Chris Fleming Is Comedy's Once And Future King
We stan a showpig
There are many comedic acts that could be heralded as the icons of pandemic-era comedy. Many would point to Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave, a surrealist sketch show where Robinson and cast-mates play eccentric characters heightened to the point of absurdity. Maybe some prefer the viral fame turned SNL gig of Please Don’t Destroy, a group who leans more towards the internet-humor style of a fast set-up and less realistic grounding. Perhaps the most obvious choice is Bo Burnham, the brain and lanky body behind the special Inside which many felt tapped into the deep emotional and mental toll of isolation and quarantine.
But as the world continues to not make sense, I find myself returning time and again to Chris Fleming.
Like many YouTube personalities, Fleming got his start with character work, one of his most famous being a New England upper-middle class woman named Gayle. Fleming is particularly adept at pointing out hyper-specific qualities of character tropes, tropes that you probably weren’t even aware of until you saw the amalgamation of all the characteristics in the same place. In “The Grad Student Shuffle”, Fleming fixates on the type of academic who closes their eyes and says, “fair enough” and calls themselves a community organizer even though they’re not on speaking terms with their roommates. He has a knack for noticing and presenting these distinct characters, whether it’s "Dad Trying to Use a Keyless Entry at Night", “Theater Kids” or "Teens Who Drink Coffee or “Homophobes.”
It seems fitting that someone who understands our world so well would also be utterly confused and intimidated by it. In his video, “I’m Afraid To Talk To Men” he sings about his struggles making conversation with dudes, noting:
Do we talk about golf or birds?
Only the nice ones talk about birds
And if I talk about birds with the wrong one
He’ll eat me for breakfast
The curiosity with which he sees things (and resulting anxiety of not knowing what the right answer is and fear of making the wrong one) feels particularly appropriate in a time where it feels like social norms are changing rapidly. Do we shake hands or bump elbows? Are we going into the office or not? How do we make small talk again? Though “I’m Afraid To Talk To Men” came out before COVID, the confusion around social norms that should be easy but just aren’t still permeates.
Fleming has the unique ability of being able to find humor in external sources (“Danny Zuko's Break with Reality” is another good example of questioning something we all find normal) as well an internal anecdotes. Ultimately though, it’s the eccentric and embellished way he describes things that make his work shine. In “My Dad and My Soccer Coach” he tells the story of the time his dad accidentally told his soccer coach “I love you”. He recounts his father panicking to his mother, imagining him saying, “I just squeaked out an erotic nighttime whisper to my son’s soccer coach.” Similarly, in “Am I a Man?” he confronts the questions he gets about his gender. “Can I consider myself a man if, in a pinch, I can dry myself off with a hand towel? My concept of a man is someone who whacks their elbow a little bit at Bertucci’s, and has no hang-ups about freaking out.”
Fleming’s straight-to-camera videos are often meandering monologues that end in a completely different place than they began. That may feel off-putting for those used to more rigid comedic structures, but the free-flowing nature only further emphasizes Fleming’s otherworldliness. For him, stories do not have a beginning, middle, and end, they just have the beginning and then wherever they go from there. Maybe that’s why I’ve been so drawn to them now, when nothing seems linear and everything moves back and forth constantly. The way he weaves scenes and examples into his anecdotes feels more like watching the thought process within someone’s brain rather than a linear narrative — and Chris Fleming has one of the most interesting brains out there.
And now, please watch “Sick Jan”.
