Danny McBride's 'Righteous Gemstones' is back, with monster trucks, militias and mayhem

For fans of HBO comedies that are outrageous, curse-filled, searing and silly, Danny McBride is heaven-sent.

First came pompous, ego-fueled ex-baseball star Kenny Powers (“Eastbound and Down”), followed by pompous, ego-fueled high school administrator Neal Gamby (“Vice Principals”).

Now, he's playing pompous, ego-fueled televangelist scion Jesse Gemstone (McBride), returning for Season 3 of HBO's “The Righteous Gemstones” (Sunday, 10 EDT/PDT, and streaming on Max), joined by his money-grubbing siblings, Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam Devine), all perpetual thorns in the side of widowed family patriarch Eli (John Goodman).

“With all my TV work, the characters are dead serious about themselves, which only highlights their buffoonery,” says McBride, 46, who also writes, directs and produces.

Last season's insanity involved a rivalry-turned-partnership-turned-murder plot with an equally devious evangelist family led by Lyle Lissons (Eric André). We saw the creation of the creepily believable Christian resort, Zion's Landing, which helped shore up the Gemstone family's finances. And mainly, we witnessed the three Gemstone mega-brats setting aside their innumerable differences to take control from an increasingly weary patriarch.

The new season explores how these dysfunctional overgrown kids handle running the Gemstone ministry with Eli in retirement. (Let’s just say, not well. One of the Bible's most famous plagues makes an appearance.)

There's also a new Gemstone family member, May-May (Kristen Johnston), who comes with her own set of dysfunctional migraine-sized headaches, and a husband played by Steve Zahn. Think monster trucks and militias. Seriously.

Meanwhile, scorned Gemstone uncle Baby Billy Freeman (Walton Goggins, also McBride’s foil in “Vice Principals”), sporting a white bouffant and oversized aviator glasses, wants the family to support his latest idea, a ripoff of “Family Feud” that he’s ridiculously dubbed “Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers.” Say that twice without laughing.

If you're wondering where McBride sources these outrageous comedic gags, blame Mom.

“My mother has an insane sense of humor, and me and my sisters and her would sit around crank-calling people in the days before Caller ID,” he says. “It’s how we would bond. Since then, we’ve been through divorces and deaths, and comedy has always been a way to guide me through things.”

John Goodman finds it hard to keep a straight face with his 'Gemstones' family members

Goodman and Patterson both say they’re more than happy living on McBride’s lunatic fringe.

“I’m getting up there in years, but doing this show is just plain fun,” says Goodman, 70. “I have trouble watching Walton and Edi work, just because they make me laugh so much.”

McBride credits Goodman’s presence on the show for its longevity. “I mean, here’s a guy who could go from ‘Roseanne’ to a Coen Brothers movie. Come on, who can do that?” he says. “I’m sure for many people who watch, they saw him and thought, ‘OK, maybe this isn’t that terrible.’”

Patterson agrees, adding that Goodman’s iconic performance in 1998's “The Big Lebowski” guides her own acting. “He’s so on the edge in that – about to pop, literally explode – but yet he’s so grounded,” she says. “And that’s what makes it all real.”

Patterson, 48, who played McBride’s obsessed girlfriend in “Vice Principals” and is a writer on “Gemstones," says the McBrideWorld characters' genuine belief in themselves makes the comedy that much deeper.

“Danny is so deeply smart and awesomely subversive,” she says. “The characters really become multidimensional and can be deeply explored.”

That also applies to Judy, who this season undergoes a major transformation in her perpetually dismissive relationship with milquetoast husband B.J. (Tim Baltz). News flash: Judy has a heart, although that doesn’t mean she won’t stop cursing like a sailor on acid.

“Yeah, I admit, it’s out there,” Patterson says. “But the vulgarity comes organically on our show, whether it's in the writing or the improvising. It’s not low-hanging fruit stuff, it’s really how these people would talk to each other.”

'Gemstones' is about televangelists, but McBride is not passing judgment on religion

While “Gemstones” skewers the world of preachers who use religion to soak their flocks for dollars, the show deliberately steers clear of indicting faith.

McBride grew up in Virginia and was raised Baptist. (Goodman was raised Southern Baptist, and Patterson went to church in her native Texas.) Although some religious leaders ultimately turned him off to religion as a construct, McBride still believes in its underlying tenets.

“As a kid, church gave me a sense of ethics and morals,” he says. “Despite some hypocrisy on the part of some people, the core of what it’s about is still positive and good. How else are you going to get those morals pounded into you, by watching a Marvel movie?”

McBride says he has yet to encounter someone who feels “Gemstones” disrespects God or Jesus Christ. “I guess I haven’t met any haters yet,” he jokes.

And you’d think he would have by now. “Gemstones” is filmed in and around Charleston, South Carolina, where McBride moved six years ago. His mission was twofold: spend more time with his wife, Gia Ruiz, and their two children, and create a thriving production community away from Hollywood.

“I get bored with stories centered on Hollywood,” he says. “I always want to pick something where a majority of people have a reference.”

And that’s how we end up with stories about minor league baseball players struggling to make ends meet, gym teachers with aspirations of high school principal power and a wayward but wealthy family teetering on tanking their business.

McBride says he hopes to get the green light for a fourth season. “There’s a lot of places we can go with these characters,” he says.

You can almost picture the demented possibilities swirling in his wonderfully cracked brain.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Righteous Gemstones: Danny McBride sends monster trucks to megachurch