Like Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares,” where the host is prompted with the task of saving a local restaurant by making changes to their base strategy, Nathan Fielder’s “Nathan For You” operates on small businesses. However, the events are almost all completely fictional and extremely entertaining. He says in the introduction that he “graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades.” Here is his transcript:

In each episode, Nathan devises some loophole plot to supposedly boost the success of the business, but the schemes are always far out of bounds and often require much more effort and expense than they return. For example, in order to bring more customers to a Sunset Boulevard souvenir shop, Nathan tricked shop-goers into thinking that they were extras in a movie that was being filmed there starring Johnny Depp (he hired an impersonator). Their task was to walk into the store, say a few lines of dialogue, and make a purchase. Of course, he wouldn’t allow them to make any returns. In order to avoid a lawsuit, he had to make the movie credible, by winning an award – in a film award ceremony that he himself created.

Nathan’s awkward social presence is a recurring joke that just adds to the entertainment and complexity of his plans. Oftentimes, his personal wants and desires take precedence over actually attempting to make the business more successful.

The show gained popularity after a real-life stunt that Nathan pulled where he re-branded a coffee shop as “Dumb Starbucks” and marketed it as an art gallery that accepts donations to avoid copyright infringement. Here is how that went down:

The show is in its third season currently, and it appears on Comedy Central Thursdays at 10 P.M. Eastern.