Episode 11
Ben and Janeane open the show on the beautiful California beach, a setting Ben
chose because of all the viewer letters that say they want to see Janeane naked.
"Relaxation Tape No. 2" features Relaxation King Brent Forrester (Dick),
trying to soothe away the tensions and anxieties of his listeners. Just a giant floating
head superimposed on several scenes of nature, Brent speaks in a calming voice as
New Age Music plays lightly in the background. Brent is easily distracted by a beautiful
young woman sunning herself on the beach, urging listeners to: "Let the sound
of the ocean relax every muscle...starting with your calves...and moving up to your
nice, creamy thighs...that's right...relax and rub that into your stomach...very
good with the lotion thing..." When the woman spots him, she screams and attracts
the attention of several other beach-goers. One begins to poke at the giant head
with a rake, causing Brent to temporarily loose his cool and strike him unconscious.
An episode of the talk show "Roundtable" features host Art Lewater (Stiller)
examining the controversy over a recent episode of the hit sitcom "Skank".
The sock puppet with a bad attitude, who is actually played by British actor Theodore
Hume (voiced by Dick), was featured wasting water in his season premiere. This drew
criticism from Senator Edmund Warring (Odenkirk), for trivializing "serious
issues such as water conservation". Skank's retort on the next week's episode:
"The human body is ninety percent water...how much of that is wasted every year
by murder? Senator Warring, get your priorities straight or shut yer stinkin' trap!"
Appearing opposite each other on "Roundtable", Hume tries to explain that
nobody is going to emulate Skank. He also brings evidence that Warring used to have
water balloon fights as a child, wasting an untold amount of water. The two begin
their discussion maturely, but are soon screaming at each other to "shut yer
stinkin' trap!"
Ben and Janeane are talking about the "clean, fresh air" and "natural
beauty of the water" of Southern California when they catch Andy drinking some
of the contaminated water. Andy begins gagging: "I really drank some of that
stuff...it burned going down."
"Headbanger's Ball" features MTV VJ Karen Duffy (Garofalo) interviewing
Metallica's Lars Ulrich (Odenkirk) and James Hetfield (Stiller). The pair have always
wanted to score a movie, but wanted to wait for one "as extreme and dark"
as Metallica. Luckily, the new Pauly Shore movie "The Boy Who Magically Switched
Places With His Dad" came along. Having already been rejected after writing
a song for the film "18 Again"--entitled "18 is Three Sixes"--James
decided to just revise the song for the new movie. The video for "The Father-Son
Switching Song" features Pauly Shore (Dick) switching places with his father
(Fred Willard) after discovering a book of magic spells. The son then takes his father's
place on a local t.v. talk show while the father gets in trouble at school for smoking
cigars. James explains: "This film deals with a lot of complex issues on a lot
of different levels, but the bottom line is...it's just the old switcheroo! Ha!"
Andy Dick's Political Children's Theater features Andy and two child actors (Brady
Bluhm and Narissa Nicola) performing a scene "meant to spark discussion of a
very serious topic...the homeless". In it, the young boy asks for a handout
and the girl tells him to get lost. The cast join hands and ask the audience: "where
do we draw the line?"
"Henry the Wicked", the story of King Henry (Stiller) and Sir Charles
(Odenkirk), is interrupted for a message from the KFSB Pledge-a-thon. Needing to
raise $10,000, the host of the pledge (Garofalo) extols the virtues of "free
television". When they return to the show in progress, Henry and Charles are
still arguing. Henry pulls something from his coat--but we can't tell what. The host
explains that every pledge will receive a beautiful tote bag. One of the operators
(Dick) explains that every $200 pledge receives a tape from "comedian-slash-commentator-slash
political satirist Mark Russell." As the dramatic tension in "Henry"
builds, we continue to cut back to the pledge every few seconds. Finally, the host
steps onto the "Henry the Wicked" set, announcing: "I'm not moving
'til you make the call...the gravy train is over, get off!"
Andy is performing mime as Bob shills for him, encouraging other people to give
him money. Bob and Ben get worried when Andy starts to climb the building and won't
stop.
Relaxation King Brent Forrester returns for "Relaxation Tape No. 6",
but is invaded by a turban-clad Jefferson Conn (Stiller), Master of Inner Balance.
Brent doesn't want to share the space with Jefferson, so they begin competing to
relax the audience. Jefferson intones: "You are happy, you don't look like a
pathetic Superboy with strange blond hair." Brent gets worked up by Jefferson's
taunts, and disintegrates.
Stiller's Wheel of Filler lands on "Bruce Springsteen Makes an Answering
Machine Tape". The Boss (Stiller) is shown attempting several comedic ideas,
finally deciding on: "Hello? What's that, I can't hear you, you got to speak
up...ha-ha, got you! Just playing around with you!"
Ben tries to break up a fight after Andy destroys Bob's sand castle. In response,
Bob decimates Andy's castle and the two attack each other.
As the credits role, Andy is seen disciplining the child actors from his "Political
Theater" sketch. Accusing them of stepping on his lines, the girl retorts: "stepping
on lines? You use mine as a railroad track!" He finally explodes, screaming:
"You do your part and you do it well and then get out of here!"
NOTES:
Brent Forrester, the "Relaxation King," is actually the name of one
of the show's writers.
This is a great show to observe Dick's variety and range. From Brent Forrester
to the tantrum-throwing host of "Andy Dick's Political Children's Theater"
to his excellent Pauly Shore, Dick is featured prominently in every scene. His Pauly
Shore impression is eerily accurate and somewhat ironic, considering one of Dick's
first jobs post "Stiller" was co-starring with Shore in the feature film
"In the Army Now."
MEMORABLE MOMENT:
"Pauly Shore scares the hell out of me."--James Hetfield.
FEEDBACK:
"The scary thing is, I think I saw that movie Metallica's singing about."--Kevin.
Humor..........................8
Performances................9
Overall Show Quality....8
The reason for the drop in ratings can be attributed primarily to Kevin, who dislikes
both the character of Skank and Stiller's Springsteen impersonation. However, everyone
loved the segment staged during the end credits when Andy Dick pitches a fit and
screams at the child actors. Kristy seemed to speak for everyone when she remarked:
"I would love to see outtakes of the cast filming this show. They're probably
just as funny as what goes on the air".
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