Nathan Fielder walks up to a model. The model is clad in a soft-shell jacket designed specifically for the company Nathan has just started. Nathan pulls the model aside and says, “Six million Jews died in the Holocaust, approximately.” The model, confused, stammers out, “OK.” “So, how many Jews died in the Holocaust?” Fielder asks. “Six million,“ the model answers. Fielder smiles. “OK. Great. Let’s sell some jackets.”
That comes out of a segment from the second episode of the newest season of “Nathan For You.” The premise is that Nathan’s father has asked him to stop wearing a jacket made by a company that’s tangentially related to a Holocaust denier, and so Nathan decides the only option is to create his own jacket company, called Summit Ice. If you go to the website, there are light, fashionable soft-shell jackets right along an image of the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate into Auschwitz.
“Nathan For You” is not your typical show, and Nathan Fielder is not your typical comedian. The show’s formula is as follows: Nathan approaches a real business owner with an idea that’s either insane, bordering on illegal or both. Without fail, the business owners will consent, and Nathan will spend the episode politely navigating obstacles and making it difficult for people to say no. His politeness and awkward social navigation (he often makes reference to his being single and lack of friends), paired with his unsmiling deadpan, can create wildly uncomfortable situations.
Cringe comedy has always existed (the best of “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” come to mind), but it’s flourishing right now. “Review,” “Comedy Bang! Bang!,” “Louie” and, of course, “Nathan For You” represent a very specific breed of comedy. For the more squeamish among us, it can be excruciating to watch, and even for those of us with the stomach for it, there are still moments where you can’t believe what people will do. What separates “Nathan For You” from those shows is that his is not scripted; consequently, the stakes feel higher. We’re not laughing at some poor schlub of a character agreeing to an absurd business proposal—we’re watching real, actual people decide that yes, it would be a good idea to put an ad for a pet store on a gravestone at the local pet cemetery.
It’d be easy to walk away from the show and deem it cruel. Indeed, watching regular people get essentially duped into wacko decisions can be tough to watch, and Nathan’s insistence on bringing their personal lives into the businesses factors into that. In one episode last season, he tried to sell a reality show based on the extremely sad, lonely life of a security guard he’d met during another scheme. It feels a bit exploitative, but that also seems to be the point. Fielder has discussed the inspiration for the show coming to him during the economic collapse at the ends of the aughts. He’s described reading up on the culture of shady dealings that led to recession, and how it dawned on him that so many enormous decisions came down to “…basically two people in a room with one person being too uncomfortable to speak their mind.” He’s aping that in a way, just on a much smaller scale. The results, rather than being catastrophic, can be hilarious.
“Nathan For You” airs on Thursday nights at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.
Bernstein is a member of the class of 2018.
