or...

Round Two Of Pleasant Unfamiliarity

It's been a fascinating past couple days with the last few reviews being filled with a few thought-provoking synchronicities. First, my birthday show for this season was posted on the first day of my technical birthday. Now, even though this will be posted tomorrow, I'm actually writing this intro on day two of my technical birthday, and the coincidence here is the Jill Clayburgh was hosting the night I was born which is something that I find amusing.

I still can clearly place who she is, and she looks different enough from her first appearance that I would have no clue who she was without seeing her name. This is pretty sad because I find her to be a delightful performer, pleasant enough that I didn't mind the much milder sense of humor.

I wouldn't consider this to be a second-half slump episode, but it's walking a very fine line of average. Maybe you'll agree once you read what I saw, so I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

Tonight's very special episode is "interrupting" Bowling For Medicine.
Garrett Morris sings Oh Danny Boy and this time he wrote the subtitles ahead of the performance to explain why he doesn't like having the subtitles while he sings, but he understands. He says that the random laughing distracts him as he sings but still has several jokes throughout his message. The song ends, and Morris announces, "Live from New York..." with no build up to it this week.
Jill Clayburgh opens up the show with a monolog about how she didn't like her first monolog and goes on and on about what she did wrong and what she wants to do different and ends up in a loop where she never actually gets to a monolog.
This was followed by a repeat of the Royal Deluxe II car commercial that highlights the fact that the car drives so smoothly you can perform a circumcision in it.
Next, we get to see a second installment of the Olympia Cafe "Cheese Burger, Cheese Burger" sketch where Jill Clayburgh is training as a new waitress.
Sybil III is a parody of Sybil where Jill Clayburgh plays Sybil's psychiatrist, only in this sequel, there are actually three people named Sybil, and the psychiatrist tries to convince them that they are just one schizophrenic person. At one point, the psychiatrist turns her back as she dictates her notes into a recorder at this point two of the Sybils sneak out leaving the psychiatrist to believe she was successful.
Bad One-Man Show was another installment in the Bad series. In this one, Dan Aykroyd introduces a show called An Evening With... which is five one-man shows about famous individuals all playing out at the same exact time which is enough to drive you mental.
Eddie Money then performs Baby Come Back To Me.
This is followed by a fake ad for Nutrifix, an injectable breakfast that also contains meth for that family on the move.
Once again, Jane and Dan host the news with an average weekend update segment featuring Roseanne Roseannadanna who starts out talking about taxes but end up telling a rambling tale about her experience dealing with an IRS man.
This was followed by an airplane sketch where Belushi plays a jaded traveler. Jill Clayburgh tries to mine out the joy, but Belushi continues to complain about everything being out of focus and blurry. When Jill suggests that he might need glasses, Belushi seems like this is something he never once thought of. He then gets mad at her when her prescription isn't a match and gets mad at her for being a liar.
Gilda starts out singing in the shower to shortly be joined by Bill Murray as his showering radio DJ character. He interviews Gilda with his soap microphone before introducing the neighbor who's been staying in the garage because of a fight with his wife and is in the shower to do some stand-up material. In the next segment of the shower show, Murray introduces the neighbor's wife to get the two back together.
Jill plays a woman in a motel room who just finished cheating with who we find out is Dan Aykroyd Conehead. The sketch then cuts to the Conehead house for a sad sort of sketch about how they are both cheating on each other. They do end up working things out at the end making it feel like one of the boring "special episodes" with an emotional message that they used to cram into comedic programming.
Celebrity Crack-Up is a celebrity talk show hosted by Jane who interviews celebrities from that time that had public meltdowns. They have an uncanny take on Blake Edwards, especially for what ended up happening in the future.
Eddie Money returns to the stage to sing Two Tickets To Paradise.
Jill performs a sing-song type monolog where she sang and talked about how young will eventually devolve to two people who just put up with one another. It was more sad than funny but an interesting piece nonetheless.
Finally, Jill Clayburgh thanks the crowd and says her good nights.

As I said up above, this was an average episode because everything felt more nice than funny. That said, I still enjoyed the show and here are my favorite moments. First, I have yet to grow tired of and in fact, still love the Olympia Cafe Cheese Burger, Cheese Burger sketch, but I'm a fan of things that get repetitive until they become obnoxious. Next, I liked the Sybil III sketch because as someone with mental issues I like seeing some mental humor. Finally, I was a fan of Jill Clayburgh closing monolog because it was a compelling piece even though it was depressing.