Critics' Notebook: Laughs Abound on Monday
Sarah Chalke and Josh Radnor in How I Met Your Mother by Monty Brinton/CBS
Since there seems to be some division in the office today on Monday night's CSI-style
Two and a Half Men, I'll respectfully part company with
Cheers & Jeers and give the episode a tentative thumbs-up.
The tweaking of the theme song with a little taste of The Who? Sweet. The graphic
CSI-shots following all manner of food down Jake's gullet into his stomach, culminating in the mother of all fart jokes? Genius. Yes, I've previously come out against flatulence humor in general - and in particular on
Boston Legal - but keep in mind that where young Jake is concerned, this is the epitome of humor, and watching his bubble of gas from the inside was inspired. And what about the moment when the CSIs look for traces of semen in the crime scene of Charlie's bedroom (!) and the room lights up "like a Jackson Pollack painting." Very funny, in classically grody
Two and a Half Men fashion.
Less inspired: every joke involving the word "hoo-hoo." Again, comes with the territory here, but this can't help but invite pot shots at the show's overall leering smarminess. And while George Eads' cameo was surprisingly pointless, the Marg Helgenberger look-alike was a treat.
The interrogations were a fun change of pace, and besides, any chance to integrate Holland Taylor and Conchata Farrell more fully into any episode is always welcome for me. I'm not sure why Evelyn was singing
The Man I Love and
Unchained Melody at the piano at her own reception, but Taylor is always a scream. (Also laughed when she was asked if it was her lipstick on you-know-what and she scoffed to the police, "Oh God no, I'd rather drink your coffee.")
All things considered, and as sweeps stunts go, this lived up to the billing, as far as I'm concerned. But since this writers' crossover was first announced, I've much more eagerly been anticipating this Thursday's
CSI episode written by
Two and a Half Men's team - if only for the symbolic payback of dispatching a demanding sitcom diva to the great beyond.
Was
Two and a Half Men the night's funniest outing? Not when
The Big Bang Theory (introducing Sheldon's improbably stunning twin sister, an amusingly alluring object of desire for all the other geeks) and especially
How I Met Your Mother are on such high-quality rolls.
On
Mother, I loved seeing Will Forte unshackled from the current mediocrity of
Saturday Night Live and given a truly funny character to play: Randy, the hapless "rebound bro" reluctantly recruited by a despondent and desperate Barney to be his new post-Ted wingman. Barney knew nerdy Randy wasn't suitable for being called up to the majors: "This slot is VP of awesome, and you're like assistant undersecretary of only OK." But Randy gave it his creepy best: "Dripping with game," he boasted, but it was more like nose-dripping with blood and flop-sweating with anxiety. On the Ted front: love him and Stella (the beyond-charming Sarah Chalke). If she's not the one, who is?
Still, my fave moment of laughter of the entire night came from an unexpected source: the pre-credits opening of an excellent and heartfelt episode of
Bones, when Bones laughs uncontrollably at Booth's theory that the bizarrely contorted skeleton they're viewing could have ended up in its current state by being rolled up in a carpet. She literally is guffawing in this scene (well played, Emily Deschanel), prompting grumpy prosecutor Caroline to declare, "I did not know she could laugh." I'd like to see more of that, myself.
