The New York Times has called their show “laugh-out-loud funny” and said it reminds them of “the cleverest days of ‘Saturday Night Live’.” A fan/blogger on Blogowogo.com described it as “disjointed and smarter-than-it-seems.” When asked to describe their very own show, Pennsylvania natives Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker summed it up in one word: “sexual.”
Simply put, the Cartoon Network’s "Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job!” is indescribable. But if cheesy ‘80s graphics, vomit sight gags, and appearances by Weird Al Yankovich walking elderly women down the aisle (in a skit aptly titled “Here She Comes”) is your brand of comedy, then these are your guys.
Tim Heidecker, 31, of Allentown, PA, and Eric Wareheim, 30, of Audubon, PA, met at Philadelphia’s Temple University, where they both majored in film.
“We both went to film school with the intention of making real, serious films. Scorcese and Tarantino-style films. But, over the years Tim and I started making our own short, funny films. We never thought those little movies could actually translate to TV,” says Wareheim of their humble beginnings.
In the mid-90s when Tim and Eric attended Temple, before major comedy acts began steadily making tour stops in Philadelphia, and before the opening of Helium and other comedy clubs, the city did not give much room for burgeoning comedy careers.
“Temple is a really good place if you want to make films about social commentary or documentaries. It wasn’t the best place to be a comedian,” says Heidecker.
So, Tim and Eric, who credit Andy Kaufman, Christopher Guest, Chris Farley and “bad commercials that were on local television growing up” as their influences, took it upon themselves to make their own brand of comedy.
“In New York and Los Angeles they have very specific comedy scenes, where everybody kind of does the same thing. There was no comedy scene going on here, which actually helped Tim and I develop our own little world of what we thought was funny,” says Wareheim.
“We developed our style from living in the same house, drinking 40s, and eating bad pizza,” says Heidecker.
“Well, I wouldn’t call Lorenzo’s bad pizza.”
“Just dangerously bad for your digestive system.”
“Oh yeah!” exclaims Wareheim, bringing the impromptu comedy routine to an end.
Wareheim stayed in Philadelphia for about 10 years after graduating, but the pair have been in Los Angeles since the debut of their first Adult Swim show, “Tom Goes to the Mayor,” which premiered three years ago. The two got their show on the air in a way “which never works,” says Heidecker. “We thrust our DVDs into the hands of one of the creators at an Adult Swim party. People at Adult Swim started circulating it until it got to the head guy and he just loved it.”
“Tom Goes to the Mayor,” which ran for two years and became something of a cult hit (the entire series has since been released on DVD), went on to have comedy heavy-weights like Bob Odenkirk, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Ian Black, David Cross and Sarah Silverman as guest stars. When asked who they’d love to collaborate with on “Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job!” or any future projects, Heidecker and Wareheim agreed on Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne and off-kilter director David Lynch.