How Keanu Reeves Inspired Hank Green to Change the Punchline of His ‘Pissing Out Cancer’ Dropout Comedy Special

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer After touring his “Pissing Out Cancer” standup comedy special, YouTube star Hank Green made one significant change to the set the night before filming the televised version for indie streamer Dropout, and that decision was in part thanks to Keanu Reeves. “Because there was a pretty big gap between the last time I toured it and when I was going to be filming the special, I came to LA early and did eight shows over six days before I shot the special just to brush up,” Green told Variety. “And the night before the special, I rewrote the ending.

And we filmed it twice so we could cut between them if I made any mistakes. But I only did the ending that made it in the special one time.” At the risk of ruining a joke by explaining it, Green breaks down the small but significant change like this: “I knew I needed the last line to be a good thing.

So the special ends, ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about the Baltimore Orioles, and either they’re going to get me or I’m going to get them.’ And that was the end of the show.

But I added a line which is, ‘Either way, what comes next is going to be beautiful,’ which is based on a Keanu Reeves quote.” The quote isn’t from “The Matrix” or “John Wick,” but from an interview Reeves did on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in May 2019. “When he was asked, ‘What do you think happens after we die?,’ he said, ‘I know that the ones who love us will miss us,'” Green said. “So to turn away from, ‘What is my experience of sickness and death?,’ to ‘What is the human experience?’ And I’m just one piece of human experience, and the things that come after me will also be beautiful.