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Seth Rogen and James Franco take their gluttonous recipes to ‘Epic Meal Time’

'Epic Meal Time' gets a Korean BBQ makeover thanks to the 'Interview' stars.

 

Allen Weiner

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Posted on Dec 3, 2014   Updated on May 30, 2021, 2:05 am CDT

Imagine an exotic lasagna recipe that totals more than 33,000 calories and 2,169 grams of fat, and you know it has to be from the mad food scientists at Epic Meal Time.

In the latest installment of the wildly popular YouTube series that spawned an equally outrageous cable TV show, Epic Meal Empire, we find film buddies Seth Rogen and James Franco creating a Korean BBQ Lasagna that represents a thinly veiled promo for their new film, The Interview. The movie reunites the Franco-Rogen team (Pineapple Express, End of the World) as a talk show host and producer who go on a mission to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

Aside from the brief mention of The Interview at the end of the episode, this heavily bleeped installment is all about the dynamic duo kicking the show’s star Harley Morenstein out of the kitchen (they call the bearded one “Harvey Morgenstein”) where they take over creating a mess-terpiece that blends together all things fatty with all things spicy. The net result is something that would require an asbestos palate.

As in many Franco-Rogen bits, the shtick is either very funny or extremely labored. Their improv take on the Six Degrees of Kevin Kimchi Bacon is clever but the mumbled asides aimed at demeaning Epic’s host Morenstein are fairly laugh-free. Rogen, an experienced comic has much better chops than his cinematic friend which was made obvious in their Kim-Kanye sendup, Bound 2 and on Discovery’s Naked and Afraid.

While this Epic Meal Time take is far from the series’ best, it’s all in good fun. That is, unless you try and cook and digest this heart attack waiting to happen. To that, I say haeng-un-eul bil-eo yo (행운을 빌어 요).

Screengrab via Epic Meal Time/YouTube

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*First Published: Dec 3, 2014, 11:15 am CST