Tim Heidecker is far from a household name, and yet, for close to 20 years he’s been revered by fans of his boundary-pushing brand of comedy. From his early days working with frequent collaborator Eric Wareheim on Adult Swim series like Tom Goes to the Mayor, and later Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! to his recent multimedia projects drenched in social media and political commentary, Heidecker has moved beyond being simply a brash, offbeat, experimental jokester to establish himself as one of the most innovative, important, and genuinely great comedians of all time.
Following in the footsteps of the brilliantly bizarre Andy Kaufman, Heidecker has worked, with remarkable consistency and originality, to push comedy beyond the boundaries of simple humorousness, exploring its possibilities as an art form and cultural force.
Tim Heidecker's Comic Kayfabe
So how has Heidecker managed to sustain such a long and prolific career? Naturally, there are many facets to his success, but it may boil down to one word: kayfabe.
Kayfabe is a term originating in professional wrestling that refers to a commitment to maintaining the illusion that the scripted, fictional events of the show are, in fact, completely real. In comedy terms, it could be likened to commitment to the bit, a steadfast refusal to ever admit that yeah, it was just a joke after all.
Kaufman is perhaps the most iconic exemplar of comic kayfabe, but other examples are few and far between. Even rigorously deadpan comics like Anthony Jeselnik are always, obviously, joking, proving an escape valve for the audience, reassuring us that, yes, it’s okay to laugh. This is something that Heidecker rarely if ever puts forth.
Take, for example, his role as Tim Heidecker (the characters, or “characters” that Heidecker plays are almost always called “Tim Heidecker”) in On Cinema at the Cinema, made with fellow kayfaber Gregg Turkington. On Cinema at the Cinema is a podcast, web series, and all-around multimedia universe in which Heidecker and Turkington play inept film reviewers and podcasters. The project is a masterpiece of kayfabe, to the extent that they created a hyperrealistic, nearly six-hours long court trial in which Heidecker stood trial for 20 counts of second degree murder, leading to the most-searched-for question related to his name — "What is Tim Heidecker accused of?"
On Cinema: A Product of Its Timeliness
More than any other comic production, though, On Cinema is a product of the new media landscape, to the extent that it could most aptly be described as a social media project. Heidecker and Turkington have maintained social media presences in character for years, interacting with fans who take up the game and define themselves as "TimHeads," "GreggHeads," or "Unityheads," depending on which of the bickering hosts they ostensibly support in a rivalry that is at once ridiculously trivial and ridiculously over the top.
In keeping with Heidecker’s consistently self-aware approach, On Cinema is deeply self-reflexive. Its topic is nothing so much as the media in which it is made. The podcast mocks podcasts, the web series mocks web series, and the social media personas mock social media personas. The same satirical approach also carries Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, from 2012, and Heidecker’s 2020 stand-up special, An Evening with Tim Heidecker.
Heidecker's Special Special
In An Evening with Tim Heidecker, Heidecker once again plays a fictional character named Tim Heidecker. This Heidecker is not dissimilar to the Heidecker of On Cinema in his brash idiocy and right-wing politics. Of course, the special is not really a stand-up comedy special, but a parody of one, played perfectly straight.
The main targets of Heidecker’s comedy is the growing number of comedians outwardly and openly outraged at “cancel culture.” As Heidecker’s performance makes clear, there is something ridiculous in comedians wallowing in self-ascribed victimhood simply because evolving cultural norms have made it more difficult to disguise hack comedy in offensive jokes.
It is hard to imagine a comedian with more truly “edgy” moments to his credit than Heidecker, whose most extreme bits are too obscene to even describe on this site, and his scorn for solidly milquetoast performers who coat dated, lazy jokes in a veneer of imagined outrage (which rarely even truly emerges) is on full display in the special. It is not the thoughtlessly reactionary politics that despoil these performers (though the absurdity of modern conservatism is a constant refrain), but rather, their refusal to take comedy seriously.
Heidecker has built his career on an uncommon blend of relentless innovation and steadfast dedication to exploring the possibilities of comedy. Even Kaufman’s roughly decade-long career pales in comparison to the depth and breadth of Heidecker’s work, which also includes a brilliant dramatic turn in The Comedy, a full-blown music career, and more. Comedy is real true art for Heidecker, and the fact that it almost never receives the kind of commitment that he brings to it fuels his work, marking him as not only one of the best comedians working today, but also one with uncommon insights on the current state of the art and the world around it.