I was struck a few months ago by how brilliant most of the programming on Adult Swim's late night comedy block truly is. I've come to expect that anything produced by PFFR Forever Ltd.(Xavier: Renegade Angel; Delocated; The Heart, She Holler) is going to be great, and I can cop to enjoying certain other shows like old-school Aqua Teen Hunger Force, along with newer stuff like Squidbillies, Off The Air, and Children's Hospital. Really though, I think it's pretty clear that those weirdos "Tim and Eric" represent the modern ethos of this fledgling counterculture-TV-thing called Adult Swim. When I read that they were responsible for producing this freaky "Eric Andre Show" I wasn't surprised at all.
Nor was I surprised by its off-the-wall nature, though I suppose you could say I was at times shocked by it. This is truly radical television, a knowingly smart train wreck that sometimes doesn't know when to stop itself. There are moments when you can't help but cringe for the poor B-list guests(just watch Lou Ferrigno squirm as a little dude in green Hulk makeup gets way too close), and some of the man-in-the-street gags amount to little more than Eric barfing on people. However, when the insanity works, there is almost nothing else on television that even tries to entertain on this level.
One true asset is the impossibly laid-back co-host, Hannibal Buress. He serves both as a straight man to Eric's straight-jacket man, and as a welcome distraction for the often uncomfortable guests (who we, the audience, have come to identify with, thus making Hannibal a welcome distraction for us, too.) Some of the random segments involving Hannibal are highlights because they are equally absurd as, but usually less abrasive than, the bulk of the show.
Speaking of abrasiveness, from the opening credit sequence in which Eric destroys his own set while the band jams both aimlessly and furiously in the background, to the way he often pulls out weapons from unexpected locations and "shoots" or otherwise "kills" somebody at random, to his inexplicably rude or outrageous behavior during interviews... it's easy to understand why a lot of people really don't appreciate this type of humor. It reminds me a lot of the late-nineties "Tom Green Show" on MTV- truly out there.
So, personally, I love this type of humor. However, I can understand why people who are easily offended by violence and crude sexual/gross-out humor might really hate it. That said... those people should really get over it.
Thanks for reading what unintentionally became a pretty long and wordy review.
