When it comes to wry and witty business advice, Nathan Fielder is without equal. Whether kicking up controversy, infringing copyrights, or performing near-naked escape acts, Nathan’s mix of wacked-out activism and awkward social anxiety is as compelling as it is absurd.
In anticipation of tonight’s Season 3 premiere of Nathan For You (10/9c on Comedy Central), we’ve gathered our favorite moments from the show’s first 18 episodes.
New ice cream flavors are a dime a dozen. So, how best to distinguish an obscure business? In a series-kickoff moment worthy of John Waters, Nathan makes poo the ice cream flavor de jour.
Nothing says “recurring character” like a rejected Santa with a closet gun collection. (Double points for having the real version of the fake beard Nathan sometimes sports.) Getting kicked out of a mall in mid-summer was only the beginning of this duo’s decidedly anti-holiday adventures.
When challenged to distinguish one petting zoo from all others, Nathan settles on the boss hog of attractions. Nathan’s first viral sensation — a meticulously faked viral vid of a pig “rescuing” a baby goat — remains adorable even after you realize it isn’t real.
While physical gags are always awesome, we dig the psychological aspects of Nathan pranks just as much. We can think of many ways to make the world’s scariest haunted house live up to its title. But only he would think to end it by staging a fake disease outbreak.
Part mind-freak, part imminent family court case, Nathan’s magician-like escape toes the line of good taste, but ends in uproarious applause. Challenging himself to escape from handcuffs before a robot pulls his pants down in front of children (with a cop present to immediately issue an arrest) toes the line of good taste, but ends in uproarious applause.
Scam movie or not, it’s not every day you get to see a fake Bill Gates / Johnny Depp duo orchestrate a plan to hack the moon. In an attempt to get a gift shop attention — and then get it out of hot water for misleading customers — Nathan stages a fake movie shoot and then makes a bizarro sci-fi short from the fractured footage. You better believe Ed Wood would watch.
If two maids can do the job twice as fast, it’s hard to argue with the efficiency of employing 40 maids in a comparable, exponential increase. If not the MOST efficient use of resources, it still works well enough that we’d give it a shot… Seriously, have you seen our office?
The context adds something, but it also takes away. Let’s just enjoy this image, ok?
Selling toys by claiming they make a child more adult isn’t a new idea, but props to Nathan for being so brazen. Not only does he create a commercial claiming that any child without the toy he’s hawking is a baby, he brings back Santa in a guerilla marketing effort that reinforces the idea. Brutal, yes, but no more so than the ads for whatever this year’s Tickle Me Elmo is.
In Nathan’s greatest gambit, the entrepreneurial wiz kid gins up a conceptual art display, and then uses satire law to legally infringe Starbucks’ copyright. The resulting “Dumb Starbucks” store was absolutely deserving of national attention. Too bad the health department wasn’t in agreement.
Catch Nathan For You TONIGHT (and every Thursday) at 10/9c on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app.