Sorry if someone already started this thread and my poor searching skills failed to uncover it.
This was another excellent episode. I can think of no show better at stringing a joke over the course of a whole episode. The example this week was GOB’s fireball trick. As soon as Michael told him not wear it when he was sabotaging the car we all knew what was coming next.
There were a million other gags as well. George Sr. lying outside the hottub like a boiled lobster, “Speaking of settling, how’s Ann?”, Sitwell with his eyebrow on his forehead, etc., etc. But perhaps the most fantastic was the response to Ann’s prank call where it became clear that they’d been calling Michael non-stop.
Not much Buster this week (I think he only appeared in the flashback scene where GOB twisted his ankle doing the chicken impression). There are so many characters that it’s not surprising and he’s had a lot going on recently. I do wish there was more for Maeby to do – Shawkat is fantastic in that role and so far this season she’s been criminally underutilized.
He’s done it one or two other times to tease his younger brothers, and I believe they showed a flashback sequence when he did it to them as kids, too. “COCK-a COCK-a COCK-a!”
I liked this episode quite a bit. I loved Michael’s akwardness around Sitwell’s daughter (poor Christine Taylor looks SO anorexic. She looks worse than she did in Dodgeball. EAT A HAMBURGER, Pretty lady!)
I loved that the series revisited the auction from season 1.
I died laughing when Liza replied “How grand.”
This show has made me a fan of even that diva. Of course, before this show, I couldn’t stand Jason Bateman. Now, he’s one of my favorite actors. And I despised Portia DeRossi (though I freely admitted her hottiness).
A show that can turn me around on those three (plus the fact it has Ron Howard, David Cross, and Jeffery Tambor, who I already loved) makes for one great show.
I loved the ad for the Bluth’s attorney on the park bench where Lindsey was dumped, and Liza doing a Judy Garland (“If you only had the courage, Gob.”)
I love how Michael’s plans, however simple, are always ruined by whatever relation happens to be around. Last week it was Gob getting the company bought by Lucille II (and wasn’t Liza grand again?) and this week it’s Tobias grabbing the dough he needed to buy his lady love.
Wow, that sounds bad.
Maeby: Jesus called. He wants your Thriller album.
Say… Frank Wrench (Robb Corddry)'s real name was Moses Taylor. Two of the most famous parts played by actor/gun-nut Charlton Heston were Moses (Bible guy) and George Taylor (Planet of the Apes). I’m thinking this isn’t a coincidence.
Hmmm, haven’t seen Monk, so I can’t try a comparison.
On “Sledge Hammer”, the sound of the “Wrench”! logo put up there reminded me of the Sledge Hammer title with the bullet hole through the words (and the bullet sound).
Also, the actor’s speech at the gun rally, his seeming obsession with guns, and the way he pulled the fake gun from his jacket – all reminded me of Sledge Hammer (and how David Rasche pulled his gun out of his sholder holster on the show).
This episode included what is possibly my favorite line on this show ever (and that’s saying a lot).
Lindsay: “I’m going to see if I can get a Wrench to strip my nuts.”
Lucille and Michael: stunned looks
Lindsay: “I…tried to be sexy, but it got away from me.”
Monk (played by the excellent Tony Shalhoub) is a brilliant detective, but his effectiveness is hampered by multiple quirks and phobias. He is obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive, a neat freak, a germophobe who can’t touch anything in public without sanitary wipes, and so on. When they showed Wrench as the “law-abiding detective” (doing things like driving under the speed limit, stopping at red lights, rescuing animals, being a general goody-goody), I wondered if they were making a subtle Monk reference.
There is absolutely no way you could confuse Monk with Sledge Hammer. Monk is a relatively pedestrian detective show, made interesting by the fact that the main character is obsessive-compulsive, which helps him solve the crimes, but leads to some comic scenes and exasperation on the part of those around him.
Sledge Hammer is pure parody. Nothing in it was to be taken seriously.
