Star Tim Heidecker and director Rick Alverson live in person

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB!) have tirelessly blasted skulls with an onslaught of surreal, lo-fi hilarity for nearly a decade. They’ve built careers out of dad jokes, diarrhea jokes, and abused clown children. So what happens when Heidecker and Wareheim star in a “real” movie? You’d be surprised.

THE COMEDY is an audacious character study, filled with hopeless humans, painful humor, and tons of pathos. Heidecker stars as Swanson, a misanthropic jerk living in Brooklyn. While waiting to collect a trust fund from his soon-to-be-deceased-father, Swanson drunkenly stumbles through a series of miserable social “games” with his drunken pals (including Wareheim, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, and Gregg Turkington aka Neil Hamburger). They defend Hitler at a party, impersonate antique shop employees, and harass a cab driver with uncomfortable zest. Throughout, the impressive Heidecker somehow convinces the audience to empathize with his pain, rather than loathe it, which is a feat unto itself.

THE COMEDY is an unexpectedly moving work that instills desperate hope in the face of the sad situation that is our modern world. If you’re human, you’ll understand.