Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Funny Stuff: Fox/ABC Tuesday(12/4)



On Tuesday, we had a couple of new shows, one pretty good, and one awesome.

Raising Hope

We started here with Burt and Virginia.  Burt saw a rape on the way home from work, and Virginia was obviously concerned, until she figured out that it was a squirrel, and not a human being.  Burt does get her to worry about it, and they spend the episode capturing, then attempting to punish, the offending squirrel.  They eventually decide on castration, and bring the squirrel to the vet, who refuses, on account of that’s what animals do.  He then lets the squirrel out the window, and the squirrel gets right back to it’s business of humping anyone and anything. 

In other news, Jimmy and Sabrina have a slight conflict, in that Sabrina only takes the fun stuff with Hope, like playing in the mud or bringing her to the carnival, while Jimmy is stuck with the hard stuff like cleaning and disciplining.  They decide to let Sabrina take care of Hope for the weekend, while Jimmy hangs out with Barney, working on his masculinity on the auxiliary police force.

Of course, it turns out the auxiliary police force is less police and more Barney being tolerated because he give the dispatcher a discount at the market.  They tool around town on the recumbent bicycle built for two, sorting recycling and looking for trouble.  And they find it!  Loud yelling is coming from a house, and they run up to tend to the situation.  Which turns out to be a little girl at her uncle’s house, with a splinter.  Luckily, Jimmy is such a nurturing  guy, he knew exactly what to do, and the day was saved.

When he got back home, he found Sabrina at her wit’s end.  She apparently is just finding out that kids like to do things over and over again, like reading a book and watching a video and knocking over blocks.  But after all the stress, and the whole weekend of the hard stuff, Hope bonded, and calls her mommy.  It’s super cute. 

This was a fun little episode, and I really like how the family dynamic is growing in a natural way, with spurts and hiccoughs just like a normal family.  I got a few funny lines for you, too!

Burt, after Virginia is dismissive of his squirrel rapist: “A moth is just an ugly butterfly Virginia! Racist!”
Sabrina, babbling when Jimmy sits her down for an intervention: “Ok yeah, sometimes I eat dirt! Einstein ate dirt! Einstein!”
Virginia, when she tells Sabrina what her intervention is about, after Jimmy starts in on a terribly long soliloquy: “Sorry Jimmy, but the baby would have been a grown up by the time you finished that sentence.”
Burt at the vet’s office, regarding the squirrel: “Hide yo cats, hide yo mice, cause he’s rapin’ everyone up in here.”
 
Happy Endings

Holy crap, this was a fun episode.  It’s too bad a lot of it’s comedy was visual.

Penny met a new guy.  It’s too bad she’s been diagnosed with a concussion, from 3 seasons worth of pratfalls, and needs to wear a helmet for a month.  She tries to disguise this from Pete, the new guy, by having dates doing things that require helmets like segway tours and picnics on a construction site.  Alex tries to help her out by getting a fun helmet, and then making the hairmet, which isn’t to be confused with the Scrubs hairmet.  Think wig on a helmet.  In the end, she lets Pete know about her concussion, and they go on a real date.

Dave and Max run into a douche in the bar who didn’t reciprocate Max’s fist bump.  Because that is clearly a legitimate reason to hate someone.  Anyway, Max is traumatized from a previous ‘down low, to slow’ incident, which Dave takes entirely the wrong way.  Apparently, Dave has convinced himself that he invented that diss, and goes into a sangria-induced haze to deal with all the feels.  The two of them plus Alex go to defend their honor with the douche from earlier, and only manage to try to get ina fight with him, and fail miserably at that too.

Lastly, Brad and Jane are getting used to him being a stay at home spouse, and her working at the car dealership, but not being able to fit in well with the boy’s club.  Brad suggests that they throw a party for her coworkers and significant others, and it is a smashing success, though not in the way they expected.  Brad wasn’t able to get in with the guys, but he got along swimmingly with the trophy wives, which he was totes okay with.  He hangs out with the girls, Jane ‘bitches’ about Brad to the guys, and suddenly fits in well.  But she pushes it too far, of course, when she disparages Brad to her coworkers with him standing right there.   Brad decides to embarrass her back by acting like the stereotypical trophy wife, and it is glorious.  Tennis whites, tiny pig, valley girl phone convos, Brad had it DOWN.  Jane realizes the errors of her way, and Brad and Jane have a pig baby, whee!

This was a really strong episode, though a short synopsis cannot catch all the greatness that the visuals held.  I did get a few funny lines for you, though:

Dave, to Penny in her concussion helmet: “You look like a crayon a fat kid would eat.”
Alex, to Penny regarding her new guy: “He could be your soul mate, your kindred spirit, your one…tree hill!”

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