Revealing that his new FX series Baskets won’t just be 10 episodes of Zach Galifianakis screaming into an intercom about increasingly obscure and funny-sounding sodas, FX has released a new, extended trailer for the Louis CK-produced comedy that pulls the curtain back on its rodeo-centric, clown-based plot. Helmed by Portlandia mastermind Jonathan Krisel and aggressively deadpanned by Galifianakis, the trailer shows off would-be master clown Chip Baskets’ descent from prestigious French clowning academy to dusty bull-dodging shenanigans, stopping along the way for lots of intentionally awkward physical comedy and shots of old men drinking coffee out of toilet mugs.
More surprisingly, the trailer also hints at some earnest melancholy underscoring all those bits where Galifianakis falls off a unicycle or gets smacked by a bull, with his dope-with-a-dream protagonist Chip striving after his admittedly inane and potentially self-destructive artistic ambitions with a fervor that’s actually kind of sweet. It’s an sympathetic tone for the often-acerbic Galifianakis, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out when Baskets debuts on FX on Thursday, Jan. 21.