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Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 1

Warner Bros. // Unrated // April 22, 2008
List Price: $19.97 [Buy now and save at Amazon]

Review by Ian Jane | posted April 15, 2008 | E-mail the Author
The Series:

The aptly titled Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is a truly bizarre series that airs on The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. Created by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, the same demented genius' behind the late, lamented Tom Goes To The Mayor (rest in peace!), this show takes that animated insanity of that earlier show and gives it a live action make over. While Tom and the Mayor are nowhere to be seen, Gibbons, the Cinco Corporation and Channel 5's Married News Team all appear here alongside a few new recurring characters such as Uncle Muscles (played by Weird Al Yankovic!) and the Channel 5 News Health Correspondent, Dr. Steve Brule (John C. Reilly).

The series doesn't really have any sort of discernable plot nor does it have any recurring storylines even if sometimes character reappear. This is essentially a warped sketch comedy show made up of skits and fake commercials. Think of it as Saturday Night Live or The Kids In The Hall as seen on public access through the eyes of a retarded acid head. Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is strange. Usually it's pretty funny, but this material is definitely out there, even more so than Tom Goes To The Mayor.

Alongside the recurring characters, the show tends to feature guest appearances. Mr. Show stars Bob Odinkirk (who also produces) and David Cross appear as do Michael Cera of Superbad and Arrested Development, Paul 'Pee Wee Herman' Ruebens, Fred Willard of Anchorman and the perpetually strange Neil Hamburger among others. The bulk of the acting, however, is handled by Tim and Eric themselves.

Like most Adult Swim programs, the episodes are short, running roughly twelve minutes in length. This DVD packs all of the first season's episodes onto on disc. Highlights include a running gag where one of the hosts turns into a kitty cat and is almost given away to a kindly old lady, 'Here She Comes' where Weird Al walks old ladies down the aisle of a church so that Tim and Eric can kiss their fingers, and recurring sketches where a children's dance instructor named Pierre (Ron Austar) talks to kids about their dad's as he encourages them to boogey. The Uncle Muscles Hour bits feature Casey and His Brother (Tim and Eric) as a singing and dancing duo that usually end their act by weeping or puking, while the 'Beaver Boys' bit allows Tim and Eric to lampoon would be beach bum players with shrimp and white wine. Odinkirk hosts 'I Love Movies' where he plays a socially awkward man who can't interview anyone to save his life, while the Cinco commercials tend to combine two odd items to create one strangely named hybrid (the Cinco B'owl, for instance, combines a bat with an owl with the T'ird combines a turtle and a bird).

Intentional audio and video glitches are constant throughout the show, allowing Tim and Eric to repeat things for short periods of time very quickly. This can sometimes get pretty aggravating and there's never any obvious reason for it, but at the same time it adds to the show's demented sense of humor. Calling this material absurdist doesn't seem right, as that makes it sound somewhat pretentious and it isn't. Let's just go with retarded. Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is retarded in the best possible way. It makes no sense, it's completely pointless, it's rude, it's crass, it's childish and it's stupid. It's also pretty damn funny.

The DVD

Video:

Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season One looks like it's supposed to look. This show is done fast and cheap by a small cast and crew and it's intentionally made to look like a public access show. So, if you keep that in mind, you'll have no real problems with the video quality here. The 1.33.1 fullframe picture presents the material in its original broadcast aspect ratio. For some reason, some skits are flagged for progressive scan and some are not, but aside from that this material looks just as good, if not slightly better, on DVD than it does on cable.

Sound:

The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix sounds very good on this DVD. An optional 2.0 Stereo Surround Sound mix is included in English as is a closed captioning feature. There are a few bits that are meant to sound intentionally abrasive and so the levels bounce around here and there to accommodate that but otherwise the audio on this disc is fine. Dialogue stays clean and clear and whatever distortion is in the mix is intentional.

Extras:

Adult Swim has done a decent job with the supplements on this DVD. Each of the ten episodes in the set is available to watch on its own or through a play all feature. Additionally, each episode contains an optional commentary track courtesy of Tim and Eric, who tend to play things pretty straight and without breaking character. They talk about who did what on each episode and they discuss where a lot of the ideas for the skits came from. The first track discusses the genesis of the show and how Tom Goes To The Mayor got canned and how they wound up doing Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. Tim and Eric started doing comedy in college together and then put up bits on the internet and it all sort of snowballed into what we have here. They also spend a lot of time pointing out the obvious, making comments like 'Hey look at that man on a ladder' when a man on a ladder appears in a skit where a short person punches a man in the balls. They talk about their obsession with fake tans, how they used ideas that they had left over from their last series, where the cats came from, and why Neil Hamburger of all people shows up in the show. A few other people involved in the series pop up here and there but Tim and Eric do most of the talking, which makes sense - this is their awesome show, and as such, these are their awesome commentaries.

There are also a few featurettes included on the DVD, starting with How'd Dey Do Dat? (13:43) which is basically a look at the various make up and green screen techniques used in the show to supply viewers with an endless supply of superb special effects. This is how the magic happens, kids, so pay attention as we're taken behind the scenes in Tim and Eric's studio to watch it all happen.

Lost Gems And Deleted Scenes is a selection of seven unused bits from the show - Two Men In Jail Part One, Two Men In Jail Part Two, Two Men In Jail Part Three, Todd Barry, Dumbellz: Head Crusherz And Olive Prank, Beaver Boys Alternate Version, and last but not least, Beaver Boys Viral Video (this last one is hysterical and should have never been cut!).

Awesomecon (3:00) is a funny bit where Tim and Eric get a bunch of people together in a San Diego park to beat on some B'owls, enjoy some ice cold meat, dance to the sounds of DJ Doggpound, toss wet balloons, compete in a trivia contest, and ride Jet-Ski's around on the water. It's nice to see that these two huge mega superstars aren't afraid to mingle with the common man and give a little something back to the fans now and then. Great job!

Oops And Ding Dongs (5:11) is really just a blooper reel. Some of the bits from the Beaver Boys sketch are funny as is the interaction between the office manager and his totally poke-able employee. Fred Willard proves himself to be a good sport while Tim and Eric appear to be pretty bad at not laughing while the cameras are rolling, because they do that a lot. In their defense, they're funny, so it's probably hard not to laugh, particularly when you come face to face with lines like 'my balls are as bald as my head.'.

Promos (2:08) is simply a collection of promotional spots used to advertise the show. These are just as nonsensical as the series it promotes and as such they're much more entertaining than most advertisements.

Great! (But Not Great Enough: Extended Scenes And Missing Moments) (21:41) is a collection of trimmed material not seen in the broadcast episodes. We start off with a second 'my son Spray' prank call, then move on to a black turtleneck sketch, a pair of Gravyrobbers training videos with host Tairy Greene, some deleted bits from Tim and Eric's seminar on how to make it in the entertainment industry, more office romance, an excised 'Horsey And Virgin' ventriloquist bit, some behind the scenes footage from the 'Crystal Shyps' video, some unseen clips from the retrospective episode and last but not least, a musical tribute to rascals!

Final Thoughts:

Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season One isn't going to be for everyone, in fact, I'm not really sure who it's for, I'm only sure that it made me laugh a lot. Highly recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.

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C O N T E N T

V I D E O

A U D I O

E X T R A S

R E P L A Y

A D V I C E
Highly Recommended

E - M A I L
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