this week in web videos

Milton: An Accidental Curb Your Enthusiasm Audition

Featured Funny Video: Milton

Recently honored at SXSW with the Vimeo Staff Pick Award, Tim Wilkime’s Milton tells the story of a less-than-winsome Everyman named Jason (frequent Drunk History narrator Allan McLeod) who has the extreme misfortune of being introduced to his girlfriend Natalie’s (Elaine Carroll) family at the side of her grandfather Milton’s deathbed. A premise that promises cringe comedy? Sure. And boy, does it deliver.

Small moments of reassurance from the would-be brother-in-law Tyler (Kiel Kennedy) quickly metastasize when Jason obtusely plops in Natalie’s father’s (John Ennis) hospital-room chair, forcing the cane-wielder to hobble out of the room in search of another. And that’s nothing.

From Natalie’s sister’s (Anna Seregina) insistence that she witnessed her grandfather slip away to grandma Ethel’s (Pat McNeely) sudden, lustful admission that Jason is a dead ringer for a younger Milton, Wilkime knows that any blowout must be earned. Over the course of seven minutes, he lays the groundwork for a finale that would be right at home in Curb Your Enthusiasm’s canon.

Prepare to squirm.

Luke is executive producer and head of development at Big Breakfast and a watcher of many web videos. Send him yours @LKellyClyne.

Milton: An Accidental Curb Your Enthusiasm Audition