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The xxx Best Characters of Tim and Eric's Awesome Show Universe

From left: John C. Reilly, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Paul Rudd. For your health. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Adult Swim

Guesting on Tim and Eric Crawly Testify, Great Job! took serious bravery. Anything could happen once you lot were on prepare. Would you need to play a pitchman for rentable juvenile clowns on the brink of an emotional meltdown? Or were you simply asked to concord your arms upwards in a weird way as you made the case for artificial bones? For fifty episodes and five seasons, there was no more than fertile and fucked-up terrain in one-act. You tin can still hear the echoes, more than than a decade later on.

Many of the best characters on Awesome Show were played by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. After all, the duo had a precise grip on the exact sort of limbic, haunted, late-nighttime public-admission show they wanted to brand. They also constitute a surprising number of A-listers willing to play forth with the commotion. Everyone from John Mayer to Volition Ferrell has gone down the rabbit hole with them. Just the pair were too more than than happy to pan through the benthic underside of Hollywood, trolling Craigslist for walk-ons who could provide the unsteady, non-expert tone the show relied on in a truly fluent style. (Some of the cult favorites Tim and Eric produced, like Richard Dunn, were pulled off the street.) This is our list of the xxx best characters in Awesome Show history, played by stand-upwardly royalty and anonymous weirdos alike. In the earth of Wareheim and Heidecker, everyone tin can be a star.

Everything in the Tim and Eric tradition — from The Eric Andre Bear witness down to Tom Goes to the Mayor — relies on a certain indelible unscrupulousness in whoever is guesting on the evidence. Yes, it is funny when Patton Oswalt shows up and seamlessly plays along, but this kind of comedy is at its best when someone completely outside the ecosystem appears onscreen. The best example, in our stance, is Jane'south Habit guitarist Dave Navarro, who entered the "Dunngeon" hosted by Richard Dunn in season ii. After spending a media career as one of the anodyne talking heads on shows similar CBS's Rockstar, Navarro was now correcting the Dunnman himself, dressed in a mesh acme and leather pants, about the precise pronunciation of "Navarro." Information technology'due south the perfect example of two universes colliding.

The first few seasons of Awesome Show reveal Tim and Eric's strong creative symbiosis at the time with the "Comedians of Comedy": Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis, and Maria Bamford. Both groups gave their productions an indie-music-kid ethos inspired by Neil Hamburger, and Heidecker and Wareheim welcomed all of the above onto their show to play some wacky characters. Bamford, already a wacky character in and of herself, appeared in seasons 1 and three as Maria Bamford. In a sketch that sends up QVC, Bamford hosts a plan chosen The New You, where she shows you "how to rejuvenate and revitalize yourself … through lotion!" Unlike later seasons, where it appears that famous guest stars are doing their preconceived idea of what an Crawly Show graphic symbol should be, this is a showcase for Bamford doing her signature mom impression. By flavour iii, information technology appears that Aqueduct v has permit her accept a prove about cleaning cat pilus, which of course devolves into an on-air breakdown and screaming fit.

This isn't even a fleck. This is what all gamers look like, especially if yous meet them on a VHS dating service. We never saw much of the Video Dating Gamer after this season-two segment, but we'll always thank Rainn Wilson for his education.

With each passing yr, the early 3D-animated canon — recall Shrek , A Bug's Life, and the outset Toy Story — grows more uncanny through the lens of modern applied science. Grum, an exceptionally poorly rendered children's mascot, is Tim and Eric's tribute to that strange belatedly-'90s catalogue. Everything looks a footling queasy and weird in Grum's universe. In 2021, there is zilch more unsettling than low fidelity.

Occasionally, Tim and Eric would ditch the central conceit of their show and put together a half hour imported straight from inter-dimensional cable. Jim and Derrick represent the prime example of that genius. Filmed in 2008, correct as the MTV burnout skater-cum-pranksters like Bam Margera were jumping the shark, it'southward one of the best distillations of mid-aughts, Jackass-ian civilization yous'll ever meet. Nothing but complimentary product placement, energy-drink chugging contests, and ii hosts destined for a troubled tabloid time to come. It's pitch-perfect.

Dee Vee is Tim and Eric's hairy little buddy who joins them for their Chrimbus Special as a manner of selling copies of said special on DVD as information technology's airing (Dee Vee is presumably a lazy shortening of DVD; he wears 1 on his chest). A piddling goblin with cloven feet and a full body of blonde fur, he is a repulsive little Ewok who nonetheless inspires some excellent Chrimbus music. Dee Vee reads as a parody of the barely considered furry sidekick added to children'due south media to sell products (think Snarf from ThunderCats). Dee Vee gets a full arc when he is revealed to be the younger version of Crawly Prove regular player Tennessee. Fifty-fifty on his deathbed, he shares a heartwarming Chrimbus bulletin: that the meaning of the vacation is to purchase the Chrimbus Special on DVD.

Quondam-schoolhouse karaoke graphics were fever dreams. Like cable-access programming and local ad campaigns, these were but another genre of cathode-ray-native visual media of the '90s that Awesome Show dredged out of our subconscious dumpsters and satirized only when no one was request for it. Ruth Carr, played past Jennifer Mims, was the muse of Crawly Show'due south "Vocal Legends Karaoke" segments. Carr begins her karaoke career in the flavour-ii sketch "Come Over," starring as a liberated woman cheating on her married man and beckoning the hunky neighbor with her coos of "Stroke my leg, pull on my hair, treat me like y'all don't even care / Oh oh oh oh … come over." Information technology's a sex-positive anthem and a thrilling tale of adultery, sold through one-half-committed dance moves. Carr's plot thickened in the prove's ten-year ceremony special, in a sketch called "Spaghetti Again," in which nosotros finally meet her ingrate husband, Lindsey Porch (Bob Druwing). He wields a knife, dreams about a wife who would cook him "a cut notwithstanding on the bone," and criticizes her overcooked noodles. But Carr gets the last laugh with her veal Parmesan. A truthful rock star.

Before there was Karl Havoc and his subconscious-photographic camera prank show, there was Spagett. A mischievous, turtlenecked imp with a pubic wig sewn into his hairline, this spaghetti-slurping prankster (played by Heidecker) terrorized the globe with his signature spooks, popping out from backside planters and theater seats to try to clasp a scare out of unsuspecting strangers who could not requite less of a shit. The But for Laughs Gags–esque ugly idiocy of his fleck, matched by "victims" who simply aren't having it, is i of Awesome Show's clearer comedy games, making Spagett a great entry indicate for newcomers to the show. Or y'all can ever show them the feature-film accommodation.

It seems exceedingly probable that both Tim and Eric watched a boatload of bad, wiggy, 1980s space documentaries in their youth. Equally adults, they finally had the chance to cosplay the black-turtlenecked astrophysicists of their dreams. Naturally, their season-4 estimation is less Carl Sagan and more Carl Sagan subsequently a caput injury, simply for a series so often defined by pastiche and irony, it'due south clear that the duo have a real appreciation for the catholic optimism of the genre. Yous're right Eric, it is really fun to think about taking a speed-of-light ride.

Tairy Greene is a recurring grapheme played by Zach Galifianakis, and we like to imagine that he used the character to siphon off some of his own traumas as a working actor. Greene is a psychotic acting bus, constantly on the verge of a nervous breakup, and nosotros go a candid glimpse at some of his seminars targeted for simple-aged hopefuls: "You lot'RE Not A PERSON UNLESS YOU'RE ACTING." Galifianakis distills a lifetime spent arresting the communication of questionable Hollywood eccentrics into 30-2nd-long rants.

There are some bits on Awesome Show that resist logic, assay, or exposition, and then I'grand not exactly sure how I'thou supposed to describe the appeal of Dr. Reid Tamaranda. Seriously, I wonder what management Volition Forte received for this character. He dreams up the exact kind of troubled, deep-web medical hustler who sells (usable, healthy) human bones, and he does and so past fluttering his eyes, keeping his mouth constantly open, and positioning his artillery parallel to his hips similar the most camera-shy man of all time. That'due south commitment, babe!

It's clear that Tim and Eric are both large comedy nerds, but in particular, they have an appreciation for the sort of warmed-over, hacky dark-club excursion that thrived in the '70s and '80s. Quall, every bit a character, is a tribute to that golden age, complete with aureate bow ties, ridiculous lapels, and a bevy of terrible celebrity impressions. Let's exist honest: Quall would absolutely crush his sets today.

This is from the 2009 flavour of the Crawly Show, and despite our research, we're unable to make up one's mind who these guys are. What we can say is that Tim and Eric predicted the uneasy, etherealized vaporwave revolution mode earlier it soaked upwards Tumblr. You can feel club change halfway through, when the band kicks it into overdrive and the lead singer takes center phase for a low-end vocoder solo. We may never get another Daft Punk album, just at least we'll ever have "Mini Van Highway."

About of the characters that appear on Awesome Show are troubling and unsettling in all sorts of different psychoactive ways. But non Grill Vogel! Played by the legendary Ray Wise, Vogel walks us through the murky terrain of platonic male person intimacy through a series of very, very weird hugs. After quarantine, we should be welcoming all of our friends with a Power Embrace.

Some of Awesome Evidence'due south most indelible nightmare imagery comes from its line of fictional Cinco products and their accompanying commercial parodies. Many of these accept the visual language of "As Seen on Tv" paid-programming spots for obscure, patent-pending products promising to make the viewer'due south life easier through infantilization, and apply information technology to horrific and disgusting body modifications. The charismatic and trustworthy stars of these ads? A couple of middle-aged pals named Rudy and Kent, played by Jay Mawhinney and Bob Ross (not that Bob Ross). In ads for MyEggs, the Cinco Food Tube, and the Cinco Centre Tanning Organization, nosotros come across the platonic all-time buddies casually sell each other on extreme physical torture, all in the name of avoiding an idiotic trouble. Somehow, these "solutions" always involve poor Kent getting his teeth yanked out. The concepts and imagery are always ridiculous, only what makes these sketches soar is the genius, amiable deadpan of Mawhinney and Ross. It'south like Itchy & Scratchy on ketamine.

Awesome Show'southward near enduring one-hit wonder is Paul Rudd as himself (his Cinco operating system addresses him equally "Paul"), besides as a number of digital identities, in the classic "Celery Man." Rudd walks through some sort of digital void, boots upward his Cinco reckoner, and begins generating different versions of himself onscreen to dance for him. At that place's clean-cut Celery Man, rude dude with a 'tude Oyster, and Tayne, who can wobble a fedora and whose nude sequences frighten poor Paul for a second before he recovers. Rudd'south dance moves equally Tayne are the stuff of bar mitzvah DJ legend.

J.J. Pepper is a videographer for hire played by Will Forte, whose approach to pitching his business is "desperate plea." Forte was a frequent guest on Awesome Show, just J.J. Pepper is his funniest character. If his shrill vocalization doesn't win you over, his piddling vest will. The J.J. Pepper commercial sketch is an opportunity for the show to get meta nigh its use of lo-fi, public-admission editing furnishings, as Pepper shows off his janky star wipes and CGI kangaroos. Rent him for your next "bra mitzvah," won't you? Jeez!

Ron Austar is another Awesome Show original. The man had only two movie credits before Tim and Eric brought him in to play Pierre, the Channel 5 fixture and vaguely psychotic children's entertainer. Austar was a natural, employing a Baton Blanks–like cadency in his many mind-melting trip the light fantastic toe breaks. "I Wanna Encounter That Dad" is the archetype, just really, we ought to celebrate the full Pierre catalogue.

David Liebe Hart's body of work exists well beyond Awesome Evidence: He has been an outsider artist using puppetry and music to explore themes of Christianity, the creation, and choo-choo trains for decades, often regaling passersby exterior of L.A.'s Hollywood Basin after shows. Just Crawly Show gave him a platform and adoring disciples, and in turn, Liebe Hart gave Crawly Evidence some effortlessly bizarre music and real public-access actuality. Liebe Hart gave the show a heart and a theology of its own, evoking alien romances and crafting small male parent-son dramas through song and ventriloquy.

It'south the song that left Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and Jessie J quaking: "Blindside bang cops and robbers / Bang bang robbers and cops / Bang blindside / Rob that bank / Put 'em in jail, put 'em in jail." The beauty of parodies on Crawly Show, versus parodies on other sketch serial, is that they are never an obvious 1-to-i to anything existing in reality. They operate on dream logic. Casey and His Blood brother are kid singers on the Weird Al–hosted Uncle Muscles Hour in the world of the evidence. Casey, played past Heidecker, is a distressingly red-faced boy with Sharpie eyebrows who comes across as deeply nervous and upset as he performs, interjecting his songs like "Horse and Buggy Ride" and "(I Desire to Live in a) Choo Choo Train" with yelps and dry out heaves. His brother, meanwhile, wears thick sunglasses and does little dances; it's Wareheim at the top of his physical-comedy powers. In the earth of Awesome Bear witness, the boys are honey, and it'south akin to a national tragedy when Casey goes missing after having gotten into a van with a kid clown salesman and eventually dies in an explosion. So what was this parodying, exactly? The mystery of their grotesquerie only improves the experience of songs like "Hamburgers and Hotdogs."

Jan and Wayne Skylar are the merely married news team in the tristate area, and similar their friend and colleague Dr. Steve Brule, they are Aqueduct 5's very own. Jan is a brilliant drag character for Heidecker, who plays the deep-fried meme equivalent of a Kids in the Hall dame — a sensible woman in horror-clown rouge who is sexually repulsed past her hubby, Wareheim'due south put-upon Wayne. Wareheim's greatest natural comedic gift is that tiny little mouth of his, and it's made funnier when framed by Wayne'due south penciled-on goatee. The childless (January's canal couldn't nascency a child, and she's constantly avoiding her hubby'due south advances) legends, in their flamboyant craft-store vests, bring a delightful slow-burn blench to all of their sketches, framed like local news that's ultimately but the portrait of a aging marriage. Tim and Eric also play a workplace couple in their recurring "Carol and Mr. Henderson" sketches, only January and Wayne are the two at their almost camp, and therefore they go the edge. In our humble stance, these two should be the only direct couple allowed at Pride.

Richard Dunn was perhaps the greatest discovery during the Awesome Show run. Here was a Korean State of war veteran born in the 1930s, whom Heidecker approached in a parking lot and offered him a gig playing his begetter in the pilot episode in 2007. Dunn would never leave. His one-of-a-kind frame — track-thin with a pair of big, burgundy glasses balanced on the edge of his nose — paired perfectly with the duo's house manner. Dunn helped pioneer the off-kilter and quietly menacing rhythm that sent both Wareheim and Heidecker to stardom. He died in 2010, which is a real shame, because at 74, he was still just getting started.

Information technology had to exist him. John C. Reilly was getting nominated for Oscars earlier jumping on a late-nighttime Adult Swim show to play a medico with a child'southward listen. It's a full outlier — one of the strangest career transitions in Hollywood history — and it couldn't have worked out meliorate. Dr. Steve Brule's cyclone, grotesque segments on Channel 5 were swell, merely Reilly actually made his basic in the recurring "Brule's Rules" breaks, where he'd bless the audience with an inscrutable nugget pulled from his one-of-a-kind worldview. ("Ever wonder why water ice cubes gustation so wearisome? Information technology's considering you make them out of stupid water!") Brule immediately became a fan favorite, to the point of earning his own spinoff show. We tin talk about his stints in Magnolia, or Boogie Nights, or even Stride Brothers, only really, Dr. Steve Brule is John C. Reilly's greatest function. For your wellness.

The 30 Best Characters of the Awesome Show Universe