2001–2009: Early career Holmes began his comedy career in New York City. In the mid-2000s, he was making club appearances and took part in
Comedy Central's
Premium Blend, as a regular panelist on
VH1's
Best Week Ever, and on VH1's
All Access. He began working as a touring comic, Since 2006, his
cartoons have appeared in
The New Yorker. Holmes also created and appeared in a
Super Bowl XLIII ad for
Doritos in 2009 featuring a fictional new beer flavor of the product, in which each chip contains as much alcohol as a 16 o.z. can of beer.
2010–2013: Breakthrough Stand-up and You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes In 2010, he performed on ''
John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show as well as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On February 26, 2010, he performed his first television special on the series Comedy Central Presents. On March 21, 2011, and on November 17, 2011, he appeared on the TBS talk show Conan''. Holmes released his first album,
Impregnated With Wonder, on
iTunes on November 15, 2011. In 2013, he released his second album,
Nice Try, The Devil. In 2011, Holmes launched his long-form comedy podcast
You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes. It has featured guests such as
Garry Shandling,
Judd Apatow,
Aziz Ansari,
John Mulaney,
Ben Schwartz, and
Dana Carvey. Topics typically discussed in each episode are the guests' views on comedy, sexuality, and religion.
Television and The Pete Holmes Show Holmes has provided the voices for several of the characters on Comedy Central's cartoon
Ugly Americans. He was the voice of the
E-Trade baby on several
television commercials and was credited as a writer for those commercials. He wrote for the
NBC primetime sitcom
Outsourced and for the
Fox sitcom
I Hate My Teenage Daughter. Holmes has created a comedic portrayal of
Batman in
CollegeHumor's internet series
Badman. He ran a YouTube channel which was focused around skits alongside
Matthew McCarthy called frontpagefilms. On August 21 and 23 in 2012, Holmes recorded three episodes of a talk show pilot for TBS, produced by
Conan O'Brien, entitled
The Midnight Show with Pete Holmes. Holmes's guests on the unaired pilots included
Nick Offerman,
Joel McHale,
T.J. Miller, and
Bill Burr. On February 26, 2013, TBS picked up the show and began airing in late 2013. By July 10, 2013, the name of the show was
The Pete Holmes Show. The series premiered on October 28, after
Conan. The show was picked up for a second season by TBS. On December 9, 2013,
Gabe Liedman performed the show's first stand-up routine. On May 23, 2014, TBS canceled the talk show after two seasons following poor audience ratings. The show ended its run on June 19, 2014.
2014–present: Crashing and new projects Holmes released his third comedy special,
Faces and Sounds, in 2016. In 2019, he released his fourth album,
Dirty Clean. Holmes created and starred in the TV series
Crashing, a semi-autobiographical show which aired on
HBO. It revolves around Holmes' character Pete, a young comedian who pursues a career in stand-up comedy after his wife cheats on him, leaving him homeless. which premiered on January 14, 2018. On February 21, 2018, HBO renewed the series for a third season. HBO canceled
Crashing in March 2019. On May 14, 2019, Holmes released his book
Comedy Sex God, which is described as "part autobiography, part philosophical inquiry, and part spiritual quest". The book is published by HarperCollins Publishers, and the length of the book is 320 pages. On March 29, 2021, Holmes was selected to play the lead role of a laid-off auto worker-turned-
professional bowler (based on the life of
Tom Smallwood) in a
CBS sitcom pilot. On May 14, 2021, the pilot for
Smallwood was ordered to series, with a mid-season debut planned for the 2021–22 television season. On November 24, CBS announced the sitcom had been retitled
How We Roll, and received an adjusted first-season order of 11 episodes. On December 10, 2021, CBS announced the series would premiere on March 31, 2022. On May 12, 2022, CBS announced the show had been canceled after one season. == Influences ==