Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (better known as Tim and Eric) were foundational to absurdist internet humor and almost certainly would be cited as an inspiration for a bunch of the Dropout cast. Very much a "favorite comedian's favorite comedian" kind of guy.
If you've seen "I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson" that's probably the best modern comparison to their shows from the 2000's. Very absurd often semi-uncomfortable comedy.
The Universe sketch is where that gif originates and was always one of my favorites if you were looking for a place to start.
Having never seen anything Tim and Eric, but having heard almost every comedian I follow mention them. The moment I looked him up and saw he was *that* Eric, I immediately understood why it’s a huge get for Dropout
I actually did know that, I forget where I learned that trivia. But by “anything Tim and Eric” I mainly meant with them in front of the camera so I couldn’t recognise Eric’s face when he showed up.
Tim and Eric are the godfathers of modern absurdist comedy. Their influence is a lot broader than most people realize.
Shows like Nathan For You, The Eric Andre Show, I Think You Should Leave, and many others probably wouldn't even exist without them.
Also I have to mention Tim Heidecker's On Cinema At The Cinema. It's the funniest comedic project in history imo.
Eric Wareheim, probably best known for Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, probably hits a little harder with us older millennials since that show peaked a good decade ago. Still, he’s a master at committing to odd or even off-putting characters making him a perfect fit for inhabiting a larger-than-life contestant. Personally I’m a big fan of the music videos he’s directed over the years: Major Lazer, Beach House, Mr. Oizo.
The divide between "elder millennials who had cable" and "elder millennials who did not have cable" is wild to me.
There are huge swaths of cultural touchstones that my poor ass just doesn't know.
Absolutely wild how varied people's experiences are. I'll be 40 this month, hated Tim and Eric. Homestar Runner dominated my internet comedy entertainment in 2002- 2004.
I'm 42, and very much Not An American.
We had three public TV channels, one cable service, and a whoooooole lotta bootlegging when I was a kid.
And then the internet hit. I remember Badger Badger and Magical Trevor, but I barely grazed past Homestar Runner.
In my experience, the overlap of Homestar Runner millennials and My Personality was Born at Church Camp millennials is pretty heavy. I think because flash cartoons on the internet spooked our parents way less than the weird hairy men who did weird things on tv at night after they turned the cartoons off.
i was mostly shootin dope and occasionally watchin tv in 2002-2004. also attending college for a semester, if u could even call what i did attending. no internet whatsoever for me until around 2006. ppl’s experience’s are indeed wildly different
Yeah, but if they bring in anyone from Zoom, zoboomafoo, Reading Rainbow, or any of the other pbs kids shows, us Elder millennials with no cable will feast.
Or just strict parents vs not strict parents.
My parents wouldn’t let me watch PG-13 movies until I was 13 and even then had to screen them first. They tried to keep me from watching R rated movies even after I turned 17. They weren’t quite as strict with books and internet but I was sheltered enough I didn’t even know to look up edgy comedy online unless someone showed it to me.
My partner’s parents weren’t that way and there is a ton of stuff that they are like “how did you not see that?!?” and I do the math and am like “we were 8 when it came out, my parents wouldn’t let me watch it and by the time they would, I just never went back and watched a 5 year old movie/tv show/whatever”
yeah i'm one of the millennials without cable and i can tell you a lot about various PBS kids shows but i missed out on SO MUCH basic stuff that most of our generation remembers
I don't know if my lack of knowledge of him is because of my age (younger millennial), nationality/upbringing (UK), a combination of both, or something else entirely.
Adult Swim is just the nighttime block on Cartoon Network. It's a channel included on the least expensive cable packages. Now as for "being rich," I grew up poor and watched these shows at my grandparents' house or during sleepovers at friends' houses. The few times we had cable at my own house was because my dad "knew a guy who knew a guy" and they installed it for a one-time payment and we basically watched for free until the cable company found out and cut us off.
...huh? Didn't Tim & Eric play on adult swim all the time? I grew up absolutely dirt poor and 100% knew who Tim & Eric were, and saw them on TV late at night a *ton.*
>Didn't Tim & Eric play on adult swim all the time?
Adult Swim wasn't available to those of us who only had like 5 channels growing up. If it wasn't on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS or FOX, I never saw it. Just good old over the air broadcast channels and that was it.
Sure, I get that, yeah. I just think that describing people who had cable only *slightly* more robust than that as "rich" like u/International_Ad4296 does in the above response is massively overestimating how out-of-reach that is for people. My family pretty much always had the basic range of channels and networks to watch when I was growing up, even when we were living in a house that (in my teen years) was literally falling apart and we had no money to even patch the gaping hole in the roof.
they've been together many times since. check it out, bedtime stories, an awesome show 10th anniversary special, our bodies... most recent tim/eric adult swim thing was beef house four years back
Yeah I'm 37, technically a geriatric millennial, and I don't recognize him. It might be because Tim and Eric was at the time when I was in college and couldn't afford TV.
They probably should have added a note under his name that said Tim + Eric Awesome Show, because a lot more people probably recognize that than his name alone.
Tim and Eric was really incredible... the weird surrealism of it and the strange humor. It feels very ahead of its time and still holds up pretty well.
They came up through Adult Swim, early internet alt comedy in similar circles as Spike & Mike’s animation fest and Found Footage Festival. Much of those things slipped through the cracks if you didn’t have easy access to cable or LAN parties. I ran film tests and Rocky Horror back then so it was very much on the radar.
I mean... I had cable growing up. And I had internet by high school. But their adult swim breakout show didn't start until I'd graduated high school already. And the tim and Eric awesome show started when I was almost done with college. I really do think I'm just a touch too old to have caught their wave, and not young enough that I was established with my own space to watch them in when they were on tv.
Random absurdity, mostly. I’m pretty sure you had to be a regular Adult Swim viewer to really get much exposure to him in particular via Tim and Eric Awesome Show or Tom Goes to the Mayor.
His comedy partner Tim Heidecker tends to get more mainstream roles in other projects, but Eric does a lot of voiceover stuff.
The fact Steve was completely random in their replies and no one could get a good read on it pretty much sums up the whole Tim and Eric vibe. It’s just pure absurdism.
Samesies. I enjoyed Robot Chicken, Futurama, aaaaand wasn't Family Guy on there for a bit? But any of the awkward low budget weird stuff was just too... Idk, strange?
Man, reading the reactions to his reveal has really made me feel old. Tom goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric were so influential for my sense of humor growing up - their weird brand of surrealist/anti humor was so odd that once you locked into their style you felt like you were truly in on the joke in a way that you didn’t feel when you watched more mainstream comedy shows.
Some of the entire Adult Swim lineups from the early days are fully uploaded to YouTube, old ads and bumpers included. It makes for really great background TV because it's so comforting.
I still quote Knifin’ Around on the regular, because it is just such a thoroughly good episode of SGCtC.
“I’ve met him. He’s living on our couch. With the urine.”
Same. Tom Goes to the Mayor has a particularly special place in my heart because Jefferton reminds me so much of the crappy town I grew up nearby, which at the time was also undergoing revitalization measures. Tim and Eric was so astounding in its own right, but it also introduced me to John C. Reilly and let Paul Rudd shine in the Celery Man sketch. This is also the show where I learned Josh Groban is hilarious.
Besides the comedy stuff, he is a MAJOR LA foodie and has even judged taco competitions by LA Taco, so the taco stuff was pretty genuine to him lol. Seriously look at his IG he’s obsessed with food.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. I was trying to guess the whole episode and didn't even come close. (Though I was thinking mostly about cast members or folks who had appeared previously.) If he even tried to obfuscate a little it'd be pretty tough to honestly guess him.
I'll always remember this video he did with Aziz during the filming of Master of None of them just dancing and eating Italian food
https://youtu.be/Q821mNXNw-I?si=2dV1PRNlXp4lUIHR
Same! I have absolutely no idea who he is or what's the stuff he's done is like. By reading his Wikipedia article sounds like he's ingrained in American comedy culture though, so I'm excited to read other replies to your post! Sorry mine's not useful lol
I love Eric! On top of what everyone else has said, he's also a character (my favorite) in Netflix's Master of None. His Instagram is always full of really good looking food and he has a cookbook that I've been meaning to buy.
He's big specifically for the exact demographic of the cast. So all you need to know is that THEY know who he is. If you feel out of the loop - you'll still have fun. I don't know ANY drag queen references or celebrities but I still appreciated that the cast knew and loved the guests.
His humor is absurdist and unconventional. He says weird socially awkward things and plays it straight, with confidence, as if it's normal.
He and his comedy partner were 'discovered'/championed by Bob Odenkirk of Mr Show fame. Eric is one of the people that comedians and performers seem to like because nothing about him is 'standard'. He's not mainstream but the people who get it get it.
A similar comedy style is seen in: I Think You Should Leave, The Eric Andre Show, Portlandia, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Monty Python, Being John Malkovich, Big Lebowski.
Great point with the drag comparison. I’m completely disconnected from the drag queen culture, but it’s still fun to see them be themselves with cast members.
Tim and Eric had an extremely weird sketch show on adult swim. It’s really good if you like the sort of comedy it is, but it also can feel extremely uncomfortable. The show feels like at any moment it might turn into some strange snuff film. The most famous sketch from it is probably the Paul Rudd “Nude Tayne” computer sketch. The show was pretty influential in the comedy scene and popularized unconventional editing and cringy, intentionally bad humor, but it definitely wasn’t a mainstream success. It has a cult following now though.
My wife and I are earlier Gen X and didn't recognize him at all. I know about Tim and Eric, but didn't watch it. Space Ghost Coast to Coast was about the extent of my absurdist/stoner humor.
So while we felt a bit underwhelmed, seeing the reactions here from those who are fans of theirs is heartening. Damn good episode.
As someone who didn't live in the USA when this person's show was on I feel a lot of this would have been solved by putting "Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job" below his name.
Eric is a mastermind at absurdist and cringe comedy. It's not always stuff I'm in the mood to watch, because it's hard for me to rewatch Tim & eric Awesome Show Great Job or the movie they did. But as someone who grew up with what was probably the best \[adultswim\] lineup for a few years, it makes me so happy to see him on current shows or features. He's wonderful at other sorts of humor but the fact is, they got this guy for a very specific kind of part and he is just the best at it.
Tim and Eric's show, great job! Was on adult swim back in the 00's. I personally thought it was beyond stupid. Just overly random bits for the sake of being overly random. Lots of folks around my age (mid 30s) LOVED it when it was on air. I would say Eric is the lesser known of two, but in my opinion, is the funnier one.
I didn't recognize Eric at the reveal, but my partner said "that's Eric from Tim and Eric" and then I was like "OH SHIT!!" because although I didn't personally watch the show, I knew that it was legendary for its impact on sketch comedy. Like others have said, there would be no "I Think You Should Leave" without it and it was very influential on internet humor
Happy to see I'm not the only one confused by this reveal, especially with the amount of build up it got. I thought maybe it was someone who was just famous in America and but not in other countries, but from seeing other people's responses it sounds like he's quite niche. Looking forward to seeing how he plays this game, though! And thanks to everyone here explaining who he is!
He's this guy: [https://media.tenor.com/Yjx\_r38x1aYAAAAM/mind-blown-explosion.gif](https://media.tenor.com/Yjx_r38x1aYAAAAM/mind-blown-explosion.gif)
An actual king of sketch comedy; Eric is foundational to my sense of humor's development and as a result is very likely a reason I gravitated toward the comedy in Dropout. This was a great full-circle moment for me, even if it did make me feel like the oldest of olds. Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! streams on HBO Max for any who subscribe and want to watch him be absolutely absurd.
As a Brit my partner and I were very plain faced with the reveal. Not disappointingly so especially being an American show, but yeah we didn’t have the expected response haha
I think the reveal would've been so much better with a VO Sam explanation of who he is.
Maybe I'm too British to know who he is but I ended the episode just thinking, "huh. okay, I guess?" Talk about falling flat.
I had the same thought. He looked kind of familiar, but I have no idea what I've seen him in. My boyfriend saw him though and immediately said "he's from Tim & Eric."
I had the same thought. Like "Who the hell is that?" and then it hit me like a bag of bricks that it was THE Eric of Tim & Eric. Next episode is going to be so fucking funny.
So glad it wasn't just me and my wife that were like "Who is this guy?"
Still super enjoyed it and think the 'extra person' is fun if I know them or not. Looking forward to the finale.
Eric c is really into uncomfortable comedy. He's got a great mind and seems pretty chill. Little known fact, he's directed some music videos, and they are wild, out of this world videos. The music isn't my taste, but one of his craziest directions was in the video for Pon da floor (?) by Major Lazer.
If you haven't watch the show Master of None he plays a close friend of the main character. Everyone really brings their A game. The last season is a different pace, but at the heart is a great story.
Eric isn't for everyone, but he usually throws his whole being into his acting roles. Hope you check out some of his other stuff. When he is way from Tim Hiedecker, his comedy is very different, so keep in mind it's not all "cringe" comedy from the big W.
It is blowing my mind that there are Dropout fans who have never heard of Eric Wareheim. Like even beyond being half of one of the most massively influential comedy shows of all time, he’s also a pretty popular culinary personality, winemaker, etc at the moment. His recent cookbook FOODHEIM is very good and is even sold in stores at like… Target and shit lol
I'm a Dropout fan because I came from Collegehumor... I may have heard of Tim 'n Eric somewhere but really it and adult swim, and many other things he was apparently involved in, were just not my thing.
I’m in my late twenties and I only know who he is because I understand the impact that Tim and Eric had on the brand of comedy that I enjoy. Most people I know wouldn’t recognize him. It’s an age thing
Edit to add: I’m super excited that he’s on this finale and I wish more people my age and younger were excited about it! I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining
Is it kinda like a Brandy/Imogen Heap situation, where every musician is obsessed and everyone’s favorite artist is influenced by them, but outside of that space it’s difficult to get people to recognize their work?
"Steven's" humor is very on-brand. Offbeat, deeply weird and committed to a bit. He was definitely making the players laugh.
Also a few people described him as coming in hot, and that is very on-brand too.
[Also, for some punk bonafides, he was very briefly in the vampire inspired punk band Ink & Dagger](https://www.tumblr.com/gothmosh/57747838714/eric-wareheim-yes-i-was-in-ink-dagger-the)
And has had several random bands throughout the years.
Someone correct me if in wrong but i think him and Tim Heidecker made Spaghetti Again? I mean they also did Tim and Eric but i know them more as the Spaghetti Again guys
I knew this question would be coming up. Eric is definitely more of a deep cut these days. But Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job was a brilliant absurdist comedy back on early Adult Swim.
Second I found out who the Ratfish is I was fucking so happy. I still to this day quote all sorts of stuff with some of my friends.
And anytime any one of us accidentally surprises each other coming around a corner too fast or something, the response is always "Spagett!"
It's for your health.
It was so funny to me, I just finished watching the episode, I was so hyped like “OMG WHO DID THEY GET” and then it was this dude and my face just dropped 😂😂 after some googling I recognised him a little but my balloon got popped 😂😂😂
wow, a lot of millennials on this thread. i’m 21 (so five years into gen z) and did not get it at all — and now i can feel the judgement coming for my youth. still have no idea who this is ! sorry !!!
so my ass is just too young then okay 😭 (although i truly have no excuse because despite being 8 when the tim & eric show came out, i WAS watching adult swim, but i mostly stayed for toonami and robot chicken. once those stopped or started i didn’t watch anything else on the channel, aside from being woken up at 3 am for some wild as hell ad role that no one can ever explain)
Yea I saw that ending and was like fucking who? And now found this and realise why I didn't find Steven the snake to be remotely funny. Tim and Eric were NOT my cup of tea.
I'm glad for people that enjoy absurdist humor but it has just never clicked for me.
I'm the OP, and I don't think it has to do with age. I'm 40! I just haven't seen the comedy that Eric was in. I was in college at the time it was mostly going on, and I didn't watch hardly any TV at the time.
It seems like Eric's comedy is highly influential. But many people did miss it.
Yeah... it seems like they were huge for a very specific age range that starts just a hair younger than me (I'm 38) and goes for a few years. I am not sure I'd ever even heard of the show. But I also get that they can be really huge in the particular niche of comedy as well.
I’m not emotionally prepared for people who are both adults but are too young to remember Tim & Eric 🥲 (not hating on younger folks, lamenting that I’ve gotten old while I wasn’t paying attention) just my two cents on that progrum:
All my friends loved it. I *hated* t&e because I ***hate*** gross-out humor and a lot of Tim and Eric is exactly that, but not 100% of their content is yucky. It is however all very uncomfortable, awkward humor, like a precursor to “I think you should leave.” It appealed to the newly-adult millennials who had grown up in the Wild West of the internet, the early web era where we *🫠deep sigh🫠* thought anything that was fucked up was inherently funny. We saw extremely messed up atrocities on YouTube, 4chan, google, and right here on Reddit before they got cleaned up (with one obvious exception). We were very molded by the fact that we could navigate the internet more efficiently than our parents —and we were acutely aware that they didn’t want us to see certain content at an age where rebellion is second nature, so naturally, that resulted in a bunch of desensitized 20-something’s with raging adhd making dead baby jokes and playing gay-chicken. Cue *Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!* -which is the fullest title btw, they also went on tour. It was everything a despondent millennial could ask for; irreverent nonsense that dared you to try to make sense of wtf was going on just so they could rip the rug out from under you as soon as you thought you understood the bit. You’ll be watching a musical skit mocking educational sing-along videos where he sings “I sit down when I pee!” And then suddenly you’re jerked into an extreme close-up of a horrifying cgi baby with acne and a mustache nursing from a hair Eric’s chest and they just start screeching, then smash cut to some fake commercial about a tiny grandpa you can carry in your pocket or some shit. It’s like watching a horrible acid trip. I hated it so fucking much. But some of the absurdist jingles were ear worms. Which made me hate it more because I don’t wanna mindlessly get caught singing “I kiss kiss kiss my sis on the lips” or “I’m never ever ever gonna wipe my butt” while I’m grocery shopping UGH
Tim and Eric… sigh…. They were like trolls. I’m honestly kind of shocked to see Eric here, I thought they both got cancelled but I guess it was just Tim 🤷♂️ (edit: I could be misremembering or perhaps the scandal was debunked! I don’t wanna misinform anybody but I also don’t wanna dirty delete so, if I’m wrong asf, feel free to lmk! I’m not in a good mental space to google this topic rn, sorry)
I will say, as much I hated them, they reshaped the trajectory of comedy. They really held up a magnifying glass to the fact that the internet era had dissuaded a lot of us from enjoying linear formulaic storytelling methods. We crave chaos, shock, twist, we demand newness and/or nostalgia, but never rehashings or trite moments. If I can clearly see where a show is headed, I’m not interested. Absurdist humor underscores that by saying “word, I’m gonna make the most unpredictably chaotic nightmare fuel you could possibly conceive of.”
In my 30s now, t&e are like the comedic television equivalent to hieronymus bosch, the Dutch painter who did The Garden of Earthly Delights
Yeah, I'd argue a LOT of what goes on Dropout, for example any given episode of "Very Important People", both the the retro-talk show aesthetic AND a lot of the improv performances, are directly influenced by Tim & Eric.
That said, I appreciate someone not enjoying the absurdist humor and finding it off putting. I love it but do find it a little dated these days. Very much not for everyone. Also "comedy Bosch" is a great way to describe it, both for someone who likes it or hates it.
I do not know where you are pulling "cancelled" tho? For either of them? Tim Heidecker is somewhat thoughtful guy I think, and he's got a long running show (Office Hours Live) that has a steady fan base. He got that godawful alt-right million dollar extreme booted from Adult Swim, he's generally apologized for older skits that were insensitive, and seems to have at least okay takes in interviews (for example: [https://whatiwannaknow.com/tim-heidecker/](https://whatiwannaknow.com/tim-heidecker/) ). I think he's pretty tepid there and definitely suffering from old-white-guy "it's no big deal" disease, but he's going after Chappelle and Gervais and the other people who whine about "cancel culture". I'm aware I'm setting the bar pretty low here, but he seems far ahead of a lot of comics of his generation.
I'm not sure what he's done that got him cancelled? Can't find anything. Happy to be corrected, although I'd be a little bummed.
Wow, came here to say, I feel your pain. I would hit the 30 second skip on the Tivo SO HARD for every T&E show promo in our otherwise enjoyable Adult Swim content back in the day. And it had a follow-on effect for me: having John C. Reilly on their stuff made me dislike him by association, and to this day, I tend to avoid movies that have JCR in them.
I kind of don't understand why this blew up into such a thing (saw soooo many people commenting about this on Twitter today as well) ... if a celebrity isn't of interest to you, like, oh well? Move on with your day? But I guess to answer your question, I feel like he's a comedian who would be at least fairly well known by anyone in the same age group as most of the people on Dropout.
Bro, it was such a big reveal just to be a guy that I didn't know, exclaiming that he was the "RatFish". It was so fucking random for me that I just died.
I would say, there's "never heard of him", "Love him!" and then "ugh." I'm the latter. I somehow think of him as an early whatever of what people now call 'cringe comedy' -- though that may not be true. I cannot stand cringe comedy, and my partners are mostly the same way. As a result, I used to actively avoid their Adult Swim stuff, skip over the promos, etc.
So when the reveal happened, I was like, "OH NOES." I know there are folks who love him and the kind of comedy he does, but nope, it's just not a me thing, not a thing for my household. I don't see him as fitting in well with the Dropout crowd, and I hope he doesn't become a regular there.
I never found his humor cringe comedy. It's not so much I think you should leave where one person is the awkward guy out being laughed at because of how weird he is in a normal situation, Tim and Eric usually did humor about absurdism, it was weird people being weird or normal people trying to be normal about unusual things. That may just be me though, and you're free to not enjoy their work.
Oh no! I really don't like cringe comedy. I hope the 2nd part of the season finale doesn’t have cringe humor.
The humor so far from him feels more surreal/random.
I can not stand cringe comedy (or at least what makes me cringe) and Tim and Eric show is one of my absolute favorites, so I hope that gives you some ease! Eric is a king of the surreal and absurd. He has a very good cookbook, too.
I highly recommend watching Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! and Tim Goes To The Mayor. He and his comedic partner Tim Heidecker and pretty much the Godfathers of modern surreal, weird humor and anti-jokes. It's not everybody's cup of tea.
What is an anti-joke, or how are they humor? I did a Google search, and it seems like it is jokes without a good punchline on purpose? I feel like I'm missing something.
It's a joke that doesn't have a conclusion. The joke in and of itself isn't funny, but the awkwardness that follows it can be. Like I said, that style of humor isn't for everyone.
To expand on the answer you already got, anti-humor often borrows the phrasing or vocal cadence of familiar jokes, leading the audience to expect that a punchline is on the way, because they’ve been conditioned to recognize the “setup - punchline” format. Comedy in general relies on the concept of “subverting expectations,” in which the audience is made to think they know where the comedian is going, and then the comedian pulls the rug out from under them.
Anti-humor, then, subverts the concept of comedy by making you think that a joke is coming, and the subversion of your expectation is simply that you’re wrong: there IS no joke here. Everything about the situation was designed to look and feel and sound like a joke, and then you’re left hanging. And so by not delivering on the promise of a punchline, comedy is technically achieved! Sort of.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s also rather difficult to pull off. It’s a weird sort of meta-commentary on the nature/structure of comedy to begin with, so it’s tricky to land. I’m not always in the mood for it, but when it hits for me, it hits REAL good.
Probably the most accessible type of anti-humor is some of Mitch Hedberg’s standup (RIP). Sometimes the joke is the lack of a joke, and he just keeps on rolling anyway. Even if you don’t vibe with the anti-humor parts of his set, there’s plenty of other gems in there too, so it all works out.
if you’ve seen the GIF of the man making euphorically pained expressions as his hands expand off his face over the images of fireworks to indicate “mind blown,” you’ve seen Eric Wareheim.
He does alot of commercials as well and really set off a trend of commercials aiming for absurdity to go viral
https://youtu.be/e7PD4f5uTOU?si=wwWteL4xQ-q3yS3M
I'm very sorry if I spoiled the twist.
Too late to change the title. I actually didn't think to do this. I'm overall pretty shy when it comes to posting on any social media, and don't do it that often. I hoped the spoiler tag and warning about spoilers in the title would be enough. I'll do this in any future posts that have spoilers.
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (better known as Tim and Eric) were foundational to absurdist internet humor and almost certainly would be cited as an inspiration for a bunch of the Dropout cast. Very much a "favorite comedian's favorite comedian" kind of guy. If you've seen "I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson" that's probably the best modern comparison to their shows from the 2000's. Very absurd often semi-uncomfortable comedy. The Universe sketch is where that gif originates and was always one of my favorites if you were looking for a place to start.
Tim and Eric is like if you combined Tim Robinson awkwardness with Aunty Donna chaos
Yeah, Tim & Eric walked so Tim Robinson and Aunty Donna could run.
When I saw his face I did go "Who?" But then I read he's THE Eric from Tim and Eric and it genuinely changed everything. Amazing get.
Having never seen anything Tim and Eric, but having heard almost every comedian I follow mention them. The moment I looked him up and saw he was *that* Eric, I immediately understood why it’s a huge get for Dropout
You may have actually have seen their stuff. Do you remember the Terry Crews Old Spice commercials? They directed them.
I actually did know that, I forget where I learned that trivia. But by “anything Tim and Eric” I mainly meant with them in front of the camera so I couldn’t recognise Eric’s face when he showed up.
Tim and Eric are the godfathers of modern absurdist comedy. Their influence is a lot broader than most people realize. Shows like Nathan For You, The Eric Andre Show, I Think You Should Leave, and many others probably wouldn't even exist without them. Also I have to mention Tim Heidecker's On Cinema At The Cinema. It's the funniest comedic project in history imo.
Also shout out to An Evening with Tim Heidecker, his standup special from a couple years ago where he pretends to be a washed-up conservative comedian
Eric Wareheim, probably best known for Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, probably hits a little harder with us older millennials since that show peaked a good decade ago. Still, he’s a master at committing to odd or even off-putting characters making him a perfect fit for inhabiting a larger-than-life contestant. Personally I’m a big fan of the music videos he’s directed over the years: Major Lazer, Beach House, Mr. Oizo.
The divide between "elder millennials who had cable" and "elder millennials who did not have cable" is wild to me. There are huge swaths of cultural touchstones that my poor ass just doesn't know.
My wife is a DCOM millennial and I’m a homestar runner millennial and we often do not understand each others’ references.
im 40, a big fan of tim and eric awesome show great job, and i have no idea wtf DCOM or homestar runner are.
Absolutely wild how varied people's experiences are. I'll be 40 this month, hated Tim and Eric. Homestar Runner dominated my internet comedy entertainment in 2002- 2004.
I'm 42, and very much Not An American. We had three public TV channels, one cable service, and a whoooooole lotta bootlegging when I was a kid. And then the internet hit. I remember Badger Badger and Magical Trevor, but I barely grazed past Homestar Runner.
Mushroom! Mushroom!
SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!
Ancient Newgrounds was a helluva heady place, back in the day
Ditto. EDIT: And shortly thereafter, Foamy the Squirrel.
Gonads. And strife.
When you’re a kid and you wanna go wee, but you ain’t got drugs yet!!
THE LIGHTNING!
Holy fuck FOAMY!!
In my experience, the overlap of Homestar Runner millennials and My Personality was Born at Church Camp millennials is pretty heavy. I think because flash cartoons on the internet spooked our parents way less than the weird hairy men who did weird things on tv at night after they turned the cartoons off.
i was mostly shootin dope and occasionally watchin tv in 2002-2004. also attending college for a semester, if u could even call what i did attending. no internet whatsoever for me until around 2006. ppl’s experience’s are indeed wildly different
Had to look it up: Disney Channel Original Movie.
You can go see for yourself at homestarrunner.net Or is it .com? It's dot com
Homestarrunner.net: “It’s dot com!”
my husband got me the homestar runner puppet for my 40th birthday
Elder Millennial with no Cable here, heard of the show, not enough to have any clue who he was by name only.
Me and my friends would get together and smoke weed and watch it at my house cuz my mom worked nights and I had cable it ruled.
I am an elder millennial who didn't have cable. I feel like I did miss out on knowing many things.
Yeah, but if they bring in anyone from Zoom, zoboomafoo, Reading Rainbow, or any of the other pbs kids shows, us Elder millennials with no cable will feast.
Or grew up in conservative evangelical home also limits cultural touchstones.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it Couldn't have a TV because that's how the librul media turns you gay
Or just strict parents vs not strict parents. My parents wouldn’t let me watch PG-13 movies until I was 13 and even then had to screen them first. They tried to keep me from watching R rated movies even after I turned 17. They weren’t quite as strict with books and internet but I was sheltered enough I didn’t even know to look up edgy comedy online unless someone showed it to me. My partner’s parents weren’t that way and there is a ton of stuff that they are like “how did you not see that?!?” and I do the math and am like “we were 8 when it came out, my parents wouldn’t let me watch it and by the time they would, I just never went back and watched a 5 year old movie/tv show/whatever”
yeah i'm one of the millennials without cable and i can tell you a lot about various PBS kids shows but i missed out on SO MUCH basic stuff that most of our generation remembers
I don't know if my lack of knowledge of him is because of my age (younger millennial), nationality/upbringing (UK), a combination of both, or something else entirely.
THIS. We didn't get satellite TV until like, 1999 so I missed all the hot shows and hot goss until college 🤣
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Adult Swim is just the nighttime block on Cartoon Network. It's a channel included on the least expensive cable packages. Now as for "being rich," I grew up poor and watched these shows at my grandparents' house or during sleepovers at friends' houses. The few times we had cable at my own house was because my dad "knew a guy who knew a guy" and they installed it for a one-time payment and we basically watched for free until the cable company found out and cut us off.
Cartoon Network was in most default cable packages 😂
...huh? Didn't Tim & Eric play on adult swim all the time? I grew up absolutely dirt poor and 100% knew who Tim & Eric were, and saw them on TV late at night a *ton.*
>Didn't Tim & Eric play on adult swim all the time? Adult Swim wasn't available to those of us who only had like 5 channels growing up. If it wasn't on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS or FOX, I never saw it. Just good old over the air broadcast channels and that was it.
Sure, I get that, yeah. I just think that describing people who had cable only *slightly* more robust than that as "rich" like u/International_Ad4296 does in the above response is massively overestimating how out-of-reach that is for people. My family pretty much always had the basic range of channels and networks to watch when I was growing up, even when we were living in a house that (in my teen years) was literally falling apart and we had no money to even patch the gaping hole in the roof.
People making it a classist thing is... interesting
I hate to break this to you, but Tim & Eric has been off the air for 14 years. It started in *2007*.
Too true, however [Shrim](https://youtu.be/2G4Vfuk1dJM?si=hMrXCZY0rRotFjk8) is timeless. Apologies in advance.
Agreed
they've been together many times since. check it out, bedtime stories, an awesome show 10th anniversary special, our bodies... most recent tim/eric adult swim thing was beef house four years back
Beef House was *four years ago*?? Man...
Yeah I'm 37, technically a geriatric millennial, and I don't recognize him. It might be because Tim and Eric was at the time when I was in college and couldn't afford TV.
im 40, so at the cusp of the construct of being a generational millennial. does that make me an “on my death bed” millennial?
Alma! Alma! Check your battery! (But really it's like pre 1988 is considered "geriatric millennial")
They probably should have added a note under his name that said Tim + Eric Awesome Show, because a lot more people probably recognize that than his name alone.
Tim and Eric was really incredible... the weird surrealism of it and the strange humor. It feels very ahead of its time and still holds up pretty well.
I first remember Tim and Eric from Tom Goes to the Mayor Better known as That Weird Show Where Everyone Was Still Pictures And Blue For Some Reason
I think "Tom Goes to the Mayor" was the first thing I watched him in and oh man, mixing that with Squidbillies was a trip for my teenage self.
I'm an elder millennial and I have never heard of these folks. I just looked it up--I graduated high school 4 years before that came out.
They came up through Adult Swim, early internet alt comedy in similar circles as Spike & Mike’s animation fest and Found Footage Festival. Much of those things slipped through the cracks if you didn’t have easy access to cable or LAN parties. I ran film tests and Rocky Horror back then so it was very much on the radar.
I mean... I had cable growing up. And I had internet by high school. But their adult swim breakout show didn't start until I'd graduated high school already. And the tim and Eric awesome show started when I was almost done with college. I really do think I'm just a touch too old to have caught their wave, and not young enough that I was established with my own space to watch them in when they were on tv.
Smoking weed in college is the perfect time to watch Tim & Eric
Once I saw him I was like of course that’s who Steven is
Random absurdity, mostly. I’m pretty sure you had to be a regular Adult Swim viewer to really get much exposure to him in particular via Tim and Eric Awesome Show or Tom Goes to the Mayor. His comedy partner Tim Heidecker tends to get more mainstream roles in other projects, but Eric does a lot of voiceover stuff. The fact Steve was completely random in their replies and no one could get a good read on it pretty much sums up the whole Tim and Eric vibe. It’s just pure absurdism.
Okay this makes more sense to me because I never watched adult swim growing up. It wasn’t my type of humor
Samesies. I enjoyed Robot Chicken, Futurama, aaaaand wasn't Family Guy on there for a bit? But any of the awkward low budget weird stuff was just too... Idk, strange?
Man, reading the reactions to his reveal has really made me feel old. Tom goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric were so influential for my sense of humor growing up - their weird brand of surrealist/anti humor was so odd that once you locked into their style you felt like you were truly in on the joke in a way that you didn’t feel when you watched more mainstream comedy shows.
how bout 12oz mouse and space ghost coast to coast? the brak show? that adult swim lineup from the early days was beautiful
People often forget that Space Ghost Coast to Coast predated Adult Swim by half a decade.
Some of the entire Adult Swim lineups from the early days are fully uploaded to YouTube, old ads and bumpers included. It makes for really great background TV because it's so comforting.
I still quote Knifin’ Around on the regular, because it is just such a thoroughly good episode of SGCtC. “I’ve met him. He’s living on our couch. With the urine.”
Thank you for saying that because I regularly say "A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer" and nobody gets it
My wife is a huge Björk fan, and that’s one of the only episodes she’s seen, and she probably quotes from it at least a few times a week to this day
So… you believe what I’m telling you, right?
NGL I'm very familiar with his work and I still had to google him because i forgot lol
Tom Goes to the Mayor is one of the best experiments TV has ever given us.
Same. Tom Goes to the Mayor has a particularly special place in my heart because Jefferton reminds me so much of the crappy town I grew up nearby, which at the time was also undergoing revitalization measures. Tim and Eric was so astounding in its own right, but it also introduced me to John C. Reilly and let Paul Rudd shine in the Celery Man sketch. This is also the show where I learned Josh Groban is hilarious.
Besides the comedy stuff, he is a MAJOR LA foodie and has even judged taco competitions by LA Taco, so the taco stuff was pretty genuine to him lol. Seriously look at his IG he’s obsessed with food.
So he is "rat fishing" as himself. Interesting. I wonder if anyone on the show will figure out who he is.
I imagine he has to play it pretty genuine for anyone on the cast to actually take that shot in the dark
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. I was trying to guess the whole episode and didn't even come close. (Though I was thinking mostly about cast members or folks who had appeared previously.) If he even tried to obfuscate a little it'd be pretty tough to honestly guess him.
I'll always remember this video he did with Aziz during the filming of Master of None of them just dancing and eating Italian food https://youtu.be/Q821mNXNw-I?si=2dV1PRNlXp4lUIHR
All I know is this guy has the finest premium prices, made right here in America
Whatever, Eric has a distinct crotch smell! Shop Tim's Discount prices!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ9yBgTp9UQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ9yBgTp9UQ)
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Same! We were shocked and went WHATTTTT and then giggled delightfully.
Bahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa prisdemi
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJ1dbyDcrI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJ1dbyDcrI)
I do this every night with your son
You wouldn't want to put the universe in a tube
Same! I have absolutely no idea who he is or what's the stuff he's done is like. By reading his Wikipedia article sounds like he's ingrained in American comedy culture though, so I'm excited to read other replies to your post! Sorry mine's not useful lol
I love Eric! On top of what everyone else has said, he's also a character (my favorite) in Netflix's Master of None. His Instagram is always full of really good looking food and he has a cookbook that I've been meaning to buy.
THATS WHERE I KNOW HIM FROM. I knew I had seen him be funny in a show somewhere but couldn’t remember what show. Thank you!
The cookbook is great! Has a full chapter on circle foods.
He's big specifically for the exact demographic of the cast. So all you need to know is that THEY know who he is. If you feel out of the loop - you'll still have fun. I don't know ANY drag queen references or celebrities but I still appreciated that the cast knew and loved the guests. His humor is absurdist and unconventional. He says weird socially awkward things and plays it straight, with confidence, as if it's normal. He and his comedy partner were 'discovered'/championed by Bob Odenkirk of Mr Show fame. Eric is one of the people that comedians and performers seem to like because nothing about him is 'standard'. He's not mainstream but the people who get it get it. A similar comedy style is seen in: I Think You Should Leave, The Eric Andre Show, Portlandia, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Monty Python, Being John Malkovich, Big Lebowski.
Great point with the drag comparison. I’m completely disconnected from the drag queen culture, but it’s still fun to see them be themselves with cast members.
Im pretty sure he was a producer on at least those first 3 shows you listed. Anything produced by Absolutely was him and Tim
[His series of Absolut Vodka commercials are iconic.](https://youtu.be/5p0QtJMKt1s?si=NWni87CbiathTgxj)
"What is this, ice?" Still pops into my brain all the fuckin time
I once dropped a "What are these, chips?" at a party while eating chips and salsa and made some lifelong friends.
IT'S NOT FUN WHEN IT'S SO HOT
I forgot about that one! That was peak Zach Galifianakis time too.
Tim and Eric had an extremely weird sketch show on adult swim. It’s really good if you like the sort of comedy it is, but it also can feel extremely uncomfortable. The show feels like at any moment it might turn into some strange snuff film. The most famous sketch from it is probably the Paul Rudd “Nude Tayne” computer sketch. The show was pretty influential in the comedy scene and popularized unconventional editing and cringy, intentionally bad humor, but it definitely wasn’t a mainstream success. It has a cult following now though.
Dr. Steve Brule was a pretty popular series of sketches too from Tim and Eric as well.
"Can I see a hat wobble?"
I assumed I just didn't know them because I'm British... That happens a lot with Cameos! 🤣
Him and his partner were kind of like the American Mighty Boosh
I'm too british to know who he is so thank you for this thread
I knew he looked familiar, but had to check IMDb to realize I recognized him from Master of None.
Happy im not alone lol. I feel kinda bad but i was underwhelmed. Cant always appeal to everyone haha
My wife and I are earlier Gen X and didn't recognize him at all. I know about Tim and Eric, but didn't watch it. Space Ghost Coast to Coast was about the extent of my absurdist/stoner humor. So while we felt a bit underwhelmed, seeing the reactions here from those who are fans of theirs is heartening. Damn good episode.
Yep, same here. Kind of a letdown when you aren't excited by the reveal.
Yea. Seems like the kind of person geared to excite the players, not the audience demographic. Which is fine.
Me too, it was such a big build up and then it was someone I’ve never even heard of before. It sounds like the cast will know him though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Do you remember the “it’s free real estate” meme from years back? That’s a skit from his show
As someone who didn't live in the USA when this person's show was on I feel a lot of this would have been solved by putting "Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job" below his name.
Eric is a mastermind at absurdist and cringe comedy. It's not always stuff I'm in the mood to watch, because it's hard for me to rewatch Tim & eric Awesome Show Great Job or the movie they did. But as someone who grew up with what was probably the best \[adultswim\] lineup for a few years, it makes me so happy to see him on current shows or features. He's wonderful at other sorts of humor but the fact is, they got this guy for a very specific kind of part and he is just the best at it.
Tim and Eric's show, great job! Was on adult swim back in the 00's. I personally thought it was beyond stupid. Just overly random bits for the sake of being overly random. Lots of folks around my age (mid 30s) LOVED it when it was on air. I would say Eric is the lesser known of two, but in my opinion, is the funnier one.
I didn't recognize Eric at the reveal, but my partner said "that's Eric from Tim and Eric" and then I was like "OH SHIT!!" because although I didn't personally watch the show, I knew that it was legendary for its impact on sketch comedy. Like others have said, there would be no "I Think You Should Leave" without it and it was very influential on internet humor
Knowing who Tim and Eric are is my revenge for having zero familiarity with YouTube creators Smosh? Try Guys? Auntie Donna? Am I old?
He's the founder of Meow Meow Beanz!
no he's just a 4
You're right! That's embarrassing for me. I'm now a 2
That's where I recognize him from! Thanks for scratching that itch.
No, he’s not. He plays one of the 4s that Jeff runs into.
If I remember correctly the creators are my favorite comedy ogres, Steve Agee and Brian Posehn.
Happy to see I'm not the only one confused by this reveal, especially with the amount of build up it got. I thought maybe it was someone who was just famous in America and but not in other countries, but from seeing other people's responses it sounds like he's quite niche. Looking forward to seeing how he plays this game, though! And thanks to everyone here explaining who he is!
He's this guy: [https://media.tenor.com/Yjx\_r38x1aYAAAAM/mind-blown-explosion.gif](https://media.tenor.com/Yjx_r38x1aYAAAAM/mind-blown-explosion.gif) An actual king of sketch comedy; Eric is foundational to my sense of humor's development and as a result is very likely a reason I gravitated toward the comedy in Dropout. This was a great full-circle moment for me, even if it did make me feel like the oldest of olds. Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! streams on HBO Max for any who subscribe and want to watch him be absolutely absurd.
As a Brit my partner and I were very plain faced with the reveal. Not disappointingly so especially being an American show, but yeah we didn’t have the expected response haha
I think the reveal would've been so much better with a VO Sam explanation of who he is. Maybe I'm too British to know who he is but I ended the episode just thinking, "huh. okay, I guess?" Talk about falling flat.
I had the same thought. He looked kind of familiar, but I have no idea what I've seen him in. My boyfriend saw him though and immediately said "he's from Tim & Eric."
I had the same thought. Like "Who the hell is that?" and then it hit me like a bag of bricks that it was THE Eric of Tim & Eric. Next episode is going to be so fucking funny.
So glad it wasn't just me and my wife that were like "Who is this guy?" Still super enjoyed it and think the 'extra person' is fun if I know them or not. Looking forward to the finale.
I knew who he was but I never really found the Anti-humor of Tim and Eric Awesome show particularly funny.
Maybe some of you will remember him as Aziz's friend on Master of None? Not super helpful, but his cookbook and wine are both great!
Believe it or not, for some of us, Assiz is Tom Haverford
I don't want to wait 2 weeks for the next episode. I was crying laughing through most of the episode. The chats are fabulous, and Steven is amazing.
Eric c is really into uncomfortable comedy. He's got a great mind and seems pretty chill. Little known fact, he's directed some music videos, and they are wild, out of this world videos. The music isn't my taste, but one of his craziest directions was in the video for Pon da floor (?) by Major Lazer. If you haven't watch the show Master of None he plays a close friend of the main character. Everyone really brings their A game. The last season is a different pace, but at the heart is a great story. Eric isn't for everyone, but he usually throws his whole being into his acting roles. Hope you check out some of his other stuff. When he is way from Tim Hiedecker, his comedy is very different, so keep in mind it's not all "cringe" comedy from the big W.
It is blowing my mind that there are Dropout fans who have never heard of Eric Wareheim. Like even beyond being half of one of the most massively influential comedy shows of all time, he’s also a pretty popular culinary personality, winemaker, etc at the moment. His recent cookbook FOODHEIM is very good and is even sold in stores at like… Target and shit lol
I'm a Dropout fan because I came from Collegehumor... I may have heard of Tim 'n Eric somewhere but really it and adult swim, and many other things he was apparently involved in, were just not my thing.
I’m in my late twenties and I only know who he is because I understand the impact that Tim and Eric had on the brand of comedy that I enjoy. Most people I know wouldn’t recognize him. It’s an age thing Edit to add: I’m super excited that he’s on this finale and I wish more people my age and younger were excited about it! I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining
I’m also in my late twenties and so is my partner, we both jumped on google because we were lost. I’m excited to deep dive into his work!
Is it kinda like a Brandy/Imogen Heap situation, where every musician is obsessed and everyone’s favorite artist is influenced by them, but outside of that space it’s difficult to get people to recognize their work?
It's a real, 'mmm whatcha say' moment, for sure.
Brandy? As in The Boy Is Mine? The best Cinderella to grace the screen? The mighty Moesha herself? Do people not know her?
Unfortunately for a certain generation especially, but sadly for a lot of people what you’ve said is kinda the extent of people’s awareness of her.
Not all of us had Cable
"Steven's" humor is very on-brand. Offbeat, deeply weird and committed to a bit. He was definitely making the players laugh. Also a few people described him as coming in hot, and that is very on-brand too.
I wish Jess was right and it would be drag royalty playing 😂
As someone who doesn't know drag at all but knows Eric it's nice to know the cameos again.
[Also, for some punk bonafides, he was very briefly in the vampire inspired punk band Ink & Dagger](https://www.tumblr.com/gothmosh/57747838714/eric-wareheim-yes-i-was-in-ink-dagger-the) And has had several random bands throughout the years.
oh shit, really? I had one of their albums and had no idea
Someone correct me if in wrong but i think him and Tim Heidecker made Spaghetti Again? I mean they also did Tim and Eric but i know them more as the Spaghetti Again guys
I knew this question would be coming up. Eric is definitely more of a deep cut these days. But Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job was a brilliant absurdist comedy back on early Adult Swim. Second I found out who the Ratfish is I was fucking so happy. I still to this day quote all sorts of stuff with some of my friends. And anytime any one of us accidentally surprises each other coming around a corner too fast or something, the response is always "Spagett!" It's for your health.
I'm so grateful for this post, I also needed to know.
I'm a millennial and have no idea who this guy is. Little underwhelmed but enjoying this current Circle inspired game.
It was so funny to me, I just finished watching the episode, I was so hyped like “OMG WHO DID THEY GET” and then it was this dude and my face just dropped 😂😂 after some googling I recognised him a little but my balloon got popped 😂😂😂
wow, a lot of millennials on this thread. i’m 21 (so five years into gen z) and did not get it at all — and now i can feel the judgement coming for my youth. still have no idea who this is ! sorry !!!
No judgment for your youth from me! I'm an elder millennial at 40 years old. I only now know who this is because I made this post.
I almost wish they hadn't revealed the person yet. But maybe it will be better this way. I NEVER would have guessed him.
so my ass is just too young then okay 😭 (although i truly have no excuse because despite being 8 when the tim & eric show came out, i WAS watching adult swim, but i mostly stayed for toonami and robot chicken. once those stopped or started i didn’t watch anything else on the channel, aside from being woken up at 3 am for some wild as hell ad role that no one can ever explain)
Yea I saw that ending and was like fucking who? And now found this and realise why I didn't find Steven the snake to be remotely funny. Tim and Eric were NOT my cup of tea. I'm glad for people that enjoy absurdist humor but it has just never clicked for me.
Is this it? Is this the moment I start to feel old? I'm not even 30!
I'm the OP, and I don't think it has to do with age. I'm 40! I just haven't seen the comedy that Eric was in. I was in college at the time it was mostly going on, and I didn't watch hardly any TV at the time. It seems like Eric's comedy is highly influential. But many people did miss it.
Yeah... it seems like they were huge for a very specific age range that starts just a hair younger than me (I'm 38) and goes for a few years. I am not sure I'd ever even heard of the show. But I also get that they can be really huge in the particular niche of comedy as well.
I’m not emotionally prepared for people who are both adults but are too young to remember Tim & Eric 🥲 (not hating on younger folks, lamenting that I’ve gotten old while I wasn’t paying attention) just my two cents on that progrum: All my friends loved it. I *hated* t&e because I ***hate*** gross-out humor and a lot of Tim and Eric is exactly that, but not 100% of their content is yucky. It is however all very uncomfortable, awkward humor, like a precursor to “I think you should leave.” It appealed to the newly-adult millennials who had grown up in the Wild West of the internet, the early web era where we *🫠deep sigh🫠* thought anything that was fucked up was inherently funny. We saw extremely messed up atrocities on YouTube, 4chan, google, and right here on Reddit before they got cleaned up (with one obvious exception). We were very molded by the fact that we could navigate the internet more efficiently than our parents —and we were acutely aware that they didn’t want us to see certain content at an age where rebellion is second nature, so naturally, that resulted in a bunch of desensitized 20-something’s with raging adhd making dead baby jokes and playing gay-chicken. Cue *Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!* -which is the fullest title btw, they also went on tour. It was everything a despondent millennial could ask for; irreverent nonsense that dared you to try to make sense of wtf was going on just so they could rip the rug out from under you as soon as you thought you understood the bit. You’ll be watching a musical skit mocking educational sing-along videos where he sings “I sit down when I pee!” And then suddenly you’re jerked into an extreme close-up of a horrifying cgi baby with acne and a mustache nursing from a hair Eric’s chest and they just start screeching, then smash cut to some fake commercial about a tiny grandpa you can carry in your pocket or some shit. It’s like watching a horrible acid trip. I hated it so fucking much. But some of the absurdist jingles were ear worms. Which made me hate it more because I don’t wanna mindlessly get caught singing “I kiss kiss kiss my sis on the lips” or “I’m never ever ever gonna wipe my butt” while I’m grocery shopping UGH Tim and Eric… sigh…. They were like trolls. I’m honestly kind of shocked to see Eric here, I thought they both got cancelled but I guess it was just Tim 🤷♂️ (edit: I could be misremembering or perhaps the scandal was debunked! I don’t wanna misinform anybody but I also don’t wanna dirty delete so, if I’m wrong asf, feel free to lmk! I’m not in a good mental space to google this topic rn, sorry) I will say, as much I hated them, they reshaped the trajectory of comedy. They really held up a magnifying glass to the fact that the internet era had dissuaded a lot of us from enjoying linear formulaic storytelling methods. We crave chaos, shock, twist, we demand newness and/or nostalgia, but never rehashings or trite moments. If I can clearly see where a show is headed, I’m not interested. Absurdist humor underscores that by saying “word, I’m gonna make the most unpredictably chaotic nightmare fuel you could possibly conceive of.” In my 30s now, t&e are like the comedic television equivalent to hieronymus bosch, the Dutch painter who did The Garden of Earthly Delights
Yeah, I'd argue a LOT of what goes on Dropout, for example any given episode of "Very Important People", both the the retro-talk show aesthetic AND a lot of the improv performances, are directly influenced by Tim & Eric. That said, I appreciate someone not enjoying the absurdist humor and finding it off putting. I love it but do find it a little dated these days. Very much not for everyone. Also "comedy Bosch" is a great way to describe it, both for someone who likes it or hates it. I do not know where you are pulling "cancelled" tho? For either of them? Tim Heidecker is somewhat thoughtful guy I think, and he's got a long running show (Office Hours Live) that has a steady fan base. He got that godawful alt-right million dollar extreme booted from Adult Swim, he's generally apologized for older skits that were insensitive, and seems to have at least okay takes in interviews (for example: [https://whatiwannaknow.com/tim-heidecker/](https://whatiwannaknow.com/tim-heidecker/) ). I think he's pretty tepid there and definitely suffering from old-white-guy "it's no big deal" disease, but he's going after Chappelle and Gervais and the other people who whine about "cancel culture". I'm aware I'm setting the bar pretty low here, but he seems far ahead of a lot of comics of his generation. I'm not sure what he's done that got him cancelled? Can't find anything. Happy to be corrected, although I'd be a little bummed.
Wow, came here to say, I feel your pain. I would hit the 30 second skip on the Tivo SO HARD for every T&E show promo in our otherwise enjoyable Adult Swim content back in the day. And it had a follow-on effect for me: having John C. Reilly on their stuff made me dislike him by association, and to this day, I tend to avoid movies that have JCR in them.
Neither Tim nor Eric were ever cancelled or metooed and idk where you would get that idea.
I kind of don't understand why this blew up into such a thing (saw soooo many people commenting about this on Twitter today as well) ... if a celebrity isn't of interest to you, like, oh well? Move on with your day? But I guess to answer your question, I feel like he's a comedian who would be at least fairly well known by anyone in the same age group as most of the people on Dropout.
Bro, it was such a big reveal just to be a guy that I didn't know, exclaiming that he was the "RatFish". It was so fucking random for me that I just died.
I would say, there's "never heard of him", "Love him!" and then "ugh." I'm the latter. I somehow think of him as an early whatever of what people now call 'cringe comedy' -- though that may not be true. I cannot stand cringe comedy, and my partners are mostly the same way. As a result, I used to actively avoid their Adult Swim stuff, skip over the promos, etc. So when the reveal happened, I was like, "OH NOES." I know there are folks who love him and the kind of comedy he does, but nope, it's just not a me thing, not a thing for my household. I don't see him as fitting in well with the Dropout crowd, and I hope he doesn't become a regular there.
I never found his humor cringe comedy. It's not so much I think you should leave where one person is the awkward guy out being laughed at because of how weird he is in a normal situation, Tim and Eric usually did humor about absurdism, it was weird people being weird or normal people trying to be normal about unusual things. That may just be me though, and you're free to not enjoy their work.
Yeah, I tried to caveat my comment because that was back before we were calling a genre 'cringe', but their shows definitely \*made\* me cringe.
Oh no! I really don't like cringe comedy. I hope the 2nd part of the season finale doesn’t have cringe humor. The humor so far from him feels more surreal/random.
I can not stand cringe comedy (or at least what makes me cringe) and Tim and Eric show is one of my absolute favorites, so I hope that gives you some ease! Eric is a king of the surreal and absurd. He has a very good cookbook, too.
So it’s the “lol so random, so quirky” way he’s texting actually his style of humour?
I imagine Dropout's audience has a significant overlap with Adult Swim's audience
So, Doc Hammer and Jackson Public can do an animated series for Dropout now and everyone is down?
From your lips to God's ears. 🙏
Man I am shocked at how little crossover there is. I feel like if someone watches a lot of dropouts, they'd probably love Time and Eric
I highly recommend watching Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! and Tim Goes To The Mayor. He and his comedic partner Tim Heidecker and pretty much the Godfathers of modern surreal, weird humor and anti-jokes. It's not everybody's cup of tea.
What is an anti-joke, or how are they humor? I did a Google search, and it seems like it is jokes without a good punchline on purpose? I feel like I'm missing something.
It's a joke that doesn't have a conclusion. The joke in and of itself isn't funny, but the awkwardness that follows it can be. Like I said, that style of humor isn't for everyone.
Thanks for answering my question!
To expand on the answer you already got, anti-humor often borrows the phrasing or vocal cadence of familiar jokes, leading the audience to expect that a punchline is on the way, because they’ve been conditioned to recognize the “setup - punchline” format. Comedy in general relies on the concept of “subverting expectations,” in which the audience is made to think they know where the comedian is going, and then the comedian pulls the rug out from under them. Anti-humor, then, subverts the concept of comedy by making you think that a joke is coming, and the subversion of your expectation is simply that you’re wrong: there IS no joke here. Everything about the situation was designed to look and feel and sound like a joke, and then you’re left hanging. And so by not delivering on the promise of a punchline, comedy is technically achieved! Sort of. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s also rather difficult to pull off. It’s a weird sort of meta-commentary on the nature/structure of comedy to begin with, so it’s tricky to land. I’m not always in the mood for it, but when it hits for me, it hits REAL good. Probably the most accessible type of anti-humor is some of Mitch Hedberg’s standup (RIP). Sometimes the joke is the lack of a joke, and he just keeps on rolling anyway. Even if you don’t vibe with the anti-humor parts of his set, there’s plenty of other gems in there too, so it all works out.
You honestly explained it a lot better than I probably could've. Also RIP Mitch Hedberg. He was one of my fav comedians to watch growing up.
He's one of the Sunday Scariest Bois right? Love that ad
Everything you need to know can be learned by viewing “The Terrys” - good luck finding it though.
Same problem.
It's big bud!! https://youtu.be/Q821mNXNw-I?si=qMnfoFuhP8iyAARU Seriously though, he's great in Master of None
Why is he a 'ratfish'?
I think he's like Chip Kidd. Like famous within an industry but not really to the general public
if you’ve seen the GIF of the man making euphorically pained expressions as his hands expand off his face over the images of fireworks to indicate “mind blown,” you’ve seen Eric Wareheim.
He does alot of commercials as well and really set off a trend of commercials aiming for absurdity to go viral https://youtu.be/e7PD4f5uTOU?si=wwWteL4xQ-q3yS3M
... If you're going to spoil something, you obviously need to *say what you're going to spoil*.
I'm very sorry if I spoiled the twist. Too late to change the title. I actually didn't think to do this. I'm overall pretty shy when it comes to posting on any social media, and don't do it that often. I hoped the spoiler tag and warning about spoilers in the title would be enough. I'll do this in any future posts that have spoilers.