In the '9s in Ottawa, [music] Canada, a

public axis show was captivating the

city, then the nation. This was the Tom

Green Show, [music] not the Green Tom

show.

>> This is the Tom Green Show. It's not the

Tom.

[music]

>> A show so polarizing, disgusting, yet

unbelievable, [music] one had to see it

to believe it.

>> LET'S HEAR IT FOR TOM GREEN.

From songing a decayed raccoon in half

in front of a studio audience to later

creating the number one song in the US,

Tom Green employed a clever balance of

witty commentary and controlled chaos.

[music]

Eventually, his show was picked up by

MTV, which is when his almost immediate

downfall began. First was the cancer

diagnosis that had him fighting against

severe pain and exhaustion that

eventually resulted in him having to

cancel his show. Then culturally with

Freddy Gotfingered, an infamously

terribly reviewed film that turned the

US against him overnight. It felt like

he vanished. Yet his impact did not.

France of Tom Green's influence can be

found strong to Eric Andre.

>> And then I was like, "Oh, I'm just

biting Tom Green. So thank you for your

brain."

>> Jackass.

>> I had the whole library of the Tom Green

show. And I just loved it so much, man.

>> Even Joe Rogan was inspired by Tom

Green. your show in 2007 when I went on

your show, that was 100% a major

inspiration.

>> There has been a recent resurgence of

interest in the movie that ruined him

alongside an appreciation for his

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>> Tom Green is pulling off another stunt.

Tom Green was born July 30th, 1971. As

stated in his book, Hollywood Causes

Cancer, Tom Green grew up as a skinny

nerd who cracked jokes but got beat up

during recess. In 1981, at the age of

10, he would have a lifealtering

experience, one that brought a feeling

of acceptance, euphoria, and drive. This

begins with a speech competition. He

just won the one held in his classroom.

So, naturally, he was elected to

represent his classroom in the

competition held in front of the entire

school. The topic he chose was comedy.

Tom Green rehearsed and as the other

contestants did, gave his speech. Though

he was in awe of the crowd in front of

him, the wouldbe relief of finishing the

speech was held by the judges who were

meant to ask questions about the

contestant's speech. The tension for Tom

only rose when one of the judges asked,

quote, "You said in your speech that it

helps having a sense of humor. Can you

give me an example of how you would use

humor to get out of a sticky situation

with your parents?" Unquote. As Tom

Green emphasized in his book, this judge

gave him a highly specific, borderline

impossible question. She was in essence

asking a 10-year-old to craft a joke on

the spot. This was a true challenge of

the speech conquered by a joke that he

remembered directly in relation to her

question. Quote, "Before I gave my

report card to dad, I told him that my

marks were underwater." When he asked me

what that meant, I said, "Well, they're

below sea level." Sea level. Get it? Tom

Green states that he was surprised with

his response. As for the school, the

kids, teachers, everyone erupted in

laughter. Quote, "The sound was so loud

and the laugh lasted so long that I

vividly remember that moment to this

day. That grade six gymnasium laugh

stays with me to this day. It is one of

the best feelings I have ever felt in my

life. I'm constantly trying to replicate

it." This was the birth of Tom Green,

the comedian. However, he kept on being

irregular. In the same way that the

judge's unconventional question brought

forward an answer that only amplified

the joke, Tom would challenge himself by

practicing his craft where it typically

did not belong. This is subversive

comedy. For example, he would run for

student council during a public forum

while the other members of the council

would give their exhaustive speeches.

Tom was alongside them, only he brought

a briefcase not of notes, but of

produce, four heads of lettuce, carrots,

a tomato, and a knife. all done to

meticulously make a salad during the

other council members speeches. The

otherwise dull process of food prep was

far more entertaining than anything else

happening on stage and as such

captivated the entire school.

Ironically, Tom understood his

contemporaries far better than any of

his council members. He knew above all

else that they wanted to be entertained.

As such, he was elected into student

council every year for the rest of high

school. To add to the madness, he would

even host talent shows where he would

steal the events with his antics. Here,

Tom would prank call the home telephones

of students or teachers present at the

assembly, making their family members or

partners his target. This was rigged in

a way that the phone speakers were fed

through the auditorium's speaker system

so everyone present could listen in.

There was a careful dance Tom learned

and performed and that his bits were

deceptively harmless. He knew how to tow

the line to what was barely acceptable

and indoctrinate unwitting observers to

his highly irregular activities. He was

able to get away with this because it

was funny. A fair amount of Tom Green's

bits involved willing, but often

unwilling participants who would be

razed, or rather teased playfully. He

even went to a comedy club with two

friends for the sake of razing the

comedians.

>> We're doing the we would do these silent

heckles. We'd sit in the front row and

we would all put our hands on our our

our [laughter] chins like this. And then

whenever the comedian told a punchline,

we would the three of us would all

switch hands at [laughter]

at the same time. At around age 15,

circa 1986, Tom doing these silent

heckles was kicked out of the comedy

club. This became an issue because he

went back not to heckle but to perform.

However, the security that kicked him

and his friends out vouched for him,

claiming that he was funny while being

kicked out. So, at around age 15, Tom

Green was doing standup at a comedy

club. But not just any comedy club. This

was Yuck Yucks, the same comedy club

that the late comedian Nor McDonald

began doing standup at. Tom would

actually catch a couple of Nor McDonald

shows and quickly became a fan of his.

Eventually, Tom Green was prominent

enough to be bucked for an away gig, but

he canled because of his rap career. Tom

at the age of 16 with a couple of

friends created the rap group Organized

Rhyme. For even here, especially during

interviews, he would not shy away from

his absurdest humor.

>> There's a lot of other uh uh rap groups

in Ottawa. There's a big rap scene

Ottawa. We just want to, you know, we

can't

>> There's also a big rap scene right

there. Right there in front of you.

>> Yeah, right there. Right there. That is

Don't Don't touch it. Don't touch it.

>> Don't touch it. Don't touch it.

>> Organized Rhyme was signed to a record

label and in 1992, their single Check

the O, a song that was played nationally

won that year's MMVA award for its music

video.

>> Check the [music]

check. You like it?

You like it so far? Check the O. [music]

You love the O.

>> The group quickly disbanded afterwards,

but not before they shot a commercial

for a local pizza chain.

>> Organized on time with the cool $9.99.

Fine. Don't be a fool.

>> Individually, the members of Organized

Rhyme were paid $400 for that

advertisement. This was the only money

Tom Green saw from his short-lived rap

career. He did not want to return to

Yuck Yucks and to that extent stand-up

comedy because he was embarrassed for

canceling his first away appearance.

With both of these seemingly retired,

Tom remained with the one venture that

would allow him full control, full

expression to experiment and refine what

he wanted to do. Quote, "The thing about

the radio show was there was no manager

of the comedy club telling me how to

write a joke. There was no comedy

workshop. It was me at a radio station

making up shit." I think ultimately we

ended up creating something that was

more original than I could have ever

done otherwise." This radio station was

a college radio station, but it began

not necessarily on radio, but on

television. When I started on CHOO, it

wasn't even on the radio. It was cable

FM. So, the only way you could listen to

it was you had to take your TV cable,

unhook it, and tape it to the antenna of

your radio. And there was like maybe two

people listening. Then they eventually

got their uh FM license a couple years

later, and uh we had a bit of a a fun

following in town cuz we were playing

rap music.

>> Once Tom Green began gaining this

following, things started to fall in

place. This was especially helped by

representing a burgeoning culture of

skating and everything parallel to it.

This was a culture of rawness,

subversion, stupidity, and defiance.

From early homebrew skate videos that

had sprinkles of skaters messing with

the public to reveling and receiving the

negative tension it drew. Tom Green

understood the culture. He got into

skating in its low point in the 80s. He

got his first skateboard at a garage

sale. These were initially the only

places to find them where he lived. As

Tom grew older and skating picked up in

popularity, he was already ahead of the

curb. There was something special in

being chased by campus security guards

for skating in a parking garage during

winter. Something emboldening for acting

in an otherwise unbelievable way and

getting an anticipated response. Quote,

"We watch these homemade skate videos

and listen to our quote unquote

underground music. And though

skateboarding wasn't a crime, we felt

like criminals, like we were part of a

defiant subculture." unquote. It was on

bus rides between skating that Tom and

friends would practice rzing the public.

For example, they would make up a story

and talk to each other about a planned

heist with masks and guns to quote

unquote do the job. There are two

valuable practices that Tom learned from

these activities. First was keeping a

straight face. He learned to act. The

second was he began to understand that

the bit itself was not what was

entertaining. It was the reaction. The

reaction is what made everything

worthwhile and was a point of rising.

With all the experience Tom gained from

8 years at the radio station to his

classes at a community college to learn

how to shoot and edit videos and through

the encouragement of classmates turned

co-workers. In 1984, Tom decided to

pitch his show to Rogers22, a public

access channel. Alongside the pitch, he

sent a pineapple, quote, "A pineapple

with my picture pinned to it." And a

note that said, "Hope you enjoyed your

pineapple. Please let me do the show."

unquote. Whether it was a produce or

that Tom had a clear experience, he was

given the opportunity to do four shows

and then many more after.

>> Describe the show for people who haven't

seen it. What is it?

>> Um

[screaming]

>> [cheering]

[screaming]

>> for the bread.

>> Could you [music] lend me a dollar for

some bread, sir? For my bread mattress.

>> Come on.

[laughter]

>> [cheering]

[music]

[applause]

>> Oh, that's fun.

Come on. BUT

[screaming]

I swear I misread that.

>> Tom Green was an avatar of chaos. In his

proximity, nothing was safe. Nothing.

Not his co-host Glenn Humplick, not the

audience, and certainly not the set.

This had a feeling of rawness, of

unprofessionalism, of reality. Even so,

there was a hint of commentary. The set

of the show mirrors a talk show. The

desk is on the right side and there are

two chairs on the left which are

reserved for the co-host and the

upcoming guest. This is a talk show

format. Throughout the show, Tom played

pre-recorded material of his bits filmed

outside the studio. He had vans that

would play live on the show, but this

was the Tom Green show, so naturally he

turned the format on its head. The

background meant to represent some

living room has a window to a brick

wall, furniture upside down, except for

a fish tank that was right side up. He

was quite literally turning the format

on its head. But there was one last

element that brought it together. And to

understand that, Tom's influence needs

to be understood. David Letterman was a

talk show host. As Tom Green did,

Letterman was known for being

unorthodox. He was quick-witted and

highly regarded for his approach to the

talk show format. Letterman, practically

disregarding a status, would go out in

public and rangers, sometimes working as

a drive-through employee whose

incompetence would drive customers mad.

Tom Green also shot bits for the show

outside the studio. Some were of him

monologuing as a construction worker

working late night in an empty work

site. The issue with this type of bit is

that it is in a void. There is no sane

individual to absorb the absurdity and

no caner to Tom Green's insanity. That

was until he started strapping raw meat

to his head and tried to hold

conversations with people in public.

How's the ice cream?

>> Fine. This is art.

>> What's that?

>> This is art.

>> Art?

>> Yes.

>> The ice cream is art?

>> No, your head.

>> Oh, okay. My head is art.

>> Yes.

>> Thank you very much. That's the best

compliment anyone's ever given me. I'll

show him.

>> The second best targets for Tom Green

were from people entirely unaware of him

or the joke. There was also something to

Tom Green's approach that he often

appeared oblivious yet polite. He was

not overt. Like this clip for example

where Tom is at a Subway building a

sandwich.

>> Black olives.

And I guess I'll get uh two pickles. And

I guess I'll get some pepper.

>> This goes on for some time.

>> Peppers as well. Not too many hot

peppers. [laughter] and some lettuce.

A little mayonnaise on that as well.

And [laughter] uh tomatoes.

>> Um a little more lettuce as well.

And some green peppers and some pickles

and [laughter] some tomato.

>> Even through the employees frustration,

Tom continues to get more toppings

>> and uh just a little lettuce on top of

that as well. [laughter] Two tomatoes.

Two tomatoes.

And some pickle. Some pickle. [laughter]

A little Just a little mayonnaise.

[laughter]

>> Some some lettuce.

>> What's that?

>> Okay, that's good. That looks delicious.

>> There was a set of targets above anyone

else that would get the largest audience

reaction. A discovery that changed

everything for Tom and his family.

quote, "By accident, like bumping into

someone on the street and getting a

little bit of your chocolate in that

person's curiously open jar of peanut

butter and instantly hitting upon the

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Revolution. It

was 3:00 in the morning on Wednesday

night, the night before the show aired.

We had nothing to put on the show the

next night. I was getting dropped off in

my house when I thought, "Hey, why don't

we go wake up my parents?"

>> So, it's 3:30 in the morning right now,

Sunday night. We're going to go in. and

we're going to wake them up and we're

going to see if they want to watch a Bon

Joy live in New Jersey videotape with

me. Let's go.

>> Here it comes.

>> You guys want to go uh watch [laughter]

>> Tom?

>> Come on. Come on. Can we just go down

and watch it?

>> Tom, would you turn off the camera and

I'll come up in a second.

>> Are you going to watch the movie?

>> We'll negotiate this.

>> Would you daddy

[laughter]

go to bed?

>> Quote, "We played it on our show the

next night and it got a huge laugh. It

got the strongest reaction of any bit on

the show and almost any bit on the show

up to then we had hit upon something

that crossed generational lines razing

your parents. Despite their protest, Tom

would make waking up his parents a

reoccurring bit. As for the reception of

the show, it was a massive hit. It was

the talk of Ottawa. So naturally, Tom

continued to do the show through 1995

and 1996, slowly improving his craft and

gaining more and more traction. That bit

about razing his parents crossing

generational lines, it turned out to be

true for the show in general. In one

episode, he even interviewed the mayor.

>> You know, you're the mayor of the city.

You're the mayor.

>> Do you ever think of going out and just

doing some crazy [snorts] crazy

publicity stunt that, you know, some

just something crazy? So, you were to go

out and rob a liquor store. [laughter]

>> I think it would be a little out of

character for me.

>> As massive as the show had become, it

was becoming increasingly difficult to

keep it going. In 1996, the show had

been on for almost 3 years. Tom had

moved back into his parents house after

a breakup. a necessary move because this

entire time he was producing, editing,

and hosting the show entirely for free.

He was a local star, broke, living in

his parents' basement. But it was not

all for nothing. There was a real

possibility that this show could appear

on a national television network,

specifically on the Canadian

Broadcasting Corporation, or the CBC for

short. After sending in his pilot, there

were several months of gut-wrenching

suspense that went into 1997. Month

after month, Tom grew more tireless, as

did his parents that hosted the wouldbe

star. It was after 9 months that quote,

"The answer finally came." "No, thank

you." The big decision maker, as Tom

claims, thought the show was

unintelligent, immature, and childish.

Though he was not entirely wrong,

hindsight would prove that he was

foolish to not see that this was in

demand. '90s media was loud and

in-your-face. The sports, cartoons, and

commercials were often crude and made

sticklers the butt of the joke. Why

can't it be more like [music] a nice

boy? Mario,

little brat.

>> Not everyone was blind to current

trends. A producer who had helped Tom

during the making of the CBC pilot

pitched the show to a new Canadian cable

channel known as the Comedy Network.

[music]

[music]

>> This new show came with a budget.

Therefore, it came with bigger, more

complex pranks and targets, like art

being snuck into an art gallery. All

>> right, this is my painting that I made.

It's called Tiger Zebra. I worked

really, really hard on it. Now, I'm

going to go put it up in the National

Art Gallery.

>> And Tiger Zebra is on the wall of the

National Art Gallery, and it doesn't

look like it's going anywhere.

>> Now, that I don't like.

>> You don't like that?

>> No.

>> I have to I work here. I don't watch

watch this watch.

Miguel,

[applause]

I'm in. I'm in. Come here. Come on. I

want to put some stars on, too.

>> Like the former Tom Green Show, Tom

continued the themes of madness and

anyone being a target, including the

nicer, expensive set.

[music]

>> [music]

>> quote, "For no earthly reason, proceeded

to smash the whole set into pathetic

pile of plywood. The poor butcher just

sat there, not knowing what the hell was

going on. We did that bid, in fact, and

Marilyn, the producer, almost had a

nervous breakdown that day. We didn't

have enough money on the budget to build

the new set. So, we just patched

together the remains of the old one and

kept doing the show." Tom states, "The

studio material was largely impromptu.

As for the man on the street segments,

some of the best also turned out to be

impromptu.

>> Could you tell me where you're going

anyways, even though it's not my

business?

>> No, I'm not going to tell you cuz it's

none of my none of your damn business.

>> So, where are you going then?

>> I don't think it's any your damn

business.

>> No, I know it's none of my business. I'm

actually

>> Do I ask you where you're going?

>> Um,

>> ANSWER MY QUESTION. WHERE THE HELL ARE

YOU GOING?

>> ANSWER my

>> The man continues to follow Tom.

>> I'm not interfering in your business.

Okay. A like a flying [ __ ] Like a

flying [ __ ]

>> Like a switch, Tom could become the

straight man when showcasing someone

else's instability. Even so, there was

one target above all else that would get

the largest crowd reaction. Quote, "I

borrowed my parents' car for an errand

and got an extra key made." The night of

the big switch, I snuck their car over

to a mechanic friend of Derek's who

kindly removed one hood and attached the

more colorful one, unquote. And I think

my parents really like lesbians. So to

show my parents how much I love them,

I've turned my parents' vehicle into

more than just a vehicle. I've turned it

into the [ __ ] mobile. The replacement

artistic hood was once salvaged from a

scrapyard. Tom drove 45 minutes outside

of Ottawa and paid $400 to a specialty

artist to have this hood painted and

then eventually swapped out. The extra

effort was worth it.

[laughter]

Holy Christ.

>> You like it, Dad? Come look at it, Dad.

>> Go talk to your mother. I'm going to

>> What? What's the big deal?

>> It better be washable or something.

>> It's not. It's a It's airbrushed.

>> It cost me $400 to get it done.

>> Yeah, right.

>> It did. You like it?

Mom,

>> you're trying to wipe it off, Mom?

>> Well, Mom, what? Come look at it.

The charade does not end here as Tom

knew how to milk it further. Uh,

>> dad can't take the bus to work. I'm

going to take the [ __ ] mobile to the bus

stop. Wow, there's a lot of people at

the bus stop. I hope my dad's not

embarrassed by his [ __ ] mobile. Come on,

I'll drive you to work.

>> What?

>> What?

>> That thing better be washed off. I don't

know how you got it on there.

>> It's It's permanent. It's a present.

>> Tom with his network show had his

performances down to a science. He

planned, categorized, and executed them

and somehow got it to air. Where else

could someone see a rotten raccoon being

saw in half in front of a studio

audience? As outrageous as Tom Green

was, the culture demanded more. Quote,

"I got a phone call that signaled a new

phase of my life." Tom was invited to

audition for a movie, but he was not a

professional actor. He didn't even have

the money to afford the plane ticket to

go audition. Luckily, Tom's manager was

able to convince them to pay for his

ticket. And though Tom did not have

experience in the theater, he was a

master of his own craft. Playing the

character of Tom Green for several years

now had given him enough experience to

get the role.

>> Would you please go back to your old

class, please?

>> Tom played the role of the bully in the

1999 movie Superstar. Though he saw

himself as an extra with a few lines,

this was opening the door for many movie

appearances to come. Quote, "That was

the most insane pitch. The best pitch I

have ever seen in my life." This was a

quote from Tom's manager who witnessed

him pitch the Tom Green show to MTV.

Besides yelling, "I want to be on MTV

and firing globs of shaving cream," Tom

Green wiped a dollop of shaving cream on

the forehead of Brian Graden, the top

executive of MTV. This is the exact

thing the network wanted. With over a

thousand hours of tape from the Canadian

versions of the Tom Green Show, Tom went

and cut the best bits to become the

first 10 episodes of its 1999 MTV

variant and was making around four times

as much money as he was in Canada. Uh

we've been doing a show like this

together on Cable Access for a few years

now.

>> Years now.

>> Yeah. And now we're here on MTV. It's

really [cheering]

[applause]

>> very Tom quickly found that working with

MTV was becoming difficult. Year after

year, Tom had crafted this reality

genre. But then again, there was nothing

like MTV. They knew Tom captured a young

adult audience and that fit into their

programming, but they did not understand

the timelessness of it or how it

actively stepped outside writing trends.

Or how an appeal of Tom Green was that

he was not signaling to culture unless

he was making fun of it. Tom recalls a

time they tried to remove the surreal

simple music he had made for the skits

in place of their own trendy music.

Quote, "The music said, "Hey everybody,

cool is coming. This is cool." It

stepped on the joke. quote, "The lack of

understanding from those that were meant

to be purveyors of current culture was

astonishing as they were suggesting

changes that were antithetical to Tom

Green's subversive comedy style. Quote,

"It felt to me like a lot of what they

wanted to do was soften the comedy by

overexlaining. Every word of every setup

had to be written out and read on a

teleprompter. Everything had to be

planned so that everyone from the

director to the camera people to

lighting people to the sensors knew

exactly what was coming next." unquote.

MTV had no experience with what Tom was

doing at all. They even wanted to cut

out the reaction shots, which was a

punchline to his pranks. While Tom was

fighting for the direction of the show,

the immediate popularity proved that he

was correct to control it. The show

started to play six times a day every

week for week after week. Millions were

now watching the Tom Green Show, and the

popularity of Tom Green skyrocketed.

>> They're laughing cuz they think you guys

think I'm stupid. That's what it is,

right?

>> Yeah, a little bit. Think [laughter]

you're Mr. Spidey pants? THEN GO TO

BIGWORDS.COM. ORDER ALL YOUR BOOKS. SAVE

A LOT OF MONEY. GET THE FREE DELIVERY.

>> Single calorie.

>> Too yummy to be diet. My spirit says,

quote, "This guy hits the air and two

weeks later, Letterman has him on and

Pepsi sticks him all over television.

You might just have something here with

this Tom Green." unquote. Tom, with his

increased budget, at one point made

statues of his parents, the least

tasteful of which were of them

fornicating/ urinating on each other.

His parents, not very pleased with the

celebration of their fornication,

threatened to sue for this, but Tom was

able to talk them down. Tom was rude,

outrageous, and he was taking over

America. And not just on television.

>> Can I Can I pretend the garbage cans

R2-D2 and rub my bum on it?

>> Do please leave the area.

>> My bum is on the plant. My bum is on the

plant. Look at me. My bum is on.

>> Are you Finnish?

>> Okay, Swedish actual.

>> Okay. My bum is on the rail. My bum is

on the rail. Okay. My bum is on the

rail. My bum is on. I'm asking again, my

friend. Okay.

>> I'm asking again.

>> This was footage of security fed up with

Tom's antics on a spring break cruise.

It was also the inspiration for this.

>> Bum is on the rail. Look at me. My bum

is on the rail. My bum is on the

Swedish. Swedish. Swedish. Swedish.

>> Eminem. One of, if not the largest

rapper of 1999, parodyied this song.

>> Sometimes I want [music] to get on TV

and just let loose, but it's cool for

Tom Green to hump a dead. My bum is on

your lips. My bum is on your lips.

>> According to Tom Green, the Bum Bum song

was the number one downloaded song on

Napster in 1999. It was entirely free

and Tom had ambitions for it.

>> The song is not for sale, okay? There's

no CD. There's no there's no compact

disc. We're not trying to make

cazillions and and cazillions of

dollars, Glenn. You know there's no

sellout here.

[laughter]

>> Etsy one true code taste one cow.

>> We want you AND WE WANT YOU AND WE WANT

YOU AND we want you AND YOU AND YOU AND

YOU AND YOU TO CALL THE RADIO STATION

SAY I WANT TO HEAR THE BUM BUM SONG AND

CALL TOTAL Request Live and say Carson

Carson I want to hear the Bum Bum song.

Okay. After a second call out, Tom was

able to get the Bum Bum song as the

number one requested song on Total

Request Live, effectively making it the

number one song in the country. However,

there was an issue. The unexpected

popularity of the Bum Bum song could not

be reflected as number one on Total

Request Live as Total Request Live for

the upcoming week had been pre-taped. If

Tom continued to promote the song and

Total Request Live aired without it, it

would be obvious to the audience that

Total Request Live was not accurate. So

Tom, at the whim of MTV, was to retire

the song before the pre-tapeed shows

aired.

>> I want to retire the song. I want to

retire.

>> Well, normally in 65 days, Tom, you're

saying officially you don't you don't

want them to call in. You've done your

unfair to 98°. Okay.

>> As popular as Tom Green was becoming,

just like he was forced to retire his

song as it became number one. There was

an effort to bring him down. Even if it

was not coordinated, Tom Green in the

2000s was going to be working against

his popularity, the media, even his own

body. These elements were working to

shut him down. Even so, there was a

lesser seen side of Tom Green,

especially unseen by those that were

unfamiliar with his comedy. Around 2000,

allegedly, some hooligans disrupted a

bar mitzvah, filming themselves as

racist or the sort. When the guards

asked for the hooligan's name, they gave

the name Tom Green, which is allegedly

how the story spread. quote, "It was not

only a complete media invention, it was

also a complete misreading of her

comedy. I would never do a mean-spirited

anti-Semitic joke like that. It's both

abhorrent and not funny. The fact that

people imagined I would do something so

blatantly cruel and thoughtless was

worrisome." Previously, when filming in

Ottawa, due to his small size, Tom Green

had the benefit of anonymity. He had the

benefit of fresh eyes. Now, with his

show's increasing popularity and his

general exposure to the public, his

brand of pranks were being analyzed by

those that misunderstood his intent. It

should also be noted that as fresh eyes

were on Tom Green, they were also on his

brand of reality or subversion that had

not been established or at minimum given

exposure too, like Tom Green was doing.

He was a pioneer and was suffering for

it yet was also having a lot of fun with

it.

>> I did not have sexual relations with

that woman, Miss Lewinsky. Monica

Lewinsky was largely seen as two things

in the 2000s. A former White House

intern that gave oral sex to the at the

time president and a punchline.

>> Please come to Baghdad. No one cares who

I sleep with here.

>> Sit down.

Oh, but Bill, you already said you had

no sexual relationship with Monica.

[laughter]

>> Even Letterman made these jokes.

>> You have to feel sorry a little bit for

Monica Lewinsky because, you know, she's

a a kid. just a kid right out of

college, you know, uh looking for a good

job at the White House and

[laughter] apparently so was Clinton. So

he had

>> Letterman later stated he regretted

this.

>> Now I started to feel bad because uh

myself and other uh people with shows

like this made relentless jokes about

the poor woman and she was a kid. She

was 21, 22 or something.

>> Tom Green did more than comment on

Monica Lewinsky. he met her in person.

Due to a string of connections and

Monica Lewinsky's brother being a fan of

the show, she agreed to film a special

with Tom Green in Ottawa. Quote, "Given

Monica Lewinsk's incredible media

saturation at the time, we decided to

fool with the insatiable media machine

that stalked her every move." The Monica

Lewinsky special aired February 2000.

Instead of barging her with the typical

sexual questions, Tom Green humanized

her. The first stunt of the special was

one where he woke up his parents to

introduce them. Mom, Dad,

you dad.

Dad, uh, we we need some fabric. We need

the fabric. Okay.

>> Hi. Hi.

>> Hey, Monica. How are you? Nice to meet

you.

>> Nice to meet you, Monica.

>> As for trolling the media, he went to a

local station to announce he was making

an announcement. Tom Green would not

allow further questions, but did put his

arm around Monica as to hint at a

romantic relationship, which effectively

worked in fooling the media. we're here

to talk about today is how [music]

we can't talk about what we're here to

talk about. The speculation was that you

might be getting married and [laughter]

I think

>> tomorrow 12:00 noon come on down to

Lebouti Cast Store, see Monica and I. We

have an announcement we'd like to make.

>> Tom was leading the media and paparazzi

on a wild goose chase which also exposed

their depravity.

>> We were just wondering if we could uh

ask you to stop following us now.

>> Yeah, sure. Okay. Thank you so much.

>> You going to do it or

>> because um because we gave you a nice

picture there and we sort of I I

actually went in the house and had to

convince Monica to do it and it took a

lot of my time.

>> We'd really appreciate if you didn't

follow us.

>> Who are you with?

>> I'm with the sensor.

>> Oh yeah. Oh, good paper.

>> Turn here. Zip it.

[music]

>> God, we are like freaking secret service

in this.

>> When the announcement came, Tom

continued to string the media along with

a long-winded speech before introducing

Monica and extensively what the point of

all this was. I would like to welcome

Monica Lewinsky.

I am proud to present to you all.

>> We love you, MONICA.

>> The Richard and Mary Jane Green handbag.

[music]

The entire special was a ploy, a joke on

the media and promotion of Monica

Lewinsky's new handbags. And though

their romantic relationship was a farce,

Tom Green and Drew Barrymore was not.

Drew Barrymore is a very popular

actress, a career actress who starred in

ET in the 80s and Scream in the9s. In

the 2000s, she was filming her upcoming

movie Charlie's Angels when she reached

out to Tom Green to play a role. In the

end, he was given the role of her

boyfriend of the Chad.

[singing]

[music]

>> The Chad

>> the Chad.

Tom diving into the water was

technically planned, but only really by

Tom. The set freaked out when he fell

in, but Drew, knowing Tom Green, was

laughing. Another, if not the last boost

of popularity Tom got was from his

appearance in the 2000 movie Road Trip.

Just as the falling off the boat was

unplanned, so was Tom sticking a live

mouse into his mouth. Only this time,

the studio loved it so much that he had

to shoot that scene multiple times. The

mouse allegedly relieved itself on a

couple occasions. quote, "I was

suffering for my art, I guess." Though

Tom would suffer for his art, his

suffering now was not related to

anything on MTV, film, or the press. It

was a lump that continued to grow in

terms of size and pain.

>> I got [music] lucky. I got a disease,

right?

>> Cancer, right? Testicular cancer,

>> right?

>> Yep.

>> And that's what today's show is all

about.

>> This was from the MTV Tom Green Cancer

Special where Tom explains he got his

right testicle removed. This was a grim

yet informational special as it served

to bring exposure to the disease by

informing the audience on how to detect

it. Tom also spliced in comedy likely as

a distraction from the reality of what

he was going through. But that was not

all. Tom elected to have a secondary

exploratory surgery to verify that the

cancer had not spread to his lymph

nodes. This was filmed and aired and due

to YouTube's policies cannot be shown.

The results of the surgery is that he

was found to be cancer-free. Little

would he know his battle with his body

was only beginning. He describes the

first two days after the operation as

the worst pain he has felt in his life.

Quote, "Crawled up on my side screaming

in agony." The documentary crew took one

look at me and said, "This might not be

humorous." This pain would go from an

extreme pain to a dull pain that Tom

would had to live with for several years

until it faded. And now you're sort of

somewhat in pain but also exhausted.

Like I had I had a lot of energy issues.

And at the same time, you're also

terrified because you're like, "Oh my

god, is this going to stop? Is this

going to go away?" Um, and then you're

also at that moment in my life had a a

lot of attention on me. I'm hosting

Saturday Night Live. You have to show up

and be, you know, happy and positive and

funny and in your mind you're uh scared.

>> Quote, I assumed that if I continued to

live, I would just pick up where I left

off and continue on. That didn't happen.

Tom's fresh relationship with Drew

Barrymore suffered. What was a light and

fun journey was crushed by the

seriousness of what Tom was going

through. Tom, now due to the cancer and

to that extent the recovery from the

operations, had to pause production on

the Tom Green Show. Quote, "The entire

crew left for other work. Half of them

started working on this new show called

Jackass." By the time I was cured of my

disease, they were all gone. I remember

the first time I saw Jackass. I was, to

put it mildly, surprised. I immediately

noticed what I thought was the blatant

borrowing of our ideas. waking up

parents, putting animals in parents'

houses, falling down on crutches,

swimming with sharks, and crashing into

stuff in an electric wheelchair while

dressed as an old man. The list went on

and on. Initially, I was a little bit

upset, but then I got used to it." Line

producer Trip Taylor, production manager

Michelle Ker, avid editors Ivan Victor,

wardrobe stylist, and props Nanette

Solano, writes and clearances Anita C.

and Steve Baklas, co-executives in

charge of production, Carol Ang,

executive in charge of production, John

Miller. These were the crew and or

exclusive MTV personnel that are

credited in both season 3, episode 1 of

the Tom Green Show and season 3, episode

1 of Jackass. Tom Green likely

exaggerated the amount of members that

went to Jackass, but he did not

exaggerate the similarities found in the

shows. Jackass, besides lifting pranks

from Tom Green, also made it a priority

to focus on the reactions of bystanders.

something Tom and Green fought to have

on his show. Quote, "They took along

with them our ideas and the shooting

method we had created. What we had taken

years to come up with in Canada was

basically lifted and recreated in a

moment. In the end, though most people

seemed to notice the similarities, and I

now take it as a compliment," unquote.

Tom would go on to say he was a fan of

Jackass. This sentiment was shared.

>> You were my hero before Jackass was even

an idea. The Tom Green Show on MTV. I've

said this so many times. It's like I

literally sat there and and and recorded

every episode of the Tom Green Show. I

shared a room with our line producer who

who told me that uh I was like, "What

other shows have you done?" He said, "I

worked on the Tom Green Show." And all

of a sudden, I just had this reverence

for this this producer.

>> Was that Trip or

>> It was It was Trip.

>> Trip Trip did the Tom Green Show.

>> Trip did the Tom Green Show. And I just

thought that was so cool, man. While

there was a lot of the Tom Green Show,

DNA and Jackass, Jackass also had a

unique focus on physical stunts and was

not formatted like a talk show. And in

fairness, they would continue to add

their own spin on the show as it

evolved. As for Tom Green, now in 2001,

was without a show, but not without

work. Just like he proved that he had

the ability to carry and direct a show

through the Tom Green show, his

popularity in the movie Roadtrip and

Charlie's Angels had a studio believe

that Tom Green could replicate his

success on the big screen. Before Tom

was diagnosed with cancer, the script

for his movie Freddy Gotfingered was

purchased by the highly regarded New

Regency Studios. The production company

that had recently released Fight Club

the movie. Tom wanted to make a movie

that fit his style, something different,

subversive, hated, but in a way that

could have those that liked it

appreciate it more for being in on the

joke. Now, during his recovery, he

started pre-production on the movie. Tom

felt a second wind of sorts. He had just

been in cancer and was even recently

engaged to Drew Barrymore. Through the

excitement was also a lingering feeling

of fear, of intimidation. Tom Green

wanted this movie to succeed. Quote,

"The transition from taking control of a

TV show to taking control of a movie

wasn't as difficult as I had imagined.

In both cases, you were at the center of

this giant decision-making machine, and

everyone looks to you to make critical

choices." The studio thought that I had

really pulled it off as a full-time

director. For the moment, they were

pumped. I was flying," unquote. as was

becoming the running theme in Tom

Green's story right at the precipice of

happiness and success was a steep drop

off into a litany of issues often

unexpected. Before the release of Freddy

Gotfingered, Tom Green's father was

diagnosed with cancer which he

eventually beat and his fiance's house

also burned down. Following this, Tom

and Drew moved into a succession of

rental houses. Every time the stress of

the mood would compound, quote, "I began

to see a different person emerge from

the person I had fallen in love with a

year and a half before. After all, she

had lost everything she owned. We are

both being thrust into a strange new

state of affairs. And then Freddy Got

Fingered came out. Before the movie came

out nationwide, there were test

screenings. One of, if not the first,

was a screening at Fox in LA. Quote, a

very intimate screening for only Arnon

Milchin and the other Regency

executives. I couldn't have been more

nervous. The movie ended and everyone

was very quiet. Waiting for Arnon, the

boss, to react," unquote. you know, at

the end of the screening stood up,

applauded. You know, he's an Israeli

guy. He said, "That was the best first

cut I've ever seen from a first time

first- time director in my entire

career, right? He like hugged me, loved

it."

>> Quote, he said he had been making movies

for 30 years and this was one of the

proudest moments in his career. Ardon

Milchin, the boss, loved [music] it.

There was an excitement, a belief that

this movie was going to be massive. As

Tom states, the next step was to send it

to audience test screenings. The way

this works is the audience is given a

response card. They watch the movie,

fill it out, and return the card. In

this way, movies can be altered through

trial and error to be the most appealing

version to a general audience. Though

the response cards can have intimate

comments, they are also translated

mathematically to more easily understand

where the movie stands. This is done out

of a score of 100. With the first test

screening, Tom and New Regency Studios

anticipated a score of 90. They thought

the audience would see this as a

masterpiece. That's why when they got

the inverse score, a shocking reality

set in. Quote, "We thought we get in the

high '9s. We got a 17. It was just too

gross for them to sit there and watch."

And that's why the score sucked. Or so

they thought. There was an air of

desperation. Quote, "There are of course

wild success stories that contradict

this being counter logic. I've heard

that Austin Powers only got a 48 score

with a focused crowd. The audiences

didn't get it at first. Tom in this

observation was accurate in assessing

how the audiences would come around to

Freddy Gotfingered only. It would take

many years, not weeks. Quote, "All we

had to do, we figured, is get from 17 to

48, from an F to say a strong D, and

we'd be cruising." This would require

the score to increase nearly three-fold.

Alongside the movie possibly failing

came a different concern, one

particularly felt by Tom Green as some

cards contain hostile comments, one

calling it the biggest piece of [ __ ]

they'd ever seen. Quote, "Reading those

cards for the first time was a big

moment for me, a kind of watershed event

in my so-called career." Tom goes on to

say that this was the first time that he

had seen outright hatred, almost

homicidal loathing coming from an

audience. This and the movie's poor

score was only a taste of things to

come. Quote, "The plane ride back to LA

was like flying home with a team that

had just lost a Super Bowl. We were in

the studios eyes dead meat." Unquote.

Tom states that he went back to the

editing room and tried to make audience

pleasing changes, but the score only

rose up by three points to 20. Freddy

Gotfingered has the soul of Tom Green.

It was by his own words vaguely

autobiographical as the movie mirrors

the story of a quote unquote small town

boy trying to prove himself. There is

the perspective that Tom Green did not

have a method to his madness when making

this movie. That he was intentionally

making this movie to be a complete and

utter nonsensical failure, but

cross-examining the movie with his

experiences on the Tom Green Show

demonstrates he attempted to translate

the success of the show to the movie.

The movie centers around Gourd Brody, a

cartoonist, but more so illustrator than

has the dream of getting a TV show.

>> The drawings are pretty good, but it

doesn't make any sense. Okay, it's

[ __ ] stupid. Okay, what you need here

is elevation. Okay, there actually has

to be something that happens that's

actually funny. What the [ __ ] is

happening here?

>> Gourd, like Tom Green, did not initially

get his show picked up. In real life,

the executive made similar comments. As

Gourd was forced to go back home, there

are many confrontations Gourd has with

his father, Jim Brody, played by Rip

Torn, and where Gourd does something

outlandish, which forces an aggressive

reaction from his father.

>> Freddy, would you like some sausages?

Freddy, would you like some sausage?

Sausages.

This directly mirrors what was the most

popular bit on the Tom Green show in

that it was tormenting his parents. Even

the meat on the strings is something he

did early in the show. In the movie,

Gore lives in his parents' basement. In

one scene, he is showering in a scuba

suit. This is both an instance where he

torments his parents and a reflection to

his real life. The shower, as told

through Tom Green's book, is one of the

few places he'd find solitude. There are

many other parallels that can be drawn

from this movie to real life, such as

the scene which cannot be shown of Gourd

playing with Rokale to the singing woman

on the side of the street. This is to

show that there was a science that Tom

Green was trying to work in this movie.

Though there was an effort to make it

purposely nonsensical. As for the plot,

Gourd falsely accuses his father of

inappropriately touching his brother

Freddy. Hence the name Freddy got

fingered. And as per the theme of the

movie, instead of the father being

punished, it is Freddy who is taken

away. As nonsense continues to happen,

the plot moves forward and Gourd

eventually gets his show.

>> I sold my cartoon. My dad said I

couldn't sell [music] my cartoon, but

guess what? I sold my cartoon for a

million.

>> But really just gets funding for the

show. With this money, he buys a bag of

jewels, rents a helicopter, and with the

remaining money, he moves a segment of a

house his father's sleeping in to

Pakistan. Despite the chaos, as would

happen in any movie, it has a

satisfactory ending for Gourd.

Throughout this movie, Gourd is a

borderline psychopathic human being with

a complete disregard for others, which

is the point. Despite his crude nature,

he is constantly rewarded, as would

happen in other contemporary comedies.

The absurdness of this and everything in

between was what Tom was aiming to

translate. He was aiming to make a

completely polarizing movie. It's a

vomitorium of a movie starring Green as

Gourd, an obnoxious [ __ ] who makes it

his life's work to freak out his dad

played with teeth nashing scorn by

Ripcorn. You're absolutely right. This

is ground zero. It has to be ground zero

of bad comedies. It's just so horrible

and he's such an unfunny guy. He should

be flipping burger somewhere. Why is Tom

Green getting movies? And who who wants

to see this guy?

>> Those two were renowned film critics

Roger Eert and Richard Roer on their

show at the Movies. This show ostensibly

acted as a collective review for

upcoming movies, informing the audience

whether the lineups were worth the

money. This review was hardly isolated

in its interpretation of Freddy

Gotfingered. The movie did get a good

review from the New York Times, calling

it brilliant, but this was an exception.

Review after review, the critics were

near universally hating this movie.

Regular people were going in to see

Freddy got fingered and were hating the

movie. In the movie, there are grotesque

scenes of Tom using his hand to

inexplicably pleasure a horse. a scene

where he is gnawing the umbilical cord

off a newly born fetus and of course a

child that on multiple occasions bears

hyper realistic consequences to

slapstick humor. Audience members going

in to see a contemporary comedy movie

were not getting one. And just as Tom

had glimpsed at the test screenings,

they were not only hating the movie,

they were hating him. Quote, "In the

case of Freddy, the attacks were

personal. They would say things like the

only good thing about Tom Green is his

goatee because it covers his ugly face."

or now that I think about it, what is

Drew Barrymore doing with him? It wasn't

this guy made a bad movie. It was this

guy's a bad guy. Tom goes on to say that

reading all this made him deeply, deeply

upset, sad, depressed, and panicked.

Quote, "As I look back now, I think this

onslaught had to do with more than just

the movie." Tom believes that two things

were influencing the personal attacks

and the hatred. One was that he

represented a brand of humor people long

despised. The second was that he had

gotten too successful too fast. He had

potentially gotten too much media

exposure and he was bound to get more

when soon after the release of the movie

he got married to Drew Barrymore. While

there was always criticism towards Drew

and Tom dating, it was now bound to

increase as quote the story became

Beauty and the Beast or Hollywood

royalty and the bottom feeder. Tom and

Drew would divorce in 2002. To add to

the misery, Tom would go on to win

awards where Freddy got fingered. Just

not the sword he in reality desired.

>> Can you grab that on the

>> Thank you very much. From day one when

we started writing it said uh we wanted

to win a Raspberry award. So, so uh it's

I'm glad my dream has come true. Uh I'm

very proud. I'm happy.

>> The Raspberry Awards or Razies are the

opposite of the Oscars. They are awards

for poorly received media such as Freddy

Gotfingered. Tom was the first to accept

the worst actor Razi in person.

According to the BBC, Tom Green, when

getting on stage, accepted the award,

quote, concluded his speech with a

specially composed piece of music he

played on the harmonica. The organizers

had to drag the star off stage when it

became clear his composition was never

ending." Tom states he eventually got

used to being kicked while he was down.

He claims the bad press around him

eventually faded, yet demand of him did

not. In 2003, the new Tom Green Show

aired on MTV. This was less outrageous

than his former shows, and also unlike

them, the show only lasted 11 weeks. It

took the role of a nightly talk show

more serious, but did not disregard the

public segments. And though it was

short-lived, Tom was pleased with quote

receiving some positive recognition from

the media that I had grown fearful of,"

unquote. At this point, MTV had jackass

and punked. yet somewhat failed the

niche of Tom Green. And the new Tom

Green show was expensive to produce and

was not really the type of show that MTV

was traditionally known for. In the rest

of the 2000s, Tom would get roles in

low-budget movies and make appearances

on television shows. This was a time of

creeping changes in terms of media.

Video repository websites such as

YouTube websites meant to essentially

store videos began establishing

themselves with the hope that they can

one day evolve and discovered not just

how to monetize, but how to be

profitable at all. Quote, "Although some

cynics have questioned YouTube's staying

power, Google is betting that the

popular video sharing site will provide

it an increasingly lucrative market hub

as more viewers and advertisers migrate

from television to the internet." This $

1.65 billion purchase was scrutinized.

It was described as a gamble that a

website such as YouTube or any other for

that matter could compete or overtake

traditional media. For one, YouTube was

under the threat of constant litigation

due to copyrighted content uploaded by

its users. And the average user's

internet speed could hardly play videos

without constant pauses to render.

YouTube did not have much promise, but

it did have ambition. This draws

parallels to Tom Green. While his ideas

were unconventional, he had the hope

that they would one day succeed. This is

why he began on June 15th, 2006 what he

called web vision.

>> You know, you know, we're really excited

about bringing tom green.com live to

Mania [music] TV in June. Very excited.

It's going to be the very first phone

talk show on the internet. the very

first worldwide. What we're really

trying to do though is we're trying to

make um

a new kind a new type of broadcasting.

You could say this is an experiment.

>> Today, this is known as podcasting. It

was a live stream podcast. While YouTube

was hosting a disjointed mess of videos,

often only viewed for the viral nature,

Tom Green was over a decade ahead of

what content creation would become. Yet,

because of the lack of infrastructure, a

lack of programs, a lack of knowhow,

what Tom was doing was expensive and

difficult. To build his studio, he

contracted Minia TV, one of the few live

streambased entertainment companies.

This studio was built in his house.

However, he used the services of

bitgravity to upload and serve his

content, a company that specializes in

such a thing. To access Tom's live

streams, you have to go to tom

green.com, a website that has been

running since the '90s. Tom Green's live

streams were many things, primarily a

return to form. In his own way, Tom

reestablished a talk show in which he

had complete control of. He created an

environment that was pushing boundaries,

though in this sense it was more

technological boundaries than cultural

ones. [music] Yet, just like with his

show in the '90s, he had established a

show that viewers would need to go out

of their way to access. It was niche in

the same way when Tom was locally only

available in Ottawa. He was now live at

tom green.com for those that had decent

enough internet connection to watch him

interview people like Count Smokeula.

>> What's your name, sir?

>> Count Smokecula.

Count Smokeula.

>> COUNT SMOKEULA. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

>> of course. Thank you too much. I came

over to the Hollywood of the California

because it seemed like the place to be.

You know, the action was here. The Tom

Green Show is here.

>> Why don't you play that song you were

going to play? Let's just listen to that

and let's take a caller and they can

Hello. You're on here with Count Choula.

Smoke killer.

>> Tom Green on his liveream had all forms

of guests, musicians, celebrities, and

comedians such as Dor McDonald, who is

the same comedian that Tom Green saw

live at Yuck Yucks. Spliced into these

interviews were guest calls. Guests who

were not at all screened.

>> Roses are red, violets are blue. I'll

[ __ ] you with

>> Oh my god.

>> Yeah. See?

>> Okay. Well,

>> that's what happened. It's all downhill

from here.

>> Yeah.

>> As was becoming customary for live

broadcast, Tom was getting trolled. Many

of these came from one specific website.

>> It's a 4chan thing. It's kids on the

internet. They have this this group of

kids and they like to say funny words

like barrel roll or Okay. There's a

video game move from Star Fox. Uh Star

Fox 20

>> Star Fox 64.

>> Yeah. And they've been dogging me for a

year, got to tell you. Driving me nuts,

actually. Sometimes I wake up in the

middle of the night and I scream

>> fortune.

As Tom Green continued to take on live,

not screen callers, he would embrace

prank calls to an extent.

>> Hello.

>> Yeah, you're on the air.

>> Oh, hi. Um, I'm Xenon and Hi, Tom Green.

Um, Tom Green, can you do a barrel roll

for me?

>> A barrel roll?

>> Yeah, a barrel roll on air.

>> A barrel roll. Yeah, a barrel roll.

A barrel roll.

>> This goes on for about 15 more seconds.

>> I like that guy.

That's probably my favorite caller we've

ever had

in the history of this show. The barrel

roll guy. The guy that repeated it cuz

we were having fun with the computers.

>> These trolls later follow Tom to other

shows.

>> There's a troll right there. That is

>> Tom to a barrel roll.

>> That is an internet troll right there.

That was one of my trolls.

>> Nor McDonald had witnessed this live on

Tom's show. Now you're on the air.

>> Okay, we'll take a couple of last calls.

>> Hey, thanks for the show. Barrel roll.

>> Oh, yeah. Barrel roll.

>> Yes. Buy a t-shirt by them. Do you know

what barrel roll is? I'm selling your

barrel roll t-shirts now. So anyways,

they're all going to be prankers on this

thing. At one point, Tom, likely in

frustration, was accepting calls only to

talk over them and hang up before they

could say anything significant.

>> Where you calling from?

>> I'm Philadelphia. I call.

>> All right, man. I love Philadelphia.

Cream cheese, man.

>> Woo.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

>> Love the cream cheese. We talked

earlier, right?

>> I want to have a serious conversation.

>> Yeah. Let's talk seriously. No. Cream

cheese, man. M cream cheese. Tasty.

>> Thanks for calling. You're on the air.

>> Yeah. Hello. You're on the air.

>> WHAT'S UP, MAN?

>> YEAH.

>> HELLO. You're on the air. What's going

on? Got it.

>> All right. I figured out how the phone

system works, suckers. Hello, you're on

the air. Nice to talk to you.

>> Hello. You're on.

>> Hey, what's up?

>> All right. Yeah. Hello. YOU'RE ON THE

AIR.

>> YEAH. DO A BEAR ROLL.

[laughter]

HELLO, you're on the air. What's going

on?

>> Hey, can you show me?

>> Rock and roll. Hello. How are you?

What's going on, man?

>> All right. Good to hear from you. Thanks

for calling. Hello. You're on the air.

It's 8:47 here in Los Angeles. What's

going on, man?

>> Hey, Tom. How you doing?

>> Pretty good. How are you?

>> Good. Um,

>> thanks for calling.

>> Eventually, Tom Green breaks from the

pattern of hanging up to have an actual

conversation with a caller.

>> Oh, yeah. Hello. You're on the air.

>> Hey, Tom. What's up?

>> Not Oh, pretty good, man. What's going

on?

>> Not too bad here. Just uh chilling out

watching your show on the internet here.

First time I've even seen this thing.

>> Awesome, man. So, what are you doing

today?

>> I'm not doing anything. Just chilling

out here in Red Dear, Alberta, actually.

>> Oh my gosh. Red Dear. I love Red Deer.

You know, I've been to Red Deer many

times.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. You're fat.

>> The fun the trolls were having with Tom

Green was only one of the issues with

WebO Vision. Besides technical issues,

such as the stream crashing when getting

too many direct viewers, there were even

larger issues with the stream not

crashing when the stream was embedded on

different websites. So Tom Green could

have his live stream play on someone

else's MySpace account through embedding

it. This is what Tom Green did with

famous tattoo artist Katavon D.

>> By the way, your show when you did our

internet show was the highest rated show

that we've ever done on tom green.com.

>> Had over I don't even know if I told you

this, but we had over 1 million people

watched that episode.

>> I love it. That's when you tattooed me.

>> So many people watched that episode, we

had to take it off the site cuz the

broadband fees were like, you know, I

was I had to move out of my house almost

cuz it

>> [laughter]

>> Are you serious?

>> Yeah, I'm not angry about it. I'm happy

about it, but it's like a catch 22.

>> Tom Green later stated that the bill he

received was around $40,000. With some

deliberation, he was able to get out of

paying the bill. Tom Green's live stream

podcast was hardly profitable. It broke

even with earnings going towards

upgrades and the one employee

responsible for running the technical

side of the show, such as the camera

switching to show different angles of

the production. He even had a single

switch that was custommade that in

essence activated the entire studio. It

would turn on the cameras, lights,

computers, and even begin the live

stream. Yet advertisers were skittish.

Eventually, Tom Green grew tired of Web

Vision and focused on doing standup.

Before he quit WebO Vision, Tom Green

inspired others like the host of what

would be considered the largest podcast

in the world.

>> I got some Dr. McGillicuies here, some

fireball. Mind if I do a shot with you

guys?

>> Some great stuff here.

>> You drink stuff? Sure. I'll drink.

>> Here we go, guys. We're getting the

camera put in the fridge. We're going to

toast.

>> Cheers, man. Cheers.

>> Dude, I think this is [ __ ] awesome.

>> Thank you, man. See, no, I mean,

>> this is the craziest thing ever.

>> And you also your show in 2007 when I

went on your show. That was 100% a major

inspiration for me to do this

>> because I remember thinking, "Oh my god,

he figured it out." Yeah. You said that

on the show, which was hilarious. And

then you figured that out. Yeah,

[laughter]

even though Tom Green largely stopped

appearing in mainstream movies and

shows, there was an Iron Clan grip he

had on the culture, an imprint that has

been felt by so many. In 2001, Eert

stated in his review of Freddy

Gotfingered, quote, "The day may come

when Freddy Got Fingered is seen as a

milestone of neoalism. The day may never

come when it is seen as funny." unquote.

When reviewing A Stealing Harvard, a

movie Tom Green starred in in 2002, Eert

stated, quote, "But the thing is, I

remember Freddy got fingered more than a

year later, I refer to it sometimes. It

is a milestone, and for all its sins, it

was at least an ambitious movie." This

was partly a backhanded compliment aimed

at lambasting the undesired nature of

Stealing Harvard. The main point is

there was something still provoking

about Freddy Gotfinger, not provoking in

its shocking acts, but impact and

ambition. In theaters, the film flopped

as it broke even on its $14 million

budget. But by 2005, the film had earned

30 million plus on DVD sales alone.

There was something happening. The film

wasn't changing, but the audience

perception of it was. The initial

audience test screenings in 2001 had the

movie get 17 out of 100. While there is

no way to replicate the depth of these

test screenings, there is a similar

metric that can be used through the

website Rotten Tomatoes. This website

along averaging critic scores also

averages user scores. And in 2008, the

user score was up to 27 out of 100. Four

years later, by June 25th, 2012, the

user reviews doubled to 54%. 2012 was

also the same year the Eric Andre show

aired on ADULT SWIM.

>> LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S THE ERIC

ANDRE SHOW. [screaming]

>> This show had striking similarities to

slack moments found in the original Tom

Green Show, such as the set destruction.

Just as Jackass had done, the Eric Andre

Show had taken major inspiration from

Tom Green. Even the first episodes of

the Eric Andre Show were deliberately

shot and edited as if they were made in

the '90s and was akin to the lowerc cost

production of the Tom Green Show. The

core difference is that Eric Andre's

guests were not in on the joke.

Additionally, Eric Andre was able to get

celebrities filmed their interview that

could go on for an hour long and cut it

down to the best, most nonsensical

couple of minutes. Eric Andre also makes

sure the studio temperature is hot to a

very uncomfortable degree. He has

deliberately chosen an uncomfortable

chair for guests to sit on and rather

than have his co-host Hannibal Burrus

sit next to the guest as will be typical

and at eye level, Hannibal looms over

the guest to amplify the uncomfortable

setting. There are often other elements

applied to make the guest uncomfortable,

like having a terrible lingering stench

or having someone grip the guest through

their chair. My seat feels like um like

it's alive or something.

>> Like Tom Green did well didn't. Eric

Andre did not have a stunt coordinator.

Quote, he reveals that he was

hospitalized with concussions after

wrestler turned actor John Cena threw

him through a bookcase in the show's

upcoming season. There was a time he got

stitches in his hand after he punched

through a car window. And during an

interview with Vivica Fox, he crashed

into his desk and wrenched his back.

>> I hurt my back interviewing Vivica Fox

this year pretty bad. That was the worst

one. you you when when how how'd that

happen?

>> I just went straight through the desk

while I was interviewing her and like

just landed. I didn't put any padding. I

forgot to put padding down. Just hit my

butt on the concrete and just

>> cuz I've been reading all the stuff

about the show and you always say nice

things about me.

>> Yeah man, you were my hero. Your set

destruction is really your baby.

>> Yeah. Well,

>> and I didn't really realize it until

later. I was like people always like

where'd you get the idea for the show?

But then just one day I was like, "Oh,

that's from Tom's show." Tom Green.

>> Destroying the set.

>> Destroyed the set just out of nowhere.

And then I was like, "Oh, I'm just

biting Tom Green." So, thank you for

your brain.

>> We didn't smash.

>> I ripped you off it.

>> We didn't smash it every week. We did it

once.

>> I think I watched that clip when I was

like 18 years old and I was like, Tom

Green should do that every episode,

every day. In many ways, Tom Green

invented or at minimum perpetuated

modern-day reality subversion pranks and

the podcast

>> promo tapes together and send them off

to the CBC and to the local television

stations, right?

>> You know, with a little letter asking if

they'd give us a pilot and eventually

someone did give us a pilot.

>> Tom invented this entire form.

>> Oh, yeah. He invented pretty much

everything that we know [snorts] over

the last five years. No, I'm dead

serious. Um, in virtually any video

involving Tom Green, the top comments

credit Tom for inventing an art form or

for being far ahead of his time. The

tragic truth is that he was punished for

it. Though he spent years refining the

editing style, the pranks, the

understanding that the reaction is above

the prank. Due to his cancer, he had to

pause production and was not able to

evolve the show once it got on

television. Shows like Jackass or Punk

tote Tom Green's place in his absence.

The same could be said for all the

pioneering he did for the podcast. Tom

gave up before the internet could

support it and before it could make it

in the mainstream. And finally was his

film Freddy Got Fingered. With these

former examples, Tom did get some sort

of boon from them. MTV thrust him into

stardom even though his show was only on

for about a year and his podcast at

minimum broke even and hardly caused him

as much turmoil as Freddy Got Fingered.

This movie turned America against him.

Yet slowly the audience reviews had been

creeping up. As previously shown, the

audience ratings were up to 54% in 2012.

Now in 2025 as this is being written

they stand at 56%. Though the score

hardly increased this score demonstrates

that as the score sat the film finally

achieved its purpose.

>> Maybe purposefully uh you know push half

of the audience away for the

entertainment of the other half of the

audience. This is what I thought we were

doing. We were making this movie that

was going to be so weird that maybe half

the audience would get up and walk out

of the theater and then the half that

remained would be sitting there like

they were in on the joke. Right. Tom

Green has been seen as a culture caught

up with him. There has been a reflection

and reanalysis of his work. But where is

Tom Green? Knowing his style, he would

not sit within contemporary culture. So

fittingly, he now owns and manages a

farm in Canada that he purchased in

2021. But I feel like

like it feels weirder to be

a comedian living in the wilderness.

Like like it it feels weird. Whereas

sometimes, you know, all my friends are

comedians.

>> Yeah. It's a unique thing to be

>> uh in a way that's probably energizing.

>> Yeah. Yeah. It kind of feels like I'm

doing something I'm not supposed to be

doing, you know, which is kind of why I

got into it in the first place, you

know.

>> Now, as shown on his YouTube channel, he

lives amongst livestock and regular

people. He also lives near his parents,

who can be seen in his Amazon show, Tom

Green Country, and his self-direct

documentary. This is the Tom Green

documentary. He is also touring doing

stand-up comedy. And Tom now in his 50s

has stated it has been his best decade.

>> So, and I'm and I'm 60. So, no. What?

What am I now? I forgot. But, uh, you

said

>> I'm 53. You said the 50s have been your

best decade so far.

>> So far. Yeah. Yeah. I've I'm loving

being in my 50s. Yeah, for sure.

>> Tom Green has lived with the crushing

feeling of catastrophic failure and with

the very real reality of death. He was