This Week In Comedy Open Thread

This Week In Comedy Open Thread

Why is Will Arnett so skinny? Why do they always cut the tops off of snack bags on TV shows? Why is Meredith on The Office’s comedy bald cap so much better than Kristina on Parenthood’s devastating cancer bald cap? There are some questions to which we will never find answers, I suppose. But one question I do know the answer to is: Were there comedy shows on TV this week? And the answer is YES! They were back! Not all of them, but most of them! Portlandia started off our week in comedy last friday with two new back-to-back episodes, and they were both very enjoyable. The season opened, naturally, with a song — this time, protest club hit “One Party At A Time.” It reminded me of a Mr. Show sketch that you think is not funny at first but then they keep doing it and you’re like, “Haha, oh wait, no, this is funny.” Right? Right or wrong? That episode also included appearances from Kurt Loder, Matt Pinfield and Tabitha Soren, and Tabitha Soren looked beautiful. (My favorite bit of that episode was the street naming sketch.) (It was a good one!) The second episode featured the return of Kyle MacLachlan and also Chloë Sevigny and Women and Women First, and also Martina Navratilova. It was great! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY? Bob’s Burgers was incredibly good. Sometimes when I talk about Bob’s Burgers there are a few of you in the comments who say, “Why do you talk about Bob’s Burgers so much when WE don’t ever talk about Bob’s Burgers?” And maybe that is because you should TAKE A HINT and START TALKING ABOUT BOB’S BURGERS because it is THE BEST? Don’t be a dummy. (Please follow me after the jump.) Something I enjoy very much these days is a comedy that, while very funny, also has a lot genuine love and sweetness to it. (See: New Girl, Parks and Recreation, Ben and Kate, the end of The Office this week.) Bob’s Burgers has that — a lot of it this week, with the separate Tina/Bob and Louise/Linda plot lines — and I think it might be most apt at balancing that bit of sweetness with enough hilarious comedy that even if you don’t WANT the sweetness (??) you still will enjoy it thoroughly and not be annoyed. So watch it. The New Girl was not my favorite episode ever — I enjoyed the Schmidt/Winston plot line more than the main Gang At The Cabin plot line, and they were both pretty much fine, but it didn’t really HIT for me and seemed more like a transitional episode more than one that is meant purely to entertain. Which is fine! Still love that show. I watched Ben and Kate this week, which is not something I always do, and I liked it a lot. It is certainly more on the sweet side than the hilarious side, but that is ok because I love the sweet side. “GIMME THAT SWEET STUFF!” Haha. Yuck. All of the characters on that show seem to be becoming clearer, more solid, and more real-human-seeming every time I check in with it, which is nice to see. (Unlike on The Mindy Project, which I did not watch this week [but I heard it was very bad] [and I believe it!].) And, ok, let’s talk about Thursday now. 30 Rock was good, even though Will Arnett was distractingly thin the entire time. I don’t mean to be a jerk about body stuff, because I am a WOMAN, and I UNDERSTAND, but is he ok? Someone check on Will Arnett. 1600 Penn is not a show for me, though in the second episode when Josh Gadd threw his sister’s cell phone in the pool and she told him to go get it and he said, “Why? I threw it in the pool, it’s not a phone anymore,” I laughed out loud because it was very funny. And, finally, The Office’s episode was the best one of the season. I don’t want to talk about comedy on TV anymore, you talk about it now!

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