Jon Lajoie Talks The League, EBDB, Vinegar Strokes, and More

Written By Al Mannarino & Luke Kalamar | Photos by Ryan Demarco

For a good couple years, Jon Lajoie was the living definition of an under-the-radar Internet star. The Montreal, Quebec based comedian started posting videos online around 2007 that cultivated a dedicated fanbase but didn’t go so far as to become heavily viral. It’s probably because his videos were exceptionally bizarre. With content such as “Breathing Commercial,” “Pedophile Beards,” and his earliest hit “Show Me Your Genitals” as E=MC Vagina, you can probably see how. To the fans, Pop-Break’s Television Editor Luke Kalamar included, it was blatantly clear that Lajoie had a hidden talent that deserved to become known.

Justification came when Lajoie was cast as the “high as a kite” Taco MacArthur on FX’s The League. As his first major television role, Taco was the ultimate jumping point for a bigger audience to finally witness what Lajoie was all about. And really, Taco was the perfect character for him. This perpetually lazy, but also weirdly brilliant, man was the ultimate vehicle to propel the creator of a commercial about breathing into the public eye. Now with two studio albums, a 2010 Comedy Central Presents special, and a role in 2014’s Let’s Be Cops, it’s clear that Lajoie’s star is on the rise.

We spoke with Lajoie at a roundtable interview at New York Comic Con, where the comedian discussed how he relates to Taco, what the character’s plan is this season, and if the clueless genius will actually become a millionaire.

Is there such a thing as too dumb for Taco?

It’s funny because there is a line, it’s a very obscure line. Sometimes while improvising I can say the dumbest things someone would ever say. But then I’d say something that’s sort of just plain dumb and it doesn’t work. It’s either go real absurd dumb because simple dumb is “No, that’s not how dumb is.” He’s just sort of off in his own world so he lives by his own reality. So I’d say not dumb enough is too dumb for Taco.

How much of Taco is you?

I say the bigger arcs of what Taco to up. Every episode I’m up to [something] and there are a lot of lines that are written there for me, like all of the sort of structural stuff is there, and a lot of funny stuff as well. So I kind of have a sweet job, like everyone else does, to just pepper in whatever the heck comes to mind. A lot of it is just me looking at the page and being on set and being like “What can I say?” It is inevitably your sense of humor that comes out. My favorite thing that I’ve done this season is when Taco had to defend his corporation somehow and nothing was really written about it. It was like “Okay, you guys don’t understand that Taco Corporation is a real corporation with real employees.” Pete (Mark Duplass) needed to use that information for something. So I basically wanted to say something that was funny, so I went into when Steve Jobs invented “the job” everybody thought he was stupid. If you look today, everyone has “jobs” and look how good Steve Jobs is doing. That was a thing that I was like “Oh, that’s me.” But the idea that I’m running this crazy corporation, obviously that’s Jeff and Jackie (Schaffer). But then we play around with that. I’ll do that and that’s the beauty of working on a set. I can come up with that joke, say it while we’re shooting, and it ends up in the show. It’s amazing, it’s such a great job.

Every season Taco has this one idea that’s actually really really good. But this season, it seems that EBDB (Eskimo Brother Database) has become a season arc. Was that your idea or was that Jeff and Jackie coming to you saying “We’re actually going to give Taco an arc this season”?

Yeah that was Jeff and Jackie. They give me random arcs that stick around a little bit. I got rich in another season too. We play around with that. Last year I had a van, that was the main arc. But this year, the thing about that is, when you think about the EBDB, that’s what so absurd about this, in this day and age and the world that we live in — it’s not that crazy. You’re tracking the people that you’ve slept with and you’re building a family tree with all those people you slept with and are making an online app or website about it. That’s actually kind of normal. That’s up there with Neckflix, which I thought was just a great idea. The Netflix for neckties on Shark Tank. I can’t believe that. Those guys were basically saying “Hey we have this idea, we basically just watch TV. We watch TV and that’s our idea, here you go.”

Do you ever find yourself using the terms on the show in real life?

Every time, right before ejaculation I yell “Vinegar Strokes!” and I stare at myself in a mirror. No (laughs), I don’t think so. Other people come up to me and use those terms quite frequently and we use them a lot on the show. You gotta get that out of your system. So in real life, I don’t think my girlfriend would appreciate it if I kept dropping the “frittatas,” “the vinegar strokes,” and “the Eskimo brothers.” I don’t want to know who my Eskimo brothers are anyway. I guess between me and Taco the biggest difference is I have no interest in knowing who else has slept with the people I’ve slept with.

Is Taco ever going to deposit the $1,000,000 check from Mark Cuban?

Dude, that’s a Jeff and Jackie question. He would have to read up on what banks are and understand the concept. I think he thinks he’s carrying around a million dollars and he’s like “Yeah I have a million dollars.” I don’t think he really gets that he has to bring it somewhere for them to validate that as a thing that exists and as money. But regardless, I don’t even think a million dollars will affect his life all that much. What’s he going to do with that?

He’s always trying to get rich, that’s the main thing. He always has these ideas…

He’s oddly a zen character. He’s always just going through life doing his thing, really not too stressed about anything. I would have to meditate on a mountain top for years to become as zen as Taco is. I envy him.