Psych How Gus Nicknames Became A Running Gag

Psych: How Gus’ Nicknames Became A Running Gag

One of Psych’s biggest running gags is the made-up nicknames that Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) gives Gus (Dulé Hill). Here’s how that got started.

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Psych How Gus Nicknames Became A Running Gag

Gus’ fake nicknames is one of Psych’s biggest running gags, but how did it start? In nearly every episode of the USA series when Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) meets a new character, he introduces his partner with a humorous, made-up name that sometimes prompts an irritated look from Gus (Dulé Hill).

Psych is known for being loaded with recurring jokes, including Shawn and Gus’ tendency to say “C’mon son!”, comparisons to Gus and Bud from The Cosby Show, the numerous references to Shawn’s hero, Val Kilmer, and of course Gus’ fake names. The list of names that Shawn has given Gus in all eight seasons and the two movies extends well past a hundred. Among them are Dequan “Smallpox” Randolph, Burton “Oil Can” Guster, Ghee Buttersnaps aka “The Heater”, Schoonie “U-Turn” Singleton, Lavender Gooms, and Hummingbird Saltalamacchia. Some are acknowledged by other characters, much to the annoyance of Gus.

According to Dulé Hill, the origin of the nicknames goes all the way back to when they were shooting the first few episodes of season 1. In episode 5, titled “9 Lives”, James Roday Rodriguez started improvising during a scene where he had to introduce both himself and Gus. Instead of saying “Burton Guster”, he referred to him as “Gus ‘Sillypants’ Jackson”, which Hill now says is his favorite of all the nicknames they’ve used for Gus. Hill stayed in the scene, and it took off from there [via HuffPost].

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After that, Psych came up with all sorts of different names for Gus on a regular basis. It quickly evolved into one of the show’s most popular gags. This was openly acknowledged in a scene that almost broke the fourth wall in Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, when Gus became frustrated with Shawn and told him to stop using the fake names and give his real one instead. Shawn, who strongly disagreed with this, argued, “we can’t stop doing bits we’ve been doing for ten years. We have fans. They have expectations. There’ll be a huge backlash.” Psych handled the joke a bit differently for the remainder of the movie, with Shawn seeking approval from Gus on each nickname.

It’s interesting – but not surprising – that this gag was born from Rodriguez’s ad-libbing. Psych’s obsession with pineapples was created in the exact same way. Rodriguez threw a line that wasn’t in the script about cutting up a pineapple for the road while they were filming the pilot episode. The ad-libbed line was liked so much that it ultimately led Psych to hide pineapples in almost every episode. As a result, the pineapple has in a way become a mascot for the series. This, and Gus’ nicknames, are all due to Rodriguez being what Hill calls an “improv genius”.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/psych-gus-nicknames-gag-origin-explained/

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