Cupcake Bitches Versus The Serial Killer Puppeteer

2 Broke Girls, S02E17

Max had a great idea to rename her cupcakes to bring in a lot of hipster customers into their shop, but a puppeteer performing outside of their business was driving people away.  After trying to convince J.Petto to move his puppetry show somewhere else, he ended coming into the cupcake shop and slipping on a cupcake.  His fall broke his favorite puppet, Pierre, and Max and Caroline soon found themselves being sued by the man for damages to it.

The girls versus Andy Dick as this nutty puppeteer was sort of funny.  From the beginning he was a little off, and the girls had a hard time dealing with him.  I knew with his crazy behind the girls wouldn't be rid of him so easily, but I didn't think that he would try and sue them.  I can't believe that they had to pay him a grand to try and shut him up.  Of course, since he wasn't living a fabulous lifestyle, it wasn't a surprise that once Caroline and Max paid him, he wanted more.  He was being a greedy jerk, but I couldn't hate him because seeing him in his apartment filled with puppets (the "dead body car wash" as Max put it), I couldn't help but pity him.  He didn't have anyone but his freaky little puppets.

I didn't know if the girls could get out of the situation until I saw Max take Pierre hostage.  She shocked me by going further and making the puppet hump with some naked dolls.  I loved that this was enough to make J.Petto cave into them.  They were pretty smart to use that disturbing display as a threat to his business.  I'm pretty sure that people would want to avoid him knowing that he was going around using his puppets in some kind of sexual play.  I liked how much that got to J.Petto.  Serves his money-grubbing ass right.

What I liked best about this episode, though, was just Max calling J.Petto a serial killer.  She kept alluding to the fact that they were getting closer and closer to ending up as his victims.  It made J.Petto seem all the more unbalanced and funny that they kept getting more and more involved with him.  I halfway expected Max to be right in the end.  That would have been a hilarious ending (providing they didn't get hurt, of course).

I liked this episode, even though I'm not much of an Andy Dick fan.  However, I think that his role as an annoying puppeteer really suited him, and he made an entertaining adversary to the girls.  However, he did make them lose a grand for nearly nothing more than a lesson about the necessity of having a friend to tell you when you're wasting your life on a bad idea.  If that's all he's going to add to the value of the show, I really hope that his appearance is just a one-shot.

Milhouse Walks In Kirk's Shoes

The Simpsons, S24E13

Bart decided to make Milhouse pretend to be Kirk when he accidentally shaved his head similar to Kirk's hairstyle.  Bart and Milhouse enjoyed going around town reaping the benefits that only adults could take advantage of.  Homer's obsession with find-it books increased his ability to find things that were out of place.

The novelty of Milhouse dressing up like Kirk was short-lived for me.  At first it seemed like this story was going to go in a good direction, but Bart and Milhouse didn't really do anything that special as far as what they could do as an adult.   My favorite thing that they did was go into Moe's, not to drink, but to ask Moe where babies came from.  Moe's response was intensely disturbing:

Ah, well, in my case my mom was hit with a voodoo curse, I gestated for five years, and then I popped out backwards and on fire.

I like when they make Moe sound inhumane like that.   Over the years he's become more and more of a monster.

Unrelated to the Milhouse story, really, there were a few good lines.  One was when Marge took Lisa to this puppet show that Lisa had suggested.  They soon saw that it was going to be a bunch of puppets getting killed:

[Marge] Maybe we should go.

[Knight] Nobody leave until every puppet dead.

What kind of sickos make you watch puppets get killed?  I like when stuff goes from creepy to scary.

Finally, I liked when Homer asked Marge about Highlights magazine:

[Homer] Marge, can I get a subscription to Highlights magazine?

[Marge] Homer, that's for children.

[Homer] Where does it say that?!

[Marge] Read the rest of the title!

[Homer] Highlights for...doh! 

It was kinda cool that Homer got this "superpower" of detection after reading so many children's books.  This skill turned out to be useful, even when him noticing the free breakfast on a banner seemed to suggest he had forgotten about the kids.  Although, Homer had zeroed in on the free food, he succeeded in finding the kids.  I don't know how he would have been able to otherwise just looking on the streets for something strange.

I also liked the very end of the episode where Homer got mad at Bart for saying that he hoped that he didn't end up looking like Homer.  He was strangling him and complaining that Bart's comment didn't allow them to end things on a heart-warming note.  I liked this because if Homer and Bart hadn't had that moment, it would have ended that way.

Although there wasn't a bunch that I liked from this episode, I still feel like it was good.  I say that because there wasn't anything particularly bad about it.  I just wish that Bart and Milhouse had gotten more creative in what they could do with adult power in their hands.  Homer surprisingly improved himself by reading a children's book.  If only he could read a kid's book that would teach him how to pay attention and work harder.  He might turn into a decent employee.

Held Hostage On A Cruise

Bob's Burgers, S03E04

Bob was invited to be a guest chef on a cruise boat, but declined.  The captain tricked him into agreeing to a single night that led to Bob and his family being trapped on the boat at sea.  While Bob battled the captain for his freedom, his family enjoyed their time on the boat with their own individual interests.

This was an episode full of creepy things.  I enjoyed it a lot not because it was funny but just because of the premise.  Bob got kidnapped with his family on a cruise and seemed to be the only one concerned about it.  His family was especially oblivious to the situation, only enjoying the benefits.  Linda and Louise weren't too insane with how they spent their time, but the other two were really creepy.  Tina, who kept wanting to be massaged by a cute guy, was no surprise, but Gene falling in love with a non-human puppet was hard to overlook.  That was on the same level creepy as some captain keeping Bob hostage because he wanted to eat his burgers all the time.

 Captain Flarty, although a sicko and clearly insane, was pretty funny because he was voiced by Jeffrey Tambor.  I've always thought he was a strange guy in a good way, so to have him on the show was very welcomed.  It was really funny when Bob had asked Louise to help him distract Flarty and his men from finding him, but she instead managed to lead them right to him.  I just generally enjoyed Bob running around the ship trying to escape, even though there were few places to hide (and of course, while he was being locked up and running around his family didn't take any mind).  It's a good thing that Bob finally managed to get Duvall to speak up about the insanity going on behind the scenes because Bob really looked like he was going to be on that boat for the Puerto Rico trip and beyond.

Gene's fascination with that manatee was so freaking wrong.  More than that, the guy working the puppet was such a weirdo.  I don't care if he was trying to scam Gene out of some money--what kind of guy tries to flirt with a little boy using a puppet?  It's not a crime, but it's definitely in the gray area of being appropriate.  The puppeteer was voiced by Paul F. Tompkins, who is no stranger to being a bit of a creeper.  So his character was very believable as a creepy scumbag.  I had hoped once Gene learned that he was being fooled that he might forget about his "love affair" with the inanimate object, but he kept the eye and was making a hand be a puppet.  Ugh.   I wish he had just thrown that away.  It's very rare that someone can steal the spotlight from Tina for making me cringe and feel all together uncomfortable, but Gene's behavior won hands down.  Since I'm already used to Tina, I'll take her any day over anyone else exceeding her "normal" activities.

I still don't think this show is that funny, but it has some stories that are pretty good.  This one is almost on par with the previous episode where the kids were working on a weed farm.  I really liked seeing Bob be the only voice of reason, while everyone else was choosing to live in denial.  Usually Bob freaking out while everyone ignores him is frustrating, but this story made his tendency to overreact work well.  I hope they do more stories that work out this way because it's a lot more interesting than their usual ones.

Cedric--You Gotta Laugh

2 Broke Girls, S02E03

Earl's favorite son came to town, and Max and Caroline tried to help him with his new dream of becoming a comedian so that Earl would stay proud of him.  The girls also got a new credit card and didn't use it half as wisely as they should have.

I really liked that Cedric the Entertainer played Earl's son, Darius.  Just imagining Garret Morris as anyone's dad, really, is cute.  But I loved how Max was sitting down with the two, catching up like she was a real part of the family.  She even told Caroline to stop bothering her about work because she was busy having a "family reunion."  She totally would fit into their family, I'm sure.

I was really surprised that Darius had such horrible jokes, considering he was so funny just shooting the breeze at the table with Earl and Max (and making fun of Caroline).  But I guess it was because he was trying too hard.  At least with his horrible jokes, he wasn't too dense that he didn't notice that Max and Caroline's help with the "Justin Beaver" puppet was no better (probably worse).  But luckily he found his niche for comedy and didn't have to relinquish his title as the favorite.

Another thing I liked is when Caroline and Max decided to buy him some new clothes since Caroline spilled soup on him.  I liked that before they got him this awesome all-orange outfit Max asked the guy in the store:

Do you have anything from the Sinbad collection?

Anytime you can bring up Sinbad, I appreciate the nod to that hilarious comic and his insane 90s fashion (he looked ridiculous!).

I thought it was weird that the girls couldn't manage to keep from going over their limit within like a few days of getting their new card.  I mean, how much poorer do they want to make themselves?  I don't know if it was necessary to put the card in Oleg's pants to keep it safe.  After that, it might as well be in North Korea because I wouldn't be going anywhere near it.   So nasty...

This was a cute episode, but not so funny.  I think I just really liked the guest star and watching him discover himself as a comedian.  Even though the girls were abusing their new power with a credit card, it was nice to take a little break from their money problems to start up their cupcake business.  I guess these stories, when done well, are really good about distracting the viewers from how long it's going to take them to really get their business started.  Because credit card debt certainly isn't going to get them anywhere soon.