Review: THE ERIC ANDRE SHOW: CONAN Meets JACKASS on Acid and Dada

“Ranch me, brotendo,” entered the vernacular after the rise of unlikely movement around the salad dressing Ranch and got beyond the ranks of its acolytes while snowballing equally if not more eccentric one-liners as “Sup, mello” and “You are Bangkok dangerous”, all courtesy of one Eric André.

André might have been spotted in sitcoms Don´t Trust B---- in Apartment 23, 2 Broke Girls or as a sex slave to slimy extraterrestrial blob in Man Seeking Woman where he plays a wingman to Jay Baruchel´s sad sack protagonist. His portfolio includes feature outings although much less zany than his personal style became renowned for.

Adult Swim´s The Eric André Show looks like his pet project, a truly auteur venture and a therapeutic session from hell, no inhibitions whatsoever. André thus follows the trail of visionary comedians carving up a sliver of original (and twisted to that account) poetics akin to the duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. André has close to them than anybody else in the game coming up with surrealist antics and all-around dada comedy.

While Heidecker and Wareheim build gags and performances on what could be called aesthetics of low-brow weirdness (Tim & Eric´s Billion Dollar Movie), unclassifiable underground comedy punk (Totino Boy!) and body humor (the segment Angel Boy from deliciously twisted Bedtime Stories features an exceptional performance by both comedians climaxing with their fascination by bodily functions), whereas André honed his comedy poetics into no holds barred anarchy.

The Eric André Show is designed to emulate public access appearance (deliberately) as do Heidecker & Wareheim´s skits before unleashing all the punk. The format mimicks the late night talkshow structure and tropes André zealously and ferociously twists every conceivable way, insane hidden camera stunts and the perfect blend of surreal and nihilstic.

Sacha Baron Cohen´s alter-ego performances are praise-worthy for Cohen´s stellar in-character interactions reaching the level of performance art and the new breed of reality comedy, the pinnacle of which can be easily considered Comedy Central´s Nathan For You.

André´s perfectly groomed deranged talkshow/man-on-the-street persona navigates the space of authentic, clueless and frequently involuntary participants with ease and determination including masochistic doses of self-embarrassment and self-harm, to bring push them on the edge (especially during studio interviews) or at least to higher degrees of perplexity.

The show consists of two parts, studio and scenes shot on streets which are cued with mandatory image We´ll Be Right Back after the situation in the studio escalates (it always does). Various "celebrities" (and their poor impersonations) shift on an old and seedy arm-chair and try to keep straight face after André unleashes a barrage of unexpected, offensive and surreal attempts to vex them by any means necessary although his endeavors certainly do not lack originality and firm preparation.

“I feel like in a fever dream,” exclaimed one participant after André calls to duty doppelgangers of everybody in front of the camera to mirror them. That´s the bull´s eye - to get as surreal as possible in a very limiting format and André and his crew achieve it with gusto and particular anarchistic grace.

Each one to one interview is different, not only based on individual reactions but the various innovative way how to push the right buttons to torture the interviewees provoking a reaction – a meltdown, walk-out or the mute stare of disbelief. The ever-increasing inventory encompasses full-frontal nudity, violent vomiting, defecating, destruction of the property in studio, gun-shooting, babbling, light malfunction, releasing of animals.

The list can go on but it is not a pure pranking but rather a methodological activity requiring André and his team to conceive “the prank” and then the host must assess the situation rapidly and seize whatever opportunity comes his way be it an offensive remark or socially inappropriate gesture (drawing a swastika on forehead). Unusual ideas as turning his table into whack-a-mole or putting the table on a giant turntable to produce insane spinning take place frequently and the result is priceless. What André is doing is not psychological manipulation to derail guests off their tracks but to freak them out in a welcome-to-the-wonderland of anarchy fashion.

The equal dose of creativity goes into opening scenes of mayhem and destruction, a running gag of each episode, though calling it a gag is huge understatement. It could be easily the crowning jewel of the show, in artsier circles even labeled as conceptual but most of all, transgressing beyond the plain parody and caricature layer.

The parody de(con)struction layer is really just the bottom and the show certainly boasts higher value. In the opening, André thrashes the studio into shreds, usually using his own body. The course of four seasons proved that there is an endless field of possibilities how to wreak havoc in a frenetic chain of outbursts containing as diverse props as dogs, fire, sledge-hammer, interdimensional space jumps, saw, Tony Hawk, fellating-snake, Mortal Kombat, leprechaun…

Equally diversified are the street/subway pranks ranging from the standard pranking (André walking on street bloodied dragging an open parachute in tow) of unsuspecting civilians to exquisitely Dadaistic efforts as Bird Up dubbed as “the worst show on television”, an unexpected reincarnation of dead parrot sketch and the display of the (video)art of nonsense humor.

André parading in ridiculous outfits and serving people one-liners as “You are Bangkok dangerous” or “Ranch me, brotendo” falls into the category of performance art along André´s in-studio persona. Even stunts falling into the category of standard pranking exceed the bar of averageness either with an unexpected twist (as for example creepy body humor) or equally original and deranged concepts (Fruit Loops skit).

André as the host has a sidekick, Hannibal Buress, who is compared to his antics timid and brandishing own kind of passive-awkward comedy. However, the balance of Buress minimalism and André´s amphetamine-pacing disrupts occasionally to leave Buress enough space to come out of his shell in outright strange encounters.

The show has also its regulars, anonymous PA humiliated and tortured, almost always naked, cheese-obsessed Kraft Punk along well-hidden cameos. Andy Samberg played once André´s double and when André pulled down his pants, Samberg refused to follow his lead ultimately prompting on-camera exchange: André: "Do you want to make it in this industry or not?", Samberg: "Dude, I'm doing better than you.".

Despite the outrageousness and scatological humor, The Eric André Show is cleverly devised and executed piece. The surreal, weird and anarchistic brand of humor thrusts the show beyond parody plane. Even though Tim & Eric scooped considerably (maybe even disturbingly) deeper into the depths of uncharted comedy, André´s dadaistic performances and happenings avoid well-trodden paths and he and his team are certainly not afraid to take risks and experiment with loads of punk, dada and absurdity (thus the frequent conversations with the legal department).