Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is hands down the most well-written and carefully conceived program on Adult Swim after The Venture Brothers. Those guys are goddam comedic geniuses. Way ahead of the comedy learning curve. Shit like that's going to be all over the place in ten years.

Then I weep for the future and all who have to live in it. The average infomercial is more entertaining than the crap they put out.

You do realize that their humor pretty well assumes that the average infomercial is actually very entertaining? That doesn't really serve as an insult in this case.

It's really a humor you have to have a taste for. Some people just find them infuriating. Too bad.

The problem with Tim & Eric isn't that they are bad comedy, they are bad performers. Bad bad bad bad bad. Whenever they do a skit there's far too much self-awareness.

Again, that's kind of the point. None of their material would work if they hired talented comedians to perform it.

Yeah but they've had actors do sketches that were pretty good and Tim & Eric weren't in those.

What I'm getting at it that I don't think it's a matter of self-awareness. Everyone who appears on that show knows it's a comedy program. Everyone on that show is mugging shamelessly.

I guess I'm not being specific enough. There is too much self-awareness of Tim & Eric. As in, hey it's us Tim & Eric doing a Tim & Eric skit for Tim & Eric's Awesome Show. Great Job! I'm Tim and I'm Eric and we're so fucking crazy!

I'll say it again, that's completely intentional. It's the entire premise, from the very first episode where they most of their eleven minutes introducing themselves in front of shitty green-screening. It's a parody of sketch comedy. That's the point.

They have a talent for finding something and making it simultaneously creepy and funny, which is why I can't stop watching. Knkwzrd's right, though. They do strike me as a kind of latter-day Monty Python.

And I like Tom Goes to the Mayor, so there

Yeah ok, that doesn't say anything about why I shouldn't dislike Tim & Eric for their self-awareness. This is a personal thing, I just don't like it, and a lot of times I also feel like there's an uncomfortable sense of exploitation rather than celebration when they have actual crazy people on the show, as if their genius is just another vehicle for Tim & Eric to become the avant-vanguarde of comedy.

I liked Tom Goes to the Mayor, I like Tim & Eric sans Tim & Eric.

Those guys couldn't clean the toilets of the Monty Python cast.

Your laserlike focus is as good as ever, LeHah, but my point was that they are counterculture, that they experiment, and that they look to have popularity in the future because of it.

They're as counterculture as anything you can find on SomethingAwful or 4Chan "Inspirational Poster" knockoffs. They're humorous for the ill-equipt and self-assured idiot; a spit and a shake from Family Guy, the only difference being Family Guy references something directly for its cut-away joke punchline, while Tim & Eric simply take "internet absurd" premise alone.

You're right on the experimenting part, but I think you're missing the fact that Python's sketches, while off the wall and experimental, were at least superficially "normal" enough to entertain people less willing to dig deeply into the comedy.

Tim and Eric put up this incredibly large wall of obfuscation between the viewer and the comedy. If you can see through it, you find it hilarious, but it's not nearly as easily digested as Python is.

Full disclosure: I do find Tim and Eric's first season funny, but their second season saw them get WAY too self aware of their own success and they started veering into Tom Goes to the Mayor levels of "so bad it's too bad to be so bad it's funny" bullshit.

But it's not internet absurd. The difference being that they don't reference anything. It's all original, but it cuts close in terms of something you might actually see on TV, and then tosses PCP into the mix. The only thing they could be compared to is late night cable access, and even then, it's only the lo-fi part and bad acting.

Forget I said Python. I'm not drawing parallels about the type of comedy, I'm talking about the cultural impact.

Tim and Eric has all the cultural impact of 2 girls 1 cup. Sure it's funny, and people's reactions to it are funnier, but everyone forgot about it a couple months after it came out.

Which is the difference between a one-hit-wonder meme and a show that has its own momentum. I don't think Tim & Eric is "Hey did you see X that happened on the show the other night?" It's more "You have to see this show for yourself, just to know what the hell I'm talking about."

But thats the thing. I *have* seen it all before - its that dumb "internet irreverence humor" that common folk find so funny. Its for the crowd who misuse the word "irony", really.

Man, all I know about Cartoon Network right now is that Squidbillies is the best thing on Adult Swim with Superjail coming in a close second.

Yes, it's low-brow, but I don't think an on-camera mental breakdown being used as comedy is the same thing you're thinking of.

Yes it is. Its this rampant cynic crap for idiots, assholes and people who were beat up by jocks in high school. Its catered to people who think they're smarter than they actually are and who have no understanding that what they're watching *isn't* a joke, since theres no damn punchline. At best its an ancedote, but even then that certainly doesn't define the sweeping majority of this shit. Its cute ideas done with a pinch of creativity and mixed with a generous helping of internet perspective.

Heres what it boils down to - if you like this kind of crap, I'll never find another good thing to say about you ever again. Its awful, stupid shit for awful, stupid people.

Correct. Squidbillies just gets better and better, too.

See that's funny because a lot of people hate Squidbillies and could say the same thing you all are saying about Tim & Eric. I only saw Superjail the other day and holy shit it's like they took Yellow Submarine and then just went with a premise and some characters and wooooo fun times ahoy. =)