In the world of alternative-comedy, Tim Heidecker is something of a legend. The 37-year-old achieved that status based on shows he created — many with long-time collaborator, Eric Wareheim — for bizarro cable network Adult Swim, which includes the cringe-inducing hilarity of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!; Tim and Eric Billion Dollar Movie and Tom Goes to the Mayor.
The comic duo will soon be teaming up again: Adult Swim has greenlighted their comedy series, Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories. The show — which had a Halloween sneak peek and is on the network’s 2014 schedule — will dole out their surreal and strange brand of comedy in 15-minute installments, augmented by celebrity guests as well as familiar faces from the “Tim and Eric Universe“.
Fans of their distinctive brand of comedy can also catch Heidecker on the current (and final) season of HBO’s Eastbound and Down, where he plays Gene, a remarkably dull neighbor who lacks a sense of humor. That’s not all that Heidecker has on his plate, though. On November 12, he and multi-instrumentalist Davin Wood will release their second album under the name of Heidecker & Wood. The LP, Some Things Never Stay the Same, which you can pre-order here, finds the two delivering satirical songs set to an AM radio beat in the vein of 70s singer-songwriters Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman. The album, which is streaming over at Entertainment Weekly‘s website, features guest appearances by Aimee Mann, Eric Johnson (The Shins, Fruit Bats), Pierre de Reeder (Rilo Kiley) and others.
In advance of the album’s release, we asked the comedian to pick his five favorite comedy albums of all time and explain his choices:
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Hot February Night, Neil Hamburger
In 3D and Dare To Be Stupid, Weird “Al” Yankovic
“These two records, which I need to lump together — they came out a year apart, I owned them both and can’t really separate them in my head — were really just my favorite things when I was a 11. This along with MAD magazine and Cracked — can’t forget Cracked — really formed the foundation of my sense of humor and installed a bug in my brain that said “I wanna do this!” Al’s parodies of the big hits of the day were fine but I was a bigger fan of the deep cuts. “One More Minute” was hilariously dark, “Yoda” was clever as hell — even as my dad groaned that making fun of Madonna was okay, but leave the Kinks alone. The musical prowess of the polka medleys would only become clear to me years later.”
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