How ‘Nathan for You’ redefines the ‘prank show’

In the first in a series of articles looking at undiscovered or underrated comedy shows and characters, Tom Ratcliffe looks at how ‘Nathan for You’ has elevated the prank show genre beyond its crude beginnings…

When you hear the words comedy prank show you may well, like myself, vomit enthusiastically. This may be due to shuddering memories of shows like Balls of Steel or Trigger Happy TV. Perhaps these words don’t elicit such a strong reaction and you instead fondly remember shows like Da Ali G Show or Almost Royal or Impractical Jokers. Regardless, it seems fair to say that there has never been a definitive, hilarious, truly unique ‘prank’ show that has done for this genre of comedy what Monty Python did for the sketch show or the Office did for the mockumentary.

Nathan for You, as far as I’m concerned, is that show. Since 2013, Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder has fronted the one of a kind American docu-reality comedy television series and despite solid ratings and excellent reviews it’s flown somewhat under the radar, especially this side of the Atlantic. I’ve introduced several friends to it and in terms of description I’ve never got far beyond “you’ll just have to watch it.” Obviously that’s not much use for this post, so I will endeavour to do my best.

The basic premise is that the aforementioned Nathan Fielder uses his business school background to help struggling companies improve sales or brand awareness through alternative marketing strategies and sales methods. For example, the very first episode features Nathan trying to get a frozen yoghurt company noticed by creating a poo-flavoured yoghurt.

That may not sound like a million miles from Balls of Steel, yet the sentiment behind NFY make it so very different. The beauty of the methods they use is that they can only ever work or even exist if the business owners involved are willing to go along with them. It’s never exploitative in the way that public interaction on television often is. There aren’t unsuspecting people being wound up or bullied for a cheap laugh. Those taking part are free at any time to call out the ridiculousness and bring an end to it. Yet, in the case of the poo-flavoured yoghurt, the business owner’s response is initially “are you serious?” shortly followed by (after consumption) “we can give it a shot but it’s not something I would have out here for more than a day.” They settle on a 10-week trial period.

Another differentiator between NFY and your run-of-the-mill public interaction shows is the effort and intricacy behind each and every method. An episode involves a removal company whose owner complains of high staffing costs. Nathan’s original idea is to convince people that moving furniture is a better workout than a gym session, thus ensuring the owner can find staff that are not just free but actually pay him for the privilege of moving houses. That’s a reasonably funny conceit to begin with and, as always, the owner agrees to go along with it. For many shows there wouldn’t be much beyond this reasonably funny conceit. What happens over the next 20 minutes shows why Nathan for You is a million miles away from these other shows; Nathan finds a gym-obsessive to be the poster boy of the workout, has a workout book ghost written (which entered the Amazon best seller list) and convinces news networks across America to feature both book and poster boy on their channels (the poster boy hasn’t read it) before finally arranging a removal workout session with 20 willing participants.

All this madness is devised and hosted by the titular Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder. So little is known about him it’s genuinely refreshing. Throughout countless podcasts, print interviews and chat show appearances he never once drops the awkward, uncomfortable character he plays on the show – to the extent I genuinely don’t know where this character ends and the real Nathan begins. His demeanour is yet another area that pushes NFY away from traditional prank show fodder. Whereas it would be easy to have the joke on the participants (it only ever is when it’s deserved) the punch line is usually on Nathan’s social inadequacies and his uneasy, sometimes tetchy interactions. It’s this combination of bewilderment and pity that causes people to go along with his schemes. Only once in four seasons has he broken character and that was only briefly when a man started (apropos of nothing) to discuss the health benefits of drinking urine. There’s a weird, human touch that runs throughout and it’s an indefinable quality that’s at times much more suited to a light-hearted Louis Theroux documentary than a Comedy Central show.

Occasionally ideas are far too great to be contained in a mere 20-minute episode. The most famous example of this is known as Dumb Starbucks (Google it, you won’t be disappointed); involving an independent coffee shop and ‘parody law’ draws global media attention. A more recent example featured a chat show appearance that aired before the latest season was even on television. Nathan appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote said series and told an illogical story that involved a fat man’s suit, a wedding, a policeman and a woman’s ashes. Weeks later when episode 4 aired it was revealed that said story had been carefully crafted to be the perfect ‘talk show anecdote’ to help plug the show. Not only that but Nathan had spent $350,000 on plane tickets, cremations and police bribes to make sure his perfect anecdote had actually happened to him (this also warrants a Google).

I waited nearly 18 months for the recent fourth season and it was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. Whilst watching it I realised that beyond the laughs and the insanity, what I love most about Nathan for You is that it’s truly redefined a genre of comedy in a way not seen since The Office. Public interaction shows can no longer get away with just annoying members of the public now that Nathan for You has proved it is possible to make this form of comedy just as creative, hilarious and heart-warming as any other.

Part of this post was originally dedicated to how hard it is to watch Nathan for You in the UK legitimately but since I started writing Comedy Central UK’s Youtube channel have uploaded the first episode and are (I assume) planning on uploading more. Now you have no excuse.

Tom Ratcliffe has a podcast – The Tom and Jack Podcast, and also creates short films and the sketch show – Vloggers.