Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S02E24, or Have I Told You How Much I Love Working With You?

After a week of work-related shenanigans, I’m back with another WL. This is a personal favorite. Somehow it comes from the same taping as the Melissa show, and it’s still as good. That’s why I love S2, especially the Chip tapings.

Drew: “Welcome to Whose Line is it anyway, the show where-”
Ryan: [is still clapping]
Drew: “…thank you, Ryan.”

Superheroes: Out of Spam
Colin: Cheese Man
Ryan: Random Acts of Violence Boy
Chip: Captain Limbo
Wayne: Captain Hugs-a-lot

This has to be the fastest suggestion-to-written-on-card turnaround I have ever seen. Drew asks for suggestions, the guy yells ‘CHEESE MAN’, and before anyone else can yell anything out, Drew repeats it and writes it down. DAMN, that’s fast.

Again, it’s hard to hear things when audio tracks are layered, but I am 90% sure that after Chip and Ryan repeat the ‘out of spam’ suggestion, you can hear Chip say, audibly, ‘what is spam??”. Did Spam not hit the south?

Drew has so much delight in saying this: “Cheese Man…we’re out of Spam! What are we gonna do??”
Colin:

I love the opening detail that Colin is drinking wine, and eating a bit of himself, because it’s always nice to pair a wine with cheese. THAT’s a funny, subtle bit, even before he goes “mm, that’s gouda!”

Colin: “I’ll need my super-friends quickly.”
[…]
Colin: “OR SLOWLY.”

Ryan eventually does enter, and starts poking holes in Colin.

Ryan: [punches Colin in the face repeatedly, then goes for the groin]
Ryan: “…sorry, that was rather random”

In a change of pace, Chip leaps in, takes a beat, and goes “…I’M HERE.”

Ryan’s adorning of Chip’s Captain Limbo is perfect, because Ryan can keep punching at Chip and Chip can limbo out of the way, going “MISSED ME!”

This is such a wholesome Superheroes, even with Ryan punching everything, and himself. Wayne comes in, hugs Chip, then adorably hugs Colin.

Then, in order to get out of being punched by Ryan, Wayne goes an alternate route:



[Is it me, or is Wayne tackling a lot of people this taping?]

Then, as Wayne leaves, he reaches over Drew’s desk and tries to hug him. I love the detail of the desk lifting slightly off the ground at this point.

Ryan, leaving, apologizes to Colin, then headbutts him. Classic.

Colin: “I’ll go down to the schoolyard and give the children all the cheese I have, but…oh, no, I don’t give edam.”
He’s even shaking his head, knowing how awful that pun is. Ryan’s repeating it to him as he comes back to the seats with him.

A really fun playing of this. Everyone was on their game, and doing a lot of silly stuff to each other.

Title Sequence: Chip & Wayne sing ‘Satan and the Schoolgirl’, acted out by Colin & Ryan

This game finally premieres. It’s…an interesting one.

I love Ryan’s immediate reaction to this game: he shakes his head, and looks behind him, not believing this setup.

Drew announces the winning combo, ‘schoolgirl and satan’, and Ryan confusedly looks toward another part of the audience, who clearly had a satan one, and goes “…well then what was the OTHER Satan one???”
Drew, to the audience member: “…can I have your phone number for when the show’s over? ‘Satan and the Schoolgirl’…yeah, honey, I’d LOVE to play that with ya…”

A great detail: Ryan starts out the scene brushing ‘her’ hair, and by the time he starts applying lipstick, Chip sings about her character “brushing her hair”, so Ryan smirks and pivots back to brushing his hair.

[I’m gone!]
And the casualness of Chip saying “who should walk in her front door but Mephistopheles?”

I love the visual of Ryan gradually becoming more possessed, and Colin just smiling alongside.

I also love the end of this, when they do the ‘head against each other’ ending…and then Colin can’t get his horns unhooked.

A very cute, very fun number all-around. I feel like after a bit Colin and Ryan didn’t know what else to do (one point, Ryan looked over to Laura and Linda to see if they were doing another stanza), but they made it work, as did Chip and Wayne.

Drew, smirking: “…I smell a spinoff.”

Scenes from a Hat:

Drew: “Unlikely definitions found in Webster’s Dictionary”
Colin: “…’practical joke’, see ‘fooling someone…’fooling someone’, see ‘practical joke’.”
HA

Drew: “Inappropriate things to do with a loved one’s ashes”
Colin: [vaccums]
Drew, to the audience: “…it was inappropriate, what d’you want?”

I also love him going, immediately after “…in the same vein, “Bad things to say to someone on their deathbed”

Wayne: “…IT’S ME, DEATH-just kiddin!”

Drew, shaking his head: “Things you don’t want to see on your TV screen.”
Wayne: “…..DREW CAREY NAKED WRESTLING CHIMPANZEES!”

Chip: “….it’s Saaatan, and the schoolgi-”

HA

Drew: “Bad songs to serenade her with.”
Ryan: “…who?”
Drew: “her.”
Ryan: “…oh.”

Ryan, eventually: “…you’re…the…best I can get…”

Drew: “Lines you should not open a sermon with.”
Ryan: “ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL???”
Colin: “…how’s it hangin?”
[I laughed WAY HARDER than I anticipated at this]
Chip: “LLLLLLET’S GET READY TO GOSPEEELLLLLLL!”
YES

A really fun round of this, with a lot of great scenes. So far, every game has been really solid

Narrate: Colin & Ryan are at a gas station

Colin, with an immortal opening line: “…he had a face that only a mother could love…if that mother was blind in one eye and had that sort of milky film over the other one…you know what I mean?…but still, he was my identical twin.”
Halfway through the line, Chip loses it in the back. Ryan, however, has absolutely no reaction while down on the floor.

Ryan, still on the floor, to camera: “…as I was looking up his dress I knew who it was…”
Colin: [bends and tucks]

Colin: “Last time I saw him he tried to murder me. But when you kill someone by…chopping off their head, rolling him up in a carpet and burning it…ya better make sure they’re dead!”
Drew loves this line, as do I.

Ryan: “Apparently he’d forgotten why he was kicked out of time. The sheriff caught him giving his wife a lube job in late November.”
Colin: [bites lip]
Ryan: “I wasn’t gonna bring it up again, I knew it was a touchy subject with him”
Colin: [knows exactly what he’s about to do]
Ryan, returning: “…haven’t seen ya since the lube job-”
Colin, with PERFECT TIMING: “HEY. COME ON, WHAT THE HELL? NEVER MENTION THAT AGAIN”
Ryan, as Colin goes upstage: “…sorry, it slipped”
Absolutely perfect. That timing is why ABC banked on the Colin-Ryan duo

Colin: “…I overreacted.”

Another great Ryan moment, after Colin smacks Ryan’s nose, and Ryan says he’s not gonna let the pain show…then coming back downstage and crying.
[There’s an obvious cut between Ryan crying and Colin pulling out a gun]

Also, Colin pulls out a gun
Ryan: “…take it easy with the rivet gun.”
[I love this game]

Ryan, coming upstage: “What he didn’t was-know was, OR WAS KNOW…[weakly]…was that I was dyslexic!”
BUZZ

Drew: “Each a thousand you points for!”
Ryan: “…that made sense to me!”

SUCH a great scene. So many great lines, twists-and-turns, and that amazingly timed moment from Colin. This show’s on a roll.

Greatest Hits: Songs of the Pizza Place

Fun fact: a lot of early whosers used to just call this ‘Songs of Pizza’, which I always found amusing. Drew always asks for a location, so now he just asks for a food?

Ryan, for the second time this show, tries to skew the suggestions, even saying “Oh, I heard pizza!”
Drew, sighing: “…alright, fine, we’ll do pizza…”

Ryan: “You know, an interesting fact is that pizza was discovered, OR MADE FIRST, cause if it was discovered than it would be under a rock or something…”

Also, second game tonight having to do with cheese.

Wayne and Chip’s yodeling is, as predicted, pretty fun

Colin: “Oh, that brings back memories of…people being trapped in the snow and having to each each other…”

Colin, still on his college days: “Oh, I studied too, I studied very hard…I didn’t get very far, LOOK!”

Note that Colin has gotten both song titles so far, and he’s done them effortlessly. Remember this in a moment.

The college fight song cracked me up, just the seriousness of Chip’s expression as he’s doing these goofy lyrics and marching around.

I love watching the last segment as sort of an analysis, because I often try and locate the exact moment Colin realizes that Ryan has nothing, and I think it’s this:
Ryan: “…growing up in the…40s, as I did”
Colin:



[IT’S THERE. IT IS RIGHT THERE. LOOK AT THAT FACE. HE KNOWS! OHHH…HE *KNOWS*]

Ryan: “It’s a doo-wop hit”
Colin:

[I’m gone. He’s completely figured Ryan out. And right around here, Ryan realizes this:
Ryan: “I don’t know if YOU remember it…”

Colin, visibly shaking his head: “No, I don’t.”
Ryan: “I don’t either.”

Ryan: “It’s a Doo-Wop hit…and its title is-”
And now Colin realizes that he needs to give Ryan more time…but he needs to do so in a way that makes it GLARINGLY OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ROOM THAT RYAN HAS NOTHING:
Colin: “OH, THE ANTICIPATION IS INCREDIBLE. I BET IT’S GONNA BE SO HILARIOUS.”
Ryan: “Ohh…”

Ryan has to stifle his frustration. He asked Colin for help, and Colin couldn’t help him. Remember, he made a similar request back in UK S9, with ‘Lube Up’, but…it couldn’t happen here. He just turns to Colin and goes “…have I told you how much I love working with you?”

THEN, OUT OF NOWHERE, INSPIRATION STRIKES:
Ryan: “It’s that Doo-Wop hit: Keep the Buck!”
Ryan sighs…and then retaliates against Colin

Chip and Wayne’s doo-wop number might actually be my favorite song here. I love the energy, the musicality, the backup Chip does, and the final note. Cherry on top of a great GH.

Obviously wonderful. I do think it’s a tiny bit bottom-heavy with the banter, but the banter’s kinda good throughout, even if it does really lead to that ending.

90-Second Alphabet: At a zoo, tourist couple Colin and Drew rush up to zoo keeper Ryan to report that the animals are escaping, starting with Q

Drew: “QUICK! ANIMALS ARE ESCAPING!”
Ryan: “…really?”

Drew just…skips over the letter S. Which is a pretty important letter

Colin, finding an easy out: “…vipers.”

This is a silly scene, with some good bits like the name of it being ‘Just Very Strange Zoo’, but…overall, like usual, this game is kind of a momentum-killer.

Yeah, not a great ender, but there was definitely some charm. Least that made the ‘worst’ category easier to write.

Overall: One of my personal favorites, as I said, but…seeing this again, I’m reminded how wholesome and fun this one was, even in games like Narrate, where it just ends in a dyslexia joke, or Superheroes, where violence-man gets carried away by Captain Hugs-a-Lot. This proves how on everyone was during this taping, as these games are just as strong as the ones in Melissa’s episode. Lots of games here were classics, like SFAH, Title Sequence and Narrate, but I also love Superheroes for its cohesiveness and Greatest Hits for that epic Ryan/Colin moment. And…90-second-Alphabet was also in this episode.

Show Winners: Ryan & Colin
Best Performer: Colin swept the floor with everybody tonight
Worst Performer: Wayne was kinda quiet tonight
Best Game: This is too damned hard. As of right now, I’m saying Narrate, but…at any point in the future, I could change this to Superheroes, Scenes from a Hat or Greatest Hits,
Worst Game: 90-second alphabet. Even the best of shows have duds.

COMING UP NEXT: Two shows after the Africa show, we get another one from that taping.