Is Nathan For You Real Or Scripted?

"Nathan For You" is unbelievably uncomfortable, and I mean that in the best way possible. Nathan Fielder's Comedy Central series, which ran on the network from 2013 to 2017, centers around Fielder himself going to businesses in need of help and pitching increasingly absurd ideas. (An example: in the fourth-ever episode, Fielder offers people a mail-in rebate at a gas station but presents a series of truly out-of-control steps people must follow in order to get said rebate, including going on a camping trip with him, a total stranger.) So, is the series scripted?

Not really, no; the very nature of "Nathan For You" depends entirely on the reaction from the very real business owners and entrepreneurs that Fielder interacts with. In a profile with GQ in 2015, Fielder explained that he and his crew essentially flew by the seat of their pants when they made the series.

"Really good ideas come from weird places," Fielder replied when interviewer Alex Wong asked about the show's creative process. "There's no formula." The actor, writer, and producer continued:

"Sometimes, we'll think of an interesting scene or concept that doesn't relate to a business and think, 'How can we use this to market a business?' Other times, we start by thinking of a certain business and then we'll try to think of problems that we can solve for them. We have several segments this year that have nothing to do with businesses in any way: I perform a life transformation for someone, and I set out to prove scientifically that I'm a fun person to hang out with. They more draw from things in my personal life or ideas or stuff that we encounter in making the show. We're giving people a little behind-the-scenes look."

Still, Fielder also revealed that not every idea he and his collaborators had behind the scenes ended up working out. "Sometimes, we have to throw out really great concepts that are really interesting, funny ideas or unique ways to help businesses, or put them to the side, because we can't think of a way to execute it on the show that would be interesting to watch," he admitted. After saying that the series' priority was still entertainment and what reaction Fielder himself could elicit from the people he featured, he revealed, "A lot of the process is just coming up with something, trying it in the real world, seeing what happens, and adjusting and rewriting the story based on what happened. It's probably unlike how other shows are made in that way. It's constantly being rewritten depending on almost each interaction. It's a very weird process."

Throughout the run of "Nathan For You," a handful of Nathan Fielder's entrepreneurial exploits went viral, including his now-legendary "Dumb Starbucks" gambit (where, under laws regarding satire, he basically recreated a full Starbucks but just put the word "dumb" in front of it to avoid being sued). As Fielder told GQ, though, he never intended for that; the true intention behind the show was to see how people reacted to Fielder's absurd and often flat-out terrible ideas.

"The goal on the show is never for something to go viral," Fielder confessed, saying that the "point" of the show should be "I'm helping a business, and we're documenting what actually happened." Fielder then addressed a fake video he and his team made of a pig rescuing a goat — which people believed until he admitted it was a publicity hoax — and how this led to him changing his approach. "I remember saying, 'We should not try and make anything go viral,'" he recalled. "That's not what the show really is. The show is about people and moments between people, and going viral doesn't necessarily lead to the best episode of television."

"A lot of the ideas are clever but maybe too risky for the types of businesses we're going to," Fielder continued, speaking to the fact that he got incredibly different reactions from everyone who ever appeared on the show. "We hope to find that right mind where they're good enough, or maybe we're solving a problem they don't care to solve. I never want it to feel like everyone reacts the same way. Sometimes people call me out and say, 'You're an idiot! I think you're dumb, and this idea is dumb, and you don't know what you're doing.' Sometimes people are very polite and they'll say they love the idea even though on their face you see they don't. Regardless, either of those reactions are very telling about what kind of person they are and how they deal with minor social stressors in their life — and I find that to be the most interesting. That's the area that's most fun to tread in."

Ultimately, "Nathan For You" came to a close after its fourth season ... but thankfully, it paved the way for Fielder's next project "The Rehearsal,", which turned out to be yet another kind of experiment but on a much, much larger scale.

If you're familiar with "Nathan For You," you can probably see the direct line from that show to "The Rehearsal," Fielder's follow-up on HBO that spans two seasons and has earned considerable attention (and, for that matter, acclaim). In fact, fans of "Nathan For You" were probably delighted to see him address one of his conceits from that show — a fake outwear company called "Summit Ice" that gave proceeds to Holocaust education throughout the United States — in a season 2 episode of "The Rehearsal" where Fielder finds out that Paramount+ removed that episode from its streaming service over Nazi imagery. (Even if you haven't watched the Summit Ice episode, titled "Horseback Riding/Man Zone" in season 3, it's frankly so messed up and so delightful to watch Fielder recreate a German-style version of Paramount's headquarters to "rehearse" his conversation with executives.)

In any case, "The Rehearsal," a show that lets Fielder test drive a multitude of scenarios to check as many outcomes as possible, is the natural evolution of "Nathan For You," right down to the fact that Fielder uses the same fascinating and off-putting "persona" on both shows. You can stream almost all of "Nathan For You" on Paramount+ (as of this writing, the Summit Ice episode is still not on the streamer!), and the entire show, alongside "The Rehearsal," is available to watch on HBO Max.