Scott Aukerman, the comedian who created the Earwolf podcast network and “Between Two Ferns,” recalls being stunned at a screening of the first episode. “They were using editing and sound effects in a way I had never seen,” he said.

Their quick-hit sketches are filled with cartoonish noises (squishes, snaps), abrupt edits, star wipes, zooms held seconds too long and freeze frames emphasizing contorted faces. Tim and Eric mock clumsy cable access, for sure, but also venerate the possibilities of terrible acting or the kinds of mistakes that reveal an honest moment in the middle of the artifice of show business.

One of their most distinctive sketches began when they realized that the scenes they were shooting about an indifferent student at a Roman Catholic school were not working. The jokes weren’t landing. But with the editor Doug Lussenhop, they tossed aside the premise and reinvented the sketch in postproduction, zeroing in on one strange line they said in unison — “Oooh, mama” — repeating it in a loop over the same images of Tim and Eric throwing tantrums in a basement, adding awkward pauses and clumsy zooms. It’s a bizarre, grotesque and dreamy sketch, one that has more in common with “Twin Peaks” than “Key & Peele.”

Bob Odenkirk, who was Tim and Eric’s original champion and the first of many well-known guests to appear regularly in their work, including Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis and John C. Reilly, compares their process to the comedic version of a D.J.’s remix. “They see things at a different speed and different way, a modern mind-set,” he said, adding: “The thing that’s unique is done in post, so you think any editor could do it. Just do the wrong thing. But it has to be the perfect wrong thing at the right time with a rhythm to it.”

Tim and Eric’s comedy has a very specific, unpredictable pace, getting to the premise quickly, and then instead of simply building momentum, their scenes are a series of startling pivots. They are just as likely to abandon a premise abruptly or embrace confusion. It’s part of why they used amateur actors, many of whom have become improbable cult stars. “It added to the mystery,” Mr. Wareheim said. “It makes people think: Is this real? Is this acting or not? That’s exciting to us.”

Mr. Heidecker and Mr. Wareheim — who have a busy year on Adult Swim with “Decker,” Mr. Heidecker’s Jack Bauer spoof, running now, and “Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories,” their horror series, returning in the fall — share an appreciation for jokes that shock or even annoy. This abrasive instinct is the source of some of their scatological excess, like an infamous scene from their 2012 film, “Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie,” that includes perhaps the least sanitary bath in movie history. This truly disgusting sequence helped earn them a stampede of walkouts at Sundance, but also the kind of notoriety with a shelf life among fans of cult film.