Review of 2-10-1996 episode (MD-113; some spoilers)

This review can also be found at:

        http://www.nic0lesullivan.org/md113.txt

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Lowered Expectations - Willow: In this "Lowered Expectations" segment,
a folksinger called Willow (Nicole Sullivan) sings a song about how
she's seeking a man. Note the rather thick armpit hair under Sullivan's
right armpit - either it's fake or it's real, and if it's real (and
was grown specifically for this sketch), this is yet another sign of
her dedication to her chosen profession. Is probably fake, though. The
segment, by the way, was pretty good; it wasn't exceptional but was
about average for "Lowered Expectation" segments. Nicole Sullivan fans
will probably be interested in it because it provides an example of
her singing voice.

Opening Segment: The gang introduces the show. Once again Bryan Callen
is the odd man out; the segment where he takes off all his clothes was
cut. This was pretty good.

Vista Militia: This is a parody of those Visa commercials, where they
say, "if you go to [insert favorite place here], bring your Visa card,
because they don't take American Express." Here, you are told to bring
your Vista card if you join Ronnie Lyle's paramilitary camp in Montana,
where people run through obstacle courses and shoot at targets labelled
"Democrat," "Liberal," and "Immigrant." Like the "Lowered Expectations"
segment, it's not exceptional; it's more like the prototypical political
parody/commercial parody crossover. The production values, however, are
very good, making this segment at least as good as any commercial parody
SNL was doing at the time.

Dr. Goodwrench: An elderly woman (Mary Scheer) goes to collect her
husband at the hospital; he was there for a routine checkup, but the
doctor (Bryan Callen), who talks like an auto mechanic, performed a
heart transplant and an appendectomy - just like when people take
their car to get their oil changed or some other such routine job,
and the mechanic claims there's other problems with the car, etc.
When the woman complains about a noise her husband makes, the doctor
claims it sounds like one of his lungs is ready to go, and wheels him
back into the operating room - and gives her a "loaner" husband, who
happens to be a tallish hunk. The analogies between the human body and
cars provide most of the humor here; the sketch itself is somewhat
run-of-the-mill but has its moments.

Spy vs. Spy - Rock Drop: Black Spy is waiting to drop a rock on the
White Spy; White Spy uses his hat as a decoy, then attempts to ambush
the Black Spy, but instead the balcony is mounted on a hinged door
and swings away, leaving the White Spy to fall onto the rock. This
was pretty good.

Al Casdy - Memory Wizard: Al Casdy (Bryan Callen) is back, and this
time he's hawking a "Memory Wizard" video. In this infomercial parody,
he describes techniques such as writing things down and asking other
people who remember better than you - in other words, solving the
problem of not remembering things by avoiding the issue. This was
even funnier than the previous "Al Casdy" segment, especially when
his assistant (Phil Lamarr) reads off a list of things, and Al Casdy
writes them on his hand, then uses the crib notes when he can't
remember all the items. I think this is based on an actual memory
wizard infomercial that used to be on cable quite a lot, but I'm
not sure. Anyhow, this was an extremely accurate portrayal of those
lame informercial one sees on TV (especially cable) quite often.

The XXX Files: This is an "X Files" parody in which Scully (Mary Scheer)
and Mulder (Dave Herman) investigate the disappearance of female porn
stars (they are kidnapped by aliens). Although this segment has aired
numerous times, it still stands up even after so many viewings; one
can argue whether or not this deserves enough commendation to merit
inclusion in "The Best of Mad TV," but whether or not it is that good,
it's certainly one of the more memorable parodies from season one.
The part where Scully notes that the aliens needn't have worked out a
deal with the government because they have the capability of seizing
the porn stars without having to offer anyone any quid pro quo is one
of the funniest moments in the show's history: the aliens stammer at
first, then one of them says "The earthling is right!" and another says
"Bummer!" Also funny is how Mulder knows exactly why the aliens seized
the porn stars, for no apparent reason. Overall, this was one of the
best season one parodies.

Lowered Expectations - Tony: "Tony" (Dave Herman) is a rather
creepy-looking guido who tells us that people tell him that he looks like
Tony Danza - this is his selling point to the ladies. A few moments
of this guy posturing in front of the camera should be enough to make
most women want to blow doughnuts. Overall this is about as good as
the previous "Lowered Expectations" segment, which is to say it is
fairly run-of-the-mill comedic fare.

Your Cheatin' Head: A man (Bryan Callen) gets a head transplant; the donor
turns out to be a man who was having an adulterous affair with his wife
(Debra Wilson). To further complicate matters, the brain of the donor
is put in the body of the woman with which Callen's character was having
an affair. This was a pretty good parody of the rather farfetched plots
of many soap operas (such as "Melrose Place"), although we also get
cheesy old-style soap opera incidental music. It was a fairly simple
premise, but was also short.

Don Martin - Chemistry Set: A boy is playing with his chemistry set,
drinking the potion alternately turns him into a monster and into a
normal-looking human. Then his mother comes in, and she turns out to
be a monster; in other words, he looked like a monster and mutated into
a human. Funny and somewhat Twilight Zone-ish in its concept (like the
one with the world where everyone looks hideous and the beautiful
woman is a pariah).

Jim Carrey School of Acting: Jim Carrey (Bryan Callen) has enjoyed
remarkable success in spite of his limited acting ability (he's clearly
no Lawrence Olivier); now, he's ready to share his acting secrets
with the general public. We learn the three M's: mugging, manic, and
money. Some people prefer range and artistry, but they aren't the ones
seeing his movies. This was a funny and a well-deserved shot at the
highly-successful but mediocre Carrey, and they couldn't have cast a
more appropriate cast member than Callen, who like Carrey also has the
physical humor honed to perfection. One wonders why this segment never
showed up on any of the "Best of" compilations.

Lowered Expectations - Ron: A bubble boy (Bryan Callen) seeks his ideal
mate. He has a space suit, too, so he can go out to see a movie, until
his batteries run out. Perhaps it takes a certain sense of humor
to appreciate this segment (and I'm a person who laughed at the prospect
of a man who had to walk on his hands being strangled to death when his
necktie got caught in an escalator), but if you have that sense of humor,
you will likely find this segment funny. I thought it was vastly superior
to the other two "Lowered Expectations" segments in the show and laughed
harder than I did in the rest of the episode. In other words, a resounding
thumbs up.

Vancome Lady - Hostage Negotiator: The Vancome Lady (Nicole Sullivan)
works at a bank, where she is taken hostage, along with everyone else
who works there. She insults the bank robber, a cop (Debra Wilson), who
was sent in to negotiate, and a co-worker (Mary Scheer). Finally, she
is ejected from the bank, but eventually gets the last laugh by telling
the police to send in the S.W.A.T. team. This was about average for the
early Vancome sketches, which is to say pretty good; I think this was
the first one where the Vancome Lady isn't fired at the end of the sketch,
although the other elements remain pretty much the same.

Sick of It: An underling (Orlando Jones) wants to vent his frustration
against a co-worker (Phil Lamarr) by wrecking havoc on his office, but finds
that everything in his office is apparently indestructable. This is yet
another simple premise well-executed, and a good effort here from Orlando
Jones.

That's How They Get You: Two people (Bryan Callen, Dave Herman) bitch about
how much everything costs and about hidden costs for so-called bargains;
their complaints involve a bargain matinee which cost over four hundred
dollars and a haircut which costs forty thousand dollars ("What's the
story with that?" "Nothing - that's what he charges.") This was
a good sketch which is almost a throwback to an era when comedy was
much less visual; it's just two people having a conversation, and it
essentially works.

Quality Time: A father (Phil Lamarr) has three minutes visitation time
with his son; naturally, he wants to squeeze a lot into these three
minutes, hence the title "Quality Time." This was a good, though not
exceptional, sketch; the concept was good though not that original and
Lamarr is the glue holding this sketch together. Incidentally I think
someone timed this out once and found that the visitation time was
actually less than three minutes (I'm guessing somewhere between two
and three minutes).

Foreign Psychiatrist: A foreign psychiatrist (Mary Scheer) cannot
understand the idioms used by one of her patients (Phil Lamarr); the
patient eventually says she was a big help just so he can leave and not
have to clarify the meaning of what he said. Again a conversational
sketch along the lines of "That's How They Get You" and about as funny;
it wasn't an outstanding, "Best of" sketch but was still a cut above
average.

Closing Segment: Dave Herman (wearing a captain's hat) closes the show;
at the end he approaches the camera and says he hopes this Bryan character
catches on: "he says stupid things and we beat on him." It's too bad
Herman left the show because he's one of the few cast members who had
the ability to be funny without trying, or at least not having the
appearance of trying. This was good.
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MD-113 contains a lot of rather standard sketch comedy fare so that
it is not as laudable an effort as some of the other shows, yet there
are enough gems here (including "The Jim Carrey School of Acting") to
justify giving it a ranking equal to the previous episode. Bryan Callen
dominates this show, with his appearances as Al Casdy and Jim Carrey,
but the other cast makes notable contributions as well - with the
exception of Artie Lange, who does not appear in this episode at all,
making it three episodes in a row from which he is absent. [8/10]

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