With Season 1, Episode 6, “Slop,” the deranged duo double down on the disgusting, the unsettling, and--for a little extra kick--give us two of the series’ most iconic characters! Grab a bucket of Tragg’s branded brown slop, and let’s dig in.
Themes:
At a fundamental level, “Slop” is fascinated with the perversity of bodies. By using this phrase, I don’t mean to suggest the idea of sexual perversion as in kinkiness or aberrant/illegal sexual desire. At a much more nucleic level, “Slop” is concerned with the essential untrustworthiness of bodies.
This emphasis is depicted through two interrelated subjects: consumption and expulsion. Many of the segments of this episode (Tragg’s Trough, Tricks of the Tragg, Beaver Boys) deal explicitly with the queasy consumption of food and drink. Here, eating and drinking are depicted as raw, animal, and deeply stomach-churning. From here, the episode turns its attention to expulsion (an all-time favorite theme of the series, and one we’ll be returning to again and again). Most notably, the “Success” saga and the introduction of the “Beaver Boys” gives us bodies who are fundamentally unable to contain themselves. Whether squirting milk from male breasts (or worse, blood), having too many nipples, or, worse, a tongue attached to your crotch, or vomiting gallons of foamy pink puke after eating your weight in shrimp and white wine-- bodies, and the fluids they produce, are a source of anxiety, disgust and shame.
Taking things a step further, Tim and Eric continue to challenge the show’s fragile concept of reality with the “Fake Tim and Eric” host segments. Featuring much younger men who don’t even resemble Tim and Eric, these men desperately attempt to convince the audience that they are indeed, the iconic duo, and that they do “love [their] show,” with an overwhelming passion. Just as episode five, “Chunky,” radically unsettles the idea of objective reality, this idea is carried on through “Slop,” and the result is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.
Hi-Lights:
Fake Tim and Eric Saga
See Theme. These barely passable Tim and Eric replacements are all the more hypnotic for their dead-eyed stares and faux Eric’s endless assertion that, Steve Mahanahan style, he “loves his shooooooow.” The intrusion of needless “labels” on the fake hosts’ faces in the final segment just make the effect all the more surreal. (Special bonus: these actors return for a “flashback” scene in the upcoming episode, Anniversary.)
Kid Break: I Wear My Dad’s Dirty Socks
Tim and Eric are back to educate the befuddled children of the 90’s. Here, Tim explores the behavior of a neglected child as he bonds to his absentee father through the power of song and filthy socks. Extra points to Eric for deadpanning the line, “These socks smell like other mom’s lips,” with enough understated dramatic intensity to propel the scene from grotesque to hysterical.
Success Interlude
Oh boy...how to explain this one? A giant eraser well...erases...spots in Tim’s sweater, revealing three nipples. His third nipple begins to bleed, but never fear, a giant tongue laps out of Tim’s waistband and licks the blood away. Then, the three nipples, waistband, and tongue appear to form a jubilant happy face. So.... a happy ending?
Beaver Boys (Part 3)
The conclusion of episode six’s “Beaver Boys” saga. After our cream-clad heroes fail to seduce women on the beach, they hit the clubs where they drink twenty-five glasses of white wine and proceed to vomit explosively on every surface in the club. A classic bit taken to the stratospheric heights of absurdity by sheer volume and repetition.
Anatomy of an Episode
Success
Tim and Eric appear from a smoky background. They dress for success in a few different outfits before Tim makes a daring fashion choice.
Fake Tim and Eric (part 1)
See Hi-Lights. “Tim” and “Eric” are here, and they love their shooooow.
Beaver Boys (part 1)
See Theme. We are introduced to Dilly (Tim) and Krunk (Eric) as they try to win over some ladies at the beach. If the squeakily voiced question, “Can you make me horny?” doesn’t win them over...I don’t know what will.
David Liebe Hart: Stay in School
Our favorite ventriloquist and his bear puppet sing about the importance of education.
Tragg’s Trough
Fred Willard really classes up the joint in this segment that tries every possible strategy to turn the viewers’ stomachs. From the ground up food, to the trough itself, to images of unsmiling people with brown slop rubbed in their faces...it’s about as pleasant as you would expect.
Kid Break: I Wear My Dad’s Dirty Socks
See Hi-Lights. Tim and Eric return to the idea of bad dads in this inspirational 90’s classic.
Fake Tim and Eric (Part 2)
They’re still here. Hey, pep pep pep pep...
Beaver Boys (Part 2)
The Boys are jubilant to discover a cache of shrimp on the beach.
Fitness Can be E-Z with Tom Friedrickson
Tim plays Ken Tulley, an entrepreneur with the dream of selling Tom Friedrickson’s verbally abusive exercise videos. The real joy of this sketch are the ridiculous add-ons: glow bones, car tarps (that actually shrink the size of your car), and the Taargus, a circular storage unit. Who could resist these deals?
Success Interlude
See Hi-Lights. Disgust and whimsy meet.
Tricks of the Tragg
Fred Willard returns to echo a message from David Liebe Hart. Stay in school, kids.
Beaver Boys (Part 3)
See Hi-Lights. The boys enjoy a night on the town with some unexpected consequences.
Fake Tim and Eric (Part 3)
They’re still here, and they still love their show.
Coda
An awkward moment. Real Tim and Eric confront their doppelgängers as Tim invites them all to hang out.
Winner:
Tim takes this one. There is way, way too much attention paid to his man nipples for that not to pay off. Here’s to you, Tim, and however many nipples you have.
Pennie Sublime