If you know anything about Tim and Eric, you’re probably repulsed. If you’re in the strange sub-genre of people (like me) who find their style, which has been aptly named “anti-humor,” funny, Zone Theory… is partially for you.
There’s a lot to love about Zone Theory. It’s in that clear T&E style, where they appear to have sourced all their talent for photoshoots and the like from Craigslist as opposed to a casting company. You can learn all about giving “Probo” to your wife. They also do their classic style where they’ve adopted strange personas, in this case as spiritual (read: scam artist) gurus, somehow becoming brand new characters while still being Tim and Eric. Additionally, it does a sort of House of Leaves thing with atypical construction causing you to flip around, read portions of the book in the mirror, and generally approach it as a puzzle, just a puzzle where the solution/reward is to confuse you even more.
It also shows the limitations of Tim and Eric’s style. This book shows how much they need film as a format. There’s nothing wrong with that, but reading their work as opposed to watching it feels like a compromise. One touch however that works perfectly, both if you don’t know Tim and Eric, and if you do, is that the cover is matte, apart from the Tim and Eric’s eyes, which are gloss. You only notice in the right light, but holy creepy crap do you notice.
It’s super weird. Read it if you like Tim and Eric, avoid it if you find them too weird.
