Tim Heidecker — best known as one-half of the absurdist comedy duo Tim and Eric — wears many hats, and his newest is by far the strangest. Heidecker’s latest entertainment foray, Too Dumb For Suicide: Tim Heidecker’s Trump Songs, is a 12-track, 36-minute collection of anti-Trump songs littered with humor and poignancy.
Released on Nov. 8, the one-year anniversary of the day America elected its 45th president, Too Dumb For Suicide has a cover that features Trump blow-drying his oft-mocked hair with his famously smug countenance. Yet on “Trump Tower,” the album’s first song, Heidecker opens the show with its sincerest moment of protest.
“Well, they can take me down to the bowels of Trump Tower/ And put me on the rack next to all of my brown and black brothers,” sings Heidecker with a genuine folk-rock feel. “And make me pledge allegiance to the hashtag MAGA, no other/ And rip my arms and legs off while I’m crying for my mother/ But I’ll be hell-bent to call that motherfucker President.”
For anybody previously familiar with the work of Heidecker, it’s impossible to say how shocking it is that the man most famous for making faces like this is the same person writing and singing protest anthems à la Bob Dylan. However, on songs such as “Imperial Bathroom,” Heidecker lets his eccentric comedy roots run wild.
“What’s stronger than diamonds/ What’s tougher than U.S. steel?” questions Heidecker. “What comes out once a week/ After Sunday’s meal?”
The answer is the literal shit of current President of the United States Donald J. Trump, son of Fred. Hidden in the song is a genuine jab at anti-isolationism, with Heidecker basically saying Trump’s feces are black, hard and as unhealthy as possible because he only eats a diet of rotating American fast-food chains. I wish I could say it’s the message I most appreciated in the track; however, Heidecker’s energetic belting of the phrase “Trump’s dumps” is currently not just stuck in but also branded onto my head.
Heidecker sounds like an off-brand Father John Misty, a fact he lets his audience know he is fully aware of by including the album’s bonus track. Covering “Trump’s Private Pilot,” the album’s sixth song, Father John Misty himself delivers a lovely rendition of the Heidecker original.
“I am Donald Trump’s private pilot/ And I fly him everywhere,” explains Misty with gorgeous vocals. “Taxi him to his outdoor rallies/ Where he gives you all a scare.”
Misty doing the cover illuminates Heidecker’s knack for songwriting. The track sounds like a genuine Father John Misty song, one that Pitchfork would name best new track and accompany with a “Father John Misty smoothly lashes out against Trump in new single” headline.
A year ago, before the election results poured in, Heidecker surely never could have guessed that Nov. 8, 2017 would find him releasing a collection of songs that craftily undermined the legitimacy of his nation’s current commander in chief.
But here he is, and here we are.
