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Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Trust Me

Kurt Braunohler

Comedy Central · 2017 · 59 min

Kurt Braunohler undermines his own authority with humiliating confessions.

Watch on Comedy Central(opens in a new tab)

Kurt Braunohler spends his hour trying to convince the audience that he should not be trusted, specifically because he looks like a tall, friendly camp counselor who has everything figured out. To dismantle the unearned authority granted to white men like him, he offers a series of humiliating self-disclosures, such as a formative childhood encounter with a McDonald’s fruit pie, while urging other white guys to start lying about things like cats inventing parkour. It is a silly, self-deprecating strategy designed to make the audience question why anyone would look to him for guidance.

Filmed at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon, the 2017 special arrived at a transitional moment in Braunohler’s career. Best known in the alternative scene for his grand-scale absurdist pranks and co-hosting the weekly variety show Hot Tub, this first hour-long special saw him integrating a weightier perspective into his material. The shift is most apparent when he pivots from jokes about satellite radio and redhead sex to a stark comparison of the police treatment of Dylann Roof versus Eric Garner, an unexpected swerve that anchors his lighter routines in something genuinely purposeful.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Undermining white male authority and privilege

    Confronts his own status as a 6'4" white man alongside statistics on police killings of Black men, delivering deliberate absurdities to deconstruct the unearned credibility granted to white male speech.

  2. Irish potato famine

    Delivers a vicious, hysterical faux-attack on the logic behind the historical famine.

  3. Hosting a miserable prank show and a shooting non-experience abroad

    Shares terrifying and awkward true stories that shift the show away from conventional humor into darker territory.

  4. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Bizarre 'dancing shark' spectacle routine closer

    A three-minute multi-punchline finale rooted in stupidity and spectacle reminiscent of Katy Perry's halftime show.

  5. Sex between redheads, embarrassing masturbation, and satellite radio

    Observational and self-effacing routines exploring personal humiliation and modern absurdities.

How it plays

Tone
Absurdist, silly, self-deprecating, and socially conscious with sudden dark and serious turns.
On stage
Charming, self-effacing, tall ginger-bearded performer with the look of a 'friendly camp counselor' whose outwardly trustable appearance masks absurd and subversive intentions.
Pace
Begins with conventional rhythms and seemingly safe misadventures before accelerating into darker, sillier, and more politically biting territory designed like a roller coaster.
About
white male privilege, police brutality, trust and deception, marriage and relationships, absurdities of modern life

What the critics said

Hailed by Paste Magazine as a confident mainstream debut and brilliant coup, praised for shifting from safe, relatable observational comedy into biting political commentary and inspired absurdist spectacle.

In the room: Enthusiastic, smart, and engaged crowd at Portland's Revolution Hall.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: tv.apple.com, themoviedb.org, cinetvlocations.com, thetvdb.com, pastemagazine.com, vulture.com, mic.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Taped prior to the 2016 presidential election amid heightened national consciousness around police brutality against unarmed Black men; Braunohler was also anticipating the birth of his first child following the death of his mother.

Details

Released
Taped
Revolution Hall, Portland
Runtime
59 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Shannon Hartman
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents (2014)

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