13x16 What a (April) Fool Believes

[7.6/10] I enjoyed this one quite a bit! The premise of Mr. Fischoeder going to elaborate lengths to prank Bob each April 1st, and Bob being reluctantly dragged into a prank war he wants no part in leads to some good hijinks.

I especially like the escalation. Mr. Fischoeder does a prank. Bob is strong-armed into pranking back. When the prank seemingly goes too far, he discovers his alleged misfire was all part of a broader prank from Mr. Fischoeder. And then in the throes of apparent paranoia, he pulls off a prank that makes Calvin “Feel something” and win the day. The comic heightening from step to step is good stuff.

I also got a big kick out of Bob’s increasing paranoia. This taps into the zeitgeist a bit, as folks have grown increasingly tired of the fake-outs that arrive on April 1st. Bob is a good avatar for that. And between Mr. Fischoeder’s elaborate monkeyshines, and his own annoyance at being drawn into this crazy web, Bob going off his rocker and thinking everyone is in on it leads to some great gags and some superb performance moments from H. Jon Benjamin.

There’s plenty of good laughs here. Linda thinking she's got good prank-dar only to dismiss it as “just gas” is a sound one-liner. Mr. Fischoeder’s past pranks all got chuckles out of me. And Teddy’s defense of novelty horns was a good joke as well. (Plus the culmination of Bob’s prank resting on the well-established scaffolding from Teddy painting Mr. Fischoeder’s mansion is sound writing.)

The other bits are nice too. I like Gene being too pure to enjoy pranking, which makes him Bob’s only ally when he’s losing it. (And helps sell his faux-breakdown at the end.) I also enjoyed Lousie egging Tina on to think her date with Jimmy Jr might be a prank, only to come clean in the end, and for the show to reveal that he didn’t even realize it was April Fools Day. (His line about thinking it “wasn’t until May” cracked me the hell up.)

Overall, this is a lighter episode to be sure, but one that’s full of yuks and some creatively loony storytelling involving our favorite rich weirdo and poor, beleaguered Bob.