Elements of Taste: Understanding What We Like and Why by Benjamin Errett

Author:Benjamin Errett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Published: 2017-10-16T23:00:00+00:00

TASTING NOTE: TIM AND ERIC

Sweet: 0 percent

Sour: 0 percent

Salty: 20 percent

Bitter: 80 percent

Umami: 0 percent

The best explanation of what Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s work is comes from an online compilation of what it isn’t. Not Tim and Eric, a subreddit forum devoted to videos that match the comedy duo’s lo-fi aesthetic, specifically excludes their actual sketches. Instead, the content guide explains that because their antihumor “relies on awkward presentation to overstimulate and/or unseat their audience,” this is the place to share genuinely awkward content seen on public-access television and elsewhere. (The difference between genuine and deliberate awkwardness is like the difference between seeing a work of conceptual art in a white-walled gallery or in a Dumpster: entirely a question of context.) To enjoy being “unseated” is to enjoy bitterness. To enjoy their comedy, you have to both recognize how awkward it is and embrace that awkwardness. If you watch enough of Tim and Eric’s minimalist highlighting of reality—or, for that matter, Andy Kaufman’s stand-up from a generation before—you can end up seeing the entire world as an infinitely subtle, totally subversive joke. (Which you can then post to reddit.) As far as coping strategies for modern life go, it’s not a bad one.

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