I think it’s fair to say at this point that Kroll Show is maybe a little underrated.
It’s been chugging along this season, producing some of the cleverest
sketch-show content out there, but it doesn’t seem to have the cachet of a Key & Peele. That could be because
the first season of the show was very heavy on spoofing crappy reality TV,
leaning the most on PubLizity, Bobby Bottleservice, Armond, etc. The second season
has really expanded its scope, though, enough so that when you see this
episode, featuring Bobby B in his “Gigolo House,” it feels like a breath of
fresh air.
This might be the best episode the show has aired so far.
Or maybe I’m just impressed with its consistency six weeks in, or maybe it’s
just my enduring love of the Oh, Hello Boys. Last year, whenever they showed
up, I was happy. This year, I don’t have the same sensation of tapping my feet
impatiently for a sketch I like to come around. There’s almost no duds anymore,
and characters that stretched my patience last year (Armond, C-Czar), have been
reworked very nicely this year.
C-Czar makes his first appearance since the premiere
here, as Dad Academy moves into stage two with a mom-dad to teach him important
lessons about not abandoning his child. This means more time with the gurgling
baby CEO who sets up every clip (the more of him, the better) and more
borderline-psychotic mental conditioning that’s probably doing more harm than
good for Lil’ C. I like any joke that gives insight into C-Czar’s complete
disconnection from reality. “Is that Anderson Cooper!?” he cries about a fake
baby made with twigs and straw. “Why would you think this is Anderson Cooper?”
“Cause he’s white and he’s got flaxen hair!”
The spine of the episode is set in the Gigolo House, run
by an imperious Jason Mantzoukas (when is that guy getting his own TV
show/movie deal/channel?) where Bobby meets a handsome gigolo called “Hammer”
who really just wants to be an architect. This is one in a number of weird
little side-plots that the show manages to cram into the sketch. This is one of
the best things about Kroll Show. The
level of detail is just ridiculous. The callback bringing in Farley (Chelsea
Peretti), who appeared via webcast in one of the first season’s episodes, is particularly
welcome.
Farley at first thinks she is getting paid to have sex
with Bobby, who is perhaps the worst communicator in the history of the English
language. Eventually this leads to an audition to enter the Gigolo House
itself, before Hammer returns, having forgotten that architecture requires a
college degree and schooling. It’s silly, silly stuff, but everyone’s having
such good fun (Jon Daly’s Peter Paparazzo got a lot funnier once he stopped
being a Bobby B clone) that it’s hard for it not to feel infectious.
Finally, Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland. As Kroll
correctly asks the Irish Catholic Mulaney in one of the bumpers, “Why is it you
act like a Jew from the ‘70s?” No character has ever been more perfectly yet incongruously
matched with its performer than the lovely Mulaney and mean old George St.
Geegland, who has gone to the Y to heckle a former student who he accuses of
ripping off his imaginary novel “Rifkin’s Dilemma.” Or, as he puts it, “We’re
going to cap off our day at the Y with one of my classic incidents where I make
a woman cry!”
Maybe Gil and George don’t work for everyone as they do
for me. But I can’t help but laugh as they toss popcorn at ladies in the pool
or drink white wine out of plastic bags. George will say a horrifying line like
“I once pretended that I owned a Miata so that you would get close enough so I
could rub up against you. And I want you to know I still use that memory,” and I
can’t help but want more of the sick, sick bastard. Maybe I read too much
Philip Roth as a teenager.
Stray
observations:
- The Oh Hello boys haven’t paid Y dues since 1984. “Will
you accept a thousand dollar bill with Alf on it?” - “One of the best movies I ever went to sleep during was Sideways.”
- The two eat yogurt pretzels together. “I’m glad we stole
them from that big jar.” - Two rules in the gigolo house: work hard, play hard. “And
no intercourse in the house.” “Bro, that’s three rules!” “Work hard and play
hard is one rule.” - “I know where your bedroom is. Because it smells like
clown makeup and spaghetti.”