Cinco. Spagett. Pep-Pep. B’Owls. The unique language of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim—once the conduit for private jokes between the two aspiring film students—has become a lexicon embraced by insomniacs across the country, thanks to the bizarro world of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, an 11-minute program that airs during Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
Soon, the Awesome Show creators will take their riotous act—riddled with song, dance and at least partial nudity—into the daylight hours for Sasquatch!, All Points West and their annual Awesomecon. “Tim and I started in bands,” Wareheim says, “and there’s something different about performing live. You can’t rely on editing tricks like we do on Awesome Show. A lot of it’s theater—like, big. And some of the sketches are just for the live show—you could never do them on TV.”
This summer, Heidecker and Wareheim will film the fifth season of Awesome Show and continue working on their big-screen debut, an as-yet-untitled affair produced by comedy big shots Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. They’ve also contributed four sketches to HBO’s upcoming Funny Or Die, the collaborative show adapted from Ferrell and McKay’s website, FunnyOrDie.com.
“It’s not like we’re trying to be different consciously as much as we’re just doing what we would normally do,” Heidecker says. “But we also have an awareness that every good thing that has come along in history has been sort of a departure from the norm.”