Afternoon Delight: The ‘Manners Men’ Are A Delightful, Droll Duo

What better way to prepare for the fast-approaching weekend than by indulging in the some of the Internet’s most well-done web content? Take advantage of your lunch break and treat yourself to Afternoon Delight, Decider’s carefully curated picks of the best short-form content available on the world wide web. This week we’re spotlighting Manners Men, the latest of a slew of hilarious web series from our friends over at Above Average.

Manners Men is a talk show about “politeness, rudeness, and social mores”. Two reformed bad boys (Mike Antonucci and Dan Chamberlain) don fancy suits and posh accents to discuss social decorum, classy things, and more with a different special guest each week. The series’ first episode features John Reynolds (Stranger Things, Search Party), who stresses the importance of smoking weed and thanking your mom for things. The polite duo begins with a random questionnaire, asks him what kinds of things are “Tops or Plops” (good or bad), and has him play a game called “Spot the Slob” (the answer is pretty obvious). The show is delightfully bizarre; the two hosts have a strange dynamic that makes the mundane premise unexpectedly entertaining.

The series’ second episode features comedian Chris Gethard, who immediately catches the Manners Men off guard by asking them a question before they can ask him one: “You guys okay?” Even the duo has a hard time keeping a straight face when Gethard delivers the question with such relish. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had explained to me that this web series was started after something traumatic happened and you had to rebuild your worldviews. It has a little bit of that vibe.” Gethard’s shake-up of the formula is hilarious, and they end up skipping their traditional questionnaire due to his reversal of roles.

“You seem like you’re really searching for something, and you seem slightly scared of him,” Gethard points out, clearly enjoying the torment he’s inducing. It’s hard not to smile as the three bounce lines off of each other, and the squirming that happens as Gethard playfully interrogates them is too fun. The episode ends with Gethard in an artist get-up (fake mustache included) as the three don top hats and remind us to “behave ourselves”.

The uproarious series continues this week with special guest Naomi Ekperigin (Broad City), and new episodes drop every Tuesday on Above Average’s website.