[7.6/10] Bit of a mixed bag of an episode, but there was enough really good stuff to outweigh any of the clunkers. I wasn’t a huge fan of the opening swear jar routine (or the cursing televangelist who followed), but it wrapped around the Dr. X sketch in a nice way, so it gets something of a pass from me.
The sketch with the rival landlords and tenants treating one another like they’re part of break-ups and make-ups had an amusing premise and some good character work, but comes of kind of racist which made it harder to enjoy. I did appreciate the return of David’s hipster character, lamenting rock and roll.
The Fad 3 sketch was an entertaining, if fairly shallow Beatles parody. Doing the Beatles’ careers in miniature worked well enough, and the fact that all the “Fad 3” did was stand for photographs was an amusing commentary on how much of the Beatles’ success was their music and how much was their image, with image being something of a theme in the episode.
I thought the Hunger Strike sketch was pretty bad. It was one joke without much of a twist or a wrinkle as it continued (though I did like David trying to eat the logos), and again, it was kind of racist, which hurt the proceedings.
That said, I loved the trio of mayonnaise/mustard combination commercials. The “Mom saves time” skit hit the beats of those kinds of commercially perfectly and humorously, and the “save 5 minutes over 30 years” disclaimer was great. The Apple dystopia parody with a condiment freedom-loving Abraham Lincoln was delightfully absurd. And the final skit, with a combo of combo products and Bob missing his daughter’s life due to too much time spreading condiments was brilliant, taking the stuffing not only out of the Goober-esque combination condiment idea, but also the way that ads try to elevate prosaic domestic products into statements about life and time.
The Dr. X Telethon sketch felt a little shaggy in places, but on the whole I enjoyed how it managed to marry a Rat Pack-style fundraiser with a megalomaniacal supervillain so well. Tom Kenny in particular was on fire as a Jerry Lewis-style comedian. Enjoyable and vaguely presages Despicable Me.
Overall, at the halfway mark of the show’s original run, Mr. Show has seemingly found its footing, delivering a lot of laughs and fun conceptual material even in skits that aren’t necessarily hits. Glad to have made it this far in the series!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-07-20T21:07:09Z
[7.6/10] Bit of a mixed bag of an episode, but there was enough really good stuff to outweigh any of the clunkers. I wasn’t a huge fan of the opening swear jar routine (or the cursing televangelist who followed), but it wrapped around the Dr. X sketch in a nice way, so it gets something of a pass from me.
The sketch with the rival landlords and tenants treating one another like they’re part of break-ups and make-ups had an amusing premise and some good character work, but comes of kind of racist which made it harder to enjoy. I did appreciate the return of David’s hipster character, lamenting rock and roll.
The Fad 3 sketch was an entertaining, if fairly shallow Beatles parody. Doing the Beatles’ careers in miniature worked well enough, and the fact that all the “Fad 3” did was stand for photographs was an amusing commentary on how much of the Beatles’ success was their music and how much was their image, with image being something of a theme in the episode.
I thought the Hunger Strike sketch was pretty bad. It was one joke without much of a twist or a wrinkle as it continued (though I did like David trying to eat the logos), and again, it was kind of racist, which hurt the proceedings.
That said, I loved the trio of mayonnaise/mustard combination commercials. The “Mom saves time” skit hit the beats of those kinds of commercially perfectly and humorously, and the “save 5 minutes over 30 years” disclaimer was great. The Apple dystopia parody with a condiment freedom-loving Abraham Lincoln was delightfully absurd. And the final skit, with a combo of combo products and Bob missing his daughter’s life due to too much time spreading condiments was brilliant, taking the stuffing not only out of the Goober-esque combination condiment idea, but also the way that ads try to elevate prosaic domestic products into statements about life and time.
The Dr. X Telethon sketch felt a little shaggy in places, but on the whole I enjoyed how it managed to marry a Rat Pack-style fundraiser with a megalomaniacal supervillain so well. Tom Kenny in particular was on fire as a Jerry Lewis-style comedian. Enjoyable and vaguely presages Despicable Me.
Overall, at the halfway mark of the show’s original run, Mr. Show has seemingly found its footing, delivering a lot of laughs and fun conceptual material even in skits that aren’t necessarily hits. Glad to have made it this far in the series!