Talk:Dog Bites Man Episode 10 (Unaired 2006 Episode)/@comment-26720685-20150717221536

I want to see this "unaired/lost" episode/segment more than anything in the world.  This is my white whale. I'm not kidding when I say I've been hunting for this thing for 8+ years now. Zach Galafianakis has always been one of my all-time favorite comedians, and his work pre-Hangover fame is not only criminally underrated/overlooked, it's among his best. His work around the filming, release and aftermath of The Hangover is also utterly brilliant; early episodes of Between Two Ferns (pre-2011, or the first 11 eps) are among my favorite comedy bits ever, despite the celebrities almost certainly being in on the joke and it being likely partially if not entirely scripted. But take away the script, put REAL PEOPLE in there, and then make those real people armed members of the KKK at a rally and have them NOT know it's a joke. That is absolute gold. This was way before Zach was a recognizable face and I can't imagine the KKK being up to date on his tragically overlooked material up til early '06 anyway, so no way was it scripted.

BTW: There are actually at least three "lost episodes" or at least one lost episode and two "lost scenes" in this series; there's this one (Title: "Assignment: Klan Rally"), the pilot had to be reshot because the random bodybuilder they found to interview went on to murder someone and after that news came to light Comedy Central made them reshoot it, and then a third segment that was removed entirely by the network before the show had even aired because a professor claimed to be an unwitting participant for a serious documentary. More details on the other two below.

Anyway, a quote from the article linked on this page further proves it was unscripted/the people being interviewed were all real and not actors:

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AVC: Is it true that the show [Dog Bites Man] sometimes made you uncomfortable?

''ZG: There was one time where I actually started crying. We were in a church, and this guy was so sweet. He said something really sad, and I just couldn't take it. If you're onstage and you're screwing with someone, they know that there's a comedy show going on. These people had no idea. And a lot of times, we weren't taking the piss out of people with power, we were just taking the piss out of regular folks. And we have all these fancy lawyers behind us. Sometimes it felt a little dirty. But some of the hardest I've ever laughed was on that show, because you weren't supposed to laugh, which made it kind of like laughing at a funeral.''

AVC: Do you think audiences didn't realize that those were real people being interviewed?

''ZG: I think that was part of the problem. People thought they were actors, and you have to know that they're real people to appreciate it.''

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More evidence that these were not actors/it was all real quotes and reactions from real people, from a 2006 interview while the show was still airing:

"Interviewees are never told the show is fake, and they sign releases allowing their interviews to be used. Walsh says no one has questioned why a TV news team would act the way they do."

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TO ADD TO THIS (and yes, this is related) - As far as TV shows go, Da Ali G Show is by far and away the funniest comedy series I've ever seen. I know there are better comedy series out there overall, but as far as sheer hilarity per episode, nothing matches it. And finally, as far as comedy films go, Borat is in my top 3 comedy films of all time and Bruno is in my top 10. Sure, parts of each movie are scripted and have actors instead of real people/real reactions (roughly 15% for Borat, 30% for Bruno) to move the "story" along and to add in a few extra punchlines, but the fact that the reactions of every day people were so genuine and everything was so candid was groundbreaking for a feature film and has yet to be replicated on the large screen in such a brilliantly hilarious way.

To an extent, Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report and his earlier role as a correspondent on The Daily Show did this as well - and most of the greatest moments from those shows comes from the times he interviewed people (typically not on set) who were very clearly at a loss because they didn't know he was playing a character. (I'm sure it's no coincidence that another Daily Show correspondent from Stephen Colbert's era - Matt Walsh - was a star in Dog Bites Man.)  Between Two Ferns channels this same kind of thing with celebrities, despite the likelihood of a script and the celebrity knowing what to expect...but they sold it VERY well in the early episodes.

However, Da Ali G Show (U.S. and U.K. versions) blew the rest out of the water by simply never holding back and you really never once got the feel that anyone being interviewed was in on it AT ALL - likely because they weren't. And then they managed to translate that to the big screen with the Borat and Bruno movies VERY successfully by really ramping it up in America, despite adding a bit of artificial backstory to each. And of course they got a zillion lawsuits because of how authentic it actually was (the reactions and real quotes would have never been caught on camera had many of those people thought there was any chance the footage would be seen in major U.S. theatres - they thought the camera was just there as part of a rinky dink documentary from a country they'd never heard of and would never see the light of day, and were never told otherwise, hence the brilliance of those characters/the interviews.)  The only reason I'm mentioning this is because of the "second genius" behind these projects; of course Sacha Baren Cohen was the major mastermind behind much of it, but the characters, the "screenplays," the "writing" (which was mostly just "here are the funny things to say, go in, talk to people, see what they say/how they react and roll with it") were all worked on with a man named Dan Mazer; he shared the Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay with Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat and has been Sacha's writing partner and producer since the 90's and they've known each other since the 80's. Dan Mazer was a writer for all 12 episodes of Da Ali G Show (US), the director and producer for half of them, a producer for the original UK version of Da Ali G Show, a writer for the Ali G movie as well as Borat, Bruno and a million more credits involving Sacha Baron Cohen's greatest works. And who was the creator of Dog Bites Man? 'Dan Mazer. '(P.S. - If you want to learn more about him, google interviews with him regarding Sacha Baron Cohen/Dog Bites Man or check out his IMDB page rather than his Wikipedia page, as his Wikipedia page is quite sparse and barely mentions what he's done.)

To recap:

* This episode has Zach Galifiankis in his prime with the same level of hilarity as early Between Two Ferns except not scripted with REAL PEOPLE and not only people but ARMED MEMBERS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN AT A RALLY


 * One of the other stars, Matt Walsh, is an early Daily Show correspondent who worked on the show at the same time as Stephen Colbert - again with the brilliant unscripted/improv candid vibe with real people.


 * It was created, written, directed and produced by seemingly the closest creative mind to Sacha Baron Cohen's characters and comedic stylings other than Sacha himself and is very much the same vein as many of his best works (it was shot just after Da Ali G Show and just before Borat).

They shot ten episodes. One of them is shrouded in mystery and details are very sparse but it involves all of this comedic genius coming together and MID-2000s ZACH GALIFIANAKIS GOING TO A KKK RALLY/PICNIC IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND SCREWING WITH ARMED KLAN MEMBERS WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE, CANDIDLY, IMPROVISATIONALLY AND PASSING IT OFF AS A SERIOUS INTERVIEW! AND IT WAS DIRECTED/PRODUCED BY THE CO-WRITER/CO-PRODUCER/CO-DIRECTOR OF DA ALI G SHOW/BORAT/BRUNO! This is why this footage/episode is my white whale. It truly sounds like everything I could ever want; absolute hilarity. It's not just a case of "wanting what you've been told you can't have" or a Streisand Effect thing that makes me want to see it so badly (that was about ~1/4 of why I wanted to hear the uncensored speech at the end of "201" AKA South Park's two-part "Muhammad episode" - which, btw, you can find by searching "south park 201 speech uncensored hd" - and 100% of the reason why I even watched The Interview after it got pulled from theaters due to North Korea's threats) but this is NOT THAT.

So many brilliant comedic minds at work here, perfect scenario, perfect setting, real reactions. I've been wondering WHY this never aired - if you look up interviews from just before and especially during the run time of the show they always mention 10 episodes and most frequently they'll make a discuss or make a reference to the upcoming KKK rally episode as if its the highlight of the season. Not only that, it was planned as the Season Finale and even had a title: "Assignment: Klan Rally" and would have aired at 10:30PM on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006. However, the next-to-last episode ("Assignment: Daytime Talk Pilot") was aired the previous Wednesday and Comedy Central never aired the final "Assignment: Klan Rally" episode at all. Even if Comedy Central pulled the plug prematurely, it was a completed episode, you would think they would include it as a bonus on the official DVD for the show that was finally released in 2012? Why would they go to that much trouble shooting something that was going to be their highlight/finale/most talked about moment and then not release it? As the linked article on this page points out, Zach Galifianakis says it was "the highlight of my career."

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THEORIES:

THEORY #1: Comedy Central found the episode too distasteful in the end and pulled the plug early.

Here's an interview with Dan Mazer (co-writer/producer of Borat, Da Ali G Show, Bruno etc) from July 22nd, 2006 while the show was still airing. The pilot had to be reshot because the random bodybuilder they found went on to murder someone, and apparently Comedy Central objected to broadcasting footage of this murderer from a moral/ethical standpoint...this is the second "lost footage" piece from the show that I mentioned.

''Dan: It was NBC that came to me and said, Do you want to come and do something with us? I said, Id love to, why the hell not? We did our pilot which ultimately ended up being the first show this season on Comedy Central. I think it was a little bit too bizarre for NBC. So then Comedy Central came waltzing along and snatched us up.

DRE: Did you have to change anything about the show for Comedy Central?

Dan: The pilot was the bodybuilders episode and it was a slight disaster. We had to do re-shoots because the first bodybuilder we found was somebody called Craig Titus who subsequently committed a murder. It was deemed in bad taste to broadcast the murderer on our show so had to re-shoot one of the bits.

DRE: Im surprised you guys didnt go with the murdering thing.

Dan: [laughs] I wanted to. Me being devoid of moral fiber I was very happy to broadcast a murderer but apparently that was verboten according to Comedy Central.''

You'll notice that when he's asked if they had to change anything for Comedy Central, the bodybuilder thing was all he mentioned...nothing about the KKK. And later in the same interview he mentioned the KKK episode twice. However, he did not mention the third piece of missing footage of the professor and how Comedy Central removed that segment entirely.

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THEORY #2: They actually didn't get enough footage they needed for the KKK scene and scrapped it/the episode. This theory is taken from the same interview when he describes the KKK bit:

''DRE: Thats really a short amount of time. Have you interviewed someone and then just gotten nothing out of it and had to create it in the editing room?

Dan: If we get nothing out of it then Ill basically just scrap it and try and find something else. For example, we did a scene where we went to a Ku Klux Klan fair in Memphis. The idea was going to be that they went in there not really knowing that it was a KKK fair and then had to cope with it. But what one doesnt realize is that the KKK arent necessarily that happy to appear on camera, because when they go into work on Monday people will realize that the nice guy in the next cubicle is a white supremacist hatemonger. So we planned that and almost nobody wanted to speak to us so we had to cobble something together and think on our feet when we were there. While at the same time try not to be gunned down by vicious white supremacists.''

So, he starts out by saying if he gets nothing out of it he just scraps it and tries to find something else, then mentions the KKK rally as an example...but ends by saying "we had to cobble something together and think on our feet when we were there" implying he did actually get the footage. Also, all of the other interviews with cast member prior to this mentioning the KKK rally episode implied it was going to happen and be a bit of a highlight. Still, it may be that the show creator didn't like it and coudln't find something else (especially since everything was shot prior to the show airing, so they couldn't shoot another episode at that point) and just aired 9 episodes instead of 10, even though he specifically says "Im doing ten" in the same interview when asked how many episodes there will be that season.

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THEORY #3: Someone from the KKK didn't want their face on camera and filed a lawsuit or made a threat and Comedy Central caved and pulled the episode. This sentence from the above quote alone kind of supports that theory:

But what one doesnt realize is that the KKK arent necessarily that happy to appear on camera, because when they go into work on Monday people will realize that the nice guy in the next cubicle is a white supremacist hatemonger.

However, the show creator absolutely did not shy away from removing any footage because of lawsuits or anything around this same time with Borat. Then again, Comedy Central likely had final say, and judging by the Muhammad episode of South Park and their decision to censor it after the threat, I wouldn't put it past them...especially since Dog Bites Man had nowhere near the attention/fanbase of South Park.

Additionally, before the show even aired, there were lawsuits against it from at least three parties. here Link here.

Relevant quote (bold emphasis mine) -

''The Oregon attorney general's office last week fired off its second letter to the network reiterating its protest of the TV crew filming under the guise of making a documentary at a real-life media literacy class at Portland State University. The first letter, sent May 30, saw no humor in the situation: "We represent the state of Oregon and Portland State University in the dispute involving the fake news crew that visited PSU under false pretenses on May 16, 2006," wrote Christine A. Chute with the office's government services and education section. "Please provide me with written assurances that none of the footage filmed at PSU will be aired for any purpose whatsoever." '''The network was still considering the university's demand that the footage be yanked. Last month, the network agreed to kill a segment filmed in March in Tustin, at which Chapman University professor Fred Smoller was an unwitting panelist in what he thought was a discussion on media and politics also being filmed for a documentary.''' Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said filming for the show, which airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m., also drew protests from a third college professor. Though filming has ended for this season, he said, the network is considering lessons learned from the dust-up.''

This may be the most likely theory, as clearly they've caved to this kind of thing before and even though filming had ended the network was still "considerinng lessons" - so maybe one of the KKK members caused a fuss.

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THEORY #4:

In the heat of the moment they just didn't get the proper signatures they needed from the Klan members and thus couldn't legally air it anyway.

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THEORY #5:

Comedy Central simply pulled the plug on the show prematurely and stopped airing it due to poor ratings and it was just coincidence that the KKK episode/finale was the one that got cut off since it would have been the last to air.

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In any case, the "...although it is believed that the guns may have had something to do with it's current absence" seems both unlikely and unfounded and I could not find any sources to back that up.

Also, as for why it didn't appear on the DVD...

Theory 1: Comedy Central owns the rights and has the final say and said no.

Theory 2: The creator of the show scrapped the episode and/or didn't think it worthy to include.

Theory 3: Legal issues (lawsuit/threat)

Theory 4: Legal issues (Improper release form paperwork)

Theory 5: Comedy Central owns the rights and has the final say and said no.

Or it could be none of the above and I could be way off! In any case, I NEED TO SEE THAT KKK FOOTAGE DAMNIT!

Citations/relevant interviews/articles (By Date)

May 30th, 2006 interview with Zach Galifianakis

Highlights/annotations from a 3 hour radio show with host Tom Scharpling; you can listen to the entire thing by clicking to the top of the page (Zach comes in at 1 hour, 23 minutes, talks about the show/KKK incident from 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 29 minutes), otherwise here are the annotations:

''A recent storyline involved infiltrating a KKK rally in the middle of Tennessee, but the characters thought they were going to cover a State Fair. They want to leave, but they stay because the hot dogs are so good. The actors were told that it would be a gun-free KKK event, but when they showed up, Zach first saw someone selling his stand-up DVD and then saw several people with guns on their belts. Zach was a bit frightened by the event, but he did get to ask a Grand Wizard if he'd seen Big Momma's House 2. Zach admits that delivering lines like this sometimes keep him up the night before.''



June 13th, 2006 report on the lawsuits, mentioned/linked to above



June 15th, 2006 interview with Matt Walsh

Matt briefly discusses the KKK rally



June 27th, 2006 (another) interview with Matt Walsh

Matt goes much further into detail about the KKK rally and mentions the interactions he had with them



July 14th, 2006 interview with show creator Dan Mazer

The interview I quoted from above; pretty in depth.



October 18th, 2006 magazine mentioning a recent video/performance where one of the show's actors discusses the KKK rally

Scroll all the way to the bottom and look under "Best place to publicly relive your failures" to see the relevant bit. The actor in question is A.D. Miles, one of the actors on the show, but I can't find the video anywhere online where he recounts it or mentions why it was a failure.



January 16th, 2007 comedic interview with Zach Galifianakis on CollegeHumor.com

Take this with a grain of salt because it's a comedy bit, but he also does mention the KKK rally and the show (Relevant bit starts at 02:31) Transcribed it for you anyway, though:

Michael: What happened with, uh...Dog Bites Man?

''Zach: It got cancelled. ''

Michael:  It did?

''Zach: Yeah. ''

Michael: Officially?

Zach: Yeah.

Michael: Really?

''Zach: Mmhmm. Thank God.''

Michael: Really?

Zach: Yeah, I didn't like doing it.

Michael: Why?

''Zach: I didn't like messing with people. I mean, certain people I didn't have a hard time messing with. Like, one never aired...where we went to a KKK rally. Dan Mazer, the producer, who did Borat, told us there'd be no guns.''

Michael: ...He was wrong.

''Zach: He was wrong. There were a lot of guns. And I got to ask the Grand Wizard of the KKK if he'd seen Big Momma's House 2.''

Michael: What'd he say?

''Zach: He goes, 'No, I've heard of it.'  And I just went on and on of how good of a movie it was. I don't mind screwing with the KKK.''



March 7th, 2007 interview with Zach Galifianakis (the one linked to in this article)

This pretty much just re-iterates what's already been said.



June 16th, 2008 - Purported interview with show actor A.D. Miles explaining more

Someone made a thread on the IMDB board for the show in June 2008 giving further insight as to why the show was cancelled, saying he learned this from reading an interview from one of the show's actor's, A.D. Miles, and A.D. Miles also talked further about the missing KKK episode. The post says it was on "movie scooter" - however, I cannot find this interview anywhere, or any website or anything called Movie Scooter. It could well be the poster is just making all or part of it up, but it does sound fairly reputable and June 2008 was over 7 years ago so whatever site it was on and the interview itself may just as easily be long gone by now.



WOW, that was a lot of typing and research. I am mentally exhausted. And it originated right here, folks, so if someone else copies it to a blog or news site, this is where it started. If that episode/footage ever surfaces, plz let me know. And if anyone involved in the show's production sees this and has the episode/footage, PLEASE RELEASE IT! I mean, just look at how much work I put into this comment! Dog Bites Man: Episode 10 / Missing Episode / Unaired Episode / "Assignment: Klan Rally" / KKK Episode / Klan Episode or whatever you want to call it...release it, bring joy to the world and let me have my white whale! <3