rant · moment 6 of 17
The TBS Tournament of Laughs Saga and Unaired Sketches
from #211 - Snubbed | The Tim Dillon Show · #211
19 min
Tim recounts making it to the finals of TBS's Tournament of Laughs, mocks the network's other shows (Angie Tribeca, Samantha Bee, Miracle Workers), tells the David Dobrik Lamborghini bit, then plays and defends two elaborate unaired sketches (the Fauci mafia parody and a chaotic home-invasion sketch) that TBS refused to air.
- Tim explains his path to the TBS Tournament of Laughs finals, facing fierce competition from comics in homeless shelters uploading videos on iPhones.
- He won the tournament despite not knowing what happened to competitor Fortune Themes, who was stuck in a revolving door.
- Tim pitches a concept where he gives people stern talking-tos instead of Lamborghinis, questioning why people cry when given free cars that will ruin their lives.
- His alternative: showing up with Chris Hedges books instead of luxury cars, or following David Dobrik around to give him burned-out police cars from the riots.
- Making it to the Tournament of Laughs finals was the only thing he really tried hard for, despite barely promoting it and his aunt calling it an embarrassment.
- He celebrates TBS's legacy of shows like Samantha Bee yelling about Trump for 28 minutes and the series Angie Tribeca with its premise about investigating a ventriloquist murder.
- More TBS highlights: Miracle Workers, where Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi starred in a show about low-level angels trying to get God interested in saving humanity.
- For the tournament finals, Tim and his team hired a full crew, spent thirty thousand dollars per sketch producing content with the best available talent.
- He jokes they hired the same videographers who filmed the Abu Ghraib torture videos and the people who installed blackmail equipment on Epstein's island.
- The team spent a week writing without sleeping, using Adderall, cocaine, and hallucinogens like mushrooms, LSD, and ayahuasca to create art as vessels channeling messages from another world.
- Despite the effort, TBS refused to air the sketches, which Tim considers intelligent, sharp pieces demonstrating respect for the craft of comedy.
- The first sketch took four days to shoot and three to four days to edit with three editors working day and night before TBS rejected it.
- In the Frank Fauci sketch, Tim plays Tony Fauci's son who repeatedly says "forget about it" in a heavy Italian accent while discussing vaccines and bathing.
- Tim insists the rejected sketch was so well-produced that viewers should marvel at how they achieved Game of Thrones-level quality on a thirty-thousand-dollar budget.
- The Frank Fauci sketch used repetition of "forget about it" intentionally to drive home a point about chaos and the necessity of accepting things beyond control.
- He expresses frustration at the producer who lived in a shanty by the 405 freeway for not fighting harder to get the content aired.
- Tim compares the difficulty of producing the second sketch to Olympic gymnastics, where Russian gymnasts had to stick landings perfectly or face assassination back home.
- The second sketch was complex, layered, and a real narrative piece—a departure from their usual one or two minute topical content.
- Tim introduces the second sketch as possibly the greatest piece of art he and Benjamin will ever produce, which TBS cowardly refused to let people see.
Samantha BeeAnthony FauciEllen DeGeneresDavid DobrikTBSWhitney CummingsLittle St JamesDaniel RadcliffeChris HedgesAbu GhraibLorne MichaelsSeymour Hersh