Roast duck? Good luck!
Sometimes there really isn’t anything below the surface of gross-out comedy like TDF Really Works. Just because it’s the brainchild of the writer/director behind the equally disturbing yet conversely thought-provoking short The Strange Thing About the Johnsons doesn’t mean you have to try harder to find one either. And whether Ari Aster had a reason to create what amounts to a NSFW infomercial gag besides the easy laugh it earns, that’s how it will be remembered.
Credit his restraint in using initials for the title, though. Telling us what “TDF” stands for would ruin the reveal as his lo-fi “knock-knock” joke between friends turns into a surreal adventure onto a path no man should ever risk taking. It’s this subversion that we latch onto and what becomes Aster’s calling card at the beginning of his career. Sadly this example is too shallow to really deliver anything besides a few chuckles and sympathy cringes. His dark sense of fun is appealingly offbeat, but I guess I was just hoping for more.