The Greatest Party Night

Parks and Recreation, S05E10

Leslie's bachlorette party celebration was sidetracked when Leslie was stuck on Jamm building on the park site ahead of their agreement.  She spent the night not enjoying herself, but trying to recover some Native American artifacts she had planted that she mistakenly thought would help.  Ben and the guys also held Ben's bachelor party, which started out as a board game and beer and turned a night that fulfilled all the guys' dream parties that they were never able to celebrate before they got married.

I liked how I envisioned Leslie's party to be non-stop fun and Ben's to be boring as hell, but it was the complete opposite.  Leslie really had no chance for fun when that bastard went back on his deal and pushed forward with his plan for the lot with that lady (don't remember her name).  Should have known that guy wouldn't be good to his word.  Even though his ass tactics made Leslie do something really inappropriate like plant artifacts, I was happy to see that she realized her mistake right away.  It didn't help her celebrate her night any better since she exhausted herself and her friends (save Donna who was chilling in a lawn chair with a drink like a boss) retrieving as many as she could, but it helped her remain a better person than Jamm.  I think I would have been really disappointed if Jamm was turning her into some kind of monster who would exploit another culture just to suit her own agenda.

My favorite part of Leslie's story was when she came clean to Ken.  He ended up being impressed by her honesty and covered for her mistake.  I liked that he took a liking to her, but I loved when he started using "white man guilt" upon Jamm: 

[Ken] I would like to go on record, speaking as a citizen of Pawnee, I do not like the way you went back on your deal with Councilwoman Knope.  It reminds me of what the settlers of Pawnee did to my ancestors: taking their land without permission.

[Leslie, in interview] He really plays white people like a fiddle.  Wow.  It's amazing to watch.

[Ken] You and Leslie had a deal.  If that deal is not restored, well, I believe there are six Paunch Burgers in the Wamapoke casino.  Perhaps it's time that we re-visted those contracts.

[Lady] Is that a threat?

[Ken] Why, yes.  I thought that was obvious.

[Lady] Take the sign down. We'll wait until everything is official.

[Leslie] In the spirit of fair play, I suggest we put on these authentic Wamapoke headdresses and dance around the table.

[Jamm] Absolutely not.  That sounds highly offensive.

[Ken] Does it, white man?

[Jamm] No.  It's not offensive, so let's do it.  

[Ken] You first.

[Jamm] So clearly this is not offensive.

[Ken] It is offensive.

[Jamm] I'm very sorry.

Leslie made a new friend, and Jamm was sweating in his seat like someone had found porn magazines in his desk.  Love seeing Leslie win like that, especially when she does it by being completely honest.

Ben's story was really cute.  I loved how everyone had their little moment to enjoy something, and how amazing Chris was to organize it all.  Especially when he was able to make Andy's dream with the Colts come partially true.  He was the ultimate best man for each and every one of them.  And in the end after he graciously accepted his friends' award for his efforts on that night, I was impressed that Chris didn't get hung up on the fact he was the only one he hadn't ever been married.  He was just happy that he was enjoying life with his friends.  As a bonus, now that Chris has more internal peace with himself, he gets introduced him to a new girl who might be Chris' new girlfriend down the road.  He deserves it.

Of course, some of my favorite lines in this story came from Ron.  He was particularly funny when the guys went to Essence via Tom's suggestion.  I loved how quickly he realized that this bar was not for him:

[Ron just before they left] Son, there's no wrong way to consume alcohol.

[Waiter] Here's your Bud Light.

[Andy] I ordered a beer.

[Waiter] That is a beer.  And here's your nimbus martini.  May I go ahead a chisel your rhombus sphere?

[Tom] Please.

[Ron] This is the wrong way to consume alcohol.

The conversation was only made more hilarious by the bizarre drinks they were handed.  Tom couldn't have picked a funnier place for them to go.  It was completely excellent.  It only got better when Ron was given his "drink," asked to hold out his hands, and the waiter rubbed lotion on them:

[Ron] What's happening?

[Tom] Oh, this is sort of a play on scotch.   It's a whiskey-infused lotion.

[Ron] Can I ask if this entire establishment is a practical joke of some kind?

Not only Ron's reaction to that was priceless, but Andy's face too was hilarious.  I could have just had the episode about them ordering stuff from that bar all night long.

Ron also had this cute moment when they were doing Jerry's thing.  He was eating ice cream and it was totally all over his mustache, but he didn't even seem to notice.  I sort of wished he had stayed like that throughout the rest of the night.

When they were doing Ron's thing, I like how he made it seem he was going to confess something personal about his relationship with Diane, but all he said was that he liked her.  I also liked Chris' toast to Ron that he made very short to cater to Ron's style--that was really nicely done.  The best part of them being at the steakhouse, though, was when Roy Hibbert showed up and treated the guys to dinner.  When he saw Tom, he was still bitter about his former employment with him:

[Roy] Hey, Tom.  I am not paying for that guy.  He owes me a lot of money.

[Tom] It's true.

I love reminders of Tom's failed business.  It was so ridiculous that it doesn't deserve to die quietly.

Tom also had a good moment when he interrupted Jerry who was about to tell a story of why he didn't get his bachelor party:

[Tom, after bopping Jerry on the head] Boop! That's me hitting the snooze button.  Don't talk again for another ten minutes.

Really, there was just too much goodness packed in this episode--I loved it.  I laughed really hard and I also felt warm inside by the guys bonding and by Ken helping out Leslie even though she messed up.  I think I could watch this episode over and over again.  If only everything I watched was this great even half of the time.  It'd be TV paradise.

There Aren't Enough Robots To Make Homer A Good Employee

The Simpsons, S23E17

Old Man Burns finally "cuts out the fat" (not literally because Homer isn't eliminated) from his power plant by firing everyone at the plant, basically, and implementing robots.  This is brought on by all the costs Burns will have to pay to cover all the health issues his employees have after their last checkup.  I will say that I'm amazed that the plant lasted a day with only robots and Homer Simpson around.  Homer isn't the best person to be left by himself.  Have you learned nothing from the time you let him house sit, Mr. Burns??

 I liked a lot of the jokes in this episode.  I won't really detail each of them.  It was pretty funny when Homer tried to get off alcohol and was unintentionally drinking and eating things that contained it including mimosas, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and cherries jubilee.  I'm kinda glad they took it down that road, rather than him going murderously deranged (like in the The Shining Halloween parody) after going a few days (minutes, really) without his favorite beverage.

Probably what I liked the best was when Homer was trying to chat up the robots as if they were humans with office humor like "Working hard, or hardly working?" but was getting no response.  His anger and increasingly loud voice had me chuckling.  I love how mad Homer sometimes gets over his inability to notice that he is pretty much angry at nothing (or just his own stupidity). 

Besides the laughs, I had quite a few moments of surprise and wonder.  One of such was when it was revealed that Moe is so ugly ("pug fugly"--haha) because he got stomped on by an elephant Mr. Burns was riding the first day he came into town (isn't he originally from Springfield?  Never knew he moved there).  It was also nice how Moe said he would have to grow to be beautiful on the inside, but Marge remarks that he never did, and they return to the present where Moe is being his usual unpleasant self.  Gotta love Moe.

I was surprised, too, that Homer could actually get the robots to communicate.  Of course, he did mess up several times before he had success, but I would imagine that he would just give up after a while, despite having a manual right in front of him.  I guess Homer isn't as useless as he appears.  I was further surprised that he chose to play a baseball game with the robots when he changed their movement paths.  I really thought he was going to send them all to Moe's so they could be his drinking buddies (since all of his unemployed friends wanted nothing to do with him anymore).   Huh.  We haven't really seen Homer care about baseball in a while.  We certainly haven't seen him play in a while (remember that classic episode where all those famous players guest starred?).

It was classic Homer when he decided to drill holes into the robots heads, in order to make them a little more human-like.  Now, I would have figured he would have done that in the beginning to get them to communicate, rather than read a book.  Homer threw me for a loop again when he ran to Mr. Burns for help when the robots revolted.  Granted that Mr. Burns, as the owner of the robots, might have had the information to stop them from destroying Homer, Mr. Burns has never really come to anyone's rescue when his doorbell has been randomly rung.  Despite me thinking that Homer was crazy for thinking Mr. Burns would help, I liked this scene for one reason:  the hounds.  When one of them came charging at the army of the robots, they sent that little animal flying!  I'm not one who enjoys animal cruelty, but nothing tickles my funny bone more than seeing a animal getting flung or thrown someplace like that hound.  He was just smacked away like he was some kind of bug.  Good stuff.

I think this was a rather good episode that sort of echoes the unemployment problem in the United States.  I can't say that it's because everyone's jobs are being replaced by robots (such a freaky future where there are nothing but robot workers sounds frightening), but definitely there are more people fighting to get the lowest of jobs after being laid off nowadays.  If only this was a world where Homer Simpson-like employees could show the company or boss that it's more costly to get rid of your employees than replace them (if you're going to leave it up to technology for the most part), we Americans would be better suited to turn the economy around.  Get to work, Homer Simpsons of all parts!!