Tim And Eric Had A Hilarious Response To Shows Disappearing From Streaming

In 2020, alt-comedy heroes Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim released their latest Adult Swim series, "Beef House," an absurd parody of 1980s and '90s sitcoms. Or did they? In recent years, fans of the duo have been reminiscing about having watched the show despite the fact that this series is nowhere to be found — like, nowhere. It has disappeared completely, leading some to question whether it even existed in the first place. Are fans suffering from the Mandela Effect en masse? Well, according to Tim and Eric, that's exactly what's going on.

Wareheim recently sat down for a conversation on Heidecker's "Office Hours Live" podcast, where they discussed their lost show and treated the whole thing as some sort of mass delusion. "There's this rumor online," said Heidecker, "that whatever you want to call it, 'Mandela effect,' that we made a show called 'Beef House.'" The pair then looked at stills from the series and reacted with shock. "That's not us," said Wareheim, before Heidecker commented, "No, it looks like some kind of AI slop."

If you missed "Beef House" when it originally aired, you might be tempted to wade into the increasingly crowded streaming swamp and fish this one out. Unfortunately, you can't, and it's not entirely clear when you might be able to. In fact, it's not entirely clear whether this show ever existed, and now Tim and Eric are happy to embrace what is, when it comes down to it, the real absurdity of shows being eradicated from existence altogether.

If you grew up in the '80s or '90s, you'd immediately recognize the format, rhythm, and aesthetics of "Beef House," which mimicked a certain type of pre-2000s family-friendly sitcom — specifically those in the Miller-Boyett Productions mold. The show starred Tim and Eric as exaggerated, unhinged versions of themselves who, in the "Beef House" universe, live together in a suburban home alongside a trio of strange men in the form of Ron Austar, Tennessee Luke, and Ben Hur — all alumni of the seminal "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" "The Sopranos" actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler played Wareheim's wife, Megan Dungerson (who's also a detective). None of the setup is explained. We don't know why Tim and Eric live with three dudes or what, indeed, a "Beef House" actually is. In that way, the series followed the classic Tim and Eric formula of simply presenting the insanity as if it all made sense, making it all the more hilarious (and vaguely upsetting).

The six-episode first season of "Beef House" debuted in March 2020 and ran until May 4, after which it became clear that "Beef House" wouldn't be returning any time soon. In August of 2021, Heidecker responded to a fan request for more of the show via X (formerly Twitter), saying that he and Wareheim would "do it in a second" but that Adult Swim simply "isn't interested in making more." Since then, the show has become completely unavailable for viewing.

In response, Tim and Eric have played into the insanity of it all, acting as though the show never happened and everybody is suffering from the Mandela Effect. "A year or so ago, I started seeing all these things," said Heidecker. "They're like, 'There's a show that Tim and Eric made for Adult Swim called 'Beef House.” You can't find it on TV, or you can't find it on streaming, anywhere [...] I just want to say it sounds like a good, fun show." Wareheim added, "I would absolutely watch that show."

It seems as though we're waking up to just how ephemeral our culture is in the age of streaming and social media. Those movies we've purchased digitally? It turns out we don't really own them. Apple, or basically any digital provider, can just delete your library whenever they want. Perhaps even worse is the phenomenon of shows just being outright removed from any and all platforms altogether. The most salient example came in August 2022 when Warner Bros. Discovery started removing shows and movies from its HBO Max streaming platform without warning. Several of these titles did eventually emerge on other streamers via licensing deals, but the fact that they disappeared in the first place was disconcerting enough. The whole thing seemed like a dark turn of events for both creators and viewers, serving as yet another reminder of why physical media matters.

Unfortunately, we're at a point where entire projects are completely unavailable, having essentially become lost media even if they debuted relatively recently. "Beef House" is just one example. You want to see Tim and Eric embark on an Easter egg hunt as fully grown men while using "egg telescopes?" (Let's face it, of course you do) Well, you can't, and fans are still trying to comprehend the idea that an entire creative product has been pulled from public consumption without warning.

Obviously, this is a problem that goes beyond "Beef House." In their feigned disbelief that their creation ever existed, Tim and Eric also perfectly encapsulate a more widespread disbelief in how these media companies are conducting themselves in 2025. It's not just the issue of films and TV shows disappearing, it's the fact that a show like "Beef House" was — as The AV Club's Randall Coburn noted in his review — "unlike anything else on TV." It's bad enough such a series would have a tough time getting made today — something Tim and Eric also discussed in their interview. But the fact that it's also been completely erased from the culture feels like adding unnecessary insult to an already unnecessary injury.