For those who are familiar with the now-defunct (but very memorable) series “Gilmore Girls”—of which I am much of a devoted fan—Kirk might be one of those out-of-this-world characters Stars Hollow has to offer. As much whimsicality he personifies, he blends equally well with all the quirks of the town starting from Taylor the town selectman, Miss Patty the dance instructor, Lorelai’s best friend Sookie, Luke the diner proprietor, Rory’s best friend Lane, main characters Lorelai and Rory Gilmore themselves among tonnes more, plus a troubadour who makes his appearance in some acts to give a more Greek chorus-like narration of a character’s feels in a certain episode. That said, Kirk is almost all of them combined as his very persona lifts itself from surrealism as its finest, what of his mostly-botched attempts to be the all-around guy at the same time struggling with his very own presence as Kirk the town “weirdo” . It is this scenario that makes Kirk a classic Charlie Chaplin, the hero of whimsicality despite his seemingly unobtrusive (or more correctly, harmless) nature, bereft of any contrived hilarity.
Thus, what goes around Kirk comes around Kirk. This becomes more apparent in Gilmore Girls’ Season Two when Kirk devises his own movie-making scheme as a sort of filler before the town’s movie night of the year commences. Of course, the whole town manages to watch it; and as is usual, being immune to much of Kirk’s being Kirk, the populace willingly accepts his oddity (which at some point, to any Stars Hollow outsider like Rory’s father Christopher, may be somewhat worthy of derision). Aptly titled “A Film by Kirk”—apparently Kirk has no other title in mind to name his masterpiece—the sequence starts with Kirk accompanying his date, a plain girl who confesses to being her father’s favourite daughter. Kirk is pleased, and the rest is history. The question as to whether the town actually liked the film seems of no matter at all for, as is customary, Kirk is Kirk and shall always be.
As I previewed the said film for the first time (as shown within that aforementioned Season Two episode) and yet again when I dared browse through the series’ extra clips, I could not keep myself from wondering how the heck Kirk was brought up. Aside from some snippets of information from the series as an oddball who is a certified mama’s boy and has never dated until seasons 4 and 5 (if I am not mistaken), there are no other backstories concerning his rather bizarre behaviour. This mystery furthermore fuels my amazement as well as curiosity on how Kirk can be “prolific” at times, what with his myriad of jobs that Taylor supposedly lets him do for the town. Nevertheless, it is this very enigma juxtaposed with how the common man defines “weird” that makes Kirk especially endearing, funny too.
Without further ado, here is the most of Kirk’s braggadocio. Enjoy.
(N.B: Another equally fascinating write-up about Kirk the character can be found here. And oh, laughing out loud is an understated reaction to his Kirkness in this short film. In fact, I could not get it out of my head, which I attribute mainly to the song that Kirk dances to.)