Ty Watches "Nathan for You" Season 4 Premier
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Last night was the season 4 premiere of the wonderful "Nathan For You". This show is the perfect blend of humor, humility, weird ideas and some of the best deadpan comedy that I have ever witnessed. Nathan Fielder is a master of his craft. He is so good at what he does, and on "Nathan For You", he gets to show that ten fold.
I've been on board with this show from day one. I became a fan of Fielder's when I first saw him on "Jon Benjamin Has a Van", a one season long, hilariously underrated comedy on Comedy Central. He is the best. He has gone on to do many other things, most recently being in "Tour De Pharmacy" with one of the better roles, but "Nathan For You" is his baby and he takes great care of it. The show is based on his business ideas that help businesses that are on the down turn, or that have fallen on hard times. He claims that he went, "to a one of the best business schools in Canada, and got really good grades" during the intro. They even show his grades, and he has a few A's, some B's and one C. He got average grades, which makes the premise of the show even better. Some of his stuff from the first couple of seasons have made national news. He did Dumb Starbucks. He was the one that made it look like a pig was saving another animal from drowning in a lake. He convinced a realtor to become the "Ghost Realtor", who would guarantee that there were no ghosts in the houses she was selling. He created Summit Ice. This is the clothing apparel company that gives all of its proceeds to Holocaust awareness. He had someone ghost write a self help book, which I bought and read, called "The Movement". He's done a lot of crazy, but also sometimes very good stuff for people. He knows that there is comedy in what he is doing, but the people he goes to help are not aware. They are looking for legitimate help, and he wants to provide them with it. And while he knows that the show is comedic in nature, he does it all in a good nature.
Now, before I get hammered for calling last name a premiere, I'm fully aware that last Thursday they did a celebration of sorts and revisited some of his past customers and where they are now. But, for all intents and purposes, last night was the season 4 premiere, and it was just as wonderful as every other episode. In this episode, Fielder goes to a diner in LA that isn't the hopping place that it once used to be. The diner used to be pulling in money and customers left and right. But now, while still having a solid customer base, they weren't doing as great as they once did. Fielder arrived at the diner and met with the owner. First off, the owner kept telling Fielder that he was trying to get on "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives", and Fielder had to keep reminding him that his show wasn't Guy Fieri's show. It was hilarious. The guy kept bringing it up, and every time, Fielder had to shut it down, and he did it in the only way he could, with pure deadpan comedy.
After the guy got over his Guy Fieri stuff, he finally let Fielder tell him his plan. Fielder let the man know that he always saw an uptick in business when a celebrity would leave a big tip. This is true. When famous people leave a crazy tip, it is shown all over the news. The problem Fielder found was that no real celebrities wanted to do this for his show. He found another route though, and he auditioned some celebrity impersonators. It was hilariously sad to watch these people try and get this meaningless job. The Ace Venture/Jim Carrey impersonator was equal parts hilarious and sad. Fielder showed the tapes to the owner, and he picked a guy that was a Kramer impersonator. This led to a whole new set of problems. First, the racist stuff. Enough time had passed that most people brush that off now. But, he needed someone with the name Michael Richards to give him their credit card info, and this was met with all no's, obviously. Next, he found a guy that was willing to legally change his name. This scene was great because of the negotiation between the 2. With the name change came new problems though. They needed a 4 week period where the name change was announced in a publication. So, Fielder hired back the guy that ghost wrote "The Movement", from last season, to be the head editor of a newspaper he called "The Diarrhea Times". This was all perfect Nathan Fielder and "Nathan For You" stuff.
Once the 4 weeks passed and the name change was set, Fielder had the whole crew of the restaurant, and his Kramer impersonator ready to do the deed. Before I continue, please watch the Kramer guy try and figure out how to be Michael Richards and not Kramer. It is gold. Anyway, the Kramer impersonator does all the things Fielder had him do, the staff reacted as they were supposed to, and sure enough, the story made local news. It was on a local LA news station the next day. Fielder, to hammer home his point, had this story be the headlining story on the last issue of "The Diarrhea Times". It was tremendous.
I am so happy that this show is back. It is one of my favorite things on TV right now, and probably ever. Nathan Fielder is so funny and this show is so perfect for him. I'm so excited to see where he takes this season. I have heard that the season finale is going to be 2 hours long! I can't wait. It was a long 2 years to wait for the new season of "Nathan For You", but I'm so happy it is back and I am so happy that it will be in my life for the next couple of months. This show is perfect.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is trying to figure out who is best to help a struggling business. Should you go with Jon Taffer or Nathan Fielder? Either way, the audience will always win.
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