The new, semi-autobiographical Lil Dicky TV series, Dave, takes a comical look at the insecure man (Dave Burd) behind the comedic rapper persona while also highlighting his unlikely rise to mainstream prominence. Much of the hilarity of Dave—aside from the copious amounts of penis jokes—comes from the intermingling of the two very different worlds in which Lil Dicky exists.
On one side, we have the rising rapper trying to gain respect from the hardened hip-hop world. On the other, we have the neurotic Dave, who’s worried about his weird-looking member and whether or not it was a good use of his Bar Mitzvah money to pay YG $10,000 for a guest verse. The juxtaposition between the two sides of the fictional Dave’s life is perhaps most amusingly demonstrated by the interactions between his friends from either end of that divide.
In episode three, those worlds collide when Dave’s best friend and roommate, Mike (played by actor/comedian Andrew Santino), and his new hip-hop world homie, GaTa (played by the rapper and real-life Lil Dicky hypeman also named GaTa), bond over Mike’s quest to stream the Phish show.
The episode, which largely focuses on an afternoon Dave spends with friends, puts the spotlight on Dave’s different worlds through interactions between the streetwise GaTa and the goofy, super-white-guy finance professional, Mike.
The Phish-y interactions start as the group prepares to sit down for lunch at a restaurant. “Ugh, I keep logging out of my Apple ID and now I’m not going to be able to stream this Phish show… this is so annoying,” Mike complains.
“What is Phish, bro?” GaTa asks.
“Uh, it’s a band,” Mike responds, shrugging off the question knowing—as all diehard Phish fans know—that the answer isn’t exactly simple to explain.
Once the group sits down, GaTa quickly becomes agitated when he realizes he’s missing his grill (the kind that goes on your teeth, not the kind you put burgers on). When Mike is able to find it for him, GaTa offers up his services as a thank you: “I could do somethin’ for you, too, man. I could fix that streamin’ issue you havin’ to watch Phish.”
“Can you seriously do that?!” Mike responds with genuine excitement.
“Dude, I’m like a black Neil Degrasse Tyson,” GaTa deadpans in response.
Later in the episode, we find GaTa and Mike back at Mike’s house, where the former is making good on his promise to hook up the Phish webcast. When GaTa works his magic and the familiar LivePhish stream pops up on their TV screen, an excited Mike runs to grab some herb from the drawer to celebrate.
GaTa, who appears to be enjoying what he’s hearing, sends an unconscious jab at the band’s sound: “But when they gonna stop warmin’ up, though?”
In response, Mike, like a good Phish fan, goes into evangelist mode, attempting to help this new initiate appreciate what he’s hearing: “Oh, no, this is the whole show. This is what they do the whole time, man. Feel that. Feel that. Feeeeel that, dude!”
While the “Phish-kid-introduces-rapper-guy-to-Phish” tangent is just a minor subplot in the episode, it is surely an amusing storyline to help highlight the very different realities in which Lil Dicky exists.
Watch a clip of that last exchange below:
GaTa Hooks Up the Phish Stream – Dave Episode 3
New episodes of Dave air on FXX on Tuesday nights and are available for streaming the following day on Hulu.