Jake and Amir - Concept

Concept

According to The Brandeis Hoot, "the show essentially involves either Amir annoying Jake in various ways or Jake messing with Amir". The series generally takes place at Jake and Amir's desks, though occasional episodes will move to other parts of the office or even a different location altogether. Some episodes have a common theme or MacGuffin that the episode revolves around (i.e. buying a guitar, explaining the economic crisis), while others are more stream-of-consciousness, with events moving unpredictably in random directions.

Jake is typically portrayed as the "straight man", generally acting as the rational, normal one of the pair. More recently, Jake has sometimes been portrayed as insecure, self-centered and ignorant, especially when girls or fashion are involved. It is also implied that Jake actually craves Amir's attention, and has become increasingly more annoying to the rest of his coworkers. In episodes that revolve around fashion items, such as "Fedora", "Chinstrap Beard", "Muscle Tee", and "Corduroy Pants" Jake mentions sexual encounters with male members of his family out of left field, which rarely elicit proportionate reaction from Amir. In the episode Ace And Jocelyn Episode 9 it is revealed that Jake has many odd sexual fetishes that he does not wish for Amir to reveal.

Amir, by contrast, is usually portrayed as the "funny man". Amir is obsessed with Jake, and often says or does annoying things to try to spend time with him. Amir is also obsessed with fast food chain McDonald's, and especially with their Chicken McNuggets. He is unhealthy, doesn't do any work, and lacks common sense and a basic education. He can also be very aggressive or physically abusive towards his co-workers, who generally hate him. He has various friends and relatives who are mentioned in the series (most commonly his cousin Leron and 'friend' Mickey), although they rarely appear.

In later episodes, co-worker Brian "Murph" Murphy has become a major character, as has his fiancee Emily Axford. Murph has terrorized Jake on several occasions, bullying him very physically for no known reason, while Emily is attracted to Jake, further enraging the anger-prone Murph, most notably in the episode "Table Read".

The show has featured many of their other co-workers such as Pat Cassels, Sarah Schneider, Jeff "Rosie" Rosenburg, Jeff Rubin, Dan Gurewitch, and Streeter Seidell. Several non-CollegeHumor employees have featured as guest stars to the series such as: Ben Schwartz playing a variety of roles such as Private Eye, Office Painter, Dating Coach, Couples Therapist, HR guy, the Mountain Hiker, Interrogator and Milkman. However it is never revealed who he really is as every time Jake asks him to reveal his name, he cannot do so or invents a blatantly false name. In more recent episodes featuring Ben Schwartz, Jake has suffered physical and sexual abuse. Hoodie Allen, Amir's Rap Teacher has appeared in episodes "Rap Teacher (parts 1,2+3)". A running theme of these episodes is the raps Amir and Hoodie write involve Aardvark semen, yet when Jake tries to come up with his own they are generally terrible. Rick Fox has also featured as both Amir's bookie, betting on past events causing Amir to lose significant amounts of money. It is discovered in episode "Rick Fox" that Rick is in fact consciously scamming. An odd running gag of these episodes is the vast amount of eggs that Rick appears to be stealing/hiding, yet when Jake questions this both Rick and Amir ridicule him and suggest he has an egg fetish. Takeru Kobayashi also appears briefly in an episode of his namesake as Amir feeds him hot-dogs.