Creepy? Funny?

I am, of course, referring to two men, Tim Heidecker (top photo as Jan Skylar) and Eric Wareheim (bottom, as Wayne Skylar), who appeared into my life approximately two summers ago. It was, as I remember, pretty late, and I was sitting on the couch probably still in my bathing suit eating hot cheetos. It was nearly midnite and suddenly a program came on, a clusterfuck of swirling animations and live action characters whose awkwardness made me squirm in my seat, that made me feel like I had popped a handful of pills or smoked the fattest blunt of my life---in other words, the program left me feeling disoriented, confused but entirely and completely amused. When it was over my boyfriend at the time and I looked at each other when one question on our minds "What the fuck was that?" and "What did that do to our brains?"

The answer was revealed to me when Bre, a lover of the weird and hilarious (think It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc) told me I had to watch something that had really tickled, well, not so much tickled her as had her COMPLETELY OBSESSED. When she asked if I had ever seen Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! I didn't know what to say. At the time, I felt like what I had witnessed in the ADHD cuts to new skits/scenes, the uncomfortable repetition on some of the animations which played out like a scratched CD, and the feeling that something subliminal and subversive underlined the whole operation, I had been mentally violated.


BUT my feelings quickly changed after being introduced to the series through the Season 1 DVD Bre found at Best Buy. I couldn't help but the shamelessness that Time and Eric displayed as they carried out their jokes. Their ideas are a twisted but that just makes them fascinating. Off the top of my head: Casey and his brother and "Uncle Muscles Hour" --Tim plays Casey, a man-child with a blotchy face and snot that pours out of his nose while he squeaks out songs with titles like "A Song for Mommy" and twitches while his unnamed brother, played by Eric, dances stiffly around a CG background in black sunglasses. There is nothing obviously funny about this whole bit but its utter uncomfortable weirdness. That may explain why this is my least favorite creation of Tim and Eric's and Bre's absolute favorite.

What happens to be my favorite is a regular cameo made by Oscar winning actor, John C. Reilly (seriously, how did these guys get into this gig together?) as Steve Brule, with a segment called Brule's Rules on Channel Five news, wherein Steve, an owl-eyed bumbling sort of man with wild hair that gives his advice with a slight slur on what to do with your alone time, or how to defend yourself with against rapists using the "play dead" tactic.

Another person who enriches Tim and Eric Awesome Show with his own deadpan absurdity is Zack Galifianakis. A video that epitomizes the chemistry these three guys have together would have to be the Absolut vodka advertisement they filmed together. Basically, Absolut gave them a check and said make us a commercial---it can be about anything but it must involve Absolut vodka. Simple enough. What they came out with was a melodrama about three girlfriends in robes, laughing, screaming, yelling--enjoying each other over cold Absolut.


Anyway, I had the chance to see these two in the Spring when they came to the Parish off of Sixth St. That's when I knew these guys were absolutely nuts. At one interlude, Tim and Eric walked on stage decked out in Papa John's uniforms (by the way, they have this unexplainable preoccupation with this franchise) and chunked 10 pizza boxes worth cheese pizza at the audience. The man I was standing next to got smacked in the face by one of the greasy things. A random piece somehow landed in the hand of my friend Liesel and without much hesitation, she started chowing it down to all of our disgust.
Later, during Uncle Muscles hour, in a fit of anxiety Casey puked all over himself and the fifteen people closest to the stage. And this was real regurgitated bread looking shit too, all over the arm of Liesel's black T-shirt. She didn't really bat an eyelash but by that time, the big guy next to her was getting tired of being assaulted by Tim and Eric.

Who knows, it may be because I got to preview a lot of their second season during their show (which was actually in large part just clips of their new stuff), but I'm not too keen on Tim and Eric these days. Undoubtedly, their first season is classic but I have not yet decided whether or not their unadulterated spastic creative energy can produce another full season of stuff that will not cross the line that separates bizarre and amusing into the dregs of pure drivel.

Either way, I'm still psyched to see what they will come up with at FunFunFun Fest (maybe some special guest appearances...?) and certain that their show will prove to be strange if nothing else.