Cringe at its Finest: The Brilliance of NATHAN FOR YOU
With the recent announcement of Nathan Fielder's new show The Rehearsal premiering on HBOMax next month (July 15th, 2022), I felt compelled to revisit the series that originally put him on the map: Comedy Central's Nathan For You.
For those of you who aren't familiar, Nathan For You was modeled to be a bit similar to any kind of show where an expert comes to a place of business to try to help the owner be able to find success.
Think Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares or Jon Taffer's Bar Rescue.
Here, Nathan Fielder presents himself as a Canadian Business School grad "with very good grades" who will come to your business and help you succeed.
The catch is that he isn't legit. In fact, in order to help make you succeed, he will suggest an outlandish marketing ploy and then we watch it unfold in all of its cringeworthy glory.
Nathan Fielder comes from the same mold of comedian as Sacha Baron Cohen...and it comes as no surprise that Nathan Fielder was put on staff for Sacha Baron Cohen's Showtime series Who is America?
Fielder doesn't try to attempt to really do characters like Cohen does, but instead, his character is a very awkward version of himself.
As a television personality, Fielder is a fascinating figure. He is the image of what one might call a "nerd"...and it even becomes a point of contention when one of his frequent guests, a PI named Brian, repeatedly calls him a nerd.
However, it isn't the fact that he is a geeky type that is so fascinating. The fact that he not only truly owns it, but he also has no real shame is where I find a certain sense of empowerment.
Fielder seems to intentionally put himself into very awkward situations and doesn't care how he comes across. His confidence (under such an awkward demeanor) makes for such a hilarious and brilliant dichotomy.
First, let's go over some examples so you can get a taste of what his show is like if you aren't familiar.
In this clip, Fielder talks about the difficulty of meeting women, and he puts himself in such a strange scenario in hopes of trying to get women to notice him.
The idea of trying to pose as a worker pawning off smoothies when the actual business comes out and tries to force him away is hilarious...but it only becomes more hilarious when he creates a fake reality show a la The Bachelor in hopes to find love.
In one special episode, he puts himself at the mercy of a robot that only has one mission: to pants him on television and in front of a group of young children. The catch? He willingly lets it be known that if he fails, he knows he would be at risk of exposing these children and he would get arrested.
A clip of that episode is below:
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He is willing to do whatever it takes to milk the awkward atmosphere and on top of that, he is willing to take the situation wherever it leads.
In one episode, he goes to help out an LA gas station that is having trouble competing with bigger name chains. Fielder suggests that he should charge significantly less for gas and offer a rebate. The owner understandably balks, but Fielder says in order to claim it, they will have to go to the top of a mountain that is only accessible by hiking.
He ends up getting several people actually willing to commute to the top of the mountain and even after some leave, a couple remain behind, and they end up camping overnight.
Fielder wasn't expecting this...but he concocted the plan and he had to go along with it.
Some of Nathan's bits even went above and beyond what he could've possibly imagined.
-In order to help a petting zoo, he staged a video in which a pig saves a goat from drowning in a pond.
The video went viral and was featured on many news programs as a puff piece.
Even more insane, he invoked parody law by opening a coffee shop named Dumb Starbucks by using all of their logos and designs simply by adding "dumb" in front of it.
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In the third season, he decides he wants to try to help out someone who feels is down on their luck, so he creates an elaborate plan where he chooses a guy, puts them in a remote trailer in the middle of the desert, assumes their identity, finds them a girlfriend, and stages a heroic act in their name and likeness...only to then give complete credit to the guy after the fact.
This episode is also interesting in that it plays into Nathan's (as a character) own insecurities. He comments how he feels so awkward in life, but when he poses as this other guy, his confidence and his wit are off the charts.
Two other specific segments I want to address are one that I consider my personal favorite and one other that might be the most famous due to the acclaim it got for its bittersweet nature.
In season 2, Nathan goes to help Sue Stanford, a realtor who is not having as much luck selling her properties. You can watch the bulk of her segment below:
Fielder's idea is that she needs to have a psychic on hand to confirm if any of her homes have demonic entities and if they do, she should ensure her clients that the homes will undergo an exorcism.
This leads to one such home having not just a demonic entity, but an incubus, which is an entity that will rape and possess you until your own death.
Sue claims she experienced something like this while traveling in Europe, and you can tell Nathan is doing his best to hide the fact that this may go somewhere more intriguing than he expected.
The other bit I wanted to discuss is the 90-minute episode that was called Finding Frances. One of the quirkier characters to cross paths with Nathan was an actor named Bill Heath, who claimed to earn a living as an impersonator...but not of anyone you'd expect. Heath is an impersonator of Bill Gates...and not really a good one at that.
Heath eventually reveals that he has a long-lost love from high school that he desperately wants to find and with Nathan's help, they go on a vast search which takes on a rather serious and bittersweet tone at times.
I would say seek this one out to watch, because the first time I saw it, it was a pleasant surprise and became a journey that I didn't realize I would be that invested in.
So yes, Nathan for You is a very eclectic journey to go on.
I actually think that aside from the obvious hilarious segments that never get old however many times I have viewed them (at least a few by this point), the main aspect that impresses me at how well this show nails "the cringe factor".
People talk about The Office as being a show that really nails the cringe and, don't get me wrong, it has those moments, but Nathan for You might be the best example of a show that manages to make me laugh while also make me literally turn my head away from the screen because I can't bear how awkward it is.
And this happens even after multiple viewings when I do tend to recall what comes next.
If you have Hulu, I recommend checking this one out if you haven't already. There are only 31 episodes and one sort of recap/revisit special that is also worth your time.
Nathan Fielder, as I mentioned, has a new show coming out called The Rehearsal on HBOMax and I am very intrigued as to what it is going to be like.
He also has a project that was announced in which he will be playing opposite Emma Stone in a dysfunctional marriage, and he is also a lead producer on the truly delightful HBO Docu-Comedy series How To...with John Wilson.
I have to give props to this guy. He is one of the great comedic minds working today.
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