Next Food Network Star »
Is Teddy Folkman ANNOYING?
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You heard it here, folks. Teddy Folkman may quite possibly turn out to be… (gasp)… ANNOYING.
I know, I know. Season 5 of the Next Food Network Star hasn’t even premiered yet. And thanks to Food Network PR rep Lisa Krueger (hey girlfriend!), we know very little about the contestants other than the generic bios they released last month. So when I found this “Meet Teddy Folkman” video on the Food Network’s YouTube channel, I was ecstatic at the chance to see the supposedly fabulous Washington DC chef in action.
At first glance, Folkman seems to be everything the Food Network could want in a TV personality and more: full set of teeth, photogenic face, a basic command of the English language. Great! However, thirty seconds into the video, I found myself wondering if Bobby Flay found him inside a kitchen, or wandering around outside a Kindercare facility. Folkman acts like a 7 year old boy trapped in a 33 year old man’s body, and not in a good Tom Hanks movie sort of way, either. One minute he’s doing a random Tony The Tiger impersonation, and the next he’s either dancing or having a seizure (we’re not sure which). And, yes folks, at 1:15 he even engages in a Broadway routine with a dead chicken.
Sadly, Folkman is reminding me less of a chef and more of a really, really, really bad stand-up comic.
When he’s sitting still, he’s talking about himself, himself, himself. The instruments he plays. His inability to play sports. His love of himself (“I enjoyed watching myself on TV [on Throwdown with Bobby Flay], I was like, hey, this guy’s pretty good, who is he?”). It’s like he memorized page 5 of “So Ya Wanna Be On The Food Network” and is desperately trying to build a personality and character for himself that the audience can identify with.
And we’re all supposed to forget the guy acts like a moron, why? Because he makes good mussels? Please. Teddy himself admits people find him “annoying,” which we think may be the understatement of the century. He’s more over the top than Robin Williams in The Birdcage, and he’s so overly animated that he makes Guy Fieri look boring.
It’s one thing to be energetic, but come on, Folkman, you’re at a 16. We need you at a 3.
Other posts on Food Network Humor:
---Next Food Network Star: Episode #502 Recap---Giada Used To Be So Much Less Annoying
---Next Food Network Star #501 Episode Recap
---Sneak Peek Video: Next Food Network Star Episode 3
---Top 5 Most Annoying, Overused Phrases On The Food Network
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27 Responses
Oh my word. I had such high hopes for Folkman after the things I heard about him, but after that video, I’m so turned off that it’s not even funny!
(but I’m still laughing about your reference to Tom Hanks and the movie Big)
LOL
Is Teddy Folkman annoying? Well frankly after that video, I have to answer back with a resounding HELL YES.
Why is he so in love with himself?! Don’t his friends tell him his jokes arent funny? We’re supposed to call him “captain amazing?” Get real.
Oh Jillian. You called it. The man is a really, really, REALLY bad Stand Up Comedian. And I mean really bad.
That one bit he did about “clapping as a cheerleader” was just painful to listen to.
his mussels are good. but so what. i cant taste those from here.
he seems like the adam lambert of food network reality competitions. overly animated and overly cocky and overly annoying.
Wow. I’ve never seen him other than in promo shots in newspapers and magazines.
FNH, now I understand why Lisa Krueger wouldn’t let you interview them. She herself must know how annoying and ripe for critique they are, and she didn’t want you to call them out on it.
I love that this site tells it how it is and doesn’t kiss anyone’s butt.
Ken
All I could think of was Adam from last season. He was annoying. but Susi and Tushman kept saying how funny he was. And I kept thinking well why don’t you show him being funny as opposed to being such an annoying prat-falling idiot.
He’s a renaissance man??? Ok, I have an idea. How about old Teddy gets back into the “wayback” machine and have Sherman and Mr. Peobody hit the GO button and return to his origins. What a geek boy……
This guy is the perfect encapsulation for what the FN stands for these days: loud, annoying, self-satisfied, egotistical, and a bit loopy. Hey there, poster boy!
I hope he wins! Whatever show he gets make will certainly ensure FNH posts for the duration of the season and beyond. Maybe he should call it “FNH Job Security.”
*snark*
I’m beginning to believe that FN understands this any-publicity-is-good-publicity thingy better than we could have imagined, hmmm?
“I enjoyed watching myself on TV”
I’d rather watch my grandma get raped than watch this guy on TV.
If this guy wins I won’t be watching one minute of his show. Even that little promo was painful enough.
They’ve got Michael Proietti’s video up on the you tube site as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbewcQIC4yk&feature=channel
HELP!!! Teddy Folkman and Michael Proietti make Guy Fieri and Aaron McCargo look good and that’s just scarey.
Well, Bob and Susie certainly have found some “star personalities”, haven’t they? Geez.
Not only is he annoying, but from that video, he looks to be the most annoying competitor of any season, ever.
INTOLERABLE to watch.
I have a question: who ever of these yahoo’s win, what is the premise of the new show going to be? I mean, it’s one thing to have a competition, but once somebody wins, what in the hell are they going to do that is fresh and new? I don’t get it. FN has been seemingly scraping the bottom of the barrel for show ideas for the past few years so does anybody know what their brilliant idea could possibly be??
I just watched the Michael Proietti interview and I think we found the one person who could possibly be MORE annoying than Teddy Folkman.
One thing is for sure, I can hardly wait to see what this site is going to say about the contestants and each episode. This is going to be a great season!
What if the other contestants are even MORE annoying than these 2? Yikes! That video makes me hope Bobby Flay is still peeved about losing the throwdown and smacks Folkman around some.
He’s really annoying, but he’s not inherently unlikable like certain other FN personalities. If he’d turn it down from 11 to about 3-4, he could be ok.
Michael Proietti on the other hand… As Peter Griffin would say, he’s one of those “big, ‘Oh-my-God, here-they-come, floating-around, making-noise’ gay guys.”
I don’t care about his sexual orientation, and he seems like a decent enough person, but all the whacky affectations and mannerisms really grind my gears.
I guess Andy Dick and Carrot Top were unavailable.
He’s totally hamming it up for the camera and I’m guessing he’s also on some kind of mood altering drug. Anyone this happy and “up” all the time is only going to come crashing down.
My new friend Peter showed this Teddy Folkman video to one of his friends. And his friend’s reaction is too funny not to share:
“that video gives me douche chills”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
[...] it like to go through the Food Network wringer? After reading some of the notices responding to his bio video and Joe Yonan’s advance look at the first episode over at All We Can Eat, it sounds like [...]
You people are ridiculous and sad. Sitting around blogging about personal attributes of a person based on a few seconds of video. Teddy is goofy, hilarious and an AMAZING chef. Did you hear me? An AMAZING CHEF! Which is what the show is about after all. So cut the guy some slack and at least allow his food to talk for him.
Wow, Mary. I guess Teddy Folkman needs little old ladies defending him now.
Guess what else, Mary? We can’t taste his AMAZING food. So all we have to go on is his OBNOXIOUS personality which has clearly rubbed some people the wrong way, even after only a few seconds of video.
His food will never talk for him, unless he tours the world and feeds all of us, which will never happen. Until then, his lame antics tell me all I need to know.
Anyone tried his food? We have! When traveling to DC last month, my wife, her father and I ate here. Even though the AC system wasn’t working well, it was our favorite place of the whole week. Better than Ben’s Chili Bowl. The mussels start with extremely fresh ones delivered live from Prince Edward Island. You can’t go wrong when you start with fish that fresh, and we loved it.
Anyone seen the Throwdown with Bobby Flay episode lately? Teddy is fine, glad he won. :)
[...] month, we asked if Teddy Folkman was annoying. The question has since been answered with an overwhelming and resounding YES. Folkman is [...]
I’m glad he got kicked off last week. He’s a backstabbing lowlife.