Delightfully reeking of awkwardness
By Jon Chattman

Whether it’s the appeal of its ultra-eccentric stars or the hilarity of sketches involving such gems as hidden camera prankster Spaghett or father-obsessed singer Pierre , Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! has provided a belly of laughs on the Cartoon Network since it debuted last year. While the show continues to gain momentum, the truth is Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim have been splitting sides for years on the ‘net long before they took to the Adult Swim airwaves.

Thecheappop.com recently interviewed the wunderkinds behind “The Christmas Wish” and countless other examples of overall hilarious awkwardness, and found them super nice and, um, eccentric. Fittingly, the interview will play out the same. It will be uncomfortable for everyone involved while, at the same time, quite funny. With that in mind, for the first time ever, I will go against journalistic integrity and transcribe the interview in real time as I write this story in a wonderful and honest play-by-play style that would do Vin Scully proud if he knew who I was. Since it’s in real time, I will not rewind the tape. I’m a fast typer so I’m not worried about not capturing authentic soundbytes. If I do, however, I’ll simply paraphrase what either Tim or Eric said while keeping their statements true. We’ll start the interview as soon as I jump out of my office, and scream “Spaghett!” Done and done.

The phone rings, and it’s not in the middle of the night and my father isn’t yelling at me like that Cyndi Lauper song says. It’s Tim and Eric. They introduce themselves, and both sound a lot alike which will make this a grueling experience transcribing. Off the bat, Tim informs me that they are wrapping up the third season and they had just spent the day at the beach to film a bit about eye tanner. All Edward R. Morrow-like, I ask the fellas how big the web has been for them in terms of success. Tim said their site along with YouTube and torrent sites have all helped catapult them to incredible heights. “The web is massive for us,” Tim said. Eric responds quickly, “in short, it’s huge.”

That’s what she said, and the duo continue to discuss their adventures in Al Gore’s Internet. Tim mentions they maintain MySpace accounts to keep their fans informed. In fact, the two sold out their tour simply be hitting their online lists. Can they get me tickets to see Jersey Boys? I don’t have the guts to ask. In any event, they also mention that they have a live Internet talk show on superdeluxe.com, of which, I’d like to be on. I will email them after I finish this article up.
The conversation moves to content and whether Cartoon Network ever stands in the way of their content. That’s why I said “content advisory” in the opening of the sentence. “Content and legal issues all the time,” as Eric pointed out. But, for the most part, he said creatively they’ve mastered what will make it by censors and what won’t. “Usually nowadays, it’s only like ‘that’s too blue’ – Tim is making love to my wife in a new bit called ‘Sexual Romance’ and you can only do a certain kind of thrusting. We get notes like that,” Eric explained.

The conversation turns to how a skit is born. Sometimes, Eric explains, he’ll do some peyote in Baha, then will come back with a “binder full of sketch ideas.” Usually, he said, “it’s like just one word like sand, and Tim will take the word and be like ‘what’s sand?’ Sand crabs, sand crab sandwiches, and then you have sand crab sandwich restaurant. So it starts with drugs and then it goes to [working] it between us.”
Fastball by Doc Gooden and the count is two balls and one strike (hat tip to Vin Scully there eventhough he announces Dodger games), and the next topic is what these guys would do if, in fact, they had their own Rick Moranis. On the show, the guys had a sketch where Eric gives Tim his very own Robin Williams. Silence ensues for a while to the point where I need to say “hello?” Tim remembers Moranis is from “Ghostbusters,” but both are unable to answer the question. I wipe my tears, and rephrase the question to what they would do with Robin Williams. Eric notes Robin is getting divorced. At this point, he informs me that he is looking at the ‘bert’ database on thecheappop.com. Tim or Eric, their voices sound the same, tell/s me the Internet connection is slow and therefore thecheappop.com is as well.

Tim, at this point, complains about loading Amazon.com on his Mac. At this point, Tim and Eric are talking to each other about Amazon.com. The brief chatter makes Chattman (that’s me but I like the play of words of “chatter” and my last name) ask the two if they get along to which Tim responds “most of the time.” As Tim said, “yesterday, I had a little incident and I walked off set which doesn’t really happen a lot.” Eric says, “we’ve been working together for ten years – no big fights. Classic Lennon/McCartney partnership.”

“Mutual respect,” Tim said off the bat. A conversation about food and parties transpires but I have no clue what either of them are talking about. Tim said they’re going to be doing a full episode of Spaghett when I segue into my love for the character. Tim notes he came up with the character at a party to entertain himself and guests. He doesn’t think he’d fall for any of Spaghett’s tricks. We then segue into a conversation of “Christmas Wish.

Funny enough, Eric explains the song - whose accompanying video scored big on YouTube and in my territorial bubble last holiday season - came about when an Adult Swim/Cartoon Network exec asked the two to create a video for the network’s Christmas party. “[They wanted] something that was going to freak the fuck out of everybody,” Eric said of the Casey and his brother song that has displaced “Silent Night” in my book as best Christmas song ever.

Eric and Tim move on to discuss their comedy/music tour. They say they’re doing a gig in NY in April where Casey and his brother will be a featured segment. I would like to go. (Later on you will find out, I didn’t.) The conversation shifts, oh and that’s a pitch high and tight to Keith Hernandez, to the overall 1980s feel for the show and many of their sketches. Eric said the duo love the ‘80s public access channel look. “Kind of transitions and stuff – always loved them. I was in AV club, I used the video toaster to start out at that point I thought it was cool, and a couple years later, you realize how funny cool that is.”
The convo, which is short for conversation, turns to John C. Reilly, an actor who was on Tim and Eric’s “Tom Goes to Mayor” show, who really digs them and does regular sketches on the show as Dr. Steve Brule, the local news correspondent. “It didn’t click, it worked,” Tim explains to Eric. Eric “doesn’t know what the difference is.” “It just worked, which is a big difference,” Tim says. I laugh but I’m lost. Which brings up the question whether their humor is lost on certain people. “Of course,” Tim says. As Eric says, “You’ve got a bunch of stoners, a bunch of people who are into video games, that’s who’s watching. I’m setting a new default photo on myspace – a lot of girls in high school draw me and it’s kind of flattering because some of my real photos are too fat.” Tim responds, “don’t you think the drawings of you skew fat?” The conversation continues between them, and I die a little inside. Tim tells me he only accepts people he knows on MySpace, and rules me out as a friend. They both do as a matter of fact. Then Tim says he knows me so he’d add me. Eric then invites me to their show in NYC in April and to ask their publicist to set it up. I do, and I never hear back, and the gig already happened. I don’t think I went.

The duo then ask me about my book. I tell them about it, and they explain that the music industry is actually worse than the publishing industry. Tim and Eric start talking to each other and I realize to myself, they’re on two separate phonelines. When I say that, however, a good 20 minutes in, Eric informs me they’re actually in the same room. “It’s a big room,” he says. Traffic is at this point moving better on thecheappop.com, and Tim asks me how I got it to work. I cleared cache. I explain more things I did to make the site move quicker, and Tim is interested. “It’s like really fast now,” Tim says, I start to smile again.
Tim asks me if I sell stuff on thecheappop.com, I go over CafePress.com and Tim and Eric say their store is rather kick ass and I point out the shortcomings of my store. We go over how their DVD and CD are coming out (it’s out now), and how season one of their show is also hitting shelves. I tell them to leak their cd now. They consider it, and I end the conversation smiling at first, and then crying, and Roger McDowell throws a slider right passed Kevin Bass, and the game’s over.