Nathan Fielder is an unsung Canadian hero.
The British Columbia-born comedian now does a popular show on Comedy Central called "Nathan For You" where he uses his savvy business degree to help failing businesses in Los Angeles prosper again. Things like turning a coffee shop into a parody of Starbucks (which he dubbed "Dumb Starbucks" under legality of parody law, making international headlines) or faking a filming of a Johnny Depp movie in a souvenier shop in Hollywood or helping a dating service by implementing a private eye service to avoid women being taken advantage of on the first date called "Daddy's Watching". But beyond his ideas, Fielder is a true Canadian hero because his show mocks mainstream business-oriented reality TV by pushing the awkwardness of human interaction. He tries to show not how people are assholes when faced with incompetence, but how they will be nice for the sake of niceness.
Fielder has built a career on his awkward demeanour. From his series of YouTube shorts to his hosting on Canadian comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Fielder's funny because he wants to see what happens when he makes people feel uncomfortable. (When he appeared on David Letterman, he told a story about how his American green card has a typo labeling him as female. When faced with a border guard eyeing him up and down, he knew he had to broach the situation, so he simply and confidently asked, "Is there a problem?"
Back when Fielder was a correspondent for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, he retained the same interview tactics, just with blacker hair and bigger, billowing trousers. Like reality comedy show Kenny vs. Spenny, This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a Canadian comedy classic that not many people North of the 49th parallel know about. This is a gross shame because both these shows make you wonder how people get away with such retarded and hilarious genius.
But back to Fielder, because I want to know, who is fucking Nathan Fielder? Is he having regular sex? Comedians have fans that cluster like groupies, but how do the infamously awkward sexually capitalize?
My friend Jane claims Louis CK is her get-out-of-jail-free-card with her husband, but watching him air hump a stool in his HBO special was like watching a reverse video of shit coming out of an asshole in slow motion.
Look, I know it's none of my business if Fielder is having sex, but I want to know. (Flip the gender in this article, have a man ask this about Amy Schumer or whoever, and people would flip. I know how unfair and contradictory I am being right now, but I think Fielder can take it, seeing as he has yet to ever have his feelings hurt, as he told VICE in 2013.)
The debate about whether funny gets you fucked has been researched again and again, but recently Slate asked the question, referencing a study by British Journal of Psychiatry.
"The very same qualities that make stand-ups beloved on the stage could compromise their appeal as a date. Compared to the layperson, comedians display a “tendency towards impulsive or anti-social behavior,” a “tendency to avoid intimacy,” and a “reduced ability to feel social and physical pleasure."
The study asked 523 comedians to “complete an online questionnaire designed to measure psychotic traits in healthy people,” and determined that "the creative elements needed to produce humour” are “strikingly similar” to those of low-level psychosis.
There's this video that Fielder did years back with his friend and fellow comedian Katie Crown, called "Even The Best". The premise is nothing but a weird moment between two potential lovers that turns into Fielder lip syncing along to "Collide" by Howie Day. You know how much it makes you want to pull out your own spine when a guy tries to impress you by playing one of his acoustic originals for you on the guitar? This video is like that, times a hundred, but actually hilarious. And not a pussy repellent.
So, who is fucking Fielder and is he good? I need to know.
