10 Best Nathan Fielder Schemes From ‘The Rehearsal’ & ‘Nathan for You,’ Ranked
There isn’t another human roaming this Earth quite like Nathan Fielder. The writer-actor has become a standout voice of his generation, thanks to his abnormal sensibilities and a singular brand of cringe comedy that’s as hard to watch as it is to explain. When it comes to The Rehearsal (returning for Season 2 on Sunday, April 20, on HBO), Nathan for You, and The Curse, you really have to see the absurdity for yourself. Whether what he does is real or staged is up for debate, but what’s undeniable is how much we love watching this man-child who is equal parts awkward, endearing, and megalomaniacal.
Comedy Central’s Nathan for You was a comedic docuseries that showed Fielder armed with a business degree and thinking he could give advice to people with struggling businesses. In The Rehearsal, which first debuted in 2022, he gave participants the space to rehearse their own lives in practice scenarios of his own design.
Fielder has devoted his on-screen life to helping others — or at least doing what he believes will help — investing his know-how and experience into elaborate marketing plans that usually backfire in spectacular fashion. While he’s often helping small business owners in Nathan for You, The Rehearsal widens the focus to individuals unsure of how to prepare for life’s most unpredictable moments. In The Rehearsal Season 2, he lends his assistive efforts to the aviation industry. That will go well.
Ahead of the The Rehearsal Season 2 premiere, here’s our favorite Nathan Fielder schemes from The Rehearsal Season 1 and Comedy Central’s Nathan for You, ranked.
The Rehearsal, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, April 20, 10:30/9:30c, HBO
10. Nathan's escape act — Nathan for You, "The Claw of Shame" (Season 1 Episode 7)
After being criticized for his abrasive marketing strategies that he enforces on his clients, Nathan decides to put himself to task. Though, instead of showing a business portfolio or something reasonable to prove that he is a risk-taker, he organizes an escape act.
Nathan has exactly 90 seconds to escape a pair of handcuffs before a robotic hand yanks down his pants in front of a crowd, risking charges of indecent exposure. It’s an absurd scenario, and arguably the show’s first leap into truly far-fetched territory. But watching Nathan meticulously troubleshoot every detail, and waste engineers’ time building a robot solely designed for juvenile pranks, is exactly what makes him the best in the biz.
9. Nathan's dating show — Nathan for You, "Haunted House/The Hunk" (Season 1 Episode 5)
A recurring theme in Nathan’s work is unrequited love and a deep-seated sense of inadequacy (more on that later). One of the earliest signs of this through-line emerged when he created his own version of The Bachelor, titled The Hunk, with Nathan himself as the titular “hunk.”
It ends up being an impressively accurate recreation of your typical dating show, complete with a luxurious mansion and cheesy music. Beyond watching Nathan flounder around women clearly out of his league, the real highlight is his jealousy toward the charming host.
The ending is a bit of a cop-out, with Nathan ultimately choosing self-love. While it’s an empowering message and a healthy resolution, it’s not exactly why we tune into reality TV — we wanted more drama!
8. Nathan takes down Uber — Nathan for You, "Andy vs. Uber" (Season 4 Episode 3)
No one could have predicted how dependent we’d become on ride-sharing apps likes Uber, but Nathan was ahead of the curve. In the Season 2 episode “Taxi Service/Hot Dog Stand,” he helps out a struggling cab company owner, Andy, push back against the big corporations, offering free rides to pregnant women as a creative way to compete.
Obviously, the plan doesn’t turn out to be the success Nathan had envisioned. Surprisingly, though, Uber soon after began giving out free baby onesies to any child born in one of their vehicles. Convinced he’d been ripped off, Nathan reunites with Andy to infiltrate the company from the inside — planting deliberately terrible drivers who blast Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5′ and intentionally take the wrong turns.
The plan never really takes off — probably because Andy, understandably, grows concerned that this might be growing into a sleeper cell. Maybe if Nathan had backed Andy’s Karaoke Taxi idea instead, things would’ve gone a lot more smoothly.
7. Nathan takes down Best Buy — Nathan for You, "Electronics Store" (Season 3 Episode 1)
Another instance where Nathan took a bold stand for the little guy was his attempt to help a struggling local electronics store owner, whose business had been gutted by Best Buy’s calamitous price-match guarantee.
Nathan’s plan was simple: slash his client’s TV prices to $1, leaving Best Buy with no choice but to match them. On paper, it’s an ingenuous workaround. He even had the foresight to implement a strict dress code and alligator to ward off bargain hunters. But in a twist no one saw coming, Best Buy refused to adhere to their price-match policy.
What follows is a tense standoff between Nathan and the corporate giant, complete with espionage and another fake dating show, this time exclusively for retail employees. It’s riveting, but you can’t help but feel for the poor souls who rented fancy outfits and squeezed through a miniature door, only to walk away with a TV.
6. Nathan's Starbucks parody — Nathan for You, "Dumb Starbucks" (Season 2 Episode 5)
Before he became an Emmy-nominated creative, he was best known as the “Dumb Starbucks” guy. A few Nathan for You bits have managed to break out of the orbit he’s carved for himself and enter mainstream conversation — like his promotion for a petting zoo back in Season 1 — but none achieved the same popularity as his Starbucks parody.
When Nathan comes across a downtrodden café with an identity crisis, Nathan exploits parody law to launch a full-scale knockoff of Starbucks, the only difference being that he slaps the word “dumb” in front of all of their products. As always, the plan takes unexpected turns, including Nathan ditching the original client to pursue the venture on his own. It’s arguably his highest-profile scheme to date, but with the person he set out to help getting burned, you have to wonder: At what cost?
5. Nathan's Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance — Nathan for You, "The Anecdote" (Season 4 Episode 4)
Nathan’s racked up some unforgettable late-night moments over the years. There was the time he brought Susan Sarandon as a back-up guest on Conan, or the time he was joined by Emma Stone on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote The Curse, suddenly rocking a new look and nonchalant attitude. But his most iconic appearance? The time he told the greatest talk show anecdote on Kimmel.
While promoting the latest season of Nathan for You, Nathan sees a chance to correct a perception that he’s a “boring” guest on talk shows. Rather than making up a funny story, he concocts a convoluted scheme involving a mix-up with airport luggage, a random mother’s ashes, and a David Byrne-esque oversized suit.
It was shaping up to being his greatest stunt yet — until he was upstaged at the last minute by Kirsten Dunst.
4. Nathan's gas station rebate — Nathan for You, "Gas Station/Caricature Artist" (Season 1 Episode 4)
In one of the classic Nathan for You segments, Nathan helps out a gas station owner by offering unreasonably cheap after rebate. The catch? The only way to claim the rebate is by hiking up a mountain only accessible by foot and dropping it off at a dropbox.
Expecting no one to actually follow through, Nathan is surprised when a handful of determined individuals take him up on the offer. So, he ups the ante, introducing riddles and even requiring them to camp overnight. In the end, no one manages to complete the full process and claim the rebate. But after a shared journey, maybe the real rebate was the friends they made along the way.
3. Nathan's acting class — The Rehearsal, "The Fielder Method" (Season 1 Episode 4)
How much of the Nathan character is an act? We may never know, but his time as an acting teacher in The Rehearsal, where he strives to curate more realistic scenarios, he offers a brief glimpse into his philosophy as a performer.
His first assignment is for the students to mimic the behavior of a random person on the street. It’s a morally ambiguous task, at best, but most of the students embrace it — Nathan included, as he takes on the persona of an unsuspecting student, Thomas. From there, the rabbit hole deeps as Nathan has another actor play himself, allowing him to further step into Thomas’ daily life. He unexpectedly goes all the way, moving into his home, using nunchucks, and sleeping in his bed.
It’s undeniably creepy, but it also serves as a poignant critique of method acting (looking at you, Jared Leto).
2. Nathan's fatherhood journey — The Rehearsal, "Pretend Daddy" (Season 1 Episode 6)
The Rehearsal features plenty of memorable single-episode antics, such as helping a trivia enthusiast come clean to his teammates about his fabricated education background or guiding brothers through the details of discussing their will. But the heart of the HBO series lies in Nathan’s unexpected detour into learning how to become a better partner and father.
Throughout the season, Nathan helps a woman who is unsure about having a child by using robot babies and actors to simulate the experience of parenthood. When her co-parent decides to leave, Nathan steps in to take on the role of father. He gradually begins to unravel as he becomes more deeply involved — even after the original mother, Angela, quits.
The season finale is particularly striking, as Nathan is forced to confront the emotional consequences when a child actor begins to believe that Nathan is his real father. It’s equally engrossing and unsettling, but it’s also one of the most fascinating experiments ever captured on the small screen.
1. Nathan helps a Bill Gates impersonator find love — Nathan for You, "Finding Frances" (Season 4 Episode 7)
The Nathan for You formula was never more compelling than in the show’s supersized final episode. With expectations sky-high, Nathan brought back fan-favorite Bill Heath — a Bill Gates impersonator he’d previously hired to draw customers to a Hollywood souvenir shop. But this time, Nathan isn’t here to rescue his struggling business. He’s here to help Bill find “the one that got away”: Frances.
The quest turns out to be arguably the most challenging of Nathan’s career, taking him to Dumas, Arkansas, where Bill reveals himself to be such a captivating figure, we can’t help but watch as Nathan digs into his past, trying to piece together the puzzle of his life. Throughout four seasons, Bill is the only person who’s ever managed to out-weird Nathan, and it’s fascinating to watch Nathan navigate high school reunions and a fake Mud sequel in an effort to find Frances.
It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking — the perfect conclusion to Nathan for You and a fitting prelude to the more introspective, existential tone of The Rehearsal.
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