3x05 Bobbum Man

[6.7/10] I’ll say this, the scene where Jenny asks what the hell “Bobbum Man” is, and the group recounts how they use to adopt different characters to try to freak each other out over the phone is one of the few, if not only times, this collection of people seemed like a real group of guy-friends and not just an assortment of assholes designed to destroy one another’s lives on T.V. It’s not perfect, but there’s a camaraderie and joshing dynamic there that felt lived-in in the way that so few things on this show do.

But man, it’s a bright spot in an episode that offers a lot of mixed results. I did like Taco’s “offline social network” bit. It got a little broad at time, but LaJoie commits to it, and the way the show continued to find silly ways to do meatspace (or posterboard) versions of social media things was clever.

The rest of the episode was more broad, sitcom-y humor, albeit with an FXX sensibility. The whole bit with Ruxin and Andre going to yoga to achieve “lineup nirvana” was pretty silly and exaggerated without a lot of laughs. That said, I did enjoy the running gag about Ruxin not being in control of his own sarcasm. And hey, more Rafi is never a bad idea! While the whole shtick with him playing the “offline avatar” of the Bobbum Man was a bit too much, his interactions with Ruxin at his office, and Kevin and Peter when they were beating up Andre were absurd episode highlights.

The problem is that the Bobbum Man stuff got tiresome quickly. It’s hard to wring comedy from people play-acting as a baby talk-using child molester, and it’s beyond The League’s abilities to toe that line. Mixing it with Kevin and Jenny’s “sexaversary” is another sitcom-y element that didn’t play with me. And the whole deal with Andre accidentally being disguised as the Bobbum Man strained credulity, even for an exaggerated show.

Overall, there’s the glimpse of actual human interaction and friendship in this one, and some good turns from Rafi and Taco, but the broader elements drag it down.