When the comic Patti Harrison became requested to address President Trump’s transgender military ban at the Tonight Show, she was simply scratching her comedy’s floor. “Donald, you’re so silly,” she stated, invoking Trump’s New York patois. “You are soooo stupid. You’re lucky you’re so warm.” A deeper dive into Harrison’s oeuvre of stand-up bits, tweets, and YouTube movies yields something delusional, crass, and totally alien to the world of mainstream comedy embodied by way of Jimmy Fallon. It’s simply one of the reasons Harrison has fast garnered a cult following — strengthened, no question, by way of her function in Hulu’s Shrill, the Aidy Bryant-starring, collection model of Lindy West’s memoir. Playing the workplace coordinator, Ruthie, she dishes out ludicrously bitchy one-liners — something that comes evidently to Harrison, who’s leveraged her innate expertise for nasty jokes into a seat in the author’s room of Big Mouth, Nick Kroll’s animated puberty comedy for Netflix. Whether on late-night time television or raiding the competition stage at Governor’s Ball, Harrison turns any shaggy dog story into her own personal plaything, tossing it round like a Hacky Sack before kicking the stuffing out of it. Routinely poking fun at straight individual inefficacy, female mores, her anxieties, and her hypersensitive reactions, Harrison prospers inside the throes of discomfort.
If you were to trace the genetic material of Harrison’s humor, the comic Tim Heidecker might seem within the take a look at consequences. The pioneer of absurd, deadpan humor as one-half of the duo at the back of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! On Adult Swim, Heidecker is a human floor-0 for the loose-for-all, surrealist early net humor that has steadily distilled into mainstream focus. After a decade of Tim and Eric, he’s long gone directly to direct classified ads for light bulbs and pizza rolls, emerge as a cult film critic, and launch a slew of albums with a political, folky bent. His ultra-modern, Another Year in Hell: Collected Songs from 2018, became released rapidly before his appearance as a boat-proudly owning sleazebag in Jordan Peele’s Us. Over a spotty convention call throughout LA, Heidecker and Harrison spoke about all that could clearly arise in communication: Trump, Twitter trolls, Zyrtec, guys without chins, and 14-foot-lengthy tiger sharks. —SARAH NECHAMKIN
TIM HEIDECKER: Let’s get into it. I love an amazing conference call—people talking over each other differently.
PATTI HARRISON: Yeah, conference calls are actually exact. I took a Zyrtec, so I’m form of crazed off of that proper now. It’s probably high-quality. You don’t see all the outcomes. It’s taking up my psyche.
HEIDECKER: What does that prescription do? I’ve in no way heard of it.
HARRISON: Zyrtec is an over-the-counter 24-hour allergic reaction medicinal drug that allows me. It’s my favorite meal. You gotta get some Zyrtec whilst you’re in Glendale.
HEIDECKER: The pollen’s out of control. I’m allergic to butterflies, so it’s been a terrible couple of days for me. Are you sick of the butterflies yet?
HARRISON: Yeah, I’ve been shooting at them. I have a concealed convey, so I have some weapons that I maintain. I maintain them in my large, massive high-waisted style pants at all times, and I have two small crimson pistols because I’m a female.
HEIDECKER: Are you acquainted with my paintings?
HARRISON: Long-time fan. Baby lady, I, in reality, am. I turned into born in ‘ninety-nine, so… Wait, I’m sorry, I was born in 2004. I’m 28.
HEIDECKER: But you’re now not intimidated by using this verbal exchange because it’s me you’re speaking to?
HARRISON: I am anxious.
HEIDECKER: You ought to be. You ought to be trembling with fear.
HARRISON: I don’t sense security. I gained’t say anything about it for about ten years, but then I’m going to write the Medium submit on the way to rock your international. And I’m gonna take Sarah down too.
SARAH NECHAMKIN: [Laughs nervously.]
HEIDECKER: Let me start with some biographical stuff. 1964, you married George Harrison, and then you ended up with Eric Clapton. How did that transition take place? I recognize a bit approximately it; however, maybe you may communicate with it.
HARRISON: Sure factor. So, at the time, I changed into George Harrison, and that changed into brilliant. It did have its flaws, codependent a little bit. But then Eric Clapton wrote this truely amazing track approximately me.
HEIDECKER: “Layla.”
HARRISON: No, it became referred to as “ET.” He wrote it for Katy Perry, and it’s basically about a love that’s so crazy it’s out of this world. Things went downhill from there.
HEIDECKER: Are you naturally attracted to guys without chins?
HARRISON: I assume I experience safer. I’ve been in a few situations in which I’ve kissed guys with chins, and their chins are so sturdy it just separates my jaw. I’ve been in the sanatorium, so oftentimes from these actually simply violent kisses with these men with chins. If you have a smooth chin, you could write tremendous music about me that involves an alien from my favored movie, after which I’m yours.
HEIDECKER: Tell me about wherein you grew up and who you’re because I became too lazy to study the Wikipedia page.
HARRISON: I’m from a city in Ohio called Orient.
HEIDECKER: [Snores.]
HARRISON: What is that nasty noise? If Ohio becomes a meal, it’d be Benadryl. If Chicago changed into pizza, Ohio is Benadryl or a few forms of frequent over-the-counter.
HEIDECKER: Zyrtec.
HARRISON: Zyrtec is truly the first-rate, and I advocate taking it because I’m instrumental in it, and it’s truly progressed the nice of my lifestyle.
HEIDECKER: So Zyrtec is greater like Ojai.
HARRISON: Benadryl is to Culver City as Zyrtec is to Ojai. I’ve by no means been to Culver City or Ojai.
