Tom Goes to the Mayor
An in-your-face take on satire.
"Oh, hello m'lady."
Tom Goes to the Mayor, or TGTTM, a semi-live-action television series made by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, is a prime example of satire. It pokes fun at corruption, greed, megalomania, and the general ineffectiveness of US government. The titular character "The Mayor," played by Wareheim, embodies one or many of such attributes in each episode. He has a phony air and will frequently only hear what he wants to hear until faced with disaster. This normally causes Tom, an unsuccessful entrepreneur played by Heidecker, to lose a great deal of money, property, dignity, etc. in each episode. The metaphor being used here is pretty gosh darn blatant: The Mayor is representative of the government and Tom is an average American. TGTTM “works,” because all topics being satirized are relatable to the audience. If the audience is not in on the joke there is really no point in having a show.