Meet the Pig From Chris Fleming: Hell in This Exclusive Clip

Those who sit in the most undesirable theater seats may have more to deal with than they bargained for. As Victoria Pedretti learns in this exclusive clip from the Peacock comedy special Chris Fleming: Hell, there are monstrous creatures that must be kept at bay. Some know them as Teater Bavers, others as Ticketmaster Babies, but no matter the name they’re given they’re sure to induce nightmares. That’s why Jacob Ticketmaster (Chris Fleming) created this promotional video to let audience members know what to expect.

These creatures, Jacob Ticketmaster explains, were the result of a 1920s experiment to create ushers that lived in the theater walls and survived solely off of wood and Twizzler pull and peels. But clearly, something went horribly wrong, and now the little “night freaks” won’t leave audience members alone until they collect a little kiss. It’s up to those in the very back and very edge of the theater seats to spray them as they pop out of the walls and keep the rest of the crowd safe.

The adventures of the Ticketmaster Babies don’t end there — throughout his special Fleming shows a unique ability to push his jokes and sketches beyond their natural stopping point and somehow make them work instead of feel like they’re dragging on. Beyond their surprisingly grotesque appearance and unusual origin story, what makes the Ticketmaster Babies bizarrely funny is the fact that they're just working-class creatures stuck in a capitalist grind, just like the rest of us. In a later sketch we learn that if this Ticketmaster Baby doesn’t get its kisses from an unsuspecting Pedretti, it won’t be able to support its kids back at home.

Though these creatures are described by Judy Garland in the special as “closer to a spider or a mosquito,” there’s something undeniably swine-like about them. If we didn’t know any better, we’d say these are close relatives of the monster that was actually a pig in a Nixon mask from I Think You Should Leave’s Darmine Doggy Door sketch. At the very least, ITYSL and Chris Fleming: Hell point to a growing trend of incorporating grotesque puppetry into absurdist comedy specials.

This is Fleming’s first special for a streamer (he independently released his first hour-long stand-up special, Showpig, on YouTube and Facebook Live in 2018), and it toggles between his live stand-up on stage at Los Angeles’ Dynasty Typewriter and elevated versions of the kind of sketches that made him go viral in the past. The sensibility of his videos like “Company is Coming” and “Sick Jan” is still present throughout, he just now has the budget and production value to make the “DePiglio” (a creature who in this video is very shoddily animated) of his dreams — or more accurately, his nightmares.

Chris Fleming: Hell premieres August 18 on Peacock. 

Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.