'He's a researcher!' says Jo Firestone, who writes for the show and plays Sarah Conner, a fellow teacher and Pera's romantic partner. In the show, he speaks directly to the audience, delivering mini-lessons on everything from beans to writing an obituary to the rat wars of Alberta ( that's a real thing, by the way).

'And I just kind of imagined what would have happened if I did take that career path.' 'A lot of the people I went to school with went on to become choir teachers, and that was a potential career path for me,' he says. Pera plays a mild-mannered choir teacher in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, with an understated delivery that is both delightful and calming. 'I love doing research for the show and reading books on the subject matter and thinking about it.' 'In real life, when I get excited, I'll talk about specific stuff, and sometimes too much,' says Pera. Something about Pera's awkward, mumbly persona strikes the perfect chord between Grampa Simpson and Fred Rogers - lovable and ridiculous, with a tendency to ramble but in no uncertain terms a good person. On a channel known for raunchy and subversive comedy, Pera subverts even that with something far more daring - a show that is simple and wholesome, and entirely hilarious. 'You know how most shows on television feel like they were made by an energy drink? Well, this show feels like it's made by apple cider.'

He says he wanted to make a show that's gentler than others. It's an episode all about chairs, which may sound a little dry, but that's okay in Pera's book. He'll tell you all about sitting in the first episode of the third season of his Adult Swim series Joe Pera Talks With You. 'And that doesn't even include laying down,' says Joe Pera. The average American adult spends about 6½ hours each day sitting down.

New vegas re animated