Greg Benson
Gregory Charles Benson (born January 23, 1968)[1] is an American comedian, actor, and director. His production company, Mediocre Films, creates comedic short films, generally for YouTube. He is a frequent director for The Guild.[2][3]
| Greg Benson | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Benson at VidCon 2012 | ||||||||||
| Birth name | Gregory Charles Benson | |||||||||
| Born | January 23, 1968 Dallas, Texas, U.S. | |||||||||
| Nationality | American | |||||||||
| Years active | 1990–present | |||||||||
| Spouse | Kim Evey | |||||||||
| Children | 1 | |||||||||
| Notable works and roles | Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, The Guild | |||||||||
| Website | www | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Channel | ||||||||||
| Years active | 2006–present | |||||||||
| Genre | Comedy, pranks, entertainment | |||||||||
| Subscribers | 1.68 million | |||||||||
| Total views | 556.85 million | |||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Updated June 27, 2020 | ||||||||||
History
Born in Dallas, Texas in 1968,[1] Benson graduated from W. T. White High School in 1986. Eventually he moved to California, where he has since appeared in several television commercials. Benson is a sometime member of the ACME Comedy Theatre improv troupe in Hollywood, where he first worked with writer/actor Wil Wheaton, who has since appeared in a variety of Benson's projects.[4]
He started making videos in 2005, initially hosting them on his own Mediocre Films website.[5] Eventually he moved his distribution from his own site to YouTube, where within one month, "Greg Hits Hollywood", one of his shorts, was featured on the site's home page.[6] The video and its sequels feature Benson interviewing strangers as a pretext for hitting them with his microphone to see "what people will put up with just because they want to be on TV, or even just YouTube."[5] Since then, he has become a popular YouTube comedian, number 47 on the list of most subscribed comedians on YouTube. His most popular video as of early 2009[6] was episode 1 of the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, which was selected to be featured on YouTube shortly after being posted February 25, 2007, and subsequently drew nearly 2 million viewers. The series later was picked up by Sony Pictures,[4][6] who continued the show through two seasons on YouTube as part of its "C Spot" lineup; one reviewer for The Times of London described it as "Pee-Wee Herman meets Monty Python via the hyperkinetic madness of Japanese television."[7]
Benson's most prominent directing credit is his work on the Internet series The Guild, on which he worked again with his wife, Kim Evey, producer of The Guild, as well as creator and performer of the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show.[8] He also as portraying one of the passengers on the short Docudrama "The flight that fought back". He and his wife, Kim, recently adopted a baby boy named Charlie in January 2016.
Awards
His first video, "Coming Home", was chosen by Amazon.com customers as one of the top five videos of the Amazon/Tribeca Film Festival's short films division.[9] His short "Phone Call to God" was chosen for second place in the best comedy division at the 2006 Evil City Film Fest.[10]
Retarded Policeman
Retarded Policeman is an American YouTube comedy web series written, directed, and edited by Benson, and based on an idea by his wife, producer and performer, Kim Evey. Scott Perry, Luke "The Ponceman" Perry's brother, has worked on the series.
The videos are uploaded on YouTube under the channel MediocreFilms.
| Retarded Policeman | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Web comedy |
| Created by | Kim Evey |
| Written by | Greg Benson Kim Evey |
| Directed by | Greg Benson |
| Starring | Josh 'The Ponceman' Perry |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Production | |
| Editor(s) | Greg Benson |
| Running time | 1-3 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | YouTube |
| Original release | 19 September 2007 – 7 June 2012 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Synopsis
The fictional series follows learning impaired Officer Ponce (Josh "The Ponceman" Perry) as he pulls over members of the public.
Theme song
The following is the lyrics to the 8 second long theme song played at the start of the video. Episode 15 had a rock remix of the theme song performed by Dave Days.
He is a cop,
And he's learning impaired,
He's the retarded policeman! (that's me!)
Episode list
| # Episode no. | Episode name | Guest starring | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hi | Scott Perry and Stacey Perry | 19 September 2007 |
| 2 | Officer Monkey | Kim Evey | 27 September 2007 |
| 3 | Coked Up | Greg Benson | 4 October 2007 |
| 4 | Racial Profiling | Cozmo Johnson | 20 November 2007 |
| 5 | Writers Strike | Wil Wheaton | 22 January 2008 |
| 6 | Sobriety Test | David Hussey | 4 February 2008 |
| 7 | MILF | Cory Williams and Jody Hoells | 20 March 2008 |
| 7.5 | Fish (April Fools) | Felicia Day | 31 March 2008 |
| 8 | Tazer | Mark McCracken and Laura House | 1 April 2008 |
| 9 | Boobies! | Heather Provost, Valerie Querns, Alan Heitz and Scott Perry | 23 April 2008 |
| 10 | Mexicans | Connie Perry and Al Perry | 10 June 2008 |
| 11 | GILF | Peggy Grigsby | 25 June 2008 |
| 12 | Casual Friday | Shelby Malone | 2 July 2008 |
| 13 | Mime | Doug Jones | 10 July 2008 |
| 14 | Bribes | Phil DeFranco | 25 July 2008 |
| 15 | Assburgers Syndrome | Charles Trippy and Dave Days | 8 August 2008 |
| 16 | Stalker | Michael Buckley | 15 August 2008 |
| 17 | Nalts | Kevin Nalty | 29 August 2008 |
References
- Ancestry.com. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: Texas. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997. Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services. Microfiche.
- Mediocre Films profile at YouTube
- Monas, Steve (2007). Yourspace 2. ISBN 1-4196-5321-0.
- April MacIntyre."Wil Wheaton interview: A Gorgeous Tiny Chicken C Spot Archived 2010-01-02 at the Wayback Machine," Monsters and Critics, May 29, 2008.
- Tommy Garrett. "Nothing mediocre about Greg," Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine Canyon News (Laurel Canyon, CA), April 20, 2008.
- Kellie Hwang. "With Mediocre Films, couple embraces Internet's viral video," The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ), March 28, 2009.
- Nigel Kendall. "The Web watcher: Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine; Mediocre Films," The Times (London, England), June 16, 2008.
- WorldofHiglet (16 November 2008). "Exclusive interview with Kim Evey, Producer of The Guild". Whedonverse.net. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
- "Beginner filmmaker wins Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition with his second film: Jack Paccione, Jr. took second place in inaugural competition last July with his first-ever film," Business Wire, November 3, 2005: "Other finalist films included ... 'Coming Home,' written, directed and produced by Greg Benson: Inspired by Woody Allen, Spike Jonze and Monty Python, this comedy was based on a dream and shot in one evening with a budget of $10. No one expects to come home to this."
- Evil City Film Fest 2006: Winners List. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
