4 out of 5

Director: Tim and Eric, sometimes, maybe

It’s good that this show happened before Tim and Eric, because as weird as it is, it’s still a more tempered version of they’re incredibly out-there humor, held loosely together by a format that Bob Odenkirk recognized and helped the duo mold into the Adult Swim 11 minute format.  This was also my first real tolerance test for AS.  It’s fitting that the wiki page quotes the network for calling ‘Tom’ one of its most polarizing shows, as I would gobble up everything that Cartoon Network was putting out on DVD, and when I got to the three disc, two season collection of Tom… I really didn’t know what to make of it at first, and honestly only stuck with it because I’d committed to the DVDs based on faith.  If I’d stumbled across it on TV, the initially off-putting animation style (which you of course grow used to and ‘crave’ in its odd combination of liveliness and static absurdity) and the very particular blend of absurd and uncomfortable humor that T&E use would’ve probably kept me away.  I would’ve claimed to be a fan of random, surreal humor, but Tim and Eric are a whole separate breed, taking their influences and really spinning them into their own style.  SO what is Tom Goes to the Mayor?  Well, ostensibly it’s about the every-small-town of Jefferton, and it’s ‘newest’ resident Tom Peters (Tim), who shows up almost every episode to the mayor’s office (Eric) – the mayor generally never remembering him – with some idea like putting bear traps in the park or promoting spray-on carpet.  And in typical gonzo fashion, things almost always go horribly wrong, Tom getting the brunt of everything and The Mayor getting out unscathed.  Yet the duo hangs on to a sort of vaudevillian or Looney Tunes sense of logic where the consequences – though harsh – are never mean-spirited because they never last.  Tom is always happy go lucky, The Mayor always completely oblivious.  The animation style uses a similar ‘cut-out’ look to South Park, but uses static, blue-outlined photo representations of every human character (flipping between images for very basic animations), with that Flash-y cheesy computer look for all of the ridiculous backgrounds, which are just stuffed with hilarious details.  As mentioned, it’s REALLY strange to see at first, the combination or real characters and surreality, but you end up loving it once you sync your mind with the inanity.  The DVD set is totally worth the investment, as it’s stuffed with extras, and the commentary is actually rewarding, cycling through various people who work on the show and the chatter jumping between joking around, laughing and loving their own show (which is always nice to hear), and explaining how some ideas came about.  It’s also nice to hear Tim and Eric – mostly – as humans, as they rarely seem to drop their shtick in public.  Some episodes inevitably fall flatter than others, and the stretch for poop jokes or that uncomfortable silence is sometimes reaching, so you need to take a break and go back to reality on occasion, but Tom Goes to the Mayor remains a highpoint in Adult Swim’s catalogue, evidence of how just letting creative people do their thing can open doors for their audience – me in this case – to appreciate a whole new strange realm of humor.