Introduction

Aidan Sweeney Capstone Dr. Bednar 11 March 2021 Analysis Paper Introduction The Eric Andre Show has been on for five seasons now, the newest season having been released this past year. Each season the show gets a little bit better production value, a better band, better guests, and better ideas, that is to say humor (or anti-humor in this case). It is important to look at how the show has progressed up until now and I will now analyze four different episodes of the Eric Andre Show, including scenes from the show that are reoccurring throughout the season. The episodes included in the analysis, the ones that will get the idea across the best, are what I see as the episode that exemplifies my claim the most from every season up until season five. These are (named by the guests who are on each episode): the Pilot (of course), Jack Black and Jennette McCurdy, Lauren Conrad and Reese Witherspoon, and Tyler the Creator and Jimmy Kimmel. Each episode will exemplify a certain aspect of the show that goes into making the lore of the anti-talk show (anti-comedy parody) that we know as the Eric Andre Show. That is: pranks, random skits, interviews with guests, and musical acts. Ladies and Gentlemen, It’s the Eric Andre Show!! To get an idea of what the Eric Andre Show is all about and why it would be put in the realm of anti-comedy, it would be best to go into some of the things that are reoccurring on the show. Namely, the introduction. The show opens up every episode with a wide view of the stage where the desk and armchair are in visual followed by a male voice who triumphantly announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s the Eric Andre show!” Then, Eric Andre runs from off screen screaming as he jumps off the armchair and flings himself into the décor behind the desk and into the curtains as the band on the set begins to play upbeat, chaotic, and nearly off- tempo jazz music. Eric then runs over to the band and tackles the drummer and tosses his kick drum into the middle of the set, then runs off to the middle of the screen and jumps through the shelves that are stage left to his desk. Next, he continues the chaos by using weapons to destroy musical instruments, stages himself or others fighting while he cheers them on or puts on displays of self-harm such as cutting off a prop tongue from his mouth with garden shears or putting raw chickens on his hands that he uses to hit himself in the head with. Once the set is promptly destroyed, he ends up by the one thing that is not: his chair. He tosses an object from his hands and plops straight in his chair as the music stops, out of breath with a disturbed look on his face. The set is then replaced by a new, identical set that is intact as he continues to sit there disturbed and exhausted, though the floor of the set is still a complete mess. Then the co- host, Hannibal Buress, walks out on set from the curtains in the back followed by sparse applause as he sits down in the armchair stage right of Eric’s desk. Once sat down, Eric looks at Hannibal and says: “That’s all I had planned for the show. What should I do now?” (which he says every season premiere). Hannibal’s response is, without fail “Do a monologue”. Eric then goes to the front of the set and proceeds to stumble through said monologue, saying outrageous things, bad jokes and inaccurate but funny information about celebrities to which Hannibal criticizes him about without fail. This will build up into an absurd comedic moment which that will cut off halfway through on a snapshot of someone’s face with the words next to it “we’ll be right back” to que a commercial break, but also to poke at a feeling of being unresolved. The Pilot: Pranks, Parody and Surreal Humor The pilot episode first opens up to a low-budget set in which Eric Andre destroys the set as he normally does. Hannibal arrives on set to sparse applause and Andre says: “That’s all I had planned for the show. What should I do next?” To which Hannibal says: “Do a monologue.” He goes up stage to the microphone and begins to nervously stumble through a monologue, starting off by saying: “So Michael Jackson, he hasn’t been in the news too much lately. It’s like where ya hidin’ Jacko?.” Hannibal corrects him by saying: “He’s dead, man.” Andre responds: “are you serious?” Hannibal advises him to work the crowd to recover (as if there is even a crowd), and Andre goes on to say: “So Beyonce is trying to trim that baby fat, I saw her without her shirt on and I was like ‘woah, who’s that chick with six tits like a dog?” and continues to mock Beyonce. Hannibal says: “You for real think that those words you just said should be on television?” The camera makes its way back to Andre as ominous music plays as he solemnly whispers: “I’m dying.” Hannibal responds with: “we all are” and the scene cuts to a shot that says “We’ll be right back”. The first guest on the show is “George Clooney”, however it is not really George Clooney, but a George Clooney look alike who they continue to claim is George Clooney. They tell him to do some of his “Award winning stand-up comedy” before he sits down. He goes up to the microphone and starts muttering nonsense about doing karate with his bros, having no clear punchline or even attempt at humor, but they clap anyways and the Clooney sits down for the interview. The first prank of the episode, we see a person walking down the streets of New York and they throw something in the garbage can. Andre then pops up out of the garbage can about a third of the way through the episode and it opens up on a Civil War reenactment festival. In the distance we see Buress and Andre wearing shackles and being chased by a large white man as the scream “Hide us!” and things of that nature. A redneck voice yells: “Don’t forget about them slaves!” as Eric Andre and Hannibal Burress run through the Civil War reenactment being chased and whipped by this large man as people look at them shocked and borderline offended. When the scene arrives back on set, Andre starts off by introducing the next guest of the show when he is cut off and a male voice announces: “It’s time to play this or that!” Two podiums are placed at the front of the set, Andre and Buress walk to the podiums and the voice says “contestants, are you ready?” Both confused, they answer no. The voice begins to give them questions, the first one being a photo of a man doing Tai Chi. The voice asks, “First question” Yoga or Tai Chi?” Andre answers “Tai chi?”. A buzzer rings denoting a wrong answer and the voice says: “I’m sorry we could not hear you, hot coffee to the face!” and someone splashes hot coffee in Andre’s face to which he writhes in pain. They are then shown a picture of lettuce and ask “molested, or genius?” Hannibal answers, “lettuce” and a bell rings to denote a correct answer. When Andre says that he could not hear the question, they splash more coffee in his face and he screams and says “How does this game even work?!” They then ask “Co-klea or co-chela” (cochlea), and Eric responds with the correct pronunciation of the word, but they still consider it wrong and splash more coffee in his face. Subsequent to that, Hannibal sneezes, and the wrong-answer buzzer goes off again and they splash more coffee in Andre’s face. Next, a cart rolls out with two jugs of milk on it, and the voice says, “Eric, drink this milk and tell us: is it fresh or spoiled?” Someone forcefully puts the jug to his mouth and pours it down his throat, and Eric violently pulls away and yells: “Definitely spoiled!” To which the right answer bell rings, though they still throw coffee in his face and the break the coffee pot over his head. The game concludes and they slap the scores on the scoreboard: Hannibal $3000, Eric $0. Hannibal looks at Eric, points to the scoreboard and says, “you owe me 3000 bucks, son.” Andre, who is leaning on his podium as if he has just been administered a beating, slowly starts to look up when a large man walks up to him with a hatchet and cuts his fingers off. In shock and pain, the camera zooms in on his face, freezes, and the “We’ll be right back” theme segues the show into an ad break. The first episode sets the pace for the surrealistic humor lore that the show relies on. The brash cuts from each scene as they capture an image placed by the words “We’ll be right back”, really brings emphasis to the convention of humor, for it is meant for emphasis on a representation of the scene. This really puts the idea of parody into perspective because the viewer gets to see that the show operates like a late-night talk show: the guests and interviews, the musical act, the random bits that are staged like games and such, and a little bit of fun and jokes between the host and co-host.

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