Comedian and host of “The Eric Andre Show” Eric André has opened up regarding the specifics of his very intense incident with wrestling star and actor John Cena on his show. It was a footage shoot with André where he was supposed to have a physical stunt, which proved to leave him badly concussed and even hospitalized.
“The Eric Andre Show” is a random, chaotic, surrealistic comedy with hidden camera pranks, public disturbances, and celebrity interviews. Airing on Adult Swim, the show has built a cult following for its absurdity, sometimes shocking viewers. The pranks on the show are usually intended to be funny in nature, though much of the physical comedy borders on danger.
One of these episodes guest-starred John Cena. With his muscle man and wrestling background, Cena was there in one of the stunts when he would turn around and throw Eric André through a shelf. The whole idea was to make a farce out of something by using that famous strength in an over-the-top gesture.
But, the stunt wouldn’t exactly be as planned. According to André himself, in the course of executing the said stunt, too much force and pressure was applied to him and onwards to the shelf he was to break through, and this led him to literally crash the shelf in high collision, knocking himself out with a concussion– a brain injury that happens when one receives a blow to the head or body that keeps a brain from moving forward swiftly.
André was hospitalized directly afterward because of the huge concussion that resulted from the incident. Any concussion can be very harsh with apparent effects like headaches, confusion, dizziness, and memory loss or even loss of consciousness.
Eric André takes a lot of risks and goes to a ridiculous point for comic relief. Things got out of hand this time due to the significance of the guest, being John Cena, and the severity of the injury he got. Andre, on a characteristic par of humanness and nonchalance, was right back on his own after discussing the incident some more.
That incident attracted attention among both fans and the media, revealing the unpredictability of “The Eric Andre Show” and killings that physical comedians face. Viewers questioned the safety of the stunts performed in the program; to others, it was just another factor of that extreme, boundary-pushing André mind.
In post-event interviews, André joked about the incident, acting as if the injury was nothing and playing up the idea of Cena being incredibly strong. Such a sentiment shows the more-public persona of André, more likely to blur reality and absurdity.
Professional wrestler and recent actor John Cena barely seemed to address the incident in public statements. That still reasonably leaves open the possibility that, while Cena may not have intended to seriously harm André, of course, the foundations of professional “wrestling” are stunts and physical actions, some of which are fights and which seriously smack around all the athletes all the time.
This episode can only serve to signal that physical comedy can be full of surprises and dangerously moving. While the stunts on a show like ‘The Eric Andre Show” are performed meanly to dazzle audiences, best talents always tend to take risks. In turn coming out of such instances, and one such was the Eric André visit to the hospital. Having met with a freak accident, André in no way felt despondent. On the contrary, he felt further charged to be the number one villain in the field of comedy, making producers anxious with his audacious performing style.
