Remember Bumper, the a capella jerk from
Pitch Perfect, played by Adam Devine? In November 2022, he spun off into his own tv series,
Bumper in Berlin.The only other male character in the regular cast is Pieter Kramer (Flula Borg, below). Not many opportunities for buddy-bonding gay subtexts here, but Adam is one of most handsome men on Earth, and Flula is one of the most muscular, so maybe I'll watch with the sound off just for the face and physique. Besides, the episodes have cute German titles like Backpfeifengesicht (face in need of a fist -- sounds like Bumper).
Scene 1: Bumper singing a capella with some old guys. "Baby, I'll show you how a real queen behaves." Not necessary -- I've seen Kelvin. "You may think I'm weak without a sword, but if I had one, it'd be bigger than yours." Tell me more about your...um, sword, Bumper.
"If all the kings had queens on their throne, we'd toast champaign...I'll be your queen." Girlfriend, that's as homoerotic as a song gets. Did you forget that you're not playing Kelvin?
Lights go up. This is a rehearsal for Bumper's new group, the Tonehangers. They'll be performing at a retirement center next month. Whoa, the old people won't know what hit them.
The other guys have to go -- wives, kids, stuff to do. Bumper claims that he has stuff to do, too, but actually he's all alone. I hate the heterosexist equation of wife and kids with success, but I'll give it a pass due to the homoerotic song. And he's working as a security guard at his old college but he's still planning on becoming a famous singer, somehow. Bummer, Bumper.
Scene 2: Bumper is locking up as part of his security guard duties, when he gets a phone call from Germany: a fan of his college performances and his recent appearances on game shows and Tik-Tok. "Wait -- how do you know all this?" Bumper asks, horrified. "Are you a pervert?" Come on, dude, any fan would know those things. I know that Adam was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Well, to be fair, I just remember it because my home town is nearby.
"I'm a pervert for talent," the voice says --revealed to be Pieter Kramer. "We have met before." Turns out that he belonged to Das Sound Machine, a rival a capella group. "You are a big Tik Tok star in Germany." His TikTok involved making funny faces while singing the very sad song "Neun und neunsig Luftballon." "You got 7.6 million views!"
"That's like a million views!" Bumper exclaims.
Pieter wants him to move to Berlin and become his client. "It's all happening!" he exclaims. "All of those failures were worth it, because now I'll never fail again." Har-har.
Scene 3: Bumper arrives at a horrible, graffiti-filled, run-down building in Berlin. Pieter greets him. They hug; Bumper is so excited that he won't let go, but to his credit, Pieter does not recoil in homophobic contempt.
Upstairs to his horrible office with a window facing the train tracks. Pieter's assistant Heidi arrives: Sarah Hylund, who played Adam's girlfriend on Modern Family! I guess we know where the sparks will fly.
An American, an airhead, she gives him American cheese (almost impossible to find in Germany) and a caffeine pill (to avoid jet lag). Sparks fly.
Pieter has prepared a comic strip of Bumper's path to superstardom, culminating in a gig as "the hottest new singer" at German Unity Day in two months.
Scene 4: The three walking through Brandenburg Gate, getting a sandwich from a food truck: "It's made with dead animals." "Oh, it's meat."
A stranger (Govinda Cholleti) and his crew recognize Bumper from his Tik-Tok!
They arrive at the horrible youth hostel where Bumper will be staying. The scary lady manager scowls at him: "I truly am meeting you." Har-har. They want to leave him alone in his horrible dorm to "get some rest," but he wants to go with them: "I'll get nervous if I'm alone." And scared of the scary lady?
A Techno-Goth Club after the break
