TIM HEIDECKER Talks Contrarian Comedy, Sincerity, and Playing the Long Game

Summary

The Adam Friedland Show Episode: TIM HEIDECKER Talks Contrarian Comedy, Sincerity, and Playing the Long Game
Date: May 23, 2026

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Episode Overview

Adam Friedland welcomes legendary comedian, director, and filmmaker Tim Heidecker to discuss his career, the evolution and misinterpretation of contrarian comedy, the challenges of sincerity after a career built on irony, and the concept of "playing the long game" in comedy and creative work. Their conversation weaves through personal anecdotes, comedy philosophy, cultural criticism, and the changing comedic landscape, interspersed with behind-the-scenes stories and playful banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tim Heidecker’s Background & Early Influences

• Childhood & Comedy Beginnings
  • Tim grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania (17:41).
  • Early comedic influences: Abbott & Costello, Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Weird Al, SNL, Kids in the Hall, Monty Python, Spinal Tap (18:53).
  • Discussion of access to comedy pre-internet and the impact of the monoculture era.
  • Tim hosted a closed-circuit TV morning show in high school, foreshadowing his future in media (28:13).
  • College experiences at Temple University and the cultural awakening from a more diverse environment (28:40).

2. Comedy, Influence, and the Shifting Mainstream

• Mainstream Success of “Weird Comedy”

  • Exploration of how figures like Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman achieved massive mainstream success with offbeat acts in the 1970s and 80s (19:25, 20:26).
  • Discussion about Lorne Michaels’ role in elevating postmodern comedy to a wide audience (20:36).

• Comedy Replication & Influence

  • Adam and Tim joke about people emulating Tim and Eric's style, and the way the "aesthetic" bled into commercial language and zeitgeist (31:02).
  • Tim credits his collaborators and emphasizes the role of editing in Tim & Eric’s comedic signature (32:26).
  • Frustration with others copying specific bits, especially a “jorts” sketch by Jimmy Fallon & Will Ferrell (35:29).
    • “They did something very, very similar to our sort of kids break thing...” (35:58)

3. Contrarian Comedy, Sincerity, and Misreadings

• Misunderstandings of Intent

  • Tim reflects on playing characters with his own name, leading to real confusion about his beliefs and persona (37:10).
  • The challenge of doing layered, "obfuscating" comedy in an era where nuance is often flattened or misunderstood.
    • “So I suppose there are people that think I’m a terrible leather jacket, right wing type, stand up comedian because I do a lot of that stuff online.” (37:20)
  • Comparison to Andy Kaufman and speculation on whether today’s audience could handle that kind of mainstream confusion (37:38).

• Personal Sincerity vs. Irony

  • Tim opens up about transitioning to making "sincere" music and the vulnerability involved (55:37).
    • “There’s nowhere to hide… unless, you know, music’s just better than comedy.” (58:04)
  • The difficulty—and freedom—of aging out of irony as life circumstances change (57:03).

• Navigating Criticism and Social Media

  • Both discuss audience reactions to comedy and politics, including the classic "stick to comedy" retort (08:04).
    • “And people get very upset and say, you should be. You should stick to comedy. That’s… I get that every time.” (08:16)
  • Adam’s strategy: Ignore the noise unless friends care (60:37).

4. The Long Game in Comedy & Creative Projects

• Playing the Long Game

  • Tim talks about patience, legacy, and “holding onto the snowball” (36:25).
    • “You just wait and you hit ‘em with it when they least expect…”
  • The evolving Tim & Eric relationship—adapting partnerships as creative focus and life change (74:50).
    • “When I have a creative partner, you get absorbed into the identity of the partnership... then I’m like, well, who am I?” (74:32)
  • Teases that ongoing pranks, elaborate long-cons, and new forms are possible for the future (“this right here is part of it” - 76:45).

• On Cinema

  • Origin story of working with Gregg Turkington (Neil Hamburger) (51:24).
  • The joy and self-sufficiency of independently producing “On Cinema” for the High Network (54:00).
    • “I don’t see a way to stop. Like, we just enjoy it…” (54:03)
  • Structure of their personas: Tim’s character is a self-absorbed narcissist, Gregg’s is a movie snob with bafflingly poor taste (53:10).

5. Observations on Comedy Industry & Culture

• Comedy’s Cycles and Critique

  • Tim’s perspective on the comedy industry: 90% “middle of the road crap,” with rare standouts (63:27).
    • “But then, like, you know, 10% of the time, Norm MacDonald would come up there… and you’d be like, this is crazy.”
  • Reflections on hackiness, comedy for the masses, and the line between “popular” and “great” (64:49).
  • Criticism of right-wing comics entering the same shallow territory as SNL’s political sketches (65:38).

• Casting Outsiders & Whack-Pack Ethics

  • Influence of Howard Stern's eclectic “whack pack” on the casting of Tim & Eric’s outsider characters (66:04).
    • “That was his domain. And it felt like we got… people came into our world kind of organically.” (66:17)
  • Self-awareness about the ethics of platforming “weirdos” and evolving perspectives on exploiting vs. celebrating eccentricity (69:35).

6. Personal Anecdotes & Memorable Interactions

• Meeting Icons & Surreal Moments

  • Tim describes seeing Bob Odenkirk in “Glengarry Glen Ross” and sharing the moment with Henry Winkler (the Fonz) (23:21, 24:44).
    • “He wanted to know about me. And we talked for a while…” (25:28)
  • Recalls working with Tommy Wiseau, and the quantum problem of recreating unintentional genius (67:22, 68:00).

• Shared Pop-Cultural Nostalgia

  • Jokes about wedding invitations, earring regrets, network pressure, and the awkwardness of “making it” in show business.
  • Banter about physical fitness, aging, and embracing life changes (07:03).
    • “I do go to the gym and I lift weights... I’m almost 50 and they say you gotta do that for longevity…”

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Notable Quotes

• On Contrarian/Obfuscating Comedy:

  • “So I suppose there are people that think I’m a terrible leather jacket, right wing type, stand up comedian because I do a lot of that stuff online.” — Tim Heidecker (37:20)

• On Sincerity and Artistic Vulnerability:

  • “There’s nowhere to hide... unless, you know, music’s just better than comedy.” — Tim Heidecker (58:04)
  • "Can you do both? Can you go back and forth whenever you want? And maybe some people have a hard time with that..." — Tim Heidecker (58:15)

• On Comedy's Repetition and Legacy:

  • “You could. You figure out what's working, and then it's the balance of how much do I continue to play into what's working versus, like, stretching and trying new things.” — Tim Heidecker (59:48)
  • "I don't see a way to stop [On Cinema]. Like, we just enjoy it..." — Tim Heidecker (54:03)

• On Industry Trends:

  • “I think my opinion is there... was not that many outlets. So people were watching... everybody’s kind of watching the same thing.” — Tim Heidecker (19:52)
  • “Most things are just either popular or great. Maybe that's one way of thinking about it.” — Tim Heidecker (64:49)

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Memorable Moments & Humor

• Tim and Adam riff on superficial Hollywood trends, ring-wearing, and Amazon fashion (06:06).
• Playful roasting of Jeff Bezos and his "Miami" transformation (06:44).
• Sarcastic SNL audition stories; "Between me and Chris Kattan" (14:46).
• Deep-dive into the legend of the “Master of Disguise turtle suit on 9/11” (16:41).
• Recurring callbacks to Sarah Sherman, Lauren Boebert, and insider comedy gossip (13:35, 14:18).
• Loving, faux-earnest riff on talking to Adam's dad, Max (61:05).

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Important Timestamps

• 02:50 – Tim Heidecker introduced; memories of their first meeting
• 17:41 – Tim’s early life and first comedic inspirations
• 19:25 – Mainstreaming of contrarian/weird comedy
• 32:02 – On Tim & Eric’s influence and aesthetic in commercials
• 37:10 – Misreading of Tim’s comedy and persona
• 51:24 – Working with Gregg Turkington (On Cinema)
• 54:00 – The joy and independence of self-producing “On Cinema”
• 55:37 – Transitioning from ironic to sincere music and the vulnerability involved
• 63:24 – Adam and Tim critique the current state of stand-up and podcast comedy
• 65:38 – Political comedy’s new pitfalls
• 66:04 – Influence of Howard Stern's whack pack, outsider casting ethics
• 67:22 – Collaborating with Tommy Wiseau

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Conclusion

This episode captures the spirit of two comedians wrestling with the responsibilities and joys of pushing boundaries—whether through irony, sincerity, or meta-pranks. Tim Heidecker is candid about his evolution, the risks of being misunderstood, the joy in collaborative work, and the thrill of “playing the long game,” all while maintaining the offbeat, self-aware humor he’s known for. Whether reflecting on culture’s capacity for weirdness, the ethics of casting outsiders, or one’s relationship to their creative legacy, Tim and Adam model the delicate balance between not taking yourself too seriously and remaining sincere—both on and off stage.

Transcript

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[Adam Friedland]

Did you ever consider being a rings guy when you moved to Hollywood?

[Tim Heidecker]

Get a bunch of rings and stuff? No, no, I don't have. Do you have any tattoos?

[Adam Friedland]

No.

[Tim Heidecker]

Do you have any piercings?

[Adam Friedland]

I had an earring.

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, you did?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, but I took it out one one night.

[Tim Heidecker]

I could see a little the remnants of it.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Very embarrass.

[Adam Friedland]

Ladies and gentlemen, this next guest is a legendary comedian, director, filmmaker. He's the host of On Cinema and Office Hours. Please welcome Tim Heidecker, everyone. Hey, look at you. Hey.

[Tim Heidecker]

The five guys it's the five guys from the burger place.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it's my friends. Yeah. Guys, we're very. We're very excited to have you here.

[Tim Heidecker]

Your clapper guy said as he passed me, he says, good luck.

[Adam Friedland]

He said that?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. I thought that's.

[Adam Friedland]

He's an intern. What is he saying talking like that?

[Tim Heidecker]

Good luck.

[Adam Friedland]

He just got out of New York University, this kid. He's got a big future ahead of him.

[Tim Heidecker]

Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

He's a good guy.

[Tim Heidecker]

Stay on his good side.

[Adam Friedland]

I feel like I impart too much wisdom since Zach started and it's feels. I hope it feels genuine to him.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, good luck.

[Adam Friedland]

I guess so. Yeah. Tim, I told you this on the phone, but 12 years ago you were in D.C. I was like nauseously nervous and you ended up coming back to our me and my ex girlfriend's apartment. We hung out after the comedy Bang

[Tim Heidecker]

Bang live show with James Adomian.

[Adam Friedland]

With James Adomian who produced, performed. I had like a DIY venue in D.C. so he performed there before.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, you told me that. I don't remember it, but it was

[Adam Friedland]

a. I don't know. I was like, I've only acted like that twice around people. And it was you and Dice. I was like fumbling over my words when I met him. I was like, it's him.

[Tim Heidecker]

It was an odd move for me to go to. This would have been 12 years ago to go to an apartment.

[Adam Friedland]

I was 14 years old at the time.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. See, we smoke crack. I bought you guys beer. Yeah. You stopped by the 7 11.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And whip it. Yeah, yeah. No, I was living with my ex girlfriend who's at that time receiving DJing lessons from my best friend and they are married.

[Tim Heidecker]

Cool.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, pretty good. They fell in love behind the ones and twos.

[Tim Heidecker]

So you grew up watching. You were a fan of what I was doing by fan.

[Adam Friedland]

I was a big fan. And like, you know, I wasn't like a celebrity yet, so I didn't know how to be around.

[Tim Heidecker]

And how was I? Was I decent with you?

[Adam Friedland]

Down to earth. You did take a cigarette out of my mouth and said that it's for trashy people.

[Tim Heidecker]

Did not really. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You're like, promise me you won't ever smoke again.

[Tim Heidecker]

That's so funny.

[Adam Friedland]

I think I said, I promised. I promised.

[Tim Heidecker]

I was a real zealot with that back because I just quit.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

I was like. I was a real staunch anti cigarette guy.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Now I sneak one every once in a while. Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You're like a reformed.

[Tim Heidecker]

I'm at the center at the. At the wedding or whatever. I'll have one.

[Adam Friedland]

Whose wedding?

[Tim Heidecker]

Anybody's. I go to so many weddings. I do comedy and magic at weddings

[Adam Friedland]

just to rip six. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

A lot of magic at weddings.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I just found out that like our Indian friend from college, I wasn't close enough to get the invite, but you get to wear like the aurang. It's like the one time you're allowed to culturally appropriate if you're the white guy at your Indian friend's wedding.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, I'm culturally appropriating my own culture today, but it's from a different era.

[Adam Friedland]

What is that?

[Tim Heidecker]

It's all Amazon.

[Adam Friedland]

Amazon, really?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I Blake Griffin on the show and he's. He's doing the mba like team, like studio team for Amazon. And I asked him if he thought that the workers were paid enough at the.

[Tim Heidecker]

At the factories and he's doing. Oh, well, that's. I mean. Yeah, please call it out when you can. Yeah. Let's be honest about our hypocrisies.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know. Bezos is the one I respect. The one billionaire I respect. I know people lump him in with the rest, but I just like the fact that he's still a Miami guy.

[Tim Heidecker]

He's a good looking guy.

[Adam Friedland]

He just looks insane.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

His girlfriend is so Miami.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. Yeah. He's real trash.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, all due respect.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know.

[Tim Heidecker]

I wonder how much fight tight. I should say.

[Adam Friedland]

His body is tight. He's kind of got a roguies thing. But actually like kind of more appropriate for the size.

[Tim Heidecker]

I try to. I mean, should I get big and like. Yeah, big and muscly.

[Adam Friedland]

You want to start going on steroids with me?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, I start. I go to. I do go to the gym and I lift weights and stuff because they say when you get. I'm almost 50 and they say you got to do that for long. Longevity and everything. Yeah, absolutely. No issues. Impact. Like I don't see any. I don't. I'm still.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm seeing it right now.

[Tim Heidecker]

Lumpy and fat.

[Adam Friedland]

You look phenomenal.

[Tim Heidecker]

I look sick.

[Adam Friedland]

You. You and Eric.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't talk about the way I look, by the way.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, network said they want you to lose £200 before we air this.

[Tim Heidecker]

Who did?

[Adam Friedland]

The network. Oh, yeah, the same. The most odd, actually. People think right now that I'm. I'm getting paid by the dnc. Like they think that I'm the one they chose.

[Tim Heidecker]

You're a shilling.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, I haven't gotten A call yet.

[Tim Heidecker]

I wish you would stick to comedy, too, because I would. Funny boy.

[Adam Friedland]

No, I want money at this point. I just want money at this point.

[Tim Heidecker]

Do you. Well, do you know you're not on the social. On social media?

[Adam Friedland]

I have it. Yeah. But I try not to. I've been looking. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

I do post a lot about all sorts of stuff. And when I do, obviously, when I do post about politics, which I'm just a guy who has opinions about the world I live in.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

And people get very upset and say, you should be. You should stick to comedy. That's. I get that every. Every time. And I'm wondering if that's now just a.

[Adam Friedland]

Shut up and dribble. They're saying, yeah, yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

If that's now just like an AI. A bot. Is that a bot? Can we figure out if there are bots? Are those people out there who really feel that way?

[Adam Friedland]

No, those are the critics. Yeah. Those are the guys at the Times. Those are like. Those are smart guys that are doing that. I like his fake talk show laugh for that shit joke that I just made.

[Tim Heidecker]

Should I punch it up for you?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Tim Heidecker]

Let's do another take of my laugh.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Tim Heidecker]

Just keep it clean.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, those guys are probably college professors. Yeah. I do wonder that, though. Cause, like, I just did News Nation with Chris.

[Tim Heidecker]

Corey sent me the clip. I've never seen anybody.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

So quickly send somebody else a clip of their own talk show.

[Adam Friedland]

It was the next day. It was the next day. We were talking about it when I was there. I sent you the picture of me and Geraldo. Yeah, yeah. You sent me a picture of you and Odin crying. I know.

[Tim Heidecker]

We're both trying to impress each other. Calm down.

[Adam Friedland]

You sent me a picture of.

[Tim Heidecker]

Like I said, we have 10 minutes.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, no, no, no. Lock the door, please.

[Tim Heidecker]

I'm just start. I'm just gonna play to my five guys now.

[Adam Friedland]

Lock the gates. Well, they're sucking up to you. And they're like. They have no respect for me. Caleb said, put on my suit in an aggressive way.

[Tim Heidecker]

Can we just step back a second? Talk about my outfit? Because I feel like I started telling you, and then we went on Amazon and we went all over the place.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Let's talk more about you. It's just an interview.

[Tim Heidecker]

I lost it with you anyway.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Who are you wearing?

[Tim Heidecker]

I'm here in New York for this premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, and I get very uptight about what to wear to these things and all the. Everybody, look. Everybody. I don't look I don't. I have issues with, like, when I try to dress up, I look stupid, in my opinion.

[Adam Friedland]

But it's a power move to look

[Tim Heidecker]

crap when you try to look good. Yeah. That's the other thing. I could go in, like, a T shirt. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And people are like, that guy's a wild card.

[Tim Heidecker]

That guy's a real maniac. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Baseball, Zuckerberg style.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. Yeah. Big, big white shirt. Yeah. Fake muscle, foxy white shirt. But then. So I looked on the Internet and looked at Tribeca Film. I just typed in Tribeca Film Festival, you know, images, and one of the first ones that came up was this Jerry Lewis picture from, like, five, ten, like, two minutes before he died. Two minutes before he died?

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Tim Heidecker]

Him with Robert De Niro. They must have been doing, like, a King of Comedy retrospective or something. And this was what he was wearing, essentially. Really? And so I had my friend track it down and get me. I mean, I have this girl that does costumes for us, and so I'm gonna wear this on the red carpet. So this is my little.

[Adam Friedland]

Are you gonna meet Bob? Bobby D, Bobby Dee.

[Tim Heidecker]

Bob Dylan.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, those are the two best, best ones, I guess.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know. I don't know how that works. I've done that. I've been to the Tribeca Film Festival before, and he's never. He's never. I've never met him before, so I doubt him.

[Adam Friedland]

What would you say? Let's practice your first. Your opening line. Okay.

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Oh, there he is.

[Adam Friedland]

Everyone does that to him all the time. Everyone does that to him all the time.

[Tim Heidecker]

I would say, Mr. Dinero, pleasure to meet you. Pass out.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, that's good.

[Tim Heidecker]

Because he's, you know, what a guy, what an actor.

[Adam Friedland]

I've got nipples, too. Greg, can you milk? Yeah, that'd be good.

[Tim Heidecker]

He'd like that.

[Adam Friedland]

Meet the Fockers.

[Tim Heidecker]

Imagine the moment they said, we're gonna. We're doing this. Their last name is Focker. No. I don't care what the fucking studio says.

[Adam Friedland]

I watched Paris.

[Tim Heidecker]

Can't say Focker. It's F, O, C, K, R. Yes, we can.

[Adam Friedland]

His name is Gaylord Fauker. You can't make comedy anymore.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, that's just.

[Adam Friedland]

That's just that, you know, the freaking, you know, Democrats, I guess.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know.

[Adam Friedland]

They took it away. I think it's the Democrat. I think it's Pelosi.

[Tim Heidecker]

He's a little cringy when he gets into the Trump stuff. De Niro, I think. Yeah. I've also heard he's not like.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, yeah. He said, fuck Trump. The first. The first.

[Tim Heidecker]

He gets real. He's real.

[Adam Friedland]

He said, fuck Trump. And then there are all these videos of guys on Staten island, like, smashing, like, portraits that they had so mad about.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I had a lot of respect for

[Adam Friedland]

you when I lost it. And, you know, they have like, a.

[Tim Heidecker]

Those posters, airbrush paintings with Pacino, De Niro, Gandolfini.

[Adam Friedland]

If I could be on one of those, that'd be incredible. Going back to you.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. Let's get back to.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. So, like, what do you make of the common accusation that you and Eric just stole Sarah Sherman's whole act?

[Tim Heidecker]

I've never heard that one before.

[Adam Friedland]

I believe you were at the Laugh Factory. Joe Rogan brought Sarah Sherman up on stage.

[Tim Heidecker]

This was 2004.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, 2004. This was the day before Mencia. I think the Mencia one took all the headlines, but.

[Tim Heidecker]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

The Sarah Sherman video. And then her vagina exploded. You were like, that's a good idea. We should put this on adults.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. Eric and I were club comics. Yeah. And we were just doing kind of like, airline stuff and vegetarians are wimpy people. That was one of my big. You remember that bit I used to do? Vegetarians are wimpy people.

[Adam Friedland]

I remember Sarah Sherman doing that bit.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

No, no.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. What I'm saying is Sarah Sherman was doing weird cable access kind of things. She was 10, I think, at the time. Yeah. Youngest comic at the Comic Strip. But I love Sarah. We did. We produced some kind of. Some pilot for her before Lauren got his claws in her.

[Adam Friedland]

Lauren.

[Tim Heidecker]

That's right.

[Adam Friedland]

Lauren Boebert.

[Tim Heidecker]

Lauren Boebert. Yeah. I love pretending that he's a woman when I. When I talk to my friends about him, you know, like this Lauren running snl. She's got to go.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I want to fuck the shit out of Lauren. I'm sorry. I don't know why I went there. This guy's a father.

[Tim Heidecker]

I'm like, did you read for you audition for snl?

[Adam Friedland]

No. No.

[Tim Heidecker]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

But can I tell you something?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

It would have been so cool. I would have bombed. I would have gotten so nervous. I still, like, have a. It is still cool.

[Tim Heidecker]

Seems like the. The evidence to me. Seems like the bar can be low, though. Like, if you're auditioning and you just have it at the moment, you're just like, I'm the ketchup guy. And then you hear, is that what you did?

[Adam Friedland]

That's what you did.

[Tim Heidecker]

I got all the way up. And then, like, you had an audition for snl. It was between me and Catan.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Tim Heidecker]

I had the ketchup guy. I had the ketchup guy.

[Adam Friedland]

I just watched Corky and he want ketchup. I watched Corky Romano recently.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Phenomenal. Is it phenomenal?

[Tim Heidecker]

He broke his neck on snl. Do you know that? No, I didn't know Chris Kattan did. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

What happened? Everyone hates him from that era, right?

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know about that.

[Adam Friedland]

He's a coke liar. He's a cocaine liar.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know about that, but. And I don't know him, but I'll. I just. You can look it up. What is it they do? What does PBD always do? ChatGPT.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Look it up. What's your name again? Jonah. Jonah. Jonah. Look it up. Look it up. Chris Katenboka's neck. Look it up.

[Adam Friedland]

What did he do?

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know. He was doing Mango Pratfall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Died.

[Adam Friedland]

He's dead.

[Tim Heidecker]

He was killed.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, my God. I forgot how funny the other characters

[Tim Heidecker]

in that movie are, because it's like, Porky Romano.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. He has a brother whose whole character is that. He's illiterate. He doesn't know how to read. And the other one, his entire character is that he's gay, but he doesn't realize it. Oh.

[Tim Heidecker]

And it's like he's. These characters.

[Adam Friedland]

Those are. No, well, those are the. Yeah. Like, it's really just deep stuff, but incredible. But he was actually very kinetic and physical and like. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

My favorite.

[Adam Friedland]

But you called him a cocaine liar, right?

[Tim Heidecker]

I did not. You did.

[Adam Friedland]

I thought that's what he did, Right.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yes, yes. He claims he broke his neck during SNL sketch called MSNBC Investigates in May 2001. He stated that the injury almost paralyzed him and led to a struggle with drug addiction and career setbacks.

[Adam Friedland]

He did sniz. Because he broke his neck.

[Tim Heidecker]

This. Yeah, yeah. And career setbacks. This is famous. I'm sure. I mean, if you don't want to include this, because everyone knows this already, it's fine with it. But I'm sure everyone knows the story about Dana Carvey shooting Master of Disguise.

[Adam Friedland]

I think it's not true.

[Tim Heidecker]

On 911 and he's in that turtle costume.

[Adam Friedland]

I think it's not true. It is the best thing.

[Tim Heidecker]

It has to be true to be true.

[Adam Friedland]

It's like when my dad. My dad said, like, if the moon landing wasn't real, he's like, it just has to be real.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

It meant so much to me.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Him Being in the turtle suit.

[Tim Heidecker]

But it's debunked.

[Adam Friedland]

I think it has been debunked. It broke my fucking heart when I heard that. I just. Yeah. Doodle. Doodle. Yeah, that. Unreal. Taking a moment of silence in the doodle suit would. I mean, that had to have been. It has to be real. I mean, who would have made that up? Probably Chris 10. Coke liar.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, well. Or Mike Myers might have planted it, but. Because those guys were feuding. But really? Yeah. I mean, maybe it's one of those things where it's like. Well, we were shooting that day, but I was already. I hadn't gotten into comedy costume yet. You know, it could be one of those, like, sort of true, but not. Not as good as we want it to be.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. You're from Allentown, Pennsylvania?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You wanted to do comedy as a kid or no?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

What, like, who. What did you. What did you see when you were a kid that you like?

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, from the beginning, like Abner Costello. No, I'm not joking. If you wanted a real answer. It's hard to not joke around.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't have the Criterion Collection.

[Tim Heidecker]

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein's great movie is. Is a fun movie. It's good.

[Adam Friedland]

It is really funny. I actually just recently saw Chaplin for the first time because I was like, there's no way that's funny. And it's funny. He is really funny, actually.

[Tim Heidecker]

He's good at it. He's good at what he's doing.

[Adam Friedland]

It sounds like it's from the olden days and it shouldn't be funny.

[Tim Heidecker]

I watched recently, very recently, Sherlock Jr. Which is the. The Buster Keaton. A Buster Keaton movie. Yeah. And that's also, like, unbelievable. Not necessarily funny, but, like, he's doing stunts and, you know, elaborate jumping off of trains and stuff. Like Mission Impossible kind of stuff.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, the clock thing, right?

[Tim Heidecker]

That's not. That's Harold Lloyd, I think, anyways,

[Adam Friedland]

this

[Tim Heidecker]

is a repeat of just. I can go through, like, a million things, but definitely Weird Al Yankovic. Yankovic. Yankovic, Yankovic. Weird Al. Snl, Kids in the Hall, Monty Python, you know, in my high school days, Spinal Tap. Anything I can get my hands on. There wasn't that much. There was not. You know, I didn't have the Internet the way we do now, and so I was just. Whatever was. There was no, like, underground comedy that I was watching, you know?

[Adam Friedland]

Well, I was talking with Caleb before the show. It's, like, interesting that, like, Steve Martin was, like, selling out Madison Square Garden and like Andy Kaufman was like huge. Yeah, he was on. I mean, those things nowadays, I wonder if they could be mainstream nowadays. Like, what was it about, like that era where like something so left field could be like, so, I don't know, embraced in a mainstream sense.

[Tim Heidecker]

Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman are very similar. I think Steve Martin's way more palatable. Like he kind of did a lot of the same things, but did it a little broader and not in a bad way, just is what it is. But I think my opinion is there they. There was not that many outlets. So people were watching what everybody, everybody's kind of watching the same thing.

[Adam Friedland]

Right? But it's weird. They worked very hard.

[Tim Heidecker]

It is really weird.

[Adam Friedland]

Especially be the first guy to be. To be like doing weird shit like that because Kaufman is kind of like emulated so many times now. But it was kind of the first guy. Right?

[Tim Heidecker]

There were a few very like brazen, artistic minded producer types that pushed for that stuff. I gotta give credit to our friend Lorne Michaels. He was early, early adopter of Andy Carson. Yeah. I mean, say what you will, but it's true.

[Adam Friedland]

He was the first host at snl. Right?

[Tim Heidecker]

Andy Kaufman, was it? No, it was George Carlin, but he was on the first episode. I'm writing a book about the first, first year of the first episode of snl. I'm actually writing a movie about the first episode of snl. It all takes place that one night. But my other point was that they were baby boomers playing. They were the first generation to have grown up on watching television. And they were sort of the first guys that were making fun of television or making fun of entertainment, being postmodern about it. And that made sense to a lot of, you know, my parents generation. They understood how they grew up with the pretense of the phoniness of show business. And it hit right at the, at the peak of that. And there were a couple guys like Steve Martin, Andy Kaufman and Albert Brooks's talk show appearances. Have you seen those?

[Adam Friedland]

He's the second host of snl. Second episode.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, he was. He made films for snl.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, Albert was like incredible as a guy. I mean, he did like a norm thing too, right? It was like high concept.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yes. Very written. He did like the ventriloquist thing. Have you ever seen the ventriloquist?

[Adam Friedland]

Of course. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

He's the best. He's the best.

[Adam Friedland]

We just in the office watched the Gary Marshall scene in Lost in America to take a break.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, I could. I wish I'm not the kind of guy that. Like, I'm doing this lately. Like the Jordan Peterson thing where I close my eyes to try to remember

[Adam Friedland]

trans people don't exist. Yeah. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

But it is helping me these days. But I'm not the kind of guy that memorizes stuff. But I would memorize. I would like to have that scene just fully memorized. Yeah. And be able to just tell my children. Act it out.

[Adam Friedland]

It's kind of like one of the best, like, scenes in any movie.

[Tim Heidecker]

Like, the Desert Inn has heart. Right, the desert.

[Adam Friedland]

I was saying. I was saying that. I just hate that song.

[Tim Heidecker]

I do.

[Adam Friedland]

I always remember it's not a good song. He's like, I'll write a jingle for you.

[Tim Heidecker]

I can't give you money back. You're a nice guy. You've amused me. But he's unreal. It's the best.

[Adam Friedland]

He's unreal.

[Tim Heidecker]

Speaking of Garry Marshall, I mean, we should just acknowledge who I sat in front of last night at Penny Marshall. I at the Glengarry Glen Ross.

[Adam Friedland]

Who was that?

[Tim Heidecker]

Arthur Fonzarelli.

[Adam Friedland]

No shit.

[Tim Heidecker]

The Fonz.

[Adam Friedland]

Tiny, right? Like five foot one.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

I saw Scorsese once. And also just five foot one and just dressed so slick. And I was like, that's the coolest guy I've ever seen in my life.

[Tim Heidecker]

I felt very. Well, it's funny you mentioned the height, because we were fairly close. I saw Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway. All right. It's a big deal.

[Adam Friedland]

Check it out.

[Tim Heidecker]

Let's get applause. Maybe give it up. I saw the play.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

In a lot of ways.

[Adam Friedland]

And so Fonzie was one of my.

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, if we're talking about my background. The guy that we sent a videotape to was Bob. Bob Odenkirk. And Bob, to this day, is still someone very close to me. And, like, I'm just being honest with you. He's like. He was my mentor. He was almost like an uncle figure, a father figure to me. And still very close. And it was very moving to get to see him in this play. Like, he was so good and everything about it was so good. And I was there as his guest, which was quite an honor. But the theater was so. I had these wonderful seats fairly close but the stage itself was fairly low. And the seats were not. These were not stadium seats, I promise you.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm blocking the seats, so you're blocking Fawns.

[Tim Heidecker]

So I'm blocking the Fonz. But there's a guy in front of me who's bigger Head than me higher up. And so my view is blocked. And so I'm trying to find this, like, medium where I'm not.

[Adam Friedland]

Out of respect.

[Tim Heidecker]

Out of respect. Oh, hey, Fonzie. And he was, by the way, he was very nice.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you met Winkler?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, I did a movie with his son. I was in a movie with his son. Directed. So that was my. That was my in. I turned around, I said. And people were coming up to him and stuff. And I was trying to be respectful, but I said, I did a movie with Max. And he goes, I did this movie called Flower.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

He goes, I, of course you did.

[Tim Heidecker]

And then he was so sweet. And then we just. We got along real. He wanted to know about me. And we talked for a while and

[Adam Friedland]

you hung out all night.

[Tim Heidecker]

We went backstage.

[Adam Friedland]

You went back to your. To your DIY apartment.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't want people to say things about me. What, I'm this elitist and everything, but there are moments that you have in life where it's neat to be in this business of show.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

And, I mean, I grew up. I don't know about you. I'm watching the Fonz every week. No, this is my generation.

[Adam Friedland]

It's your generation. I was watching. I was watching the news. Wolf Blitz 3. I was watching. No, I was watching the O.J.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

trial.

[Tim Heidecker]

Iraq. Iraq getting bombed in 91.

[Adam Friedland]

I remember the O.J. trial as a kid. That was, like, one of the first things I remembered because my dad was, like, the only white man in America who was convinced he was innocent.

[Tim Heidecker]

Really?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I think he was projecting his own life onto the trial.

[Tim Heidecker]

Was your dad in? Your dad. You're from D.C. was your favorite guy?

[Adam Friedland]

No, no, I'm from Las Vegas, actually. I was born in LA and then we moved to Vegas.

[Tim Heidecker]

The Desert Inn has heart.

[Adam Friedland]

It's such a bad song. It's terrible.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, he's desperate. He's in his robe. He's not. The first idea is not gonna be the best idea in that situation.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it kind of works, actually, if that's the reading of it. I just always. It was always just like, stop that. You couldn't make up a better song. Albert Einstein.

[Tim Heidecker]

I like it. I don't have a problem with it. I'm not with you on that one.

[Adam Friedland]

I like. I mean, those movies are so good. Real life is so good.

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, this is like Lost. I'm say fairly early, maybe high school. But Lost in America was a movie that we'd want. My parents had great taste in comedy, so there's lots of Those movies on. And my cousin and I used to watch that Lost in America and the scene where he's the crossing guard and the kids are riding their bikes around him and calling him a brillo pad fathead. Yeah, yeah, we just would, we'd say brillo pad fathead all the time.

[Adam Friedland]

Just like that made its way into the lexicon.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Adam Friedland]

And you bullied a lot of kids growing up.

[Tim Heidecker]

Did I bully a lot of kids? Not that I recall.

[Adam Friedland]

Were you popular? Kid, Little respect.

[Tim Heidecker]

Let's get some WD40 on that door. I was at the gym this morning at the hotel and they have the peloton there. Yeah. And it was doing that.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you complain to the front desk?

[Tim Heidecker]

I thought about, I thought about saying not complaining but letting them know. Seem like no one is going to do anything about this. It's too squeaky. Yeah. And it's, it's a small room. It's just like even with my headphones on I just hear it. Mr.

[Adam Friedland]

It sounds like kind of a sex, sexual sex vibe.

[Tim Heidecker]

Mr. Was I popular in high school? Yeah, I had a morning, no joke. Had like a closed circuit TV morning show in high school.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, in my last year of high school. Two years of.

[Adam Friedland]

So you'd kind of been doing that thing.

[Tim Heidecker]

I know. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

We did like a wacky morning news show that was in everyone's classroom every morning.

[Adam Friedland]

And they let you do it?

[Tim Heidecker]

They did.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you get in trouble at all?

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't remember getting in trouble. We probably did or probably got told to not do things. I have a pretty bad memory about that stuff. But where I grew up in Allentown I went to Catholic school and not very diverse, I should say, not a lot of other types of people around in allentown in the 90s. And I went to Temple University in Philadelphia, which is very diverse, lots of different kinds of people. And quickly became really good friends with a guy named Jared Alterman who's Jewish. And when we came, I took him home to meet my parents. I didn't take him home to meet my parents.

[Adam Friedland]

Did your dad show his gun?

[Tim Heidecker]

He came back with me and he was like, hi, I'm Jared. I'm Tim's Jewish friend. I'm like his first Jewish friend.

[Adam Friedland]

Really? What did your parents say? Peu.

[Tim Heidecker]

He was, he had to take, he had to get fumigated and everything before he came in the house.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it's kind of a Borat style family.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, they were, they didn't, they thought it was funny. But that was kind of the environment. I Grew up in pretty monoculture. Did.

[Adam Friedland]

Did Billy Joel get it right in the song?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, I think Billy Joel got it pretty close, but it should have been called Bethlehem, which is the city next to Allentown. Really?

[Adam Friedland]

People don't say that. You know, it's called Baba O'Reilly, actually. Baba O'Reilly, that song.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, of course I know that. And do you know why?

[Adam Friedland]

So do you think that the.

[Tim Heidecker]

It's because Baba. Pete Townsend was into this child pornography? Oh, no.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Tim Heidecker]

He's into this guru named Baba something. Baby baba. It wasn't O'Reilly.

[Adam Friedland]

Baby. O'Reilly. What?

[Tim Heidecker]

The Bhagwans? The bhagwans? No, Baba.

[Adam Friedland]

Saguan?

[Tim Heidecker]

Sure, baby. For the sake of the.

[Adam Friedland]

So you went to college with Eric?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

And then it was filmed.

[Tim Heidecker]

Then post grad med school, and we also went to law school.

[Adam Friedland]

You're a lawyer and a doctor?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow. And so then what led you into Sarah's worms style? To copying? No.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I just. I feel like, especially growing up with your guys stuff, it's just been replicated so much as an aesthetic. And I know that you directed a lot of commercials. Kind of like we're in the language of Tim and Eric.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you do the Old Spice commercials?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, we did one of them. I don't think we did the one. We did the one with Terry Crews.

[Adam Friedland]

He. His breasts. Did you have him do the boob thing?

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't. I kind of feel. Feel like they're like. When you do commercials, you have these ad agency types with. That was such a weird sip.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, because it's dripping. And I just got this suit. Look at all these drips.

[Tim Heidecker]

I know. Earlier today I walked around and got my hair cut, by the way. I don't know if you noticed.

[Adam Friedland]

In the suit.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, in a white T shirt. And I got a coffee, and it was just like I had dribbles all down this white shirt. It was like

[Adam Friedland]

there were girls looking and everything. Probably.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

It's fucking embarrassing, man.

[Tim Heidecker]

But in these commercials, you have these ad guys who kind of tell. Who kind of write everything. And most like, we're there for, like, 10% of the Zhuzh of, like, the little extra push.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I was a.

[Tim Heidecker]

And getting it done and just kind of like facilitating the production of the whole thing. So I don't take a lot of pride or ownership over any of that stuff.

[Adam Friedland]

But the aesthetic kind of bled itself into, like, the kind of zeitgeist, I feel.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, I mean, like, we were doing that on our own with. And I Should always say, like I always try to make clear that when we say Tim and Eric or me or Eric, it's really us. And like Doug and John Krisel, Ben Berman, Jonathan Mugar. Like small group of people that we were. That were doing a lot of the work as well.

[Adam Friedland]

It's also very editing. Heavy.

[Tim Heidecker]

Heavy.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I mean like that's kind of like a half.

[Tim Heidecker]

I was very.

[Adam Friedland]

I'd say half of the equation.

[Tim Heidecker]

I was barely a part of what we. When we said, you just showed up. I'm hired. A hired gun. Yeah. Could have been anybody.

[Adam Friedland]

I heard you were whacked out on

[Tim Heidecker]

keto at that time.

[Adam Friedland]

You were on keto?

[Tim Heidecker]

A lot of keto. Yeah. Real mean.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, I saw this great clip on. I was watching an old movie on the plane.

[Adam Friedland]

Rat Race.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, it was Armageddon. Oh, I was really watching Armageddon.

[Adam Friedland]

I love that.

[Tim Heidecker]

It's really good.

[Adam Friedland]

Criterion Collection.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know if it is. It is not Armageddon.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh no. Chat. ChatGPT. That.

[Tim Heidecker]

I know. I don't need to check Grok. It is. Okay, good. By the way, that's my pbd by the way.

[Adam Friedland]

We gotta chill with him, dude.

[Tim Heidecker]

We gotta get on that show. Go down to Casa.

[Adam Friedland]

It's Palm beach, right?

[Tim Heidecker]

No, but there's a restaurant that he. This great YouTube guy, R.M. brown did this video about all the time. He goes to this one restaurant called Casa d' Angelo last night. There's no joke. Eleven of us at Casa d'. Angelo, we had a great time, great meal, great steaks. He goes to one restaurant, he has a compilation of all the times. It's so funny. You're watching Armageddon and they say like there's this like where all the guys are having to get physicals before they go into space.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

And he's like. This one guy was on, he had ketamine in his system and it seemed like you could take that meme together. Something of Elon. You know what I mean? Jonah, let's get. Get on. That'd be funny. Blow up the end.

[Adam Friedland]

That'd be really funny. Do you think that like. What's the. What's what Replication of that your guys style or aesthetic has bothered you the most? What's the worst kind of attempt at. At the Tim and Eric Adult Swim kind of language talk show?

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't say the worst one. You know it.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't think I know of anyone. Do you have one of me of. Well, is anyone ripping you off yet? It's cut.

[Adam Friedland]

I hope so.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know. I don't. I can't. I'm nothing.

[Adam Friedland]

Fuentes? Yeah. Nick Fuentes.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know. Are there Post Adams? Probably not.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, I'm sure there are. Listen, I'll be honest with you. I'm sure there are. There's just nothing coming to mind. I don't really. There are a few specific jokes that maybe like. I'll tell you one.

[Adam Friedland]

Sarah Sherman.

[Tim Heidecker]

Sarah Sherman is way over the line.

[Adam Friedland]

What the fuck is she doing? It's disgusting.

[Tim Heidecker]

I think Jimmy Fallon has done a few things where there's like a shorts jorts thing that he did with like, I hate to say it, with like Will Ferrell, who I love.

[Adam Friedland]

That's your friend.

[Tim Heidecker]

That's your best friend. He's one of my closest friends.

[Adam Friedland]

He stabbed you in the back.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, we're not talking about stabbing.

[Adam Friedland]

What was that? Oh, sorry.

[Tim Heidecker]

They did something very, very similar to our sort of kids break thing. Wearing jorts. These are my jorts. And they're like on green screen and dancing into bad rapping. But it felt a little lazy, I'll say that.

[Adam Friedland]

But did you have revenge?

[Tim Heidecker]

Live and let live.

[Adam Friedland]

You have revenge on your mind while you're long term. You're playing a long game. Yeah, It'll happen when they least expect it.

[Tim Heidecker]

There's a Bill Cosby joke about like Spanish fly. Yeah, no, not Spanish fly. Where he's like. He was in a snowball fight as a kid and he got hit really bad. So he took this snowball, put it in the freezer and waited for it to be the summertime. And then like when the kid was at least he just threw a snowball at him in July.

[Adam Friedland]

That's good.

[Tim Heidecker]

That's what I'm gonna do.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. What a legend. Give it up for Bill Couch. This is the deal with. Did you like what's. Do people misunderstand your work?

[Tim Heidecker]

Sure. Why wouldn't they?

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, what. Because it's so confusing.

[Tim Heidecker]

It's so random, obfuscating.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, what do you think is the most common misreading of. Of your guys stuff or the stuff. Anything you've done?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, well, I guess, you know, I've done. I've done a lot of characters that I use my own name for.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

So I suppose there are people that think I'm a terrible leather jacket, right wing type, stand up comedian because I do a lot of that stuff online.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you think people can't just process like art anymore?

[Tim Heidecker]

No. Well, I think the hard Part is,

[Adam Friedland]

that's what people probably.

[Tim Heidecker]

Excuse me.

[Adam Friedland]

Sorry, sorry. I just want to finish before you answer. But that's what comes to mind with the. With the Andy Kaufman and Steve Martin thing is, like, I don't know if that could translate it into the mainstream now. I think that people had more like, kind of like, capacity for it, maybe.

[Tim Heidecker]

But I think back then, well, with Steve Martin, there was. There was a way into his work. This is just me speculating. I'm not an expert, but I felt like there was a way into that work. He set it up in a way that you're like, I get what this is. I get. This is like a corny guy. There's a child aspect, childishness to it. Kaufman was a little more like, hard to figure out. And I'm sure a lot of people back then didn't get it. Yeah, the same way they wouldn't get it now.

[Adam Friedland]

You're saying that you're basically the Kaufman of today.

[Tim Heidecker]

Absolutely. Yes. But he was also, like, cast on a major sitcom that was very popular. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Taxi.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. So it was like if Kramer. If Kramer. Jim Cramer from cnbc.

[Adam Friedland]

Cnbc, yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, if Kramer from Seinfeld, during its peak, would go out and do really weird pratfols. Pratfalls, without resorting to the N word over and over again, I thought, yeah, if he could do that in a weird way, that would be a similar experience that America would have had.

[Adam Friedland]

When you saw that the first time, did you have to remove that? It was Kramer. When you saw the Michael Richards tape, I didn't know. To me, in my mind, that character is so ubiquitous. I'm like, that's Kramer, right?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. The funniest thing on the. One of the saddest apology. The apology on Letterman.

[Adam Friedland]

Stop laughing.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, yeah. Hostage video situation.

[Adam Friedland]

Have you ever seen the, like, bloopers from Seinfeld where, like, he just. He's the only one serious, like, he's the only serious actor. He's like, God damn it.

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Like, when they.

[Adam Friedland]

When they break, he's like, this is unprofessional.

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, no, I've seen that. No, that's not fun.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, no, I think it's. You wouldn't expect it out of a Cosmo.

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[Adam Friedland]

Adam, you're great for this.

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Adam Friedland]

Thank you.

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[Tim Heidecker]

Thank you.

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Tim Heidecker]

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[Tim Heidecker]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Tim Heidecker]

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[Adam Friedland]

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[Tim Heidecker]

I think it was just disinterest from those people. I mean the sequence of events is pretty linear. It's like we do a certain amount of things that eventually come to an end. There's no interest in doing more of them from those places because times have changed, interests have changed, things that were desired or no longer desired at that level or there's just priorities are different. People leave the people that were your allies or support cheerleaders have moved on or whatever.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, White Men can't. They won't give jobs anymore.

[Tim Heidecker]

You're reading between the lines, that's what you're saying?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

So there were a few things that were like, all right, well, what should I do now? And there's still like, still work within the system on other certain things, but

[Adam Friedland]

do you think have too much power? Is that what. I'm sorry.

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, I knew you're going to go there.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm sorry.

[Tim Heidecker]

And I really don't know how to handle that shit.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, you could say,

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, I'm a little uncomfortable on cinema.

[Adam Friedland]

Seems like your opus, like, it's like a project that keeps growing.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Like, how'd you meet Greg?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, really,

[Adam Friedland]

I've never heard it.

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, no. I mean, we've listened to a bunch

[Adam Friedland]

of interviews we've never heard.

[Tim Heidecker]

Really?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I don't think you.

[Tim Heidecker]

So you're not on all the Reddit AMAs that I do, which I do quite frequently.

[Adam Friedland]

Sam, does he say it on Reddit?

[Tim Heidecker]

I'm just kidding. I've seen it. Yeah, you have.

[Adam Friedland]

I have.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, I was a huge Neil Hamburger fan and so I would say like 2004 or something. Eric and I were doing awesome show and I was a fan of Neil's, went to go see him. He had relocated to la or he was living in LA and went to go see him. Like I would see anybody and met him afterwards and we knew some of the same people and just kind of new. I think that our bridge together was his wife was Australian and my soon to be wife was Canadian and we were, you know, breaking the ice, talking about who are whatever, foreigners. And I wanted some advice on like, immigration stuff actually for my wife or for my potential wife, my fiance, whatever. What's that Dan Bongino clip where he's like, I'm divorced from my wife. Not divorced. Divorced from my wife, but we're separated. Not separated, but I'm not with my wife.

[Adam Friedland]

I love how red that guy gets.

[Tim Heidecker]

I know.

[Adam Friedland]

His head is so big.

[Tim Heidecker]

It's like Vinny, Vinny gets red. Like that.

[Adam Friedland]

I guess that was a bad question.

[Tim Heidecker]

How'd you. No, that's fine. I'm sorry, dude, but we just became friends, you know, and like, as you become friends with funny people, you tend to like goof around.

[Adam Friedland]

And that project has grown so much. I mean, like, yeah, you guys are.

[Tim Heidecker]

And we still. We just shot something the other day for it and I swear to you, like, I get the giggles with that show like nothing else because of how funny Greg is and how funny I am when I'm in that character.

[Adam Friedland]

The basic purpose is he's a snob, but he's only seen, like, he's a snob about Raiders of the Lost Ark. He's a snob about just, like, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he considers himself, like, criteria collection. Is that, like.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, his takes are just, like, wildly. The Smurfed and the Smurfs clips, everything. All movies are equal. That's. Yeah. One thing. The only way you could be a better movie in another movie if the only thing that makes a movie better is if it's longer. So he's like, really in a runtime. Like, spiral. Death spiral. You guys talk about runtime, and he's comparing run times and why something. And then sequels versus prequels and something remake. Like, it's just garbage.

[Adam Friedland]

And then your characters, you just have never heard of movies. Is that, like.

[Tim Heidecker]

I think I'm just, like, so preoccupied with other things in my life. You're like a narcissist, severe narcissist, with, like, many problems, many physical and mental problems and. And with rage issues and, you know, all sorts of man problems.

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It's just.

[Adam Friedland]

It is. It's. I just hope you guys never stop doing it.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't see a way to stop. Like, we just enjoy a opus.

[Adam Friedland]

I think it is.

[Tim Heidecker]

I would think that's for the historians to determine. But. But yes, we. You can do it super affordably. You. It's a. I enjoy everybody involved so much. Eric Tornicola, who we write it with and direct, he directs it. And I mean. And again, like, you shot some the other day, and I was, like, crying, laughing halfway through it. Just like, why would you stop doing something that makes you that happy?

[Adam Friedland]

I can't imagine, like, it'd be so hard not to break.

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, I break. And sort of.

[Adam Friedland]

He's so good at that character.

[Tim Heidecker]

He does a thing that we've talked about for years, which. And I do it, too, but because a lot of it's so improvisational. If you get into this drone where you start talking and you're just talking for a while and you're going on and on about something, and you're waiting. You're just like, wrap it up. Because if you don't, if you're gonna laugh, you're gonna spoil a minute of footage because so you're just like, just get through it. But sometimes you just break.

[Adam Friedland]

There's a clip from the last season where he was talking about the Chalamet. Wonka should be considered Wonka 4. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

What did he say?

[Adam Friedland]

There was something about, like, wonk.

[Tim Heidecker]

Like Wonka heads.

[Adam Friedland]

Why am I doing this right now?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, yeah, it's all independently produced now. The High Network. High Network TV is where you can. For five bucks a month. And it's been working. You know, we get to make it for. Without anybody else involved.

[Adam Friedland]

You've been doing music at a certain point. Like, you release the sincere music.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. And like making all the. Have you found irony boys? Very uncomfortable?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. What was that like? Is it like Dylan, like, Royal. Royal. No, not the music.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, just like, just the feeling of it.

[Adam Friedland]

Seeing those clips of, like, the people being like, I came here for fucking folk concept.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

It's just like, you. They're like, mad about it. Guitars.

[Tim Heidecker]

So mad. I love that stuff. Bob, we've talked about this over the phone, but he is one of my guiding lights.

[Adam Friedland]

He's my favorite.

[Tim Heidecker]

And that was always when I was thinking about making that shift or, you know, I mean, this all starts with you just sitting around. For me, at least writing music because I like doing it. And when something comes up that's like, not funny. The decision is like, do I pursue this or do I abandon?

[Adam Friedland]

Is there a fee? Was that stressful at first?

[Tim Heidecker]

No, no, I thought it was cool. I thought it was like, this is an exciting thing to try to do because I never. I think I got to a place where I was 40 and had gotten married and had a kid and was like, all right. I'm like, living life. I'm not just like, all about the goofs in my personal life.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

And maybe I have things to say or the perspective. That's not all clowning around, I think. Sorry, I cut you. No, but that's all right. I mean, but looking at Dylan and being like, oh, that guy didn't give a shit. He just did what he wanted. He zigged and zagged and, like.

[Adam Friedland]

Correct.

[Tim Heidecker]

Tried shit and wasn't really worried about it. Now maybe he was worried about it. He never talks about it, but it didn't look like that. So I just. And I had enough people around me that like serious music. People that were like, very encouraging and supportive. So I continue to do it because I get pleasure out of doing it. Mr.

[Adam Friedland]

I guess what I'm probably projecting onto your decision to do that is that there's kind of a. Like, you can insulate your. Your feelings through irony, right? So, like, someone could be like, this sucks. And you're like, it's supposed to be bad. Right? But, like, releasing music, that's so sincere is scarier in my mind, at least.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. There's nowhere to hide. I mean, but it's also like, unless

[Adam Friedland]

music's just better than comedy. So, like, it would be like, I would want to do a good job for this. I'm like, you know, I've pooped my pants and stuff. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, I thought the interesting thing was, like, can you do both? Can you go back and forth whenever you want? Yeah. And maybe some people have a hard time with that for me, you know? Yeah. But I planned this for a long time, you know, like, in the biz of making. I was literally gonna say in the biz of making show.

[Adam Friedland]

That's right, baby.

[Tim Heidecker]

So gross. Right?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

You know, like, I'm a lifer and I plan to live for a long time, so I've got some designs on how to do that. Medical things that we're going to be talking about very strongly.

[Adam Friedland]

What have you been doing?

[Tim Heidecker]

But the weights.

[Adam Friedland]

The weights, yeah. You probably get 140 years.

[Tim Heidecker]

I always. I mean, we talked about Andy Kaufman before, but it's like, don't you think, like, Andy Kaufman got out early because of cancer? Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

So, like, if he's, like, 48 and he's, like, still going on Letterman doing, like, weird guys.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

You might be like, all right, it'll play itself out a little bit.

[Adam Friedland]

We kind of felt that we. I was on. We did cometown before this, and was that for the last, like, four or five years, we just.

[Tim Heidecker]

And now. What's that?

[Adam Friedland]

It was a. It was a podcast.

[Tim Heidecker]

Okay. For like, wtf or pretty much like that.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. But like, yeah, we. For the last of six years, for the last four years, we're like, oh, we're gonna do this crap again. It was like, a little bit like, what if, you know, Elvis Presley was Chinese, it would go a little something like this. Loved it. But it was just like.

[Tim Heidecker]

It felt like you could play the. You could. You figure out what's working, and then it's the balance of how much do I continue to play into what's working versus, like, stretching and trying new things and.

[Adam Friedland]

Right.

[Tim Heidecker]

But so you've made. You've also. Have you been navigating, like, a journey of this sincere. To some degree, this show feels like

[Adam Friedland]

the first time I've ever tried.

[Tim Heidecker]

Because you're tried it tried just doing anything.

[Adam Friedland]

It's scary. Yeah. It's like, if something sucks, then it'll hurt your feelings if you work really hard on it.

[Tim Heidecker]

But people seem to like where you're going. Right. Do you have people that are like, this sucks because why don't you go back to, you know, like, being offensive for the. For the yucks?

[Adam Friedland]

No. Maybe.

[Tim Heidecker]

But you don't pay attention at this point.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't pay attention. If my friends like it, I like. I'm happy.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And my dad can watch it now.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. He's becoming a little bit of a stage mother about it. It's a little bit annoying.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, let me send a personal message to your dad, who's watching right now.

[Adam Friedland]

Awful.

[Tim Heidecker]

Adam, old man. What's your. What's your name?

[Adam Friedland]

Take a look at my old man. Take a look at my life. I'm a lot like you. I'm not like him at all.

[Tim Heidecker]

What's his name?

[Adam Friedland]

Max.

[Tim Heidecker]

Max.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Let me speak to you for a second, Max.

[Adam Friedland]

Careful.

[Tim Heidecker]

Your son Adam met me with a gay man at his apartment 12 years ago.

[Adam Friedland]

You and a gay guy?

[Tim Heidecker]

James Adomian, openly gay, proudly gay. And Adam was such a fan of mine, I inspired who he is to this day.

[Adam Friedland]

Not much, actually.

[Tim Heidecker]

And I'm here to tell you that he's made good on that by having his hero come on his little podcast.

[Adam Friedland]

Sarah Squirman's not done the show yet,

[Tim Heidecker]

but he's a good son, and you should be proud of him. And if there are any allegations coming out about him. I was unaware of these allegations before I came in the studio.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, what you heard.

[Tim Heidecker]

You have anything coming out? Because these people all the time are coming. Coming out with bad stuff. You know, I always feel like I

[Adam Friedland]

never had the gumption to do anything bad.

[Tim Heidecker]

Right. Are you a single man?

[Adam Friedland]

No, I'm engaged.

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, you are?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Okay. Where's the ring? You don't wear an engagement ring like a man should?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, no, I don't. I. I never actually want to wear a ring, really, because I don't like.

[Tim Heidecker]

I think that's the only reason I got married. I like the idea of having a ring on.

[Adam Friedland]

You're like. I'm like Depp.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, it was like a Dep style. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Like a Criss angel kind of Depp kind of rings guy. Did you ever consider being a rings guy when you moved to Hollywood?

[Tim Heidecker]

Get a bunch of rings and stuff? Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, no, I don't have. Do you have any tattoos?

[Adam Friedland]

No.

[Tim Heidecker]

Do you have any piercings?

[Adam Friedland]

I had an earring.

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, you did?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. But I took it out one night.

[Tim Heidecker]

I could see a little. The remnants of it. Very embarrassing.

[Adam Friedland]

It's pretty embarrassing, yeah. I thought it was cool, actually, but I thought Yeah, I kind of want to talk about, like, I don't know. I've heard you speak about where you've seen comedy go in the last couple

[Tim Heidecker]

years, and you're like, mark Norman again. Oh, okay. Where'd I see it go?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, I mean, like, you deal with it a lot in office hours. Like, you know, you do do it sort of in the sense of like, parody. Like, you did that Rogan parody, and then, you know, you did the Mar parody, which is so funny. But, like, does it suck? Do you think it sucks?

[Tim Heidecker]

No, you know, it does, but it's

[Adam Friedland]

always kind of sucked. No.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, sure. I guess. I mean, I guess the thing that's changed from my perspective, I mean. Yeah, comedy. When I was in the 80s and 90s, there was like 90% kind of middle of the road crap that was filling time or was fine. Wasn't for me. But then, like, you know, 10% of the time, Norm MacDonald would come up there or somebody like that, and you'd be like, this is crazy. This is great. I love this guy. So I'm always gonna have that kind of, I guess, refined or like. I love comedy so much that I don't accept stuff that's just hacky. But I also don't mind. I mean, but it's also my definition of that. Yeah. So there's that whole thing of just like, personal preference, and there's comedians that are playing to a wide audience is generally not gonna be for me. But it's not that it's terrible, but

[Adam Friedland]

I think it's a hipster. It's kind of hipsters to say that.

[Tim Heidecker]

There's plenty of the hipsters stuff that isn't for me either.

[Adam Friedland]

There's definitely stuff that's For a wide audience that you like. Norm was pretty wide.

[Tim Heidecker]

That's true. But again, I mean, some of these guys break through and they can. Like the Beatles were very. Were incredibly innovative and crazy, but they were also hugely powerful. Popular, right? Yeah. So some things are great and popular.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

But most things are just either popular or great. Maybe that's one way of thinking about it. Easier for your.

[Adam Friedland]

No, I just. I. I think that, like, you know, you could also have crap that has fewer fans too, right?

[Tim Heidecker]

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, most things.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't think the amount of people

[Tim Heidecker]

that I would say most things are crap that nobody knows about. I don't think that most things that are made.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't think. I think that anything that's being created is defined by the size of the audience. I think it's just, is it good or bad? Right.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, it's all personal preference. What do you actually like? What makes you entertained or happy or thought provoking. But then, I mean, the real. I wouldn't probably care except that these guys are now all dipping into social issues and political issues.

[Adam Friedland]

It kind of feels like they're becoming like Kate McKinnon SNL. But it's the right wing version of it.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, but it feels a little more hypocritical or something because they're coming from this. Hey, we're just asking questions. I just, you know, it's also just not fun either. It's boring.

[Adam Friedland]

You grew up listening to Stern. Do you think there was any influence on, like, the casting that you guys did? Like from the whack pack?

[Tim Heidecker]

Absolutely. Those.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, the whack pack.

[Adam Friedland]

You had high pitched Eric. Right?

[Tim Heidecker]

Never had that was one of our rules. Was like, don't poach from that squad.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You had too much reverence for it.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, that was his domain. And it felt like we got organically, you know, people came into our world kind of organically. Somebody would come in as like a small character and we'd be like, that would be a great host of a kid's TV show or something.

[Adam Friedland]

In retrospect, do you ever feel like, oh, this guy's just a little bit.

[Tim Heidecker]

A little bit? Yeah. I mean, I think there's.

[Adam Friedland]

But it's still. It's so funny still.

[Tim Heidecker]

But like, at the time, you know, it was very. This was 20 years ago or something like that. 15, 10 years ago.

[Adam Friedland]

15 years.

[Tim Heidecker]

Whenever it was, we weren't thinking about, like, you know, we weren't thinking about anything except what we thought was funny. And on the side set, we always tried to be fun. We tried to be respectful and polite. And we knew we were trying to make something very strange and disturbing. And so that would push. We'd bring in people and tell them to say crazy shit. And they were pleased, happy to do it. Everybody was thrilled to work and do something weird.

[Adam Friedland]

And you worked with Tommy Wiseau, right?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, one day. One day with Tommy.

[Adam Friedland]

What was it like?

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, he's an interesting guy. Smart guy.

[Adam Friedland]

Smart guy.

[Tim Heidecker]

Really talented guy. He was kind of a weirdo.

[Adam Friedland]

The room.

[Tim Heidecker]

The room.

[Adam Friedland]

Fucking. When I was in college, we were the perfect demo for it. It kind of broke our brains. Yeah, I watched it like 10,000 times.

[Tim Heidecker]

I watched it many times. It was. We were just starting to make our stuff. When we were made aware of that show or we were like, done Tom Goes to the mayor, probably. But, yeah, I mean, we came in and we fucked around with him a little bit, for sure.

[Adam Friedland]

How could you not?

[Tim Heidecker]

Couldn't resist. I think our bit with him was like, let's make him the director of that episode and just do whatever. Because what we really wanted to do was let him try, like, create the vacuum for him to do what he does. But he wanted, in all fairness, and I understand he wanted real production. He wanted the infrastructure of a real TV show. But we were like, but if we give you that, then you're not going to get what you are so good at making. So you can't. It's like the quantum physics thing about, like, as soon as you observe something at a quantum level, it changes, so you can't really control. I say that all the time. Yeah, I mean, look, look, look.

[Adam Friedland]

About the room especially.

[Tim Heidecker]

So we kind of played with the idea of working with him in some way more.

[Adam Friedland]

Did it feel bad afterwards? You were like, it wasn't as cool as we thought. I feel like it was just. It sounds to me like you're saying it was just a drag to meet this guy.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, it was not a drag. It was very interesting.

[Adam Friedland]

Were you laughing a lot?

[Tim Heidecker]

I like being around eccentric weirdos. Yeah, whatever you want to. That's the thing. We start, you go down, you pull the thread of, like, what do you mean by weirdo?

[Adam Friedland]

Right?

[Tim Heidecker]

And then you go, well, I. Maybe that person. You don't know what their background is. You don't know if they had some kind of. You know.

[Adam Friedland]

I guess it's like, does someone have. I guess the threshold is. Probably doesn't.

[Tim Heidecker]

When I have developmental disorder and I would be much more.

[Adam Friedland]

As a teenager, I was listening to

[Tim Heidecker]

Howard and it was like, exactly. And my position on that has evolved, and it's not something I would want to do anymore. But at the time, it was what everybody. Not everybody was doing. But it didn't feel like, oh, this is wrong. It just felt like, these are interesting weirdos that I want to put on TV and treat like they're celebrities or something, you know, like.

[Adam Friedland]

And also LA is filled with just like, those kind of people with headshots. Yeah, desperate.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, desperate, maybe.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

Or just like. I don't know, just people that wouldn't get cast in a lot of other things. But I grew up, like, not only Howard Stern, but, I mean, a lot of, like, the Coen Brothers or Woody Allen movies or a lot of, like, there were just always interesting people in those movies that felt like sort of Outsider types.

[Adam Friedland]

Fellini esque.

[Tim Heidecker]

Fellini esque.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

So that's where we were coming from, and we were, you know, just trying stuff. And when things work, do you do more of it?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I listened to a lot of Howard growing up, and I've been, like, listening to, like, an archive of all of Trump's appearances, appearances recently, and it's. First of all, I mean, it's pretty obvious. It's so funny. He's the president. I mean, like, it's obvious. Like, it's crazy. He's the president.

[Tim Heidecker]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

But, like, second of all, it's like, it kind of is, in retrospect, seeing Howard shift to sincerity. Like, people hate it.

[Tim Heidecker]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

I want people fucking hate it. You know? And I wonder, like, to what extent he feels, like, partially responsible. Responsible for, like, prompting that, like. Or, like, kind of propping him up and, like, you know, helping him.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. I mean, he was one of many that did.

[Adam Friedland]

He didn't get Trump elected, obviously, and he was pretty.

[Tim Heidecker]

I mean, I remember the Stern right after he got elected the first time. That period is maybe the weirdest period of all time because they didn't know what to say.

[Adam Friedland]

They were lost on Howard.

[Tim Heidecker]

On Howard, from what I remember. Well, he's the president, so. Yeah. Anyway, what else is going on? You know, it was like that.

[Adam Friedland]

It was very, like, the voices on Tonight. He, like, loves talking about the voices.

[Tim Heidecker]

There's stuff about him that I love, and I don't really listen in that much anymore, to be honest with you.

[Adam Friedland]

I haven't really listened since high school, but.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, since high school. Really?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. Because we would be late to first period period because we just, like, want to stay in the car and listen.

[Tim Heidecker]

What years would those.

[Adam Friedland]

Is that those are, like, I graduated in 2005.

[Tim Heidecker]

That's arty years.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, Arty years. The best.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, I'm a Jackie the Joke man guy myself.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, I've gone back through now with the Wait.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, that's bad, Jackie.

[Adam Friedland]

Sorry. But I did, like. I did love it so much. Like, I got really sad. We're not sad. But I got really emotional when B, like, went back on recently, and there was, like, this tenderness.

[Tim Heidecker]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And like, this, like, love there, old pal. Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

But I love Richard and Sal. I think they do.

[Adam Friedland]

Sal's prank calls are the best, I would say.

[Tim Heidecker]

Richard and Sal's prank calls.

[Adam Friedland]

Richard. Sorry.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah, yeah. They're very creative. And, you know, I like when Howard's yelling at Gary about something petty. And, you know,

[Adam Friedland]

one of the ugliest Guys of all time.

[Tim Heidecker]

Bop, bop. Gary Delavati. I don't like to comment on people's looks.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, all right.

[Tim Heidecker]

He's just a better way to live.

[Adam Friedland]

He has a legendary first pitch at a Met game.

[Tim Heidecker]

I've seen that shot. Yeah, you can't. I mean, I don't like talking about people's looks, but you gotta think. He's got bad breath.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And a hog. Just an absolute packing.

[Tim Heidecker]

Big wang.

[Adam Friedland]

Huge dick. You live in Hollywood. Who's. Who's got the biggest in town?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, I've watched these pornographic films. Some of those guys.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know where they live, though. I'm actually having a terrific time, by the way. And I know you have to cut this shit down, but I think you should. Do you have a Patreon you could put the whole thing up for? How are you paying for this.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

This State of Israel.

[Tim Heidecker]

State of Israel.

[Adam Friedland]

Gelman's guy. Yeah. I guess the last thing I would really ask is, like. I guess what I really find inspiring is that you really got bored. It seemed. And correct me if I'm wrong, at what point? Well, you just, like, wanting to put out music is like, in, like.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know.

[Adam Friedland]

I think that that's, like, very cool to me.

[Tim Heidecker]

Thank you.

[Adam Friedland]

I suppose, because, like, it must get tiring to have a niche that you have to fill for people and stuff.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. I mean, I think when I have a creative partner, you get absorbed into the identity of the partnership, into that thing. And for you, it was come town. For me, it was Tim and Eric. And then I'm like, well, who am I? Like, who am I in that or who am I outside of that?

[Adam Friedland]

Did you guys break up?

[Tim Heidecker]

No, we're still friends. And we were trying to write a movie and thinking about doing stuff, but it's not like that White Hot. I mean, we did a lot. We made a lot of shows, you know, we made a lot of horrible shit.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you think it's a product of youth, like, feeling like more free to like, make horrible shit, you know?

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, no, we just were like. We were in the middle of something and there was the only thing we had going. It was the only thing in our lives.

[Adam Friedland]

It was also your world, too. You had like a whole squad of guys and then you kind of this

[Tim Heidecker]

self contained world, and then that comes to an end, as it naturally did. Not out of any kind of strife and not out of any.

[Adam Friedland]

You said it was. When you had a kid, you said it was your child ruined everything.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yes, well, we had Agreed if we were going to do this, we wouldn't have children, really. And then I disobeyed him.

[Adam Friedland]

I thought you guys said that you're not going to get married until gay people can get married.

[Tim Heidecker]

But things come to an end and that, like, I want to make stuff with him and he wants to make stuff with me. But it will be probably very different than we're not going to go, like, the band Pavement or something, where you're like, well, those are the six albums Pavement made. And we're going to probably tour and we're going to do stuff maybe together, but we're not going to do another Pavement album or the Pixies or something, or Talking Heads.

[Adam Friedland]

So something like more traditional narrative.

[Tim Heidecker]

It's more of, like a

[Adam Friedland]

kill, Tony.

[Tim Heidecker]

Well, elaborate pranks, I will say elaborate.

[Adam Friedland]

Very jackass style.

[Tim Heidecker]

More like in the fielder, more realm, more abstract, more long form. Very cerebral. These are long plays. Like, I don't want. This is part of it. That's all I'm gonna say. This right here is part of it.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. You're in the show.

[Adam Friedland]

You got. In the show. You got hate in your heart.

[Tim Heidecker]

I have hate. Do I have what?

[Adam Friedland]

Nothing. You got hate in your gut.

[Tim Heidecker]

Is that a reference?

[Adam Friedland]

No.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

No, I don't know what we'll do. We've got a couple things that we have plans for, but if it doesn't happen, I'm proud of what we've done.

[Adam Friedland]

Will it culminate in Donald Trump going to prison?

[Tim Heidecker]

Let's just say the third act of our movie is a little bit something that happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, but a little more. I'd say it's a little more of an accurate depiction.

[Adam Friedland]

That nerd. The nerd looked like Elizabeth Warren a lot, don't you think?

[Tim Heidecker]

The shooter. Give me a break.

[Adam Friedland]

Give me a break, dude. So, false flag.

[Tim Heidecker]

I want to end on a reading from Paul Simon. No, I sent you this clip. Bring it back to Jerry Lewis. I sent you this clip of him on the Joan Rivers Show. Did you watch it? Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Talking about beating his son.

[Tim Heidecker]

Yeah. He tells the story because he's on with a child psychologist, and this is 1968 or something like that. And the child psychologist is introducing a fairly novel concept of, like, not beating your kids. You know, like, love your kids and, you know, be a positive influencer.

[Adam Friedland]

Did your parents watch that or no?

[Tim Heidecker]

Did they watch that clip? Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tim Heidecker]

I don't know. Probably not.

[Adam Friedland]

Mine didn't.

[Tim Heidecker]

No. Well, my parents never hit me, but oh, never mind. Jerry Lewis. Well, let me tell you my perspective. My son, Gary Della Botta. Gary Lewis from Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

[Adam Friedland]

That's really his son's name. That's so funny.

[Tim Heidecker]

Came home with some grades that weren't. Let's do it without the sniff.

[Adam Friedland]

Sorry, I didn't take Claritin, did I?

[Tim Heidecker]

My son Gary, came home with grades that were below my expectations for him. And he knew that he did not live up to my expectations. And he came into my office, and I have a belt. I have a big western belt. And I took the belt off and he pulled his pants down, and I gave him a whack for each grade that disappointed me. And they left three fairly sizable welts on his rear.

[Adam Friedland]

That's hot.

[Tim Heidecker]

And I said, gary, you've taken your punishment. Now go up to your, your room and stay there until I say you can get out.

[Adam Friedland]

Gary Lewis.

[Tim Heidecker]

Gary Lewis from Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Now, I went up. We have an intercom system in our house so I can listen in when they're sleeping and whatnot. And I went over there to listen to hear him cry. And it's okay to cry, by the way. I always say that real men cry. Sissies don't.

[Adam Friedland]

That's true.

[Tim Heidecker]

And I listened. And his mommy came in because we have the relationship where when his mom is down on him, I will go and be with them. But when I'm down on the kids, she'll go and be with them and let them know that we're not ganging up on them. And I listened in, expecting to hear my son crying, but I only heard this. I heard him say. She said it's okay to cry. And he said, no, I don't. I don't have to cry. I know that. Daddy did that to me because he loves me.

[Adam Friedland]

Why do the French think that's funny? Why is he the best American comedian?

[Tim Heidecker]

To them, he's a bad, bad guy. Yeah. Good news is he's passed on.

[Adam Friedland]

Rot in hell, Jerry Lewis. Thanks a lot, Simon.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Great to be here.

[Adam Friedland]

Give it up for him one more time. DISH has been connecting communities like yours for the last 45 years, providing the TV you love at a price you can trust. Watch live sports news and the latest movies, plus your favorite streaming apps, all in one place. Switch to DISH today and lock in the lowest price in satellite TV starting at $89.99 a month with our two year price guarantee. Call 8-88- ADD-DEH or visit dish.com today.