Nathan For You

he has weird hair

my god santa telling those kids they look like babies and the one kid opening up about another kid being mean at school
my god

wait, what episode are you talking about here?

yeah last night was the Taxi/Line Cutting episode. pretty good though the cab company owner's desperation was a little unsettling. I'm glad they didn't go through with it!

oh i am talking about ep8, on the comedy cnetral site. shh never mind it's only a tiny spoiler ;)

did not even realize that the site was ahead of the broadcast schedule! is that normal for cc?

watching this on hulu. they just put the liquor store/exterminator/car wash episode. first two ones were pretty dumb, but the car wash was funny. i think i overdosed on this show "binge watching" the first season.

the lawyer in that dumb starbucks episode trying to steal the signed contract was one of the funniest things i've seen on tv. even if a lot of it was staged or w/e, he does a great job playing with the line between reality tv artifice and the actual, ridiculous things he is doing to/for these businesses

yeah i was curious about to what extent this show is real and found this, which pretty much jibes with my impression:

Many people suspect that reality television is scripted, and with “Nathan for You,” this is, in a sense, the case. Fielder and his writers compose detailed outlines for each episode, trying their best to predict “what a reasonable person might say in a situation,” Fielder said, and to steer events in propitious directions — nudging customers from the gas station, for example, to the mountaintop. This doesn’t mean that the show’s marks are acting, however, or in on the joke: Fielder’s producers approach prospective businesses without letting on that “Nathan for You” is a comedy show, and Fielder never breaks character at a shoot.

In filming the show, Fielder says, chance ultimately rules: “We don’t even reference the script after a certain point. An entire day of shooting will ride on stuff happening the way we hope. It’s crazy to do a production like that, but the uncertainty makes the show feel more authentic and spontaneous.” Koman agreed: “It’s setups and luck.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/magazine/nathan-fielder.html?_r=1

if the lawyer wasn't in on it that is like the funniest thing ever

that corkboard thing was one of the funniest moments on the show, my god

"Inside all of our anatomies there's two parts. There's a part that's a liar, and a part that's a cool guy."

dumb Starbucks did not disappoint

i keep thinking there should have been more interesting material there (like how did the employees react to the media blow-up), but if there were, they would have shown it.

This show is the most tortured I've been between thinking it's the funniest thing I've seen in years and thinking he really is possibly an awful person who is blatantly exploiting (at best) unhappy people for a gag (thinking of the repeated cuts at the expense of the lonely guy who allows Nathan to test the 40-maids-in-6-minutes scheme; the woman who says she was assaulted by an 'entity' in Switzerland during the ghost real estate thing; even the lone shot of a woman crying to herself across the pet cemetery when he unveils the advertisement/headstone).

I even felt for all the people who would have been so excited to see the 'Johnny Depp' movie being filmed - though that sequence also had me doubled over in pain from laughing (when he repurposes the footage of the guy running through the souvenir shop as 'people were desperate to get supplies' or whatever I fucking lost it).

He's got to be some kind of sociopath to stand there through these horrible and often quite sad interactions just trusting it'll all wash out in the edit.

There's definitely some tension there. I think it helps that the show often paints "Nathan" the character as being untrustworthy and openly manipulative, particularly in his constructed social behavior and his contradictory narration. If anything he mirrors some of the sadder characters you mention, and only seems to behave "naturally" when confronted by the truly out-there encounters that there's just no character protocol for, like the "entity" assault victim or the pee-drinker from S1.

the show often paints "Nathan" the character as being untrustworthy and openly manipulative, particularly in his constructed social behavior and his contradictory narration.

But I guess my first problem is with the actual interactions as they occurred. These people aren't meeting someone they know to be those things - and they seem to sometimes be possibly fragile people who are getting dicked around.

And then the edit can be cruel for the sake of a joke that *isn't* part of the show's larger target of cheap/dumb/lazy marketing. I was aching watching Nathan asking that guy about his relationship status and seeing the guy trail off, going "Gosh, L.A. is just so.... hard...."

We just started watching this, and def. getting Sacha Baron Cohen vibes from it. It's pretty funny, though. My wife was in tears during the gas rebate episode, which just gets so ... strange.

I agree there's inherent sociopathy involved but probably to a lesser degree than actual makeover shows.

We just started watching this, and def. getting Sacha Baron Cohen vibes from it. It's pretty funny, though. My wife was in tears during the gas rebate episode, which just gets so ... strange.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, September 1, 2014 12:44 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

SBC vibes is exactly what bothers me about it. The being a dick to being funny ratio is just a little too high for me, and he seems a little too proud of his *deadpan* humor.

His hair also appears to be waxy like an otter's fur

I think SBC goes farther to make people look stupid. Like, part of the joke of his stuff is that no one recognizes him as a cartoon and takes him seriously (the fools!). Nathan's pitches on the other hand at least operate within a skewed system of reality TV makeover logic, made funnier by his total deadpan. I mean, sometimes his ruses work! (See: Dumb Starbucks, pig rescues goat, King of Sting, etc.). And when they don't work, he hilariously tries to find some way to take credit anyway. Or sabotage the results, like turning the gas rebate scheme into this weird human interest story, not publicising the pig rescue, taking mock offense at the King of Sting.

there’s a weird inconsistency in character when nathan gets upset at the quiznos rep for going too far, which makes me wonder if that amazingly wasn’t staged.

His hair also appears to be waxy like an otter's fur

He is Canadian. I think that's normal for them.

They call it a "pelt."
http://www.glacierwear.com/media/catalog/category/Fur_Hats_Fur_Ear_Muffs_Fur_Acc.jpg

The Daddy's Watching/party planner episode might have been my favorite except it also had the weight loss bit which was the first one that really crossed into unnecessary cruelty for me. But I was so happy when he brought back the Bill Gates impersonator.

The weight loss part was amazing but yeah that ending was rather tough to watch. The Bill Gates dude could be in every episode as far as I'm concerend.

Also, if this isn't a preview of season 3 I don't know what is:
http://www.vocativ.com/money/business/gestations-bar-for-pregnant-women-viral-marketing-stunt/

Considering he already did the free taxi rides for pregnant ladies I don't think that's a NFY bit. Speaking of which, I loved the part when he made the obstetrician pretend to be a mechanic to vet the midwife's credentials.

"When we started Microsoft..."

I've been listening to this every day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcrLSSlNZGs

Managed 27 seconds.

33 here

.53 and a lot of that was because I was in another tab and couldn't figure out what to close

Zippity-doo-dah for the Internet Age.

geez, youre missin the good part

and wisely avoiding all the rest

Nathan's lipsynching is fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDs3sw098tU

ha, feels like he might step up his game to compete with Review

I'd say Nathan >>> Review but both shows are great

I loved that he said he wanted to keep each season of his show low on episodes to keep quality high.

what's review? google not coming up with the answers

tell a lie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2141913/

8.3 stars on IMDB
That's 999,991.7 less than COCAINE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHBaVVIrONI

omg the soundproof sex box

"Alligators, little doors... I'm seeing psychosis."

god this one had everything didn't it

Oh man that was great. When he brought the guy to be psychologically evaluated, we were rolling. "Oh yeah, we sell TVs for a dollar, but you need to wear a tuxedo, and you have to go through a little door first, past the alligator ..."

At this point I can't imagine actually watching this show as it airs on TV. There are always several points at which I need to pause and step away, either to recover from what just happened or to steel my nerves for what's coming next. In this episode those moments were (1) when he asks the guy in the Man Zone "what's your favorite posish" and (2) when you see the part of the store display with the human bones.

i watched both of those live and the answer is "i look away from the screen, wincing in pure embarrassment"
this season has been A++ so far

At least Charlie Kaufman makes his intentions perfectly clear from the get go and doesn’t let you get 9 and half hours into a series to get metaphysical on your ass

He constantly seems like he’s trying to not even be relevant, just keep himself tethered to this marriage, tv show, partial friendship with Dougie, but… his tethers all fail

your analysis is interesting mh -- i have struggled to figure out how Asher fits into this at all as he seems to fuck up everything he touches and we have no idea where he comes from. i'll buy it!

i do get a strong whiff of "i married a women whose family has money and i am not letting this go without a fight" only he's bad at fighting and also at everything else

oops WOMAN

I think the end of the season is just a set up for S2 in which grown Asher plays baby Asher

Still fucking fuming about this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CaHP5P4wUc

lmao

https://summiticeapparel.com/pages/about

save it for the Rehearsal thread okay??

are you done having your tantrum?

That's beautiful

fantastic

are we practicing our comments here before we put them in the rehearsal thread?

If 6 was 9

https://images.robinpro.gallery/v7/_robin-pro_/uploads/a39eecbb5e57ae536388f167899b9999.jpeg?ci_seal=56fc327bdd&org_if_sml=1&q=85&w=1800
Jon Meyer's expression is very quintessential "I don't know how I got roped into this, and I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this"-era Nathan for You