Cold Opening – Politics Nation
As far as I know, Al Sharpton has had only one recent major verbal gaffe, but that one gaffe has been enough to inspire a steady stream of malapropisms from Kenan Thompson’s Al Sharpton. That graph (or “grapha”) was ridiculous, but it was also kind of meaningful. Also, that Tea Party fellow deserved to be called out that way – the Founding Fathers don’t need people to dress up like them to honor them. B
Ben Affleck’s Monologue
The five-timers bit was essentially clever, but rather disappointing (for Ben’s sake). Ben and Jen really seem to love each other. B-
HBO First Look: Bengo F#*@ Yourself
“Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd” – this is all so silly. B
Original Version
1. Emeli Sandé – “Next to Me”
2. P!nk ft. Nate Ruess – “Just Give Me a Reason”
3. Ed Sheeran – “Lego House”
4. Demi Lovato – “Heart Attack”
5. Olly Murs ft. Flo Rida – “Troublemaker”
6. Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko – “Stay”
7. Pitbull ft. Christina Aguilera – “Feel This Moment”
8. Justin Timberlake – “Mirrors”
9. Phillip Phillips – “Gone Gone Gone”
10. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton – “Can’t Hold Us”
11. Fall Out Boy – “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”
12. Vicci Martinez ft. Cee-Lo Green – “Come Along”
13. Bruno Mars – “When I Was Your Man”
14. Icona Pop – “I Love It”
15. Goo Goo Dolls – “Rebel Beat”
16. The Lumineers – “Stubborn Love”
17. Jason Derulo – “The Other Side”
18. Imagine Dragons – “Radioactive”
19. Taylor Swift – “22”
20. New Kids on the Block – “Remix (I Like The)”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Radioactive
2. I Love It
3. Mirrors
4. Stay
5. Come Along
6. Stubborn Love
7. Troublemaker
8. Heart Attack
9. Can’t Hold Us
10. My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)
11. Next to Me
12. Just Give Me a Reason
13. When I Was Your Man
14. Feel This Moment
15. Gone Gone Gone
16. Remix (I Like The)
17. Lego House
18. Rebel Beat
19. The Other Side
20. 22
Season Analysis: I did not watch Season 1, but from what I’ve heard about it, it sounds like it polished itself up for Season 2. It is presently a solid parody of acronym-ed procedural action dramas and thus the perfect parody companion piece to Childrens Hospital.
“16 Hop St.”
Considering how many movies (and a few TV shows) feature going-back-to-high-school plots, it’s a bit of a shock that it’s taken this long for them to be targeted for skewering. This episode takes that trope to its logically absurd conclusion, wherein the NTSF crew poses as students for a case at a high school in which the popular kids are being kidnapped. They soon discover that all the students are undercover adults save for one. You’ve got the guy who’s travelled back in time to make sure his parents end up together, the girl working on an article, and the cops busting up a drug ring. Paul Rust is an inspired casting choice as one of the undercover characters, as he simultaneously looks too old to be a high school student and much younger than he actually is (he’s 32).
“East/West Bowl” has been continuously growing in popularity since its initial airing back in October, as it has been linked to and discussed (often as it were a real thing) on football fan forums. This sketch takes one of the simplest, but also one of the most reliable, comedy premises around – a list of silly names – and makes it so much more brilliant than one would think such a thing could ever possibly be. Clearly it is more than just a silly list. It has caught on because there are a lot of actual football players whose names are hardly any less ridiculous than the ones in the sketch. It was just a matter of time before they would be called out on their ridiculousness. Unlike most silly list-based sketches, “East/West Bowl” is filled with details. It is quite intricate despite how simple it appears to be on first viewing. Not only are the names silly, but so are the hairstyles, the voices, and the background photos. Each member of the silly list gets his own unique characterization. You don’t get all that out of most silly lists.
Runner-Up: “LMFAO’s Non-Stop Party”
The lyrics of this parody LMFAO dance-pop ditty are hilarious (and rhythmic) enough on their own without the sketch needing anything more. At one point, the song just becomes a list of random crap (iPad, Facebook, party time, skintight jeans…) and the roll call of cities where the party is taking place eventually grow to include more unusual options such as Newark, Plano, Lincoln, and Lubbock until ultimately it could be any destination as they simply repeat “city, city, city, city.” That would all be good enough, but this sketch is also about the existential crisis that LMFAO face when they realize the party they are at is a Groundhog Day-style endless loop. This is why we have Key and Peele – they give us scenes inspired by Sartre featuring today’s biggest pop stars.
Season Analysis: Key & Peele betrayed a little bit of exhaustion in its second batch of episodes – it’s hard to continually pull off the unexpected in comedy. But it was never really bad, and the best of Season 2 reached even greater heights than that of Season 1.
“Episode Two”
Most episodes of Key & Peele do not have an overarching theme (at least not one that is much different than the overall theme of the series), so one excellent sketch can make the difference in an episode being the best of the season. This was the case with Episode 2 of Season 2, which featured the already iconic “East/West Bowl” sketch. I’ll get to my explanation of that bit’s greatness in my Best Sketch of the Season post, but for now I’ll mention Keegan and Jordan’s stand-up segment that immediately followed. Keegan’s physical reaction to D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s mother’s explanation that “D’Brickashaw” is a family name was a thing of beauty. Although the sketch seemed surreal, the actual people they mentioned with names like “L–a” underscored just how much it was in actuality too real.
Season Analysis: There were 14 episodes of Childrens Hospital in Season 4. I liked all of them. A few of them I really liked. I wish there had been more Malin Åkerman. I also wish there had been more David Wain in front of the camera (but of course that always goes without saying).
“The Boy with the Pancakes Tattoo” Childrens Hospital exists to parody the tropes of over-the-top hospital dramas like Grey’s Anatomy, but it can get exhausting to constantly laugh at the same sort of medical ridiculousness. Luckily, this show occasionally branches out into other genre parodies, such as this episode’s take on an amnesia suspense thriller. Interestingly enough, considering all the intense circumstances that can befall a hospital drama, this bout of mass amnesia at Childrens does not feel out of place. The fact that the amnesia was caused by a criminal act by Sy is a perfectly logical explanation, and the fact that the conclusion of the whole thing essentially makes no sense is also perfectly acceptable, considering that this is Childrens Hospital.
Original Version
1. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton – “Can’t Hold Us”
2. P!nk ft. Nate Ruess – “Just Give Me a Reason”
3. Justin Timberlake – “Mirrors”
4. Icona Pop – “I Love It”
5. Imagine Dragons – “Radioactive”
6. Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko – “Stay”
7. Bruno Mars – “When I Was Your Man”
8. will.i.am ft. Justin Bieber – “#thatPOWER”
9. Fall Out Boy – “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”
10. Ariana Grande ft. Mac Miller – “The Way”
11. Taylor Swift – “22”
12. Demi Lovato – “Heart Attack”
13. Pitbull ft. Christina Aguilera – “Feel This Moment”
14. Emeli Sandé – “Next to Me”
15. J. Cole ft. Miguel – “Power Trip”
16. Drake – “Started From the Bottom”
17. Robin Thicke ft. T.I. and Pharrell – “Blurred Lines”
18. fun. – “Carry On”
19. Olly Murs ft. Flo Rida – “Troublemaker”
20. Ace Hood ft. Rick Ross and Future – “Bugatti”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Radioactive
2. I Love It
3. Stay
4. Mirrors
5. Troublemaker
6. Blurred Lines
7. Heart Attack
8. Can’t Hold Us
9. Carry On
10. My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)
11. Next to Me
12. Just Give Me a Reason
13. Started From the Bottom
14. When I Was Your Man
15. Power Trip
16. Feel This Moment
17. #thatPOWER
18. Bugatti
19. The Way
20. 22
Season Analysis: Animal Practice was never as stupid as it looked. It was a perfectly pleasant, middle-of-the-road comedy that was actually surprisingly light on the wackiness. And, yes, the monkey was the best part. (Get Tyler Labine a show that lasts!)
“Wingmen”
“Wingmen” – one of three Animal Practice episodes that were posted online after the show was cancelled – presented a version of the show that could have worked if it had survived. It was finally starting to get a handle on all of its characters, most notably its two most problematic ones – Joanna García-Swisher’s Dorothy Crane and Bobby Lee’s Dr. Yamamoto – in a storyline in which the two start hanging out more and Dr. Yamamoto starts to think that they might be more than friends. Dorothy had been too humorless in most episodes – she was supposed to be that way to an extent, but it got to be a tad unbearable. The circumstances of this episode allowed her to show off a different side of her personality. Meanwhile, Yamamoto was Animal Practice’s most unfortunately ridiculous character (oddly enough, that was a problem for this show). This episode afforded him the best chance to be more grounded and act like an actual human being. But the highlight of this episode was the team-up of the two best characters – Betsy Sodaro’s Nurse Angela and Crystal the Monkey’s Dr. Rizzo. Their plot was typical sitcom hijinks: they call the cable guy to work on their TV, Angela falls for the cable guy, and then they pretend that there is still a problem so that they cable guy will keep showing up. But it is okay to have typical sitcom hijinks when they are performed by the inimitable Betsy Sodaro and Crystal the capuchin monkey.
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