9x03 The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award

[8.7/10] There’s been an ever-growing self-referential streak and tendency to go meta as IASIP has inched closer and closer to its double-digit seasons, and this may be the peak of that impulse. While I couldn’t unravel every single reference, the The Gang trying to compete for the “Best Bar” award and noting their street cred but lack of critical acclaim made for a nice overarching allegory for the show itself’s Emmy draught.

While not exactly the same, my immediate thought was “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie” show from The Simpsons, another comedy episode where a show uses a stand-in to reflect on itself in wide-ranging ways. That’s a great episode, and this is one too.

The conceit is a sturdy one. Watching The Gang witness the equivalent of a standard network sitcom transmogrified into a brightly-colored bar was a hoot, replete with underwritten minority friends and will they/won’t they sexual tension. It feels like the show was striking back at a lot of its competitors, with a particularly strong Scrubs vibe and, if the guest stars are any indication, The Big Bang Theory and The Office. I like a lot of those shows, but it’s still funny to see IASIP tear at their tropes and conventions.

But even funnier is seeing the group try to recreate them, with predictably disastrous results. For one thing, I love the nod toward FX’s own avant garde comedies, with Frank’s best approximation of (I think?) Louie and Wilfred and shows of that ilk turning out to be he and Artemis living out their fetishes in a well-appointed room. I appreciated how Mac’s attempt to do wacky sitcom banter turns immediately overly detailed and sexual, how Dee gets caked with makeup and put in the brightest light imaginable (and her timing jokes are hilarious), and how their attempt to do sexual tension turns horrible and off-putting to everyone. Hell, I loved Charlie’s Cheers-esque Paddy’s Pub song, and him emerging from the sewer, high and filthy, and singing a big eff-you song that ends with a chorus of spitting is the perfect capper.

Overall, this is a great episode for IASIP to poke thinly-veiled fun at the hierarchy and conventions of TV comedy, its own place in that landscape, and its inability to do anything that would please Emmy voters. Lots of meta-comic fun.