Billy Eichner Goes to Washington
Comedian interviews Michelle Obama and Big Bird for Billy on the Street
February 18, 2015
Michelle Obama, Billy Eichner, and Big Bird on ‘Billy on the Street.’ (Funny or Die)
Billy Eichner, the lovably high-octane comedian behind Fuse’s man-on-the-street game show Billy on the Street, traded his usual New York City backdrop for the nation’s capital this week. In a segment dreamed up by one of the youngs on staff at the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama and Big Bird appeared as contestants on the show, discussing their Eat Brighter campaign to encourage healthy eating among children.
Eichner, whose style Siân Gibby described last year as “totally in-your-face and outrageous and completely brilliant,” toned down his usual frenzied shtick a bit for FLOTUS and Big Bird—there was still yelling, of course, but it was more near Obama than at Obama. To his credit, Eichner did get the First Lady to wheel him around a grocery story in a shopping cart.
Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.
