Ageing hipster Swanson is about to receive his father’s inheritance, but doesn’t care. He hangs around and acts like a complete jerk. Nevertheless, he’s clearly in search of something to provide satisfaction. An indifferent hero in a fable about modern humanity.
On the first day of shooting for The Comedy, director Rick Alverson (of the band Spokane) tweeted that his film was an 'atrocity of cinema'. However, given the nature of the film, it is probable that his tongue was lodged firmly in cheek. Because, even if the main characters in The Comedy are played by the crème de la crème of American underground comedy, with Tim Heidecker (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) in the lead role, the film is primarily a sardonic look at the vacuousness of today’s all-consuming irony.
Nothing is sacred for the almost apathetic Swanson (Heidecker) and his group of practically identically-clad friends: tennis shoes and polo shirts that fail to hide the beer guts emerging from underneath their pathetic blond beards. Seemingly emotionlessly, they deeply insult one another and others with jokes about any taboo that comes to mind. These men drift aimlessly just as Swanson does on the yacht that serves as his home.