The Cringe Comedy Breakthrough

The guy at the store said I’m the only guy he’s ever seen pull it off

I certainly didn’t see this coming. I’ve become somewhat accustomed to seeing my nerdy obsessions break through to the mainstream (comic book movies making billions of dollars and horror films getting Oscar nominations for instance), but I never expected anti-humor cringe comedy to have its moment in the spotlight. Friendship (starring Tim Robinson) has made over $12 million at the box office as I write this, and Nathan Fielder is getting interviewed on CNN following the conclusion of the second season of The Rehearsal. Hell, Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson were in a Super Bowl ad for Totino’s Pizza Rolls earlier this year. To quote Tim Robinson, “What the hell?” How did we get here?

I think the first place you have to start is Adult Swim. Adult Swim is a block of late night programming on Cartoon Network aimed at adults. It was launched in September of 2001 (definitely the most noteworthy event that month), and it featured animated series like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and more that experimented with absurdist and surrealist humor in ways that more prominent adult cartoons at the time like The Simpsons and South Park lacked. This hit while I was in high school, and it really became a formative experience for me and my sense of humor. I can still recite every lyric to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force intro theme song to this day.

For as influential as those cartoons were, the show that had the biggest impact on today’s version of cringe comedy was a live action sketch comedy series: Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! This series premiered in 2007. It was the brainchild of comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (who were responsible for the animated series Tom Goes to the Mayor that had debuted on Adult Swim back in 2004), and it has all of the hallmarks associated with anti-humor cringe comedy today. The humor of the series was derived from social awkwardness, bizarre reactions to mundane situations, and just generally pushing every joke to the most absurd extreme. It’s impossible to watch old episodes today and not see its fingerprints all over shows like I Think You Should Leave, The Curse, and the online sketch comedy of Conner O'Malley. The final sketch of the very first episode perfectly encapsulates the brand of humor.

Tim Heidecker would further contribute to the anti-humor cringe comedy movement when he teamed up with comedian Gregg Turkington for On Cinema at the Cinema in 2011. This series started as a podcast before evolving into an Adult Swim web series. On Cinema at the Cinema is essentially a movie review show hosted by Heidecker and Turkington playing fictionalized versions of themselves, but each episode is derailed by something from Tim’s personal life inappropriately intruding on the show.

The next big contributor to the genre burst onto the scene in 2013 with the show Nathan for You starring Nathan Fielder. The show was technically a reality show with Fielder traveling to various small businesses to pitch them ideas on how they could increase profits. The suggestions were always hilariously awful, but these people always seemed to go along with it anyway. The real comedy came from Fielder’s persona. He carries himself with what can only be described as an awkward confidence that makes him seem so genuinely sincere. His extremely awkward interactions really drive home the laughs.

2017 saw the debut of a new sitcom on Comedy Central called Detroiters. It was about two creatives (played by Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson) at an advertising agency in Detroit. The show only lasted for two seasons, but it offered a glimpse into the type of comedy that Robinson and Richardson would become known for. That would be put on full display in 2019 with the Netflix sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. This has quickly become one of my favorite comedy series ever. Tim Robinson is the driving force behind it, but it also features a bevy of other cringe comedians like Sam Richardson, Patti Harrison, Conner O’Malley, and Tim Heidecker.

That takes us to our current moment. Tim Robinson is now the leading man in Friendship from A24, and Nathan Fielder is becoming a household name thanks to The Rehearsal on HBO. Friendship feels like a sketch from I Think You Should Leave stretched to feature length. Meanwhile, the most recent season of The Rehearsal feels like Fielder’s ultimate social experiment as he seeks to make air travel safer. I highly recommend both if you can handle copious amounts of cringing.