- Comedy Central
- Nathan Fielder “helps” a gas station owner.
From the hidden-camera high jinks of Candid Camera (RIP Funt) to the faux news-correspondent interviews on the way-too-short-lived series Dog Bites Man, television has a vast and wonderful legacy of filming real people under false pretenses for comedy’s sake. If that’s ethically suspect, Nathan Fielder makes it easy to not care.
For every “Oh look, aren’t they stupid” there’s an “Oh god, they must think Nathan’s so stupid.” The Canadian comedian assumes a sort of socially awkward, doltish persona, and there’s never an indication he’s not being totally serious when he’s pitching his awful ideas to people (of course, we’re in on the joke). There’s a sad, cute vulnerability in his earnestness. In some instances, it seems like people go along with his schemes because they feel kind of bad for him. Fielder’s made what could’ve been a bullshit Punk’d-style gag show into one of the funniest shows on TV because he’s at least as willing to make an asshole of himself as he is to make an asshole of other people.
