An Original Retro Comedy Series

Lester & Ethel

A fake 70s sitcom about a grumpy old man, modern nonsense, and the wife you never actually see.

Lester & Ethel is an original short-form comedy series created by Ian Jones. It is built like an old sitcom, but set in today’s world, where Lester reacts to internet pranks, corporate rebrands, movie remakes, limited-edition food, construction noise, and whatever else happens to ruin his day.

The whole thing is written, performed, shot, edited, and produced by Ian as a one-person comedy project. There is no crew, no studio audience, and no actual Ethel on set. Just Lester, an empty room, and a fake TV world built one episode at a time.

About the Show

What Is Lester & Ethel?

Lester & Ethel is a fake TV show inside a real creative project.

The setup is simple: Lester is an old-school, short-tempered man trying to survive the modern world without understanding half of it. Ethel is his wife, but she is never shown, never heard, and never actually there. Lester talks to her from the living room, yells toward the kitchen, reacts to what she supposedly says, and somehow the audience starts filling her in.

That is the joke, but it is also the whole structure of the series. Lester feels like he lives in a complete sitcom world, even though the show is built from one side of a conversation.

Episode Guide

Watch the Episodes

The series started as one April Fools sketch and turned into six short-form episodes. Each one drops Lester into a different piece of modern chaos, then lets him spiral from there.

Episode 1

The Internet Lied to Me

The one that started it all.

Lester falls for every April Fools prank on the internet and decides he has had enough of Facebook, Sour Patch Kids, McDonald’s, and basically the entire modern world. What started as a throwaway sketch became the first real sign that Lester could be more than a one-off character.

Episode 2

Cracker Barrel

Lester is losing his mind over the construction near his house. Traffic, noise, trucks, dust, backup beepers, the whole thing.

Then he finds out what they are actually building, and his entire mood changes. It is the first episode where the series gets to show that Lester is not just angry. Under all the complaining, there is a weird amount of heart.

Episode 3

One For Each of Ya

A quiet day at home turns into a tribute when Lester hears the news about Val Kilmer.

What starts as grief turns into a love letter to Tombstone, Doc Holliday, and the kind of movie line an old man will repeat with his entire chest. This episode let Lester slow down for a minute without losing the comedy.

Episode 4

Woke White

Lester goes to see the 2025 Snow White remake.

His blood pressure never recovers. The episode takes a modern movie remake, runs it through Lester’s old-TV brain, and lets him yell his way through the kind of cultural argument he only half understands.

Episode 5

Soup’s On

Ethel is gone for bingo night, so Lester is home alone with Campbell’s limited-edition Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup.

He has too much confidence, not enough supervision, and no real plan. It does not go well.

Episode 6

The Logo That Broke America

Cracker Barrel changes their logo, and Lester takes it personally.

The same man who nearly wept with joy when they built one down the street now declares war on corporate America. It is dramatic, theatrical, completely unnecessary, and exactly the kind of thing Lester was built to overreact to.

How It Started

How a 78-Second Sketch Became a Fake Sitcom

In April 2025, I made a 78-second April Fools sketch about a 70-year-old man losing his mind over fake internet headlines. It was supposed to be simple: make the video, post it, get a laugh, move on.

But the character stuck.

The voice stuck. The posture stuck. The way Lester hated everything modern, while also not fully understanding what he was mad about, felt too fun to leave alone. So I kept writing him.

One sketch became another episode. Then another. Before long, Lester & Ethel had its own rhythm: 70s sitcom bones, modern-day absurdities, and one old man who refuses to stop complaining.

The Invisible Co-Star

Ethel Is the Trick.

She is Lester’s wife, but she never appears on camera. She has no voice track. There is no actor off screen. There is no one feeding me lines from the next room.

When Lester yells to Ethel, I am yelling at an empty house. When he pauses, he is listening to nothing. When he reacts, he is reacting to air.

The audience builds her anyway.

That is what makes the bit work. Lester treats Ethel like she is just outside the frame, so the viewer starts to believe she is there too. Every pause, every look, every argument, every annoyed response helps create a character who never actually enters the room.

It is an old sitcom trick, but that is exactly why it fits. Niles had Maris. Norm had Vera. Lester has Ethel.

Behind the Fake TV Show

How the Series Is Made

Every episode of Lester & Ethel is made by one person.

I write the idea, perform Lester, set the cameras, light the room, record the audio, edit the timing, build the sound, add the score, and shape the final fake-TV look.

There is no crew and no actual sitcom set. It is just a room, two cameras, a character, and a very specific tone I keep chasing until it feels right.

The episodes are usually built around something current: a movie remake, a food release, a logo change, an internet prank, a celebrity moment, or some little piece of culture that gives Lester a reason to lose his mind. The world moves, Lester reacts, and the show gets another episode.

The Look

70s Sitcom, Modern Chaos

The visual style is a huge part of the joke.

Lester & Ethel is designed to feel like something you found on a local TV channel in 1976. Warm practical lights. Vintage grain. Soft contrast. A compressed, old-broadcast feel. A laugh track that makes everything feel slightly more ridiculous.

Then the subject matter is completely modern.

That contrast is where the series lives. It looks old, but Lester is reacting to things like Facebook, Disney remakes, viral food releases, Cracker Barrel construction, corporate logo changes, and whatever else the internet decides to argue about that week.

The show works because the frame feels familiar, but the problem is always stupidly current.

Creator Notes

Notes from the Editing Room

Characters Beat Concepts

The first video was just a concept: old man reacts to April Fools headlines. Lester became a character. That is the difference.

The Format Is the Engine

One room, one character, one invisible wife, one modern problem, one emotional spiral. The rules gave each episode a place to live.

Fast Turnaround Keeps It Honest

The idea has to work on the page. The timing has to work in the performance. The edit can sharpen it, but it cannot save it.

Ethel Is Not There

The more real Ethel feels, the better the episode works. She is never seen and never heard, but the relationship still has to feel lived in.

The Heart Has to Stay

Lester complains constantly, but he cannot just be angry. That is what keeps him from being a bit and makes him feel like a person.

Created by Ian Jones

One Weird Little Fake TV Show

Lester & Ethel was created by Ian Jones, a Pittsburgh-based photographer, videographer, editor, and creative director behind ISJDESIGNS.

Most of my work is built around commercial photography and video, but this project is different. Lester & Ethel is where the writing, performance, editing, timing, visual style, and character work all got packed into one weird little fake TV show.

It is not a polished network sitcom. It is not supposed to be.

It is a one-person comedy project built to feel like a lost piece of old television, dropped directly into the modern internet. If you want to work together on something for your brand, get in touch.

A fake 70s sitcom made by one person.

Written, performed, shot, edited, and produced by Ian Jones.