It's hard to describe what Nathan Fielder does with his various tv shows. Nathan for You and The Rehearsal seem to operate with first a simple reality tv premise, then a meta premise (?) with an insightful meaning and a sincerity that either enhances the hilarity of both scripted and unscripted moments or with awkwardness that causes major cringe.

I think he would describe himself as a clown, and this makes sense in the light of what he reveals of his methods in both his commentary on the show but also in interviews he's appeared in.

He recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel talking about the second season of the show The Rehearsal. The second season has been very different from the first in that it unfolds as he pursues the long arc of reforming communication techniques in the cockpit of commercial planes because as he believes, this will decrease likelihood of bad outcomes when something goes wrong. So the show has centered on air travel for this season whereas in the first, Nathan took on a role as a dad in a fake tv family.

Okay anyway, after all the preamble, I wanted to put up a couple clips from this recent interview. Using one of the methods he employs on his show, he arrives for the interview dressed in a pilot costume. 1. https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxYkBga807U3RYgJRuvXH7tXIjEFZovASt?si=DDKSEAzaOaPTyea5 So here he says, Yes, because I feature this topic in my show, I took the training to do it for real, to authenticate the experience of the subject. The crowd is with him, they cheer and applaud for the achievement. The host then sets up a joke which Nathan lands but seems reluctant to. 2. https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxf6d06ZCk1o0cDVplTqiU3j8d58ghwZj4?si=mPWe5JESmPx36zZ5 Then he continues to layout a sincere case for why he became a pilot but when the crowd laughs, it seems to change his demeanor. He leans in and the crowd keeps laughing in perfect contradiction to what he is literally communicating.

So in just a few words and with very imperceptible small changes, Nathan goes from being hero to jester. Like I feel bad for him while they laugh. I wonder, is he being intentionally funny?

I love the show. I think it's genius. Any other Nathan Fielder fans?