Thursday, February 07, 2008

The Tim and Eric Show

For a long time I did not understand Adult Swim's The Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! I would watch it every time it was on anyway, and eventually I realized that, weirdly, I clearly did like the show -- I just did not get why. Then I saw, on regular television at 10 AM, this commercial for Pancake Puffs. Let me emphasize that this is a real commercial -- in the YouTube clip a guy is recording his TV with a videocamera:



You see something like that and you realize that Tim and Eric are necessary. Deeply necessary.

Just for fun, here are some old comments on the Tim and Eric Show burried in a long dead Free Form Comments post:

Brad Winderbaum Wrote

Geoff, when you talk about Morrison at his best, you often say that his comics feel like they're from the future. Well Tim and Eric make comedy from the future. This is what SNL will look like in 2027. My experience goes something like this: I start watching one of their segements, and it's colorful, and it's pulling from at least ten different genres simultaneously. And the characters are acting wild and the form in which they exist is not sacred to them: whatever they're context or whatever the narrative, the characters are playing right at the very edge, where they'll either fall into an abyss or pop the bubble they're living in and send the universe imploding in on itself. Then all of a sudden, something magical will happen. I will have a moment of clarity. Every aspect of their surreal antics will align, and I will peak like a hippie in the desert. I'm filled with unexpected joy. It's hard to define, but I'll try: Hardly anything saturates my entire brain anymore. In this media-soaked world, my brain is distended. Most things just fall in there without eliciting a visceral response. But Tim and Eric manage to fill the whole fucking thing up. And once my threshold is reached, it's unrelenting, and I'm laughing like I'm being pinned down and tickled. And I'm grateful to them for making me lose control.

Matt Fraction Wrote

I only saw the pilot for TIM & ERIC but by the time it was over, two drops of pee had come out.

I don't know if that's because of the show or not.

7 comments:

sean witzke said...

I'm not sure if you can appreciate Tim and Eric unless you've worked at a local tv station. Then you know just how close they are to real life.

James said...

Then I saw, on regular television at 10 AM, this commercial for Pancake Puffs. Let me emphasize that this is a real commercial.
WHAT

I need to see more Tim & Eric, but yeah, it's great. By turns hilarious and incredibly disturbing.

sara d. reiss said...

ugh. that commercial turns my stomach.

Coligo said...

Does anyone know where I can get a Pancakes Puff Pan in England?

Anonymous said...

I'm still not sure if I like Tim & Eric. I find myself watching it with my head cocked to the side much the way dogs do when they're confused/intrigued by something. There is one thing that I'm sure of though: 12 year-old me would have LOVED it. At first, I would see the shows and think "Geez, how stoned are these guys" but then something occured to me: I think, to an extent, the oddness and broken logic of both this show and Aqua Teen Hunger Force has a definite childlike quality to it. Anyone who's had a conversation with a small child knows how broken their logic can be. Children aren't afraid to make these huge leaps in logic nor do they worry if everything makes sense.

Geoff,

Speaking of surrealism, I know you're a Morrison fan but I've never seen any of your thoughts on his run on Doom Patrol. I just finished the final volume and this is probably my favorite of Morrison's works that I've read thus far. Any thoughts?

Geoff Klock said...

Scott -- I read all of Morrison's Doom Patrol in one fell go in 2002 and I remembered it was awesome. The problem is I need to re-read it before making any specific comments cause my memory is a little spotty.

Anonymous said...

All six Volumes are available in trade now!

There's a plug for ya!