“Hello, friends and lovers!”
-Thu Tran, host of Food Party
On rare occasion, I venture to turn on my television only to be bombarded by an unceasing volley of political and corporatist propaganda and artistically bankrupt sitcoms sandwiched between vile advertisements that try way too hard to reach a form of “humor” only someone with a severe case of terminal stupidity would laugh at. The ordeal often leaves me huddled in a corner, a quivering mess, weeping as I sink deeper into an inescapable despair.
However, also on rare occasion, I stumble upon something that dispenses with any pretenses and embraces fully a free-spirited creativity with reckless abandon. This thing is Food Party.
A surreal food-themed Pee Wee’s Playhouse for adults, drenched in colorful absurdity, Food Party began its life as a homemade puppet show created by a group of Cleveland art school students. Episodes of about twenty to thirty minutes in length appeared sporadically on YouTube, often several months apart. With its combination of colorful, limitless imagination and homemade, rough-around-the-edges charm, Food Party quickly garnered a cult following.
Episodes of Food Party generally focus on the goings on occurring in Thu Tran’s kitchen, where food is both an edible treat and a work of art. Lacking professional acting skills, Thu Tran hosts the show with an infectious playfulness and cheer reminiscent of a child making a show in their basement with their parent’s camcorder. By contrast, her frequent co-star Peter Van Hyning displays an incredible knack for playing various colorful characters, both puppet and human, of all sorts of eccentric persuasions.
In 2009 Food Party was picked up by IFC, where the show has only continued to get better. While it is now shot in HD and with a far greater budget, the show has retained the homemade charm that gives it its character and makes it such a joy to watch. Episodes have been reduced to 10 minutes, but Food Party manages to pack more imagination and creativity into those brief 10 minutes than most shows do in an entire season. This is what TV should be.
Food Party has finished airing its first season and at the time of this writing it is unknown if IFC is planning on picking it up for a second. Here’s hoping they do.
UPDATE: Thu Tran has announced on her Facebook that new Food Party episodes will begin airing April 27th at 10pm on IFC!
The original YouTube episodes can be found on Thu Tran’s YouTube page or on FoodParty.tv.
A graduate of Temple University's English program, Jeff Havel can be frequently found on street corners swatting furiously at the air and yelling at tall buildings. A righter of wrongs, a doer of goods, a hoarder of sheep, Jeff is currently available for freelance writing work as well as the finest burlesque performances money can buy. 
Great review Jeff. Couldnt agree with you more. Food Party is also one of rare phenoms where I dont think the networks could screw it up if they got ahold of it. Thu and Peter are too dedicated to their characters to be anything else. Its quite enlightening. For those of you who may find it too out there, keep watching. Youll get it soon enough.
Thanks very much, I have found this article very useful!
Wonderful web-site, wherever did you observed this data in this article? I am glad I observed it. i will be checking out back soon to examine what other posts you possibly can have.