Review of 4-10-1999 episode (MD-421; some spoilers)

==========================================================================
Opening Segment: Andrew Bowen "randomly" picks Bunifah (Debra Wilson) out
of the audience to open the show. She spends most of the time talking
on her cell phone and insulting Bowen (she says he looks like a reject from
a Gap commercial). I guess ultimately this falls into the middle rank
of openings - not as good as the best ones but better than the ones
(especially from the third season) where they just have a cast member
come out and say "we have a great show," etc.

Urge Away: Two co-workers (Will Sasso, Aries Spears) advertise a new product
called Urge Away that is designed to eliminate sexual urges. The celebrity
endorsement is done by Debra Wilson. As with all the newer commercial
parodies, this one is somewhat spoiled by the fact that it doesn't look
like a real commercial because they don't use location filming anymore,
but it's still OK.

My Gay Dad: This is about a girl (Alex Borstein) whose father (Michael
McDonald) is gay and always steals away her boyfriends (Pat Kilbane,
Andrew Bowen). Their reassurances that they are straight are meaningless
because they find her father to be hot. It sounds like a funny enough idea,
but it ends up being a little too prosaic for me, especially since the
whole thing is less a sitcom parody than a sketch based on a pedestrian
idea (e.g.: "What if we did a sketch about a gay guy who was so hot that
he made straight people turn gay," etc. - personally I wouldn't pay people
to write stuff like that).

Pink Slip: Personnel director (Nicole Sullivan) tells a worker
(Michael McDonald) that his jokes aren't funny, that his telling them are
having a disruptive influence on his co-workers, and then fires him. At
points it almost seems as if McDonald is just doing the Rusty character.
Still, it's funny the way the guy doesn't change his demeanor even after
he's been fired; also I thought it was funny at the end when Sullivan,
mimicking McDonald, picks up the phone and says "hello." Moreover, this
was a short sketch so it didn't overstay its welcome.

Rubberman: Scientist (Nicole Sullivan) unveils Rubberman (Pat Kilbane),
a new super-soldier whose muscle tendons have been rubberized. A panel
of high-ranking military personnel are not impressed, except for one idiot
(Andrew Bowen). Although this may be too inane for some, I laughed as
the lanky Kilbane tried to negotiate part of a simulated obstacle course.
Also it's funny just that they would use the word "Rubberman" which is
not only the handle of a DJ, but also has potentially scatalogical
connotations. I give the sketch a thumbs up.

Clops IV: Finally, another Corky Quackenbush segment. In this Clops segment,
we get an M&M arrested for solicitation, the Energizer bunny is arrested for
possession of heroin, and a chameleon is arrested for killing a bunch of
frogs - although we are informed that the chameleon will probably walk
because "it's not illegal to kill frogs; it's just creepy." The cans
of Vudwiser lying around the chameleon's apartment are a reference to the
first-ever parody that aired on Mad TV - Vudwiser! This was about as good
as the other Clops segment, which is to say pretty good.

The Coffee Guy: Stan (Pat Kilbane) is back, and this time he's trying to
hit on Janeanne Garofalo (Alex Borstein). This is funny because I always
thought that Alex Borstein kind of looks like Janeanne Garofalo (in fact,
when pressed to describe how she looks, I said "she's attractive in a
Janeanne Garofalo way"). Will Sasso also appears as Stan's beatnik friend.
Some fans don't like this character very much (I admit that the character
was much funnier in the first two sketches where he was trying to quit
drinking coffee and fell off the wagon and was somewhat disappointing in
later sketches), but at least it's not overused like some of the other ones
(clearly if they had him every other week we would quickly get sick of
him). Also, Borstein's Garafalo seems to be dead-on although it's hard
for me to tell because apart from the one season of SNL that she did I'm
not that familiar with her work.

Kenny's Testicle Exam: I still don't get this Kenny Rogers impression. Now
he's gone from being effeminate to almost openly gay (well, fondling a man's
testicles in a public place and slapping his butt comes pretty close I
would say). The one that they did where Rogers is doing the halftime show
at the Super Bowl was pretty funny, but most of the other ones (including
this one) just don't connect with me.

Rocket Revengers: Another Rocket Revenger, Lincoln Willis(Phil LaMarr) has
died, so a very sad Nicholas Cage (Andrew Bowen) introduces a special tribute
rerun of Rocket Revengers. You know, I just can't get enough of those
guys strapping on their rockets. This wasn't a "Best of Mad TV" segment,
but there are many funny elements here: the way the head Rocket Revenger
keeps interrupting the black Rocket Revenger in mid-sentence, the succession
of dubious technological "advancements" (e.g. asbestos napkins), and the
way the cars look exactly the way they did in the 1930's even though this
supposedly takes place in the future. There's also the way they never fly
even though they strap on rockets. In this one as with the previous Rocket
Revenger segment, the storyline is based on racist ideas, only this time,
instead of the Chinese, it is the Germans who are being demonized
(represented in the form of Super-German, the Rocket Revengers' adversary).
We also get to see two giant kittens smashing up some cars on a miniature
set at the end of the segment. Although they don't add anything new to the
parody, this was still funny enough to make it worth watching, and on par
with the other Rocket Revengers segments.

Sketch About Couple: A hick (Andrew Bowen) is trying to propose to his
girlfriend (Will Sasso), but all his girlfriend wants to talk about is
celebrity gossip. She claims that she's in love with Nathan Lane and
therefore she cannot marry him. Finally, her boyfriend points out that
Nathan Lane is gay, but she still refuses to face facts. Then they go
back to his mother's place to do it. This was OK if somewhat predictable
- you know that Lane's sexual orientation has to be a subject here
(although I didn't understand why she refuses to acknowledge Lane is
gay, when Lane himself has come out of the closet).

Mad TV Classic: Here's the first Klumps segment from MD-303; they're talking
about Eddie Murphy; the Artist Formerly Known As Prince (Phil LaMarr)
is their dinner guest. This was a pretty funny recurring segment and I
sometimes wish they'd use it more, but then again they'd probably beat
it to death the same way they do with other recurring characters; plus
it's probably hard to do the makeup and also Aries Spears has to do all
three characters, so it probably takes that much longer to film. Still, it
was fun to see this one again, even though it's a poor substitute for new
segments with real production values.

Spy vs. Spy: The black spy attracts ants into the white spy's leg cast
with honey. This was pretty good.

==========================================================================
To a large extent, this episode of Mad TV should be praised largely for
what it DIDN'T feature. We didn't see, for example, Stuart or any of the
other overutilized recurring characters. Also, apart from the Urge Away
commercial parody, there weren't really any other segments where the
limited budget of the show was a notable factor. Still, this was a pretty
solid show driven mainly by less-frequently used recurring characters
(e.g. Bunifah, the Coffee Guy, Rocket Revengers) and a few good one-off
sketches. Mo Collins is absent, but her absensce isn't all that conspicuous
apart from the Rocket Revengers segment (you expect her to be there, and
she isn't); the other members of the ensemble do fine. There isn't much Nicole
Sullivan here (she's only in two segments), but you can't win them all.
(7/10)