It’s difficult to pinpoint the single funniest moment in Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which is filled with wall-to-wall gags. But the one bit that best distills the particular flavor of how co-creators Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol approach comedy comes in a scene outside Drake’s mansion in Toronto. After the duo heard about the real-life 2024 shooting of the rapper’s security guard, they rushed their cameras to the active crime scene to steal a shot of McCarrol’s character in the background of the police’s press conference—despite not having any idea of how it would ultimately factor into their ongoing film project.
Disclosing how a murder factors into the plot would spoil yet another uproarious moment in Nirvanna, but its diegetic context need not be known to appreciate its significance. Johnson and McCarrol have trained themselves to spot and capitalize on incidental opportunities for humor as they arise. Not unlike their on-screen alter egos, the pair takes on faith that they can make even the most far-fetched ideas all coalesce into something cohesive.
The Torontonian twosome has amassed quite a Nirvanna archive, beginning with their web and TV series (both subtitled The Band the Show). By way of a knowing riff on Back to the Future’s story, the film engages with some of the earliest recorded footage of Johnson and McCarrol. In these early days, the free-wheeling best friends were just two young musicians in a band without a song to their name, and their motivating desire was to book a gig at local haunt the Rivoli.
Nearly two decades later, they remain in pursuit of that engagement, though they appear much less fresh-faced in their zeal. Johnson and McCarrol’s characters show that age most prominently especially when the film’s time-hopping plot places the present-day men in scenes opposite their twentysomething selves. Yet Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie still maintains the same charge of creative inspiration and absurdist joy that powered the comedians at the start of their careers. The film offers a joyous throwback to the optimistic feeling of the early internet creator era, when the democratization of video technology and distribution empowered renegade artists to circumvent cultural gatekeepers.
If anything has changed in the intervening years since Nirvanna’s origin, it’s Johnson and McCarrol’s ability to execute the most hair-brained comedic concepts on an even grander scale. The film opens with an attempt to parachute from Toronto’s CN Tower onto the field at a Blue Jays game to promote Nirvanna’s forthcoming gig, and their shenanigans only get more ridiculous and heightened once they land back in 2008. Juvenile humor pulled off with artistic sophistication proves a winning combination time and again for the film as Johnson and McCarrol’s alter egos adapt to their new, yet old, surroundings.
Johnson is every bit as indefatigable behind the camera as his breathlessly verbose character. That energy helps keep Nirvanna engaging even as the mockumentary style bumps up against its limits. The film rarely strays beyond its standard routine of Matt tossing out an outlandish idea and Jay skeptically reacting to its feasibility, but the performers manage to find countless variations within that dynamic. Their most foolproof trick to combat fatigue lies in filming their banter out on the streets, incorporating the incredulity of bystanders into the action.
The seemingly ambling nature of Johnson’s film belies its intentionality and careful construction. It’s a masterfully calibrated laugh machine in the body of a home movie uploaded directly to the web. Johnson and McCarrol’s characters might have learned little over time, but the real artists’ attempts to keep upping the ante of inane antics cannot help but evince just how smart they have gotten at finding new ways to be hilarious.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
