased the budding relationship between his character and Victoria Sands, played by Grace Palmer, which fans have been impatiently anticipating. 

Before moving on to Grimsburg, Hamm and McHale reflected on Mad Men and 30 Rock, which ranked Nos. 3 and 10 on the recent New York Times Top 100 TV Shows of the 21st Century list. Hamm mentioned that he recently started a full rewatch of Mad Men with his wife, reflecting that he truthfully “could not have been better” on the show. 

According to Hamm, Season 3 of Grimsburg, the animated show following a downtrodden detective Martin Flute, promises hilarious jokes with “amazing guest stars.” Some familiar voices fans can expect to hear this season include Rosie Perez, David Cross, and more. Hamm says that it’s been an “incredible ride,” and that “misplaced confidence is the secret weapon of Martin Flute.” 

Fans also got to see a clip from the first episode of Grimsburg Season 3, titled “The Zast of Us,” parodying HBO’s The Last of Us. In this episode, a very handsome man resembling Pedro Pascal passes through the town of Grimsburg, infecting the townspeople with a Zaddy virus. Martin Flute, to his dismay, is somehow immune to this disease. 

To wrap up the panel, Schneider opened the floor to audience questions, and to everyone’s surprise, the first person to approach the mic was none other than Ken Jeong, McHale’s Community and Animal Control co-star. Jeong then joined Hamm, McHale, and Schneider on stage, answering a few audience questions before bidding the con farewell. 

But that’s not all! Following the panel, The Pop Insider got the opportunity to speak one-on-one with McHale and Hamm, who were both eager to share more about their shows and characters. 

Hamm has built an illustrious career, playing a range of memorable characters, including Don Draper in Mad Men, Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and more. Hamm told us directly that the previous character he feels most relates to Martin Flute in Grimsburg is “probably the guy I play on 30 Rock with hooks for hands.”

That character is, of course, the fan-favorite, Dr. Andrew “Drew” Baird. He continues: “As I remind Tina [Fey] and Robert [Carlock], who created that character, I’m always like, ‘When you created this character, he had a family and a daughter and a job. He’s a doctor.’ And he just wildly and quickly turned into an absolute cartoon character.” Hamm also teased an upcoming return to the character, stating, “In fact, I’m going over from this to the 30 Rock 20th Anniversary special tonight. So I’ll be reprising that role.” 

McHale also took the time to answer one of our questions and showed some love for our teal Pop Insider-branded T-shirts. As McHale explained on the panel, Animal Control is a workplace comedy, so we asked him about finding that balance between humor, workplace dynamics, and real life. He referenced shows like “The Office, 30 Rock, Family Ties, and Community” as inspirations and learning lessons. 

McHale said, “If you want those sentimental moments where characters really connect, or they’re falling in love, or they’re really sad and it’s a comedy, you have to pack it with jokes to surprise the person with those real moments instead of just going, ‘Oh, here comes a sentimental moment…we can tell the guitar started and it’s taken forever.’” His favorite comedies are the the ones where “all of a sudden you’re crying and you’re like ‘I don’t know what just happened.’” Nirvana the Band the Show left that impression on him, even saying “it changed [his] life.” 

Our time at the FOX Comedy panel and in the press room with Jon Hamm and Joel McHale was filled with laughs and valuable anecdotes, making it an unforgettable way to wrap up the 20th-anniversary New York Comic Con.

Fans can watch Animal Control Sundays on FOX at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, with Grimsburg following right after at 9:31 p.m. ET/PT. Catch episodes the next day streaming on Hulu.