The man who has “difficulty connecting with others” because he frequently “misperceives blinking as a threat” has returned to give the world another peek at his day-to-day life. It turns out this man, henceforth known as “Difficulty Man,” is just like you and me, in that he needs to take the odd vacation. The key word there being odd.
Difficulty Man’s Vacation is the latest in an offbeat series of short films created by comedians and This Is Branchburg podcast creators Cory Snearowski and Brendan O’Hare. It tracks Difficulty Man’s journey as he goes to the beach every year to collect free sand (“a far superior seasoning to salt or pepper”), crusade against lifeguards (aka “those who try to play God by learning the dark art of CPR” ), and seek out a searching companion he believes once sent him a personalized message in a bottle. The personalized messages? A Wawa receipt that reads, “Thank you! Please come back soon!”
The video is Snearowski and O’Hare at their finest, showcasing the comedic quirks that vocal fan Tim Heidecker became enamored with before he decided to attach his production company, Abso Lutely, to the duo’s narrative podcast. “I think there’s a lot of funny people, or people who think they’re funny, who think they can tie a bunch of non sequiturs together and improvise to create an absurd conversation,” he told us of the pair in 2019. “But theirs has a thoughtful to it. There are some surprises to it. They’re just both very likable right away, too. The whole thing feels kind of timeless.”
This Is Branchburg, which has featured the voice-acting talents of everyone from Tim Robinson to Ezra Koenig, wrapped its second season in December 2020 and has yet to return. Here’s hoping they heed the immortal words of Wawa receipts everywhere and “please come back soon.”