Saturday, December 8, 2012

The funny stuff: NBC Thursday(12/6)



Yay, my favorite day of the week!  We start, as always, with…

30 Rock

This was kind of an odd episode.  There were so many visual jokes that really don’t translate well to the written word, but on the other hand, a bunch of them didn’t hit, either, so there was that.

Starting with Liz and Jenna, Liz is all happy because she’s married now, but Jenna is terribly put off that Liz stole her thunder, namely her secret wedding and awards, because, oh, by the way, Liz is getting an award too.  Which is being broadcast live on Lifetime. Dot com. Slash garbage file.  At the awards ceremony, Liz figures out that Jenna is trying to ruin her big day, and ruminates with Gayle, Oprah friend, about how their respective best friends continuously try to overshadow them at every turn.

Liz, though, gets the last laugh when she befriends the lighting specialist, who lit the stage in a completely unflattering light, cause Jenna to run in panic, not wanting to look like an old hag.  After some news from Jack, Liz realizes that life’s short, and she and Jenna shouldn’t be fighting, and Jenna took a pill that makes her feel feelings, and she’s happy for Liz.  Then the pill wears off, and Liz has mom arms.

Jack, on the other hand, is having mother issues.  His mother in is town for Christmas, and he isn’t going to do anything for the entire time, just so he can’t disappoint her.  Of course, she manages to die at a most inconvenient time, and with her last wish, told Jack she only wants him to be happy.  Jack takes this to mean she’s disappointed in him in some round about way, and goes off to write the eulogy.

At the funeral, Jack eulogizes that the disapproval of his mother is what made him the man he is today, and then he lists off all his accomplishments, including the greatest eulogy of all time.  Cut in between various cuts of said eulogy, we see the crowd lapping it up, and it apparently is the greatest eulogy ever.  But how could it not be, with Kermit, and Paul McCartney and Jack playing a flute piece.  And then, SURPRISE WEDDING!  Jenna and Paul get married in their strange costumes, and Paul takes her name.  It’s as weird as you might think.

Kenneth, lastly, is feeling down in the dumps because Hazel was fired, and then she broke up with him.  Tracy tries to cheer him up by making things like a TV show, since that how Kenneth wants it.  First, he invites Florence Henderson, but she turns out to be a right bitch, and then he gets them stuck in a elevator to talk and learn things(with Florence Henderson again), but all it manages to do is depress Kenneth even more due to everything not working out how he expected.

But then, at the funeral, Kenneth realizes that his life is way better than TV, since he had a TV star trying to cheer him up for two straight day, and when has that ever happened on a TV show? 

I was amused by this show, but the second viewing didn’t do much for me.

I did get a funny line:

Liz and Jenna, after Liz thwarts Jenna’s plans: “You’re not the center of the universe, JENNA.”  “I am too! I’m the moon!”
 
The Office

This was not a great episode.  Christmas episode are usually a highlight, but this one failed miserably.

In a couple of smaller plots, Erin and Pete are talking for some reason, and we find out that a) Erin has never seen Die Hard, and b) Pete knows the whole thing by heart.  He starts reciting it for her, but after a text from Andy, where he tells her he is staying in the Bahamas for another couple of weeks, Erin gets upset, and decides she and Pete should watch the actual movie, and not just hear the words.  They do, and Pete even puts his arm around her, and Erin doesn’t protest.

In kitchenette news, Nelly gets Toby talking about his experience on the Scranton Strangler jury, and he literally talks for hours.  Nelly finally kisses him to get him to stop, but it doesn’t stop after the initial contact.  Is it sad that I like Nelly a bit more that I’ve watched the fourth season of Doctor Who?

Finally, in the big plot, Angela forgot about the Christmas party due to being completely focused on other things.  After an emergency meeting of the party planning committee, where Pam gets everyone to go along with Dwight’s plan of a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas, it is on. 

First, Dwight show up in his hairy costume, and it is actually a real thing in German folklore, so completely creepy, as well.  He has this weird wine, and a ham stomach, and people are generally grossed out. 

Then, Jim announced he has to leave, and Dwight is completely broken up about it, for some reason.  Dwight really didn’t want Jim to leave, and it was so out of character, I really didn’t know what to think.
Third, Daryl is all pissed that Jim has forgotten about his promise of Jim bringing Daryl with to Philly, and so imbibes rather heavily in the weird wine Dwight brought.  However, when Jim decides to come back for the night(realizing that there is a bus at 5am, and he doesn’t need to leave the day before), Daryl confronts him, only to find out that Jim has hooked him up with an interview at a to be determined date.

And that was basically it.  Nothing of consequence happened, beyond the Jim/Daryl thing, and even that felt forced and not earned.

I did get a couple of funny lines:

Oscar, after agreeing with Angela several times in the span of ten minutes: “I didn’t realize how many of Angela’s positions I agree with until she tried to have me kneecapped for sleeping with her husband.”
Creed’s suggestion for Christmas party theme: “Topless swiss miss!”

Parks and Recreation

This was a great episode!  Tons of funny stuff, and great visuals as well.

In the main plot, Ron has been nominated for an award: he build a chair, and it was good.  Leslie accompanies him to the ceremony, along with Diane, who is Ron’s actual date.  While they are mingling, Leslie spots a very unwanted guest: Tammy II. 

Tammy is all predatory, in hopes of entangling Ron in her wily ways again.  She uses suggestive movements, shows her cootch, and generally makes a nuisance of herself.  Leslie uses her self-appointed guardianship to guard Ron, but Ron still manages to nearly escape anyway. 

Leslie and Diane are talking about the Tammy II issue, and Diane drops a bombshell: she’s more threatened by Leslie’s relationship with Ron than Tammy’s psychoticness.  Diane then hightails It out of there, not impressed with the whole shebang.

When Ron returns, Leslie lets him know that Diane left, and about her fears about Leslie.  Ron tells Leslie to keep Tammy II busy in his car, while he takes Leslie’s car to get Diane and brings her to share his biggest secret: He is Duke Silver.  It’s super cute, even with the pissed off audience-goers threatening Diane.

In our only other plot of the evening, the rest of the gang, including April, Andy, Tom, and Donna, have a ‘mean jar’ for every time Jerry does something dumb.  They put the money in the jar, and then treat themselves at the end of the year.  This year, they have over $500.00 to spend.  Ann is not impressed, and thinks they should invite Jerry to this dinner, but the four decline.

On the way to the restaurant, Donna has second thoughts, and drives the group to Jerry’s to invite him to the dinner.  BUT! Jerry is having a party already!  And Ann, and Ben and Chris are going in.  The group gets Ann to come to the side door, and she say that they can come in if! They do something nice for Jerry.  Donna explains that she drove over to invite Jerry to their dinner, so Ann lets her in.  The rest are stuck in the cold outside. 

Tom finally has an epiphany: Jerry filter!  The gang had gotten tired of Jerry’s inane forwards, and so they put a filter on their email that made everything from Jerry go to the spam folder.  Once they found their invitations, they went to the front door, and gawked at the oddity of Jerry and his beautiful family.

There was so much funny is this episode, it was great. I got a couple of funny lines for you, too:

Andy, as Ann walks into Jerry’s house: “I didn’t even know Ann knew Jerry!”
April, after Ann pacifies her with a mere wrist grab: “It’s because of your man hands and strength, Man Perkins.”
Donna, after gaining entry to the party: “Merry Christmas, bitches!”
Diane, on why she’s not worried about Tammy II: “I’m a middle school principal, I deal with hormonal psychopaths all day long.”
Chris and Ben, in watching Jerry and family perform a Christmas song: “So Gayle and Jerry?” “...I thought about it a lot, there are no logical explanations.”

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