Tim and Eric are making the world a weirder place
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"See that guy in the bathtub with all the poop? We need him."
BUSINESS HUG: The Tim and Eric aesthetic has been embraced by advertisers. (That’s Tim Heidecker on the left and Eric Wareheim on the right.)
Rickett & Sones
Rickett & Sones
Fox News. Katy Perry. The person who keeps recommending The Big Bang Theory. Look at it a certain way and you’ll start to think Western civ’s just one Taken sequel away from mediocritizing itself to death. And then we see a golden brown Jeff Goldblum, in a glittery blazer, selling lightbulbs.
But why should this exceedingly bizarre General Electric commercial — full of deep tans, gold chains and smarmy dialogue — soothe our angst and stir our hope? Because it was written and directed by Tim and Eric. The comedy duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim got its start in Philly, then moved to L.A. in the early 2000s to create several strange Adult Swim television shows. If you’re a fan, then you know how unrelentingly these two guys stick to their discomfort-comedy aesthetic: the awkward pauses, the retro effects, the odd-looking extras, the inventively disgusting gags, the sense of creeping, existential dread.
If you squirmed through the truly revolting, seemingly endless “diarrhea tub” scene in Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie then you know how utterly insane it is that some Jack Donaghy type at GE OK’d this lightbulb commercial. Except the gamble paid off: One and a half million people have watched the spot since it got posted on YouTube last week. “It’s fucked up,” admits Wareheim with a laugh. A friend in advertising has told him clients are always after that Tim and Eric vibe. Right now, Tim and Eric’s Bed-time Stories is airing on Adult Swim and the Tim and Eric & Dr. Steve Brule Tour is rolling across the country. Oscar-nominated actor John C. Reilly plays the marble-mouthed TV host Brule — Reilly’s one of several mainstream actors who’ve thrown in with the Tim and Eric worldview. That worldview hasn’t changed much over the years, by the way. It’s the world that’s getting weirder.
City Paper: Do you think the GE people watched your movie and were like, “See that guy in the bathtub with all the poop? We need him.”
Eric Wareheim: We have advertising agents and they make reels specifically for different clients like, for example, we were gonna shoot a Midas commercial and they had to rejigger the reel so it had all these real boring moments from commercials and music videos and clips from our movie and stuff. And then, on the call, the guy was like, “Oh, yeah, we Googled your name and we have some questions about a bunch of stuff.” … If you Google my name — the imagery’s insane. I’m in a diarrhea tub, I’m in drag, you know.
It happened to me one time with my girlfriend … they handed the cell phone around at the Thanks-giving table, it was a nightmare. They’re like, “Honey, you’re dating a transsexual pornographer.”
CP: But people keep hiring you.
EW: We’ve gotten a lot of ad people in a lot of trouble. When we do these jobs we kind of say, “You gotta let us do our thing.” They’re like, “OK.” They’re very scared of us, which is a great place for us to be. And they’ll turn in this thing in to their bosses who’re like, “Are you fucking kidding me? We cannot show this. You’re basically making fun of our product.”
CP: Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories is inspired by The Twilight Zone?
EW: Every week it’s a new story, new actors. Each one of them is kind of like a little Tim and Eric nightmare. … Last night we premiered one called “Bathroom Boys” with Zach Galifianakis and Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead.
CP: And this tour?
EW: It’s half Tim and Eric, half Dr. Steve Brule. Sometimes we intersect. Tim and I do some brand new characters. We do some characters that you might have seen on our various TV shows. A lot of audience participation. The whole thing ends up in a musical. It’s really like — it’s exactly like Cats.
CP: Exactly?
EW: It’s identical to Cats.
CP: Is the world better off embracing the Tim and Eric aesthetic?
EW: I don’t know. I think it’s good for people. We’ve gotten a lot of comments on Bedtime Stories and how dark it is. People are like, “Thank you for commenting on that and laughing at that,” like the real heavy stuff. We think it’s important to laugh at all sorts of stuff, not just dumb sitcom gags.
Fri., Oct. 10, 8 p.m. (sold out) and 10:30 p.m. ($37.50), Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside, Pa., 215-572-7650, keswicktheatre.com.
