UPDATE: Brett Davis wrote a recent blog post in regards to this article in order to clear up any confusion: 

As much as I would like to claim this situation as a stunt, unfortunately it is not. To be clear, the contract Jesse and I signed would NEVER be legally binding, but they knew that. I was screwed by Joe and Edmond, two producers of The Special who, unfortunately are the legal owners of the show/timeslot. MNN requires Manhattan residents to be the in-name producers. thus, even though The Special has my namesake, I was never the producer on file. EPs Chris Gethard and JD Amato were given an honorary Executive Producer title, but more to honor their work at MNN, but they have very little to do with the show itself.

I’m not too worried. The new Special already had a rough start. They passed the show on to Steve Whalen this week and the feed cut out. Next week and moving forward, the show will be in the hands of a noted drug user.

Thanks again for your sympathy in this situation, but I’m a Comedy Central “Comic To Watch” and i have an upcoming project with a big name attached, so I will be fine. I will be making a big announcement at The Macaulay Culkin Showthis Sunday night at Shea Stadium regarding my future in NYC, and I hope you can come see it live.

Whether it’s real or fake, this is probably one of the crazier things that has happened on a comedy series in the last several years.

Following the footsteps of The Chris Gethard Show at public access channel MNN is a tall order, but The Special without Brett Davis was doing pretty well in stepping up to the challenge over the last several months. Brett Davis (who, to be clear, did host the show as various characters who aren’t Brett Davis) tapped into the same experimental comedy vibe as Gethard, but did something entirely different. 

However, this past week of The Special saw a bit within the universe of The Special break the fourth wall and take the show away from Davis. This particular episode put up a faux contest for a new host of another show, Cosmos, with one of the contestants being Jesse Camp, formerly of MTV fame. Camp won the contest and the contract he signed on camera was said to be legally binding and notarized and signed by Davis as well. Yet, the contract was not for the faux contest, but actually for the ownership of the whole Special show itself, which then transferred to Jesse Camp.

Though it makes the reality of all of this questionable, the contract had 100% REAL CONTRACT JESSE IS THE NEW HOST! printed in bold on it as well.

According to Brett in a blog post, this all happened without his prior knowledge and was probably a result of him traveling to Los Angeles and having very good meetings that would move his comedy career forward. Rather than take legal action, he has opted to just sever ties from the show. Already, Brett has changed his Twitter handle to @BrettDavisRip and has tweeted unfavorably about the show happening without him.

Somehow, this very much looks like some sort of storyline that would exist in the crazed fictitious world of professional wrestling. In fact, there are a few episodes of The Special that riff on pro wrestling tropes and take them to a much more darkly comedic place. 

Unfortunately, as amended above, Brett has parted ways with the show.

Taking into account that Brett started the conceit of The Special by being “murdered” in the first episode, then consistently playing different characters every week that fill in for Brett, it’s easy to imagine how this could be all an elaborate way for Brett to possibly depart from the show or a complex “meta-hoax” that allows Brett and The Special to push the boundaries of their own boundary pushing show. It’s also worth noting that Brett is the latest winner of The Andy Kaufman Award and describing this all as Andy Kaufman-esque wouldn’t be off base at all. 

We want to believe this is all an elaborate long-con sort of a bit, but, for now, it’s proceeding forward in a real way as there are already promos for The Special with Jesse Camp online. Don’t be surprised if Brett steals his show back in an equally crazy manner.

In any case, you can clearly see from all this madness that you should be following what Brett does very closely.