Rallo And Junior--You Can't Go Wrong

The Cleveland Show, S03E18

Cleveland, wanting to regain some of his youth by reliving his college days agreed to take Roberta on a college tour of his alma mater.  He screwed around with his old fraternity, thinking that they were going to honor him, but were in fact making him the joke of the night.  Roberta initially used the trip as an excuse to go to a music festival, but she eventually was convinced to attend college after all.  Junior got upset that Donna washed Larry and couldn't sleep without his old smell.  Rallo showed him that he could sleep on his own, but Junior started to use Rallo as his replacement Larry.  To fix this problem, Rallo modified Larry a bit so that Junior thought it was different doll.

Even if the frat boys hadn't told us beforehand that they were just fooling Cleveland, it was likely that he would have still ended up taped to an ass, feeling like a bigger one than the real one.  The only thing that was notable about the story with Cleveland and Roberta visiting the college was that we found out that Roberta is a good fighter (and Federline is a weak punk) and Roberta is lot smarter than she lets on.  Even though she acts like an idiot and uses Rihanna and Kim Kardashian as models for life choices, Roberta scored welled on her PSATs and has good grades.  Apparently she's just a pain in the ass and a bit of a whore.  Since Roberta is my least favorite character, I'm glad that she's not as vapid as I had thought.  I remember the episode where she pretended she was Tyra, so it's not a stretch to think that she's been hiding her genius to remain part of the crowd she's already been accustomed to.  It makes me hate her a little less and hope that she might end up displaying a little more of that intelligence in the future.  At least we know that she'll go to college.  Perhaps if this show is on long enough, we might see her character evolve once she gets away from the high school hype she apparently has to keep up just to fit in.

Well, I guess you just can't go wrong with a story about Rallo and Junior.  Saved the episode for me.  When Rallo saw that Donna had cleaned Larry after Junior stormed off, he remarked, while in nothing but dingy underwear:

On the bright side, at least you finally did some laundry.

It's funny because it really seems like Donna does the bare minimum when it comes to cooking, cleaning, and just any general house work.  It's ridiculous.  However, I can believe it.  I mean, she already had two kids of her own and then she got Cleveland and another child (granted that Junior probably cleans up a lot after himself).  Still, to have your child going around in brown undies is gross.

Another funny moment was when Junior was trying to put back all the nasty smells into Larry and complained about his new smell:

[Junior] He smells like Snuggles, the gay fabric softener bear.

[Snuggles shows up in a huff]
[Snuggles] Just ’cause I’s clean don’t mean I don’t like it dirty.

[Snuggles leaves]
[Rallo] A’ight, Snuggle.

I didn't expect that Snuggles would show up, nor have so much attitude about Junior's comment.  Loved its random appearance.

 A little later, it was so cute when Rallo was rocking in a chair and knitting while he looked over Junior so he could sleep.   His humming was just like some little, old lady.  These kinds of things only work with him because he just acts so grown, but is the tiniest little thing.  It's also funny when he acts his age, like when he agreed that he, too, should brush his teeth, but all he did was wet his toothbrush and put it back.  That's totally something a little boy would do.

The last good bit of that story was when Rallo and Junior were arguing about him replacing Larry as his bedtime cuddle partner.  Junior said that Rallo had no power to stop him because he was about ten times his size.  When Rallo tried to counter that Donna would help him, she yelled up the stairs that she had her own problems.  Again, Donna with the bare minimum of both homemaker and mother.  However, I will give her points for not letting Rallo run off to Holiday Inn to solve his problems:

We don't run from our problems in this family.  We trick people.

That should be written on a plaque and hung on the wall in the Brown house.  Those were some of the best words that have ever come out of Donna's mouth.

Good thing that Rallo was able to trick Junior into taking Larry back.  But it was funny that he commented that whatever Junior chose to do was fine as long as it prolonged the eventual day that Junior would snap and kill them all.  He does have that vibe.  He may act like a child, but when he's passionate about something, he can get a little psycho.

Not a bad episode, but of course, that's because there was a Junior and Rallo story to pick up the slack.  I never expected gold when it was obvious that Roberta was going to be involved, but it was more decent than usual.  It's good to see that Roberta isn't an idiot and has the potential to succeed beyond getting pregnant by Federline (hope we never see that story!).  Maybe one day I can see an episode besides the Tyra one that could make me hate Roberta a little less.

I Came For Donald Glover, And Stayed For Jon Hamm!

30 Rock, S06E19

I haven't commented on 30 Rock much because I haven't thought this season was too funny, and I have enough unfunny things to discuss.  However, since they were doing their live show again and I heard that Donald Glover was going to make an appearance, I decided that it would have some good material.  The main story was about Kenneth trying to convince the TGS staff (minus Jenna) that it should remain a live show.  He used several examples of past TV to convince everyone.  Only Jack and Liz resisted agreeing until Tracy shared his first live appearance on a telethon where he realized how hilarious he was.  Jack and Liz also realized that Tracy's first live experience also impacted their careers and got them all where they were today.  In a side story, Jenna wanted to have Paul propose to her on live TV, but he was against it.  When he came around and did as he thought she wanted, she actually wanted what he originally desired and requested that he propose again to her in private.

I really did watch this episode for the guest stars.  I liked that Amy Poehler played teenage Liz.  She's just such a cute dork.  I miss all the nutty characters she used to play during her SNL career.  Not to say that I don't like her work on Parks and Recreation (one of my favorite shows now), but it's nice to be reminded of her past every now and then.  Jimmy Fallon, who I usually don't care for, was pretty good as a younger Jack too.  But mostly when he was talking, I was checking out the wide-eyed expression of Fred Armisen staring at the camera behind him.  Seeing him, I really wish that Portlandia was still airing new episodes.  He's so hilarious.  When I finally saw Donald Glover as a young Tracy Jordan, he was indeed cute, but not as funny as I was hoping.  If I had only had his part to enjoy (which was rather short) I would have been pretty disappointed watching this episode.

Who was a surprise guest for me (since the SNL buddies are pretty much a given and I'm not too interested in Paul McCartney) and made the episode great was Jon Hamm.  It was actually his hostings of SNL that made me give Mad Men a try.  He was just so handsome and hilarious on live TV, I thought he had to be good in a drama.  Anyway, Hamm, made that "Alfie and Abner" skit incredibly funny.  Blackface is usually something you don't want to see anyone doing, but Hamm pulled it off because he just looked so ridiculous in his overalls, afro, and stereotypical speech.  Besides, they were only poking fun at the Amos 'n' Andy show from back in the day, so there's no reason to take offense by it.  Tracy Morgan's serious and proud character opposite of Hamm acting like a cartoon character was comedy gold.  You gotta love when he hit him over the head with a chair!  And It was just as good when they were just staring tensely at each other and Tracy choked him when he said "banjo."  I couldn't stop laughing.  It's one of the funniest things I've seen in a while and definitely the funniest thing I've seen on 30 Rock the entire season.  Before they even showed the "Alfie and Abner" bit, Kenneth had a really good line:

For Alfie and Abner NBC hired one African American and one Caucasian because they thought two black people on the same show would make the audience nervous. A rule NBC still uses today.

 Best line of the whole show.  It makes me think of this old sketch from MAD TV (so old it was when UPN and WB were still networks, instead of the CW).  They were parodying Chris Rock and talking about how there aren't many black people on the major networks.  I'm not so sure if it's gotten better or worse, really.  Usually, I don't notice diversity issues (as long as the show is really good) until something in the show brings my attention to it.  But anyway, I'll post that sketch because I was a big fan of MAD TV:

Jenna's story wasn't that interesting, except that when Paul interrupted TGS show with his proposal, he was singing the popular "Zou Bisou Bisou" song from Mad Men as he descended from the sky.  I enjoyed that, as a fan of that show.  And I just like Will Forte in general.

Apparently Kim Karshadian appeared too, but I don't remember her.  Since I was waiting for Donald Glover, I pretty much ignored most of the other guest stars who weren't people I was happy to see.  I'm wondering if she was in that sketch when Alec Baldwin was playing this guy named Joey who was talking into the camera and seemed confused about where he was.  Oh, well.  I don't care for her anyway.

Although, I do enjoy most prerecorded shows better than the live ones like SNL, I do appreciate those kinds of shows for all of the surprises that can happen during them.  Maybe live television isn't as popular now as it was in the past, but I wouldn't like to see it become a complete relic of the past.  After all, growing up, I was a huge fan of watching such comics as Chris Farley and Adam Sandler every week.  This week's episode of 30 Rock, which is its best of all this year, really proves to me that, like Kenneth suggested, live TV is a necessary and amazing way to broadcast a TV show.  Hope they do another one next year (if they have a next year)!