January 28, 2007 - Gypsies Are Eating Our Pets!
Subtitled:
Are Celebrities Out of Control?
Extras gets funnier every time I see it. It is so good, I had to watch it twice and I believe I laughed even harder the second go-round. Did you know that HBO is airing this show up to a day before it is programmed? I like this idea. I can watch on Saturday and let the juices meld and then write on Sunday, having watched it a second, hilarious time.
Stories get out of hand as
Andy's restaurant faux pas turns into a horrible media scandal. When he tries to fix it, he refuses to apologize the entire time, and the spin becomes negative again since he had gotten into a fight with a dwarf and had knocked him unconscious.
The episode guest was
Daniel Radcliffe, whose naughty little Cub Scout routine was out of control. In a scene where he is dressed as Harry Potter, Daniel says to Maggie, "I've done it with a girl, I mean intercourse-wise." He tries to have it off with every girl on the set - not exactly the Harry Potter we've all come to love.
Later, his further attempt to interest
Maggie in a "shag" in which he used "sign language," shall we say, cracked me up and preceded the funniest scene in the show. Daniel ends up pulling out an unraveled condom to show Andy his readiness and ends up flinging it into
Dame Diana Rigg's hair. She proceeds to teach him some manners and it is all the funnier as she hasn't bothered to take the "johnny" off her head throughout the entire conversation.
With Maggie we're only one step away from "Who's on first." Her sense of dumbfoundedness is constant. She asks Andy to explain things we all get right away. He can only reply, "Just think - your own thoughts; just stay out of mine."
Maggie's unlucky in love and says the only man interested in her is a teenage boy. Andy helpfully replies, yes, but "he's a film star and he has his own condom."
Andy and the kid in the restaurant - hysterical - like the homeless man. His social blunders are now on stage for all to see. Everything he does is on display. Ah, the joy of celebrity. The journalist who pops up from behind the garbage cans and answers all of his own questions, tripping Andy along the way, is something the new star is just going to have to get used to.
I'm not sure I understand Andy's relationship with Darren. Why does he continue on with this guy?
Darren is completely insensitive and a terrible agent to boot, so why does Andy put up with him? Low self-esteem would be my guess. He still doesn't think he can get better. Darren's constant promotion of Barry, who was once on
EastEnders, only further rubs the mud in Andy's face about all of his foibles. One of the funnier moments was delivered by
Barry reading the article condemning Andy for making fun of the kid in the restaurant. The "glug" gag was fantastic.
I believe Stephen Merchant may be the funniest bloke on this show.
Darren's finer moments included:
- Warrick and the scene in which Darren asks him about the size of his house.
- Confusing Halle Berry and Harry Potter., and going on the telly to try to put out the fire on Andy's Down's syndrome faux pas (and, his stepping in it the whole time).
- Donating all of Andy's salary from the Harry Potter film to a charity of the boy's mother's choosing.
- When the movie falls through, donating half of Andy's
When the Whistle Blows salary.
- When Harry breaks up with Maggie and then holds up his opened condom to twist the knife, it was on-the-floor-cramping-from-the-pain kind of the laughing.
Absolutely funniest line:
Warrick, "What do you think I have this ring for?"
Andy, "I don't know, you're a hobbit?
Next week, Chris Martin from
Coldplay. Yum!
