The Excellent and Uncomfortable Humor of "Nathan for You"

We're saving this one for Nathan

Let's all take a minute to soak in the genius that is Comedy Central's "Nathan For You".

The show is in its third season now and it just gets better and better. The first season was a very nice surprise. He put out the basis of the show. He's a business school grad and he wants to help small businesses grow. This is all played for laughs because, his ideas are insane. The two notable ideas from season one were, the poop flavored frozen yogurt and the pig saving another animal from drowning in a lake. The latter idea became a viral sensation. People thought this was a real event and it even made it on national news. To watch Nathan Fielder and his team put this all together was hilarious. I love that it was blown this much out of proportion.

In the poop flavored frozen yogurt episode, I believe it was the series premiere, he convinced a small frozen yogurt place that the only way they could compete with the heavy hitters in town was to have "unique" flavors. He convinced this store owner that poop flavored yogurt would not only drive customers to his store, but it would put this guy on the map. This, of course, didn't work out and the guy nixed the idea after one day. Very, very funny. Season two brought us the infamous Dumb Starbucks. This was genius on so many levels. He used an iconic logo, bringing in tons of customers, and all he had to do was put the word dumb in front of Starbucks. This was, much like the pig story, nationwide news. Everybody talked about this. It was on every news network from MSNBC to my hometown, Saint Louis', local news. Everyone knew of this prank. He also had a running gag throughout all of season two that was great. He kept asking random people how he could be more approachable and cool. These people gave him what they thought was good advice. It was terrible and Fielder did everything they said. He dyed his hair jet black, he wore very skinny jeans and deep, deep V neck shirts. He looked like a total douche. When he met new people and they commented on how bad he looked, he'd confront the people that gave him the advice, and their whole tone changed. They'd claim that they didn't tell him to wear such skinny jeans, or the necks were too deep in his shirts. But, if you go back and watch, he did everything, exactly as these folks told him. Once again, very funny.

So far, we are two episodes into season three, and it's just as good as the first two, if not better. The first episode has Fielder helping an electronics store owner who's losing customers to Best Buy. Fielders theory, Best Buy takes competitors coupons and matches them, so Fielder tells the store owner to have a big store wide sale on TV's, selling them for 1 dollar. There's a whole plethora of hoops to get through to get the cheap TV, but the whole idea was to buy out all the TV's at Best Buy for a dollar using this competitors coupon. Best Buy won't match because this is absurd, but Fielder is so determined, he threatens to take Best Buy to court. He quickly finds out that he can only win if the owner of the small electronics store is determined clinically insane. He takes this man to a psychiatrist, tells the, therapist, confidentially, that his friend is insane, and she agrees. But, they again quickly realize that they won't be able to beat Best Buy, they're too big and powerful. I know this all sounds nuts, but it's so funny and really awkward. It's great TV. Last nights episode had a couple of different ideas. One was a ranch that wouldn't allow anyone over 220lbs to ride a horse. Fielder gets the idea to attach helium balloons to bigger people, thus causing them to feel lighter and get these people horse rides. Good idea, but too pricy and too ridiculous. Nathan even scolds two on lookers for laughing at the gentleman that has three huge helium balloons attached to him while riding a horse. In the second part of the episode, he explains that a company called Tiaga, a jacket maker and a brand he loves, is in bed with a holocaust denier. This upsets him and he comes up with his own line of soft shell jackets with a holocaust education attached. When he pitches this to a store, they let him do a trial run, all done up with holocaust literature, pictures of holocaust victims and even an oven with a fake skeleton in it. Needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable, wrong and nixed by the owner immediately. All the awkwardness from Fielder, the store owner and even a rabbi was uncomfortable in every possible way, but also extremely hilarious. His final idea in the episode was setting up a "man zone" in a women's clothing store. As he puts it, "a place for bros to hang while the lady shops". His first hang out session doesn't work so well, and Fielder decides that he needs to talk about sex to get the guys to hang out longer. The stuff these men say, on camera, is appalling and hilarious. Fielder delivers the best line of the night. When the guys are first hanging out, he leans back in his chair, trying to be cool, and says, "all I need when hanging with my bros is a mother effin beer". Those exact words. Fielders awkwardness makes this great on so many levels. I love this show. It's fantastic and awkward and goofy and funny. Nathan Fielder is a true comedy genius and this show is a must watch.

I'm so excited for the rest of the season and I hope there's many, many more to come.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He learned all about business from the "Buddy Bands" episode of "Saved by the Bell". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.