Short of the Week

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Comedy Tim and Eric
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The Terrys

(CURRENTLY OFFLINE) TV's Tim and Eric descended upon Sundance 2011 with this, a short film of unbridled crudity.

Play
Comedy Tim and Eric
ma

The Terrys

(CURRENTLY OFFLINE) TV's Tim and Eric descended upon Sundance 2011 with this, a short film of unbridled crudity.

The Terrys

Directed By Tim and Eric
Made In USA

NSFW!!! For that matter, not really safe for decent people anywhere, at any time. The Terrys is a panoply of filth, crudity and perversion, creating indelible images that unfortunately, once viewed, cannot be unseen.  If you’re a filthy degenerate though (like me), this short film masterpiece from comedy duo Tim and Eric should be right up your alley.

The Terrys are the especially wicked blight of the Dunnersville Trailer Park. Violent, drug-addled, sex-crazed, and mutually abusive, the couple, Terry Grutt, played by Tim Heidecker, and Terry Brovart played by Eric Wareheim, are a terror of unbridled love/hate. When they aren’t rutting like animals in a drug-induced stupor, they are threatening to kill one another. Things look bleak for their longterm survival, let alone happiness and self-actualization. Now a baby is coming, and in a weird twist of fate, this life that they are supposed to take care of ends up taking care of them.

Tim and Eric can be incredibly subtle and deft satirists, as regular viewers of their former Adult Swim TV show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! already know, but this short film showcases little of that, indulging instead in their propensity for going big with gross-out humor and absurd non-sequiturs. There is a cringe-inducing element to the establishment the Terrys’ character, but it is a fine line between awful and hilariously awful and that razor-thin divide is what the duo blithely base much of their work upon. This short film frees the team to kick things up a few notches past what even permissive late-night TV allows—with graphic simulated sex, drug use, and even a birthing scene.

I don’t know if there is much of a point to the proceedings, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t shock, appall, and, most importantly, entertain. The short film is really well done—the droll narration at the beginning along with tight editing leads immediately into two boundary-pushing scenes for its leads, demanding your attention from the start. Within 90 seconds you will know whether you’re on board with Tim and Eric’s twisted vision or not. From a detached perspective this directness of approach is admirable, and nullifies my most common pet peeve regarding much short media.

It is this assuredness of the vision, even as the film takes some bizarre turns, which is refreshing, though unfair to its short film comedy competition. Short film is still the province of up and comers looking to prove, and improve, their craft. Yet in The Terrys there are innumerable little touches and details that delight, giving one the unmistakeable inkling of that you’re in the hands of gifted storytellers—a competence honed over years of producing dozens and dozens of hours of TV sketches.

Sundance and SXSW have increasingly been swarmed by high-profile talents dipping their toes into the short film and festival world, and it was back in January at Park City that this film debuted. This is the last of the 2011 high profile, but crude, shorts we’ve featured from these festivals, following the Beastie Boys short film, Harmony Korine/Die Antwoord’s Umshini Wam, and Rainn Wilson’s effort with Blitzen Trapper.

This film also debuted on TV as part of HBO’s Funny or Die Presents, a television showcase for the internet comedy site founded by Will Ferrell. Using Sundance as a platform has been a great success for this (from what I’ve seen) mediocre TV show, as it has (inexplicably) produced the last two Sundance jury-prize winning American shorts, Derek Simon’s Drunk History, and this year’s winner Brick Novax’s Diary. While overall I’m skeptical of this trend, if short film and festivals can encourage established comedic voices to create content that will push the boundaries of the tired sketch format, as Tim and Eric have done here, then I’m in.