Tim And Eric And Shrek
Younger readers may not remember the heady days of 2007. A world on the brink. Division running rampant. Plain White T’s have a song in the Top 10. Mass hysteria.
But then came a beacon of hope, a symbol to bring together disparate groups the world over to collectively scream out together: “SHREK 3!!!”
SHREK THE THIRD, like other SHREK movies, is hot garbage. Yes, they all have about three to five solid jokes but the rest is…just awful. But out of that dunghill came something truly spectacular, truly whimsical, truly fantastic. In the run up to, and release of, SHREK THE THIRD, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim decided to treat the movie as a cause célèbre, whipping up support for this “small” project and never letting the mask slip on their lampooning of corporate synergy and hollow artistry.
Constantly referring to it as SHREK 3, and getting many little aspects of the promotion and film info wrong, it’s a delight to see the duo act so animated and truly enthusiastic about something they very clearly despise. Even when others are laughing along the pair doesn’t crack and keeps the Andy Kaufman-esque extended bit going.
It’s possible that this was meant to lampoon the fact that Tim and Eric were some of the earliest and loudest proselytizers of THE ROOM and Tommy Wiseau, so they decided to take that insider cache and use it to mock the whole idea of influencer culture…before influencer culture even existed.
And the fun didn’t stop just when the movie came out. Oh no. Tim and Eric were committed to seeing this performance through to the bitter Shrek end. So they recorded themselves attending the “premiere,” elation pouring over them for all their hard work and corporate synergy paying off.
But what did they think of their dream sequel? Did SHREK THE THIRD…sorry, SHREK 3 live up to the hype? You bet your ass it did. (or your donkey…cuz of the movie…which, again, is horrible)
Tim and Eric did a brilliant piece of comedy that weaponized a lot of Internet and social media avenues that many folks take for granted now. Like most of their committed bits, no one could technically point out what they were doing was mocking the film…but everyone could see the winking. It was a delightful reprieve in 2007 and hopefully it can be one again in 2022.
