Photo courtesy of YouTube.
Five minutes into an episode of Nathan For You, host Nathan Fielder already has hired a bodybuilder of questionable merit to be the face of a workout campaign that’s really a ploy to get people to do free labor. He has made the bodybuilder sign a contract that says that in the event of the bodybuilder’s death, Fielder has the rights to his DNA (for cloning purposes, naturally). Fielder also has hired a ghostwriter, whose merit also can only be described as “questionable,” to pen the workout guidebook being published under the bodybuilder’s name. You might think all of this can’t get any more absurd, but I assure you, it does.
Fielder, a Canadian comedian, premiered his docu-reality comedy series Nathan For You in 2013. The show is in its third season and exists quietly on Comedy Central as one of TV’s best, most surprising, hilarious and fascinating programs.
The premise of the series revolves around Fielder being a business and marketing professional who graduated from a Canadian college with “really good grades” and wants to help small businesses get back on their feet with extreme and often outrageous business proposals. Some include attaching giant balloons to an overweight person so he is light enough to ride a horse, creating a poop-flavored frozen yogurt and offering a gas station rebate that is near impossible to claim.
On the show, Fielder opts to play a characterized version of himself. Nathan “for you” is awkward, insecure, and prone to long speech pauses and blank stares, a divergence from the real-life Nathan. The foggy dichotomy between character and reality is reminiscent of the way Stephen Colbert played the laughably right-wing Colbert on The Colbert Report.
In an interview with the A.V. Club, Fielder discussed his character on the show and how he formed it.
“I think I’m taking a lot of vulnerabilities and insecurities that I had when I was younger, and I’m exaggerating them for the sake of comedy,” he said.
Fielder’s character is a crucial necessity to the show. Through calculated blundering mannerisms and speech, Fielder is able to bring out a side of the business owners and others on the show that is as captivating as it is hilarious.
Nathan For You is able to showcase people acting in a way truly reminiscent of reality. By playing a character full of oddities, Fielder forces the people on the show to break down any facade they might have been putting up as a result of appearing on TV. What is left is people acting in realistic and often surprising ways. Some wholeheartedly agree with Fielder’s insane business proposals, while others remain solidly skeptical throughout an episode’s entirety.
What Fielder has created is unlike anything else on television. It’s a comedy in which the true humor lies not in jokes or visual gags but in the long pauses and forced laughter of everyday conversation. The stunts Fielder pulls while marketing these businesses are funny enough in themselves, but the truly hilarious parts of the show exist in the way people act in these situations. The viewers feel in on the joke in the most contemplative way, laughing at the insane situations that others are put in while being able to consider what they would do if faced with Fielder’s quiet insanity.
Nathan For You is a reality show that gives viewers a break from reality television. It might seem strange, but once you accept it for all of its nuances and embrace Fielder’s awkward absurdity, you won’t be able to stop watching.
