Tim and Eric’s new ad for Totino’s Pizza Rolls is a little bit like an art house film from which you need to flee after 10 minutes. It’s a little bit like a nightmare in which the creepiest characters from Pee Wee Herman’s Adventure and American Horror Story commandeer your brain’s control center and threaten never to return you to normalcy. And it’s certainly… different.
The comedy duo, whose shows Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Bedtime Stories have appeared on Adult Swim, made an ad that can only be described as having sprung forth from the collective sensibility of two people who are seriously disturbed in all the best ways. It follows their recent ad for General Electric, in which Jeff Goldblum sported gold chains and a questionable ’70s wig to sell light bulbs.
An effective ad leaves viewers salivating and halfway out the door to buy whatever good it’s hawking. Hunger is not exactly the feeling this ad inspires. But if the goal is to produce terror at the mere sight of a pizza roll, then it’s definitely done its job.
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Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com