The theme of this episode seems to be the use of information. Whether you keep that information to yourself, or spread it to other… Yes, I might be reaching with this theme, but it’s the only one that made sense to me.
The first sketch, as is usually the case, made me think of the theme in the first place. It takes place in an airport, and we see a man trying to fly out somewhere, but the clerk is taking forever in helping this man. What he doesn’t know is that she’s working on a novel, and it’s not her neglecting her job, she’s apart of the “Writers in Residency” program. She can find out all the information that she needs for the customer in a second, but he doesn’t know that. So while he waits, she’s working on her novel. This is a really funny sketch, made even funnier when we find out that actual author, Cheryl Strayed, wrote her book “Wild” when a customer was so disappointed in her customer service, that she threatened to walk the entire way to her destination. Cheryl’s reaction, of course, was “That would make a good book.”
It’s Carrie’s Birthday, and Fred has the perfect gift for her. Carrie loves music, so Fred of course turned their entire house into a tribute to rock, and it’s gaudy as hell. The entire living room has become guitar art, complete with a metal wire statue that looks nothing like Carrie. The kitchen has a giant poster of Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders, with big letters that say Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders, just in case you forget eventually, and need to be reminded. Finally, the bathroom has been turned into a graffiti filled dive bar bathroom. All the old furniture was sold or given away to make room for all this stuff, and Carrie doesn’t seem appreciative of learning that her nice house has been turned into… whatever this is.
In the next sketch, James biked to work, and he’s very proud of himself… but also exhausted. So exhausted in fact, that he basically becomes a wet sponge of sweat. People are shocked and amazed that someone could sweat so much. James starts sensing that everyone else is repulsed by him and causes him to feel lonely. But all is not lost, when a man with a lot of stamps, and no time, nor moisture to lick them all enlists the help of James and his sweat. It really is a happy ending for all… except everyone one else in the building whose still mopping up all the sweat he’s secreted.
The Feminists, Candace and Toni, wrote a book, and they are selling it at a flee market! At the flee market, they run into Gil Faizon (Nick Kroll) and George St. Geegland (John Mulaney). If you don’t know who these characters are, you should watch “Oh, Hello!” on Netflix, it’s wonderful! Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland are selling wicker wallets (wallets made of… wicker… I guess… is that what that’s called? Or is wicker the patter of which the material is woven into? I guess I could Google it, but the thinking about it is also fun… anyway.), while at the same time, passing through this town so they can assist with a friends totally illegal suicide in which they will be super complicit in. The boys have an idea for the girls to read out of their book as their friend passes, and Candace and Toni would be honored to do so. The sketch is work based on the fact that these characters bounce off so well with each other, characters that probably don’t exist, yet you swear you’ve seen them before. I love the Gil Faizon bit where he tells the women that he’s not a doctor, but he has a doctorate of fun, and then just deflates. And the final line almost took the cake when it came to the best button on a sketch for this episode.
Nobody uses cash anymore. It’s an outdated thing that dinosaurs use to exchange good. But a certain few workers want to get cash back to the glory days, where it was used! Basically, is a sketch where the crux of it is how to get people to use cash again, how to make it relevant. The suggestions range from making it smell good, to turning it into a plastic rectangle with a strip that has all your money. The humor comes into it with the absurdity of the suggestions. But the ending, where a woman shreds a mans credit card and screams “CASH FOREVER ASSHOLES!” takes the cake for the best line to end on for a sketch.
Finally, the through line of the episode, “Peter Follows P!nk.” Nance is trying to have a conversation with Peter, but Peter is distracted by the life of popstar P!nk, and following her on copyright free Instagram. So enthralled with P!nk’s life Peter is that he starts adopting some of her life style, and hanging up pictures on the wall of her. Nance starts to get jealous, and decides to take matters into her own hands by making herself look like P!nk. The montage sequence is hilarious, where we find out that it’s easy to look like P!nk, but it’s hard to maintain the look of P!nk.
Nance goes home, looking forward to showing her new look, finds him asleep with a picture of P!nk in bed. So she decides to have her own celebrity relationship, with John Corbett of “My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding” fame, among others. I’m not going to go to far into what happens, in so much as to say that it gets super weird.
I’m not sure what the point of the sketch was, but I had fun! I love that this relationship is so set on a steady path, that one bump with derail things for everyone. But these two love each other so much, that even though Nance may have done some undetermined sexual things to John Corbett, although nothing much, they’ll still be there for each other at the end of the day.
This is such a fun episode. It started strong, and just kept going. The cameo with Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland was particularly pleasant. I do want to see a T.V. show with those two, because there’s nothing I like more than two out of touch old people trying to get back in touch. In fairness, I would watch anything with Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. Seriously, “Oh, Hello” on Netflix, it’s good stuff.
