5 out of 5

Created by: Eric André

covers seasons 1 through 3

Laughing is a pretty god damn good feeling.

I’m not positive if I knew this show existed or if I casually avoided it due to assumptions of the style of humor, but: While I have enjoyed Eric André on Man Seeking Woman, I never once would have figured him for this type of comedian.  This type of insane comedian; the true followup to the discomfiting prototype “cringe” humor style of Andy Kaufman.  When the Tim and Eric ‘Abso Lutely’ production bumper showed up after the first episode I watched, the late night VHS editing style completely made sense, but André’s antics couldn’t be grouped so easily under that oddball banner.

It’s sort of a prank show, its sort of just weird, it’s sort of purposefully annoying.  But it’s way more than that.  Its a challenging, new breed of humor, borne of our modern day media ADD and wrung through awareness of that, and a comedian with seemingly  shamelessness in pursuing a gag.  It’s constantly refiguring it’s own format and recurring jokes, and it’s the perfect show for doing just that.  Even knowing the type of madness and beats that are to occur doesn’t distill the edginess, or the shake-your-head WTF of doing a whole episode of Bird Up segments.

Aqua Teen pulled off this kind of playing-at-stupid genius humor, but would forever be (generally) limited to animation and the slightest if narratives.  André, on the other hand, can do whatever he wants.

Which is: Opening every show with wrecking his set and beating up his band.  Showing his guests Two Girls One Cup or letting snakes loose on the set.  Filming hidden cams on the subway while he offers skittles to people out of a jai alai cesta – which is one of his tamer moments, but still hilarious – or, more daringly, taking to the streets of Harlem and aggravating pedestrians dressed in a green screen bodysuit.  It sounds childish and it is, and is often perverse, and hovers on the line of being mean, except that André generally gets the key: Put the onus on him.  He’s the one being embarrassed; he’s the one acting like a jackass, and the Kaufman influence is in absorbing the discomfort in others that that causes.  It’s especially fascinating in an era where most people’s first gawking response is to whip out a cell phone and film…  What would probably be criminal acts if they weren’t “bits.”  It’s a strange thing.

Back in set, André’s guests seem to be half let in on the joke, but can also sincerely seem to he perturbed when put up against Eric and cohost Hannibal Burgess’s constant boundary pushing.  We can’t know the real state of affairs, but it’s as fascinating as it is funny watching celebrities sink into moments of apparent unknowing, when they have learned to make a career of appearing, generally, put together.

But that’s the the shtick.

And Bird Up is the worst god-damned show on television.  But I watched 30 episodes of Eric André back to back over three days and laughed as hard as I’ve ever laughed almost the whole way through.  So.  Maybe Bird Up does something right after all.