I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with Tim And Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, but it's a masterpiece of bizarre, dadaist comedy - a sort of sustained nightmare, illustrating in all-too-real detail the dark side of television's cheap underbelly - godawful infomercials for improbable devices, supremely unfunny stand-up comedy, terrible talk shows, and the works. It's certainly not for everyone, but for those who're into that kind of thing, it's a godsend.
Season Cinco premiered this evening, and I watched it. It wasn't Brownie Mountain, but it was a good episode. I thought the terrible haircuts were pretty hilarious, and the Cinco ad was good as always. One thing that confused me, though: the Steve Brule segment at the end, in which Brule says with his usual semi-conscious permafried voice that transsexuality is bad, and trans people shouldn't transition.
This joke confuses me: are we supposed to laugh at trans people? At simple-minded cis people who actually believe this stuff? At the trashy talk shows using trans people as cheap ratings bait? In other words, are Tim and Eric laughing
at us, or
with us? I'm honestly not sure. I emailed them at their official address and asked for clarification - if you're interested in doing so as well, the address is
timanderic@timanderic.comI really do hope the Tim And Eric folks get back to me on this - Tim and Eric seem like really cool guys, and I'd be really disappointed if they, of all people, were transphobic. They don't seem like the type, though.
We shall see.
