Nasim Pedrad’s new TBS comedy Chad is a delightful cringe-fest. Pedrad, who developed and wrote the series, stars as a 14-year-old Iranian American boy named Chad Amani. Raised by his single mother Naz (Saba Homayoon), Chad craves a male parental figure in his life. He also loves to routinely put himself in tricky situations and insert himself in conversations in order to be liked by his classmates. The show’s awkward humor is enough to make you wince, especially in how it triggers memories of high school, but Chad eventually rises above it with nuanced storytelling—though not without a significant amount of cringing first.
As seen in this exclusive clip from the show’s third episode, “Ikrimah Breakup,” Chad walks in on his mother and her boyfriend Ikrimah (Phillip Mullings Jr.) during an intimate moment. He doesn’t mind, though. Chad doesn’t even realize what he’s interrupting because he’s overjoyed by the fact that the macho Ikrimah might just be his new father. Chad takes the awkward moment a step further by getting into bed with them and hugging Ikrimah, sweat be damned. Naz is appropriately horrified and her boyfriend is possibly the most patient man ever.
Later in the episode, Chad deals with Naz’s decision about her relationship poorly, making it embarrassingly worse for everyone involved.
“Ikrimah Breakup” airs April 20 at 10:30 p.m. ET on TBS.