So, what are your thoughts on this song?
Oh, were we ever so young to think those glasses worked? Anyway, back to the song: Fourteen years later, it lives on in our memories of Gen X: The Movie (also known as Reality Bites); compilations like Ultimate Chick Flick Love Songs, Women And Songs, Vol. 2, Magic Summer Feeing, Heart Beats: Love Scene – Romantic Movie Music; and The Sarah Silverman Program. You wanted an episode whose main joke centers around Lisa Loeb's annoying song? You got it!
Here's the deal: Sarah discovers her father, Max Silverman, previously thought dead, is in fact alive. Even though she and Laura recall his being killed in a fiery car crash (told via a funny flashback that goes off on a tangent about standup comedy), Sarah sees him in a line at a bookstore waiting to meet Larry Bird (touting his new book, In The Backyard Shooting Hopes), still rocking the mid-'70s wardrobe of her memories, and not even aging a day. Where has he been?
The Sarah Silverman ProgramThursdays 10:30p/9:30c
In the CIA, of course, in a secret unit codenamed "New England Foliage" designed to stop the next 9/11. They almost stopped the first 9/11–"Everything was in place, but I had diarrhea!" Duh, obvious Silverman joke. But he did stop 9/10, 9/12, 9/13, and 9/14. Hey, funny Silverman joke! No wait: Turns out he ditched the family so he could follow the Boston Celtics.
What of Lisa Loeb, you ask? Well, Sarah decides to surprise Laura with the news of their father's non-deadness on her favorite talk show, The Scarlet Lacy Show. To commemorate the moment, she sings "Stay"–wearing pointy glasses lowered by Steve from the catwalk–and Max joins her on backups and flute. That's how the Loeb Trotters, Sarah and Max's touring musical duo, are born. And that's how Loeb's No. 1 hit becomes a central part of this episode, with a cameo by Loeb herself, still rocking the funky glasses because she's apparently allergic to contacts, according to Wikipedia. (Hey, you're old: She turned 40 this year.)
There's also the standard Brian-Steve B-story, or the standard Brian-Pisses-Steve-Off-B-story. This time, it's because Brian bought the series DVD collection of his favorite show, Dr. Lazer Rage, when he and Steve couldn't afford it. (Note to Comedy Central: Put all the Dr. Lazer Rage footage as a DVD extra.) They lost the couch they were renting! While Brian stays home on a beanbag chair and works his way through the series, Steve heads on the road with the Loeb Trotters and tries to say away from all those hot, flabby Teamster asses lugging the group's gear.
We should talk about Laura, and no, not what she was wearing. (This time.) She's stunned by her dad's sudden reappearance, and ever logical, realizes therapy is order–from therapist Tim Heidecker! He specializes in "highly unusual death circumstances" and has been helping Jay get over the death-by-electric-eel passing of his uncle. I was psyched to see Heidecker there, but alas, he was barely used–and as regular A.V. Club readers know, that's a crime 'round these parts.
So the central question of the episode was whether Sarah would get in touch with all the hurt caused by her father's abandonment. Thankfully, that wasn't the case: Sarah was simply psyched to have him around–for a while at least. After one performance–the duo now perform with a seven-woman string section–she wants to go in a younger, quirkier direction and dumps pops for some kid named Trevor. ("It's no big deal. It's show business, not show father!") The fans aren't into it–in fact, one audience member off-camera (director Rob Schrab) goes on an endless tirade heckling the group. "I came here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to see a mustache on Max Silverman, and there's no mustache!"
You know where it goes from here. Sort of. Yes, Sarah tries to reunite with her dad. And no, he can't re-join her because he's portraying Jean Valjean a Canadian tour of Les Misérables. (But he gives her his beard-trimmer as a keepsake, which he says she can use to trim her bush–but he uses some slang, presumably Jewish, that I couldn't spell. Googling didn't work.) And yes, he dies in a fiery bus crash, for real this time. Neither Sarah nor Laura is all that bummed. "Eh, what are you gonna do?" Laura says.
The end. The rest of us can spend the rest of the night trying to get "Stay" out of our heads.
Grade: B
The rest:
— I didn't mention the funniest scene of the whole episode: Brian trying to get up from his beanbag chair, falling, then letting out a little fart. Seriously, why couldn't the whole episode have been that? I would've given it an A+, because, as I've mentioned before, I'm in fifth grade.
The Sarah Silverman ProgramThursdays 10:30p/9:30c
— Sarah's best takedown of Jay came in this episode's opening credits. When a picture of Jay shows up, she says, "This is a horrible mistake God made."
— Larry Bird has a bunch of books and biographies, though none has as good of a title as Shooting Hopes. Though an Amazon search did turn up this: Speed Your Own Bird Dog.
— Attention nerds: Dr. Lazer Rage is clearly based on Dr. Who. Turns out series director and co-creator Rob Schrab is a huge Dr. Who nerd, and scored the ninth Dr. Who, Christopher Eccleston, to play Dr. Lazer Rage.
The Sarah Silverman ProgramThursdays 10:30p/9:30c
Odds 'N' Ends – Dr. Lazer Rage