The Comedy is a 2012 American drama film co-written, co-edited, and directed by Rick Alverson, and starring Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, James Murphy, and Gregg Turkington.

The film was executive produced by David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Darius Van Arman, and Larry Fessenden.

[2] Despite the title and use of comedians as actors, Sundance festival chief programmer Trevor Groth says that the film is not a comedy, but instead "a provocation, a critique of a culture based at its core around irony and sarcasm and about ultimately how hollow that is.

"[3] The film was deliberately leaked onto various torrent websites, though the file only shows the first ten minutes before abruptly cutting to Heidecker sitting silently on a boat behind a scrolling anti-piracy statement.

Swanson and his buddies (Eric Wareheim, James Murphy, Richard Swift) continuously mock their less intelligent friend Cargill (Jeff Jensen) after he confesses they are important to him.

One night, Swanson's friend Van (Wareheim) shows their group a slideshow of photos from his childhood, interspersing vintage pornographic images as a gag.

[8] Aaron Hillis of The Village Voice called it "transgressively brilliant... an itchy critique of entitlement starring avant-garde comedian Tim Heidecker as one of Williamsburg's overprivileged".