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\n The cast of \u201cLove Island USA\u201d<\/a> takes their televised search for love extremely seriously.\n <\/p>\n \n Thankfully, the voice of \u201cLove Island\u201d does not.\n <\/p>\n \n Iain Stirling narrates the daily dramas of Peacock\u2019s reality hit, cranking out reliably hilarious commentary about contestants\u2019 back tattoos, dry-humping challenges and mosquitoes that interrupt intimate moments. The Scottish stand-up comedian is the show\u2019s unlikely breakout star \u2014 and he doesn\u2019t even pop by the villa<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN chatted with Stirling ahead of the Season 7 reunion about taking hot people down a peg, sympathizing with reality TV villains and how the \u201cLove Island\u201d sausage gets made.\n <\/p>\n \n This conversation has been edited for clarity.\n <\/p>\n \n Has your approach always been to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the show, or were you playing it straight in those early seasons?<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n My initial reaction to it as a young stand-up comedian was, \u201cLook at these idiots!\u201d Whereas Mark (Busk-Cowley, series co-creator) was going, \u201cYou can\u2019t do that because it\u2019s not nice, but more importantly, it\u2019s one tone. If you start there, where do you go from there? All you can do is be more aggressive and more cruel.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n So we\u2019d look for those little shots in the back, those little moments that maybe people didn\u2019t notice. And if someone\u2019s got a ridiculous outfit on, or their own name tattooed on their back, it brings you in with the viewers when you say something. They\u2019re like, \u201cThank God. I thought that was just me!\u201d It\u2019s sort of like doing observational stand-up but about a really specific show.\n <\/p>\n \n We definitely didn\u2019t get away with as much at the beginning on the UK one. We used to be like, \u201cOh, the challenges are terrible. You should switch over to Comedy Central right now, there\u2019s quite a good program on there.\u201d (CNN: This season\u2019s challenges included a dairy farm-themed event in which contestants spit milky fluid down each other\u2019s throats; another dressed the cast like sexy lumberjacks and made them gyrate on a log-shaped see-saw.) You obviously can\u2019t say that. Whereas in America, we were brought in specifically because they liked what the UK show did.\n <\/p>\n \n You are kind of the voice of reason. Everyone is taking it deadly seriously, so it\u2019s good to have that voice. <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n I suppose my rule of thumb is always, you\u2019re never cruel about someone, but you can be cruel about what someone\u2019s done. I\u2019m not a huge fan of comedy that hits down on a group of people who are being attacked because they\u2019re in that group of people. But I feel like anyone\u2019s free rein if it\u2019s because of a thing that they did.\n <\/p>\n \n They are, for the most part, genuine in their search for love, which is sweet, but they are also easy to tease at times. <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n Making fun of good-looking people feels good.\n <\/p>\n \n Yeah, they can take it. So are you doing both \u201cLove Islands,\u201d UK and US, at the same time? (Both seasons ended at the beginning of this month.) <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n Yeah, now I am. It\u2019s kind of a mad schedule, but it means I\u2019ve got a bit of summer. If it wasn\u2019t both at the same time, I\u2019d be in a studio in London somewhere, still doing it. So I quite like smashing it all out in one big lump.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s nice to see the sun for a few weeks. But how many hours, then, are you in that voiceover booth? <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n Essentially, it\u2019s 12 in the afternoon \u2018til 3 in the morning every day. There\u2019s a bit of a break in between, so I can have dinner with my family, then do my daughter\u2019s bedtime. Sometimes I even go into town and do a gig, which is mad. People think I\u2019m nuts, but I have to do stand-up, or otherwise I\u2019ll go insane.\n <\/p>\n \n It can\u2019t all be Huda and Jeremiah.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n No, I\u2019ve got to do jokes about something else.\n <\/p>\n \n Do you bring it home with you? Like, are you telling your wife, \u201cI just watched the craziest breakup\u201d? <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n Not at all. It\u2019s funny, because America went so big, this was the first year where she got \u201cLove Island USA\u201d in her algorithm. So she\u2019d be like, \u201cWhat\u2019s this \u2018mamacita\u2019 thing<\/a>?\u201d (CNN: Stirling is married to former \u201cLove Island UK\u201d host Laura Whitmore, and the \u201c\u2018mamacita\u2019 thing\u201d involved Huda telling Nic she was a single mom. Nic misunderstood.)\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s quite easy to stay away from it, because it\u2019s American. I\u2019m in the UK. So I\u2019ve got this idea: The voiceover is this character who cares so passionately about those people, but if he met any of them in real life, outside the context of the villa, he\u2019d have no idea who anyone was, because he\u2019s just like, \u201cThe villa\u2019s all that matters.\u201d So I quite like being completely separated from the rest of the world \u2014 the voice that only knows what\u2019s happening in that villa.\n <\/p>\n \n The faceless, disembodied voice of \u201cLove Island.\u201d<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n Exactly \u2014 omnipotent, completely ignorant to any outside influences.\n <\/p>\n \n When you\u2019re recording, are you watching raw footage of everyone and trying to spin comedy from that?<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n We\u2019re watching as much of a final edit as humanly possible. I think, in a dream world, I\u2019d finish work about 7 in the morning, but that would mean I literally would never sleep.\n <\/p>\n \n In the early episodes, when everyone\u2019s still getting to know each other, are the conversations boring? Your intros to the conversation are funny. But is that on purpose, because their conversations are kind of meh?<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n People think it\u2019s boring because they were so emotionally attached to the contestants at the end of the last series of \u201cLove Island.\u201d And then when it fast forwards to next year and it\u2019s just two people you don\u2019t know or care about having a chat, it\u2019s just more boring. The thing you\u2019ve got to remember as well \u2014 those people have never been on telly. They\u2019ve got cameras everywhere, and they\u2019re in this new environment.\n <\/p>\n \n And also, I think they\u2019re sort of reinventing themselves as people. I find it really fascinating that all of those people in the villa, give or take, have always been the best-looking person in their college, the best looking person in their city, the best looking person in their state, some of them. \u201cThe good looking one\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s their thing. And then all of a sudden they\u2019re in the villa, and they might be the least attractive boy there. And that must be such a mindf**k, getting your head around, \u201cAll right. Well, I\u2019m not the good looking one. Then what am I?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAm I funny?\u201d <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n And it\u2019s just cringe when you\u2019re getting to know someone \u2014 there is nothing cringier than a first date. And you\u2019re having a first date<\/a> in this new environment where you\u2019re trying to work out who you are and where you function. So I guess that\u2019s why it might feel a bit stilted at the beginning. But it always gets there.\n <\/p>\n \n Is there anyone this season that you really loved talking about?<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just the UK \u201cLove Island,\u201d but there\u2019s a big thing where you\u2019d introduce yourself as where you\u2019re from, your name and what you do for a living. Whereas in America, it seems, they care more about where they\u2019re from, like if they\u2019re a Southerner or cowgirl, which is not as good for puns and gags. Anyone that\u2019s got a funny job \u2014 if there\u2019s a cowboy on the show, I\u2019m absolutely delighted about it. Elevator salesperson, I\u2019ll take that. (CNN: Stirling got both this season with cowboy Taylor<\/a> and elevator saleswoman Olandria.) So in the beginning, that\u2019s the only prep we do for the show, really. Before it starts, we\u2019ll just get everyone\u2019s jobs and write as many jokes as we can about their jobs as possible.\n <\/p>\n \n You\u2019ve done so many seasons of the show. What are the qualities that make someone good TV?<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n A good \u201cLove Island\u201d contestant is the same as a great sitcom star. The best sitcom characters in the world have got a fatal flaw. Every sitcom ends once that character realizes their fatal flaw. So all the best \u201cLove Island\u201d contestants have got this fatal flaw \u2014 it\u2019s annoying to watch them f**k up again. But after you\u2019ve watched them do it a few times, instead of being annoyed with them, you go, \u201cOh, I have literally done that.\u201d You start to see yourself in them.\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/blockquote>\n
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