Heckler and the Whip Whip

Jim & Derrick "Gas Blast" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

The Jim and Derrick thing from Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job is some of the best satire they've done aside from all the 80's/90's retro bits they consistently crank out. Yeah, the Cinco ads are hilarious because it's all so perfectly backwards and absurd and stylistically dated. But these J&D bits are about stuff that you can see today on Mtv, Spike, E!, G4 and even Comedy Central and their own Cartoon Network. It's a perfect and daring parody of media trends and social fashions that are still observable, from the grunge fonts and music clips to the "rockstar" wardrobe and laid back, slangy slacker delivery.

It kinda feels like a jab at their expanding college-humor audience too. The mockingly blatant drug jokes and Spring Break sketches are dead on, right down to the location. (Mtv's Spring Break '09 was in Panama City Beach.) They slam junk food and energy drink sponsorships ("It's not a drug."), hipster accessories (Palestinian scarf, overly-silkscreened tees, curled brim cowboy hats, blinged whatever), Pimp My Ride, homoerotic pranks (á la Jackass), and even a triple-threat at tattoos, tanning and body advertising (Jim gets a "microtan" of the Turbo Fuel logo.)

I wonder if these videos are on Eric Wareheim's Vimeo account because it's somehow not the "right fit" for the Adult Swim demographic... ie: if someone thinks it's either too forward with the satire or not absurd enough to become marketable, viral-quality material like most of the Awesome Show stuff. The one entire Awesome Show they devoted to Jim and Derrick was truly surreal because it was an ENTIRE show, from opening sequence to end credits. They were aiming at and putting themselves up against identifiable standards. They were stepping outside of their closed universe of surreal comedy and going electric.

They've been taking on more guest stars too. Michael Ian Black doesn't really count because he's on everything. But they've got casting leverage. Credit has to go to John C Reilly for opening it up. They've been slipping in more and more uncomfortably sexual overtones (Steve Brule stripping the body suit for the kids). They can push some taste boundaries because they've got this wave of popularity and acceptance, however broad and ambiguous the audience may be these days. I'm sure we all can find someone we know who will never, ever "get" Awesome Show humor. Some are still repulsed. This is where they have to balance it. Keep everyone somewhat repulsed. It's the same thing that makes me watch Todd Solondz films. Squirmy. Uncomfortable. Still identifiable, if only from a distance that is inevitably shrinking.

I hope they do more of the straight satire. They'll have a pair of Mark Twain Prizes in no time, and it makes me think so much I wanna blog about it. I'm dorkin' out here.