Thrash Lab Funded Comedy ‘Eric Finley: Comment Counselor’ Debuts

Over the summer, Ashton Kutcher‘s Thrash Lab channel (a YouTube Original) aired Dream Bigger, a ten part series profiling the work of ten aspiring young creators. In the end, three of the ten pilots were chosen to develop into full-on web series. Two of the winners have already debuted: BKLYN FLEX, a series about the unusual “flexing” dance subculture, and Real Artists, the brilliantly apt comedy about the Brooklyn hipster stereotype. Now, the third entry from the Dream Bigger series, titled Eric Finley: Comment Counselor, has finally debuted.

Eric Finley tells the story of its titular character, a saccharine guidance counselor who gets many inflammatory comments on a poorly made YouTube video. Finley then attempts to track down the users who have insulted him with the intention of giving all of the hateful commenters a free counseling session. Obviously, plenty of hijinks ensue along the way. The first episode has been released on the show’s official YouTube channel, with a special appearance from everyone’s favorite raspy baritone, Tay Zonday.

The best part of Eric Finley is how the YouTube video that receives the hateful comments (a series of 100 impressions, possibly parodying this video)

is an actual YouTube video uploaded by a fake Eric Finley account. All of the commenters who Finley is searching for are real people who actually commented on that video. My only hope is that the inflammatory commenters  will watch the Eric Finley series, where they will unknowingly appear as fictionalized versions of themselves. I especially wonder how FootballFreaq59, who has the top rated comment on the hated video (and has also already seen Eric Finley: Comment Counselor), feels about being compared to Voldemort.

In addition to new Dream Bigger content, Thrash Lab is hosting several other shows with hipster-ish orientation, including the Subculture Club documentary series and a series of time-lapse videos titled Empty America.

Eric Finley: Comment Counselor was created by two brothers, Aaron and Will Eisenberg, along with producer Michael Lewen. The pair will release several new episodes in the upcoming weeks, if you like what you see, be sure to check back for new episodes. Hopefully, Eric Finley will teach commenters to think twice before flaming a video. I know that’s what the titular character would want.