Eric Andre Picks the 3 Favorite Jokes He’s Told
Many comedians adhere to the tried and true format of setup and punchline. And then there’s Eric Andre, whose standup and his sketches are more like performance art. Andre has a penchant for the bizarre, whether behind the mic or on his surreal Adult Swim series The Eric Andre Show. He isn’t afraid to put his body to the limit. He isn’t afraid to terrorize innocent bystanders. (Or offer said bystanders “a hit” of ranch dressing.) But he also believes that jokes should have an impact: “You want to deliver a message without being preachy.”
This ideal shines through in Andre’s latest special, Legalize Everything, released earlier this year. Whether it’s a bit on the TV show Cops, predictive texting, or hallucinogens, Andre delivers his jokes with a wild, incorrigible energy and an emotional punch. When GQ got in touch with him ahead of the Season 5 premiere of The Eric Andre Show, he discussed three bits that he felt best represent his comedy.
BLACK SCIENTOLOGISTS (Eric Andre Show, 2013)
Andre fondly recalls the inspiration for this sketch: the Black Hebrew Israelites who are so hard to miss whenever you visit Times Square. He says “any comedian, black or white, that walks past them has to satirize it. They’re dressed like the foot-soldiers from the Ninja Turtles. They hate every single person that isn’t them. It’s just, what do you want from us?” Andre and his fellow “Black Scientologists”—co-stars Hannibal Buress, Wyatt Cenac and Jordan Carlos—flip that hostility in this bit, with all of the bombast, less of the threatening tone, and just as many confusing declarations (like angrily yelling random Bible verses) as the BHI themselves.
Andre admits that one of his co-stars took the joke to a whole new level: “Wyatt saves that bit,” he said. When Cenac proclaims “Battlefield Earth should’ve been a Tyler Perry movie!” it cranks the absurdity up to eleven. Andre only regrets one thing about this bit. A man comes up to the comedians and tells them he is the second coming of Christ. Not to be outdone, they tell him to put up or shut up...by ordering him to poop in front of them and then turn it into wine. Unfortunately, the man’s face remains blurred out, much to Andre’s dismay. “I wish we got that guy to sign a release form. We really blew his mind that day.”
RAPPER WARRIOR NINJA (ERIC ANDRE SHOW, 2016)
One clear influence on Andre’s standup comes from the Jackass crew of misfits. “Those guys are the best at what they do. They’re daredevils, but they’re likable,” he says. The inspiration is most obvious in the way Andre and the show’s guests constantly put their bodies on the line for the sake of comedy. (Andre shaved his entire body for this new season. Like, all of his body). The sketch that best exemplifies that influence--Andre describes it as “Jackass meets hip hop meets American Gladiators”-- is Rapper Warrior Ninja, which returns on the new season.
Andre likes to run musicians through a gauntlet --“The couch guests we prank, but we usually torture the musical guests” he laughs -- and this skit takes that literally by asking MCs to freestyle while men assault them with, say, giant Q-Tips or mouse traps. Previous editions have involved Killer Mike and Action Bronson freestyling on treadmills; the rock band 311 going through actual interrogation torture; and making ?uestlove experience an existential crisis.
In this clip, Danny Brown, A$AP Rocky and others spit bars while braving bodily harm.
What makes the bit so effective for Andre is how it deals with the typical rapper persona, which entails delivering hot verses and punchlines with unflappable confidence. But in Rapper Warrior Ninja, you aren’t there to see a dope freestyle. You’re there to see rappers suffer as they attempt to deliver a dope freestyle. “To see a swagged out cool dude get cattle prodded, that’s just good television,” Andre says, adding, “It’s always funny to see someone get cattle-prodded.”
COPS/BAD BOYS (Legalize Everything, 2020)
Even though it’s a stand-up performance, the antics that The Eric Andre Show is notorious for shine through during his latest special. Legalize Everything begins in New Orleans with Andre is dressed as a cop, offering drugs to passersby. That scenario appears again later on in one of the most memorable bits, in which Ande spends a good chunk of time breaking down reggae band Inner Circle’s hit “Bad Boys,” which was used as the theme song for the Fox TV show Cops. “I always thought it was an odd choice,” Andre says. “It was a bad editing choice they committed to for 33 seasons.”
Andre launches into a reggae patois as his cop not only commits a violent act but also describes the society that allows such acts to exist. This juxtaposition (Andre eventually devolves into singing tunes from The Little Mermaid) highlights the absurdity of using a classic reggae song as the theme for Cops. Andre gets more and more agitated just talking about it: “It doesn’t match. You should play death metal or a Nazi hardcore band like Skrewdriver during all of this.”
The sequence also asks: Who are the actual bad boys? “I always thought the bad boys were the cops themselves,” Andre admits; it took him awhile to realize that the show sees the people being arrested as the bad boys. Andre’ smother helped him find a saving grace, however: He believes Cops helped to illuminate domestic abuse “There’s more awareness of domestic violence post the show Cops than there was in the 60s and 70s. At least it raised awareness.” These bits tackle the polarizing issue of police and police brutality -- “There’s been hundreds of thousands of George Floyds for years in this country,” Andre says -- in trademark fashion. They pack a punch without being preachy.
Originally Appeared on GQ
