15 Gigs’ Slacker P.I. Gets New Life via Twitter, Extra Clips

Ah, to be young, stoned and able to spend one’s days surfing basic cable. Of course, while that may be an easy way to make the days pass by, it doesn’t give you a whole lot of tools for solving life’s basic problems. Fortunately for Bo (Thomas Sigsby) and Wyatt (Tanner Thomason), they’ve been getting some help from an unlikely source — a Magnum P.I.-esuqe detective named Derringer (Charlie Pecoraro), who occasionally materializes to offer the boys advice on the myriad challenges tossed their way by fate.

Well, at least, that’s the premise as laid out in the intro to every episode of Slacker P.I., a recent offering of dude humor created by Noel Shankel and Jake Futernick, currently available on Hulu and YouTube. But there’s never any explanation as to why Derringer, whom the boys recognize as the central character from “the lowest-rated show of the 1980s,” appears to them every episode, nor any in-depth exploration as to how two unemployed guys can afford an apartment together, let alone the copious amount of weed they smoke. Instead, it’s just raunchy joke after inappropriate racial slur, but nimbly balanced so as to keep the main characters likable but the comedy much edgier than what you’d get away with in the traditional television world.

Launched initially back in June with two episodes, then followed up with an additional three in August, it might be easy to write off Slacker P.I. as just another dormant web series with a first season and no plans for a second. But while right now plans to continue the series remain in development, the digital arm of Fox Television has recently been giving the show more attention online.

According to director of programming Ilsa Berg, “We saw [it] gaining traction and we wanted to have some fun experimenting with growing an audience through social media and additional content.” So for the past month, extended sequences, alternative endings, and music videos have been uploaded to the site’s Hulu account, joining other additional digital material like an ode to Derringer that compiles the detective’s most thought-provoking, racist and hilarious moments from the show.

But do you want more Derringer than just the show provides? Well, here comes the official Derringer P.I. Twitter account. While managed by B/HI Buzz, the digital media division of 15 Gigs’ PR firm Bender Helper Impact, the show’s creators are key to coming up with bon mots like When Chuck Norris watches Derringer P.I., he smiles. And then counts more of his money. Bastard. and I’m almost certain I could’ve taken Richard Nixon in a knife fight.

Slacker P.I. is a bit too esoteric to imagine being marketable to mainstream audiences, but its bro-comedy approach could easily find a home on a network like F/X, with their misanthropic but hilarious It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and similar shows. However, it’s also easy to imagine it becoming a web staple, popularizing the Vietnam vet-turned-private-investigator trope in the same way that Ask a Ninja created a franchise out of its central character.

Which of the two approaches would be more likely to get people asking in their daily lives, “What would Derringer do?” I don’t know, but I’m sure Derringer would have the answer.

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