In a fairly transparent effort to bolster its Asian-American-led sitcom that nobody likes with the goodwill from the one that they do, ABC has announced that Fresh Off The Boat star Randall Park will be appearing on an upcoming episode of the critically reviled Dr. Ken. Park will play “Gary Chon, the seemingly straight-laced leader of the Korean Men’s Club that Ken reluctantly joins, in a bid to make friends” (presumably, with all the TV critics who’ve been much kinder to Park’s show than Jeong’s). But then Gary reveals that he’s actually a “wiiiiiiild” guy—emphasis and extra i’s courtesy of the show’s promotional department—who gets up to all sorts of wacky stunts, like delivering funny jokes and interacting with relatable characters. In other words, the sort of madness that Dr. Ken (and Dr. Ken) just isn’t sure if he can keep up with.
Park and Jeong have actually worked together before, albeit briefly; Park appeared twice on Community, first as a crime boss within the movie-within-a-show Kickpuncher, and later as Jeong’s immediately available Hollywood replacement, in a funny cameo that in no way seems suddenly prophetic.