Trying to understand Nathan Fielder’s brand of comedy the first go-round is hard, especially if you don’t understand his vibe. But catching it in the wild? That has to be rough, and that’s what’s happening with the promotion for his new show The Curse.
Fielder is promoting the series with Emma Stone, and we’re getting to see a unique thing: Nathan Fielder having to actually promote something and do press. What would be normal for most actors is decidedly not that for him, which is par for the course if you know Fielder and his brand of comedy. Prior to the release of The Rehearsal, it’d be understandable for people to not really get what he’s doing, but that series (which was released on HBO) kind of set the tone for how odd and out there he can be.
Those who watched Nathan for You knew what Fielder was willing to do, but The Rehearsal put him on a more national level. What The Curse is doing, by having him work with Stone and Benny Safdie, is forcing people to embrace Fielder’s comedy who might have never done so before. That’s why this press tour is … well, chaotic. Social media has been filled with people who don’t know what he’s doing and who can’t quite tell where the bits start and end, which has been delicious.
It started with Fielder and Stone working harder than the devil to parody the Anybody but You trailer intro the day it came out.
It has since become Fielder going on to talk shows with a persona that is not who he is in real life, talking about the show and dragging Jimmy Kimmel in the process.
What’s been fun is to see social media trying to figure out what is real and what isn’t when it comes to Fielder.
Don’t try and figure him out. Just let him cook.
This is truly a hilarious way to get to know Fielder as a comedian because if you already know what he’s known for and his satire, you know when he’s joking around and how he pokes fun at things. If The Curse is your introduction and you’re tuning into something like Jimmy Kimmel Live to get to know him? Godspeed to you.
Sure, there are people who can probably put two and two together to figure out what a bit is, but with the way of the world and how people don’t understand basic comedy as it is, I just feel like Nathan Fielder is going to end up being lost on so many if they try too hard. What’s even better right now is that people are coming to The Curse for Emma Stone, not getting it, and leaving, or they are coming to the show because they do understand what they’re getting into and they’re making fancams of Nathan Fielder set to boygenius songs.
There are two distinct sides of what is going on with Nathan Fielder and The Curse right now and I am loving every single second of it.
(featured image: ABC)
