Nathan Fielder, the comedian behind Dumb Starbucks, went on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to talk about his new business venture, Dumb Starbucks grande in hand.
Like any new business, Dumb Starbucks already has its struggles. While the store was operating completely legally thanks to parody law, the health department shut it down for selling coffee without a health permit. “What they don’t understand is, technically, legally speaking, we’re an art gallery, and the coffee we’re selling is considered the art, and art galleries don’t need health permits,” Fielder said. If the health department doesn’t buy this explanation, Fielder and company could face up to six months in jail. Talk about suffering for your “art.”
Kimmel brought up that one of the show’s writers waited three hours in line for the coffee. “Did he like it?” Fielder asked. “He said it was fine, yeah,” Kimmel replied. Fielder later gives away the secret to their “fine” drinks: “Our coffee and our beans were just usually whatever Ralphs had on sale that day.”
So the coffee wasn’t that good, and the prices were the exact same as Regular Starbucks. What made Dumb Starbucks such a hit then? “I think a lot of Americans maybe lost hope that innovation in business was gone and I think people saw, wow, there’s a whole new way of doing things now,” Fielder said, deadpan. “It kind of allowed people to dream again, in a way.” How inspirational.
Watch the entire interview below: