Subversive Stand-Up Special Is A Masterclass In Hack Comedy, Watch Right Now

An Evening with Tim Heidecker starts out like most comedy specials in the sense that the crowd is in an uproar as our hero strolls out on stage. Tim Heidecker, wearing his hair slicked back and donning a leather jacket like a ’90s road comic (think Denis Leary), immediately starts to bomb as he wrestles with the microphone to the tune of The Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction” for three minutes. He then throws his production crew under the bus without hesitation for being responsible for the mishap even though he clearly doesn’t know how to work a microphone.

It doesn’t take long for Heidecker to let the audience know that he was recently named one of the top five funniest people in America by “a comedy magazine” before getting into his shtick. He never mentions the name of the magazine, which undermines his credibility as quickly as the words come out of his mouth.

Heidecker introduces the concept of “comedy without a net” in An Evening with Tim Heidecker, which involves shooting from the hip and coming up with new material on the spot to entertain the eager crowd. The “net” he’s referring to are his tried-and-true jokes that he keeps written on note cards concealed in his breast pocket. Realizing that he’s already losing the crowd within a couple of minutes, he places the cards with his old material on his stool, and refers to them constantly throughout the duration of the special.

Wanting to show off his comedy prowess in An Evening with Tim Heidecker, the man in leather decides to ask the audience members sitting in the front row for their names so he can riff on the subject after saying lines like “Downtown LA, am I right?” Naturally, referring to an audience member named Colin as “Colin all cars” is met with mixed reception, and he decides to move on with his act that’s already going terribly. Knowing that he’s bombing, he stops to let the audience know that when he tells a joke, they’re supposed to laugh.

Tim Heidecker pushes through his act by focusing on pop-culture while trying to be edgy. Looking confident like he’s about to tell the joke of the century, he raises an eyebrow and says, “Lady Gaga? What’s Next? Lord Goo-Goo?” and waits patiently for an applause. At this point in An Evening with Tim Heidecker, it’s painfully obvious what Tim Heidecker is doing, but what’s remarkable about this special is that he never once breaks character.

Known to be a subversive comedian through his work on Adult Swim shows like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job, and Tom Goes to the Mayor, fans of Heidecker knew what they were getting into before purchasing tickets to attend this taping. The real comedy in An Evening with Time Heidecker comes in the form of knowing that there are some people out there not knowing about this fictional version of Heidecker who stumbles around on stage thinking he’s God’s gift to mankind while confidently delivering joke after joke that my 5-year-old daughter wouldn’t even find funny.

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Functioning as a satire that operates through a medium that’s already supposed to be subversive, the level of meta-humor found in An Evening with Tim Heidecker isn’t for everybody. But if you’re in on the joke, you can’t help but praise Heidecker for the level of self-awareness it takes to pull off such an act while keeping a straight face. The jokes are terrible by design, and the overall smugness that Heidecker delivers is commendable.

The “real” Tim Heidecker stated that he spent about 10 years work-shopping this character after developing a fascination with comedians bombing on stage. His commitment to the bit pays off because An Evening with Tim Heidecker, which you can stream for free on YouTube right now, is so unfunny that it’s the funniest thing you’ll ever see.