Nathan Fielder Live Stream Confuses Already Confused Fans

Anyone who’s even vaguely familiar with the work of Nathan Fielder was likely suspicious when HBO and Max announced that Fielder would be promoting the second season of The Rehearsal by live streaming on Instagram for “12 hours straight.”

For one thing, Fielder isn’t exactly known for oversharing on social media. Although he did once post a candid photo of himself hanging out with all of his friends:

Plus, the Nathan for You star has frequently tried to find ways to subvert the conventions of his promotional duties, such as how he once appeared on Conan O’Brien’s talk show with a “backup” celebrity guest, just in case the interview didn’t go well.

When people checked out Fielder’s livestream this morning, beginning at 9 a.m., it initially seemed as though he was actually present on a webcam, preparing to engage with his fans. “These are good questions,” Fielder remarked while appearing to scan his computer screen. “How does this work? One sec,” he added. Fielder paused to take a sip from a can of soda and then the whole thing repeated.

As of writing, it seems that the whole livestream is just one two-minute clip looping over and over again. But because Fielder has broken everyone’s brains, on the Fielder-devoted subreddit, confused fans speculated that it might still be a genuine livestream. 

According to this theory, Fielder is re-enacting — or rehearsing — the same scene ad nauseam so that it looks like a loop, when in fact it’s a calculated act of exhausting performance art. He would even need to play the exact same car noises in the background to sell the illusion. 

While we certainly wouldn’t put it past Fielder to try something like that, one fan found the edit point where the loop begins again. The transition is almost seamless, except for some glitching around Fielder’s chin.

Despite the fact that this livestream is totally fake, people still keep sending questions Fielder’s way — although, because it’s HBO’s account, a significant number of them are about House of the Dragon and The Last of Us. 

Venturing even further down the rabbit hole, Fielder is wearing a sweatshirt made by Summit Ice, his outdoor apparel/Holocaust awareness company that began as a Nathan for You stunt. As one fan pointed out, Summit Ice’s website is now “down for maintenance” and can only be entered with a password, which he wasn’t able to guess. One user suggested trying phrases from the loop to see if they work.

Of course, it’s also very possible that if they somehow crack the password, the site will just link to the same damn loop.