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Under a Rock with Tig Notaro

Under a Rock with Tig Notaro is an American comedy talk show in which comedian Tig Notaro interviews celebrity guests she does not recognize and tries to figure out who they are. Produced by Funny Or Die, it premiered on June 4, 2019, with James Van Der Beek as the first guest, and ran for two seasons of six episodes each on Prime Video.1 • 2

Key factDetail
PremiseNotaro, a comedian who does not follow pop culture, interviews famous people to try to identify them3
ProductionFunny Or Die; part talk show, part game show1
RunSeason 1 premiered June 4, 2019; season 2 ran November 5 to December 17, 2019; 12 episodes total2
PlatformPrime Video; last available for streaming until March 20212 • 4
Episode lengthCut to roughly five to seven minutes online, from 30 to 45 minutes of taped conversation5
ReceptionIMDb rating of 8.24
StatusCanceled after two seasons; in 2026 Notaro said she was trying to bring the show back6 • 7

Spoilers

Episodes and guests

Season 1 ran weekly from June 4 to July 9, 2019, with guests James Van Der Beek, Julie Bowen, Wyclef Jean, Melissa Joan Hart, Wolfgang Puck, and Glenn Howerton.12 Season 2 ran from November 5 to December 17, 2019, with Lena Headey, Kaley Cuoco, Rich Eisen, Tony Shalhoub, Debby Ryan, and Richard Jefferson.12 Funny Or Die withheld the names of guests after the first episode to preserve the surprise of whom Notaro would encounter next.1

Format

Each episode opens with Notaro's fixed introduction: she is a comedian who does not follow pop culture, does not watch much television or many movies, and has a hard time recognizing famous people, so on this show she interviews famous people to figure out who they are.3 The guest then enters without Notaro knowing their identity, and the conversation proceeds through casual chat, hints about professional achievements, and a Q&A segment in which Notaro gradually uncovers the guest's claim to fame.8

An Amazon sponsorship made the Alexa voice assistant something of a co-host, providing drumrolls and timers on command.9 In the first episode, Van Der Beek showed Notaro a picture of a creek as a clue to his name, and she worked through guesses of "stream" and "river" before landing on it.10 In the Wyclef Jean episode, he taught her how to dap with help from Alexa.2

Notaro has said the format produces conversations unlike a typical talk show: because she does not know who the guest is, she is genuinely talking to them and trying to understand who they are, and guests often react first with suspicion and then with enjoyment at having to explain themselves.5 • 10

Origin

The premise came from Notaro's real experiences of meeting celebrities she could not identify. She has said she truly does not follow television, film, or pop culture despite working on high-profile projects with big-name stars, and that the show was born out of not knowing who people are when she meets them.7 She described the same trait in a 2021 interview, saying she is stunned by how people keep up with everything and that she is not tied to what is current.11

Production

The show was directed by Amy Landecker and Riki Lindhome, with Charles Forsgren as producer.6 Notaro, Stephanie Allynne, and Thomas Ouellette served as executive producers.13 Although the online episodes ran five to seven minutes, each taping captured 30 to 45 minutes of conversation.5

Reception and afterlife

The show earned an IMDb rating of 8.2.4 Reviewers treated it as a niche web series suited to the YouTube era, calling it fun and clever and a good vehicle for Notaro's dry comedy, while noting that more structure might have helped move the conversations along.9 When Notaro appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in June 2019, Colbert tested her claimed ignorance with headshot flash cards; she recognized Dwayne Johnson as The Rock but missed most others, including a four-square array of the four Chrises.14

The show was canceled after two seasons and left Prime Video in March 2021.6 • 4 It has since found a second life in clips: in a July 2026 interview, Notaro said Funny Or Die had begun releasing clips of old episodes that continue to get millions of views, that the show is almost more popular now than when it first came out, and that she and the production were trying to bring it back.7

References

  1. Tig Notaro Is a Celeb-Clueless Talk-Show Host in Funny Or Die's New Series, Variety via Yahoo Entertainment
  2. Under A Rock with Tig Notaro, Aired Order, TheTVDB
  3. Under.A.Rock S02E03 English subtitles, Subtitle Cat
  4. Under a Rock with Tig Notaro, JustWatch
  5. Army Of The Dead's Tig Notaro on green screens and being a heartthrob at 50, The A.V. Club
  6. Under A Rock with Tig Notaro (2019), Plex
  7. Q&A with Tig Notaro: Out of nowhere into everything, The Gazette (Colorado Springs), July 14, 2026
  8. Under A Rock with Tig Notaro, Clicker
  9. The Strange Fun Of 'Under A Rock With Tig Notaro', The Federalist, June 21, 2019
  10. Couch potato: Billy Eichner and Tig Notaro reckon with the cult of celebrity, The Student Life
  11. Tuesday Transcripts: Tig Notaro, From The Comic's Comic, July 28, 2021
  12. Under a Rock with Tig Notaro, Episode Guide, TVmaze
  13. Under a Rock with Tig Notaro (2019), Full cast & crew, IMDb
  14. Tig Notaro shows Stephen Colbert that she genuinely doesn't know who anyone famous is, The A.V. Club, June 20, 2019

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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