Aubrey Plaza’s droll sense of humor helped cut the sometimes-twee sensibilities of Parks And Recreation, and she’s gone further afield as the gonzo sorta-antagonist of Legion and in dark comedies like Ingrid Goes West. As the above montage demonstrates, there’s nowhere she’s more at home than in the anodyne setting of celebrity culture. Whether it’s soft-focus interviews, late-night chats, awards shows, or red-carpet appearances, she consistently derails the prescribed pattern of conversation, abruptly claiming she plans to kill herself, responding “thank you” to comments that don’t merit that response, firing off morbid, go-nowhere anecdotes, refusing to set up her clips enthusiastically, and so on. She’s got a great rapport in particular with Conan O’Brien, whose classic interviews with Norm MacDonald prove his willingness to go along with this sort of subversion, but it’s also fun to watch her ruin a red-carpet interview with a scripted fight with Michael Cera. (Who, we recently found out, she was dating at the time.)
Mostly, though, the video is worth watching to see her be mean to Howie Mandel, who does not at all know what to do with it.