The Maria Bamford Show

About once a year or so, I get the urge to rewatch my way through this short-lived little web series starring everyone's favorite anxious, high-strung, and eccentric comedian, Maria Bamford. And every year or so I get completely blindsided by just how amazing it is.

If you don't recognize the name, Maria Bamford is a comedian and voice actor known for her uncanny ability to mimic very specific accents and odd mannerisms, creating a wide bevy of wacky characters that carry the weight of her comedy routines. By a stark contrast, her subject matter is often surreal and dark, with a heavy focus on mental disorders and various forms of anxiety and depression, creating a wild mismatch of cartoonish voices saying some unsettling but very realistic things. It's not for everyone, but for those who get it, it's INCREDIBLE.

It should come as no surprise that Maria Bamford voiced a whole litany of random side characters in Adventure Time.

The Maria Bamford Show itself is a strange meta-story about Maria (playing herself) living with a dysfunctional version of her family (all played by her as well), after suffering from a (fictional) nervous breakdown onstage and moving back in with her parents as she tries to get back on her feet. The show explores themes of inner anxieties and intrusive thoughts (referred to here as "unwanted thoughts syndrome") by having Maria playing exaggerated parodies of her real family members. It's not rooted in the truth, but there is truth in the way these characters might act within an intrusive thought scene. It's powerful - and darkly hilarious - stuff.

These gifs will never do the actual performances justice.

The show was released in the late 00s as a series of online shorts and ran for two "seasons" for a total of 20 episodes, each one about a mere 3-5 minutes in length. You could reasonably watch the whole thing from end to end in just over an hour. I strongly recommend it, but only if you're in the right frame of mind to be laughing at these things.

Then again, who DOESN'T occasionally just shout random nonsense at their dog as if they can understand?

And for being a low-to-no budget web show, it works astonishingly well. Every character Maria plays feels like a completely different person. Her chameleonic ability to simply mimic a person's entire manner, from the unique voice they each use all the way down to their body language and the way they physically carry themselves, is the entire driving force of the show. Special effects are hardly needed aside from set lighting and random household props, and the lack of production speaks strongly to how relatable her characters are. It expertly captures the feel of a working class midwestern family from Minnesota, perhaps more believably than even a show like Roseanne ever could.

Little details in the costumes really drive this home too, like Amy Sleeverson's hair being held up with a jumbo chip clip instead of a scrunchie.

Maria's ability to slip into character roles feels completely seamless. No two characters ever appear together onscreen (save for one double-meta episode, where Maria's actual mother auditions for the role of herself on the show), but seeing as every scene is essentially just a conversation between Maria and herself, they never need to. After all, this is a show about Maria confronting the weird and chaotic way that anxieties and OCD works. It's about accepting the parts of herself that she can't control and must learn to live with, for better or worse.

Bizarre and creative visual shots like these really help drive home the anxiety theme as well.

The entire show can be best summed up in the form of one single episode, the musical season 1 finale, titled "Dark". It's a fun little banjo-driven sing-a-long that acknowledges the continued existence of depression and unwanted thoughts while also cheerfully reinforcing helpful behaviors like staying on medications and confiding in various forms of therapy. It creates a happy medium between accepting that life isn't always sunshine and rainbows, but that even in the dark, you're not alone, and it's going to be okay. If I could only show you one episode of the show (which, I reiterate, is not very long to begin with!), it would be this one.

"There's nothing to fear cause we're all terrified" is a line that still haunts me to this day.

Normally this is the part where I make additional recommendations for similar shows, but since this show is so uniquely itself, I'm at a loss for suggestions. I guess if you enjoy stand-up comedy that regularly touches on mental disorders (Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron, maybe a bit of Bo Burnham), or if you enjoy Tom Cardy's more weirdly personal songs, this will probably be right up your alley. The only decent recommendation that comes to mind is the obscure dissociative identity dramedy The United States of Tara, if you can find it.

And that's all I have to say here. Go watch this little gem, you won't regret it! You can find the whole thing, awkward subtitles and all, on Maria's own YouTube channel. And when in doubt, always remember Maria's most powerful advice...