While one beloved comedian, Bob Odenkirk, survived a heart attack this week, it unfortunately still ended with a tragic loss to the art form of comedy. Trevor Moore, most known for co-founding the seminal sketch comedy troupe, The Whitest Kids U Know, sadly passed away this weekend following a tragic accident (the details of which have not yet been released as the family and the other members of WKUK have asked for privacy at this time). He is survived by his wife Aimee Carlson and son August.
Of course, this is the time to understand why the loss of Moore is devastating with doing a deep dive on the YouTube channels of the Whitest Kids U Know and Trevor’s eponymous show on Comedy Central, The Trevor Moore Show, as well as his handful of artfully crafted, hysterical comedy albums. The superb display of abjectly absurd humor, sharp satire, and great revelry in comedic chaos in all of Moore’s work should never be forgotten or overlooked.
Personally, for us, this rang true in one specific performance by the WKUK, several years ago, when friend and contemporary Josh Fadem used to run a live comedy show out of Cinefile Video in West LA. Like so many wondrous comedy spaces in LA, it wasn’t supposed to have a comedy show. The expansive library of DVDs and narrow aisles in particular made for quite the improbable set up for live comedy. Yet, Fadem made it work for stand-ups. Having all of WKUK on “stage” (it was just the end of one of the DVD aisles) was another story. All of WKUK dived in head to all the sketches they could remember seemingly without too much of an idea how tiny of a performance area there would be. What resulted was a whirlwind of hysterical bedlam that broke the fourth wall several times, but never ceased in having us busting up as the Moore, Sam Brown, Zach Cregger, Darren Trumeter, and Timmy Williams, similar to whenever Conan O’Brien lets his show go delightfully off the rails, relished the pure fun of every moment.
So, with that in mind, remember Trevor Moore fondly and please go watch all of his work starting here and here ASAP.