This S4 Greg taping has given us a lot of stuff so far: 4×26, the Tapioca episode, 5×05, the Food Becomes Poo episode, and 5×33, the Colin’s Older Brother episode. So…why do a fourth? What else does this taping have to prove?
Hollywood Director: From The Exorcist, Wayne is the possessed daughter, Ryan is the distraught mother trying to tie her down to the bed, and Greg is the priest
Wayne and Ryan are particularly caught off guard by their characters.
Wayne, as has become apparent on this show, is fantastic as playing this type of character. I’m glad Ryan finally has figured out that he’s the mother and the mother doesn’t get possessed in the Exorcist.
Wayne, suddenly: “YOU LOOK LIKE MICHAEL JACKSON.”
Greg: “The power of the lord compels you…the power of the NFL compels you..”
Ryan: “Please do something, she’s been peeing on my floor!”
Colin: “Guess what, you have your own website. www dot CRAP DOT COM.”
Like with Carl dot com in 6×06, somebody had that domain, so Dan decided to just mute it out, which is odd, because it’s not a real ‘censorship’ kind of moment. 12Medbe did a collection of censored moments back in the day, and that one always confused me
Ryan and Greg copying Colin’s spastic arm movements as he says “we need ACTION” felt very…African-Chant-esque to me
The forwards-backwards scene gives Ryan a chance to have the vomit repeatedly land on Ryan’s shirt, then go back
Greg coming on and off while Ryan continues this process makes for a very silly, disjointed version, which honestly works as an amusing visual
The action stops, and all three pause, with nothing left. There’s a second of actual silence.
Colin, finally: “…CUT.”
THE PAUSE KILLED ME
The West Side Story scene is also amusing, because Wayne gets the staccato down, Ryan gets the movements down, and Greg flat-out LEAPS onstage. Just all of them moving around with that choreography is really amusing
A lighter HD, but not exactly bad
Remote Control: Cows
Greg – Ricki Lake
Wayne – Spanish game show
Colin – Wrestling Smackdown
Ryan – The Crocodile Hunter
HAVEN’T SEEN THIS ONE IN A WHILE
Very funny that Greg’s doing Ricki Lake, as Ricki herself would come on WL 20 years later
Greg: “Today on the show, Bovine and the Women Who Love Them and Leave them”
Colin: “That cow gets ANYWHERE NEAR ME…IT’S GONNA BE HAMBURGER…”
Wayne: “BIENVENIDO….MOOOOOO”
It’s that simple. That gets me
Ryan, with his typically-strong Steve Irwin: “IF I GET ONE SHOT OF MILK IN MY EYES, it could be DEADLY.”
Ryan: “ISN’T SHE A BEAUTY.”
Ryan: “I’M GONNA SEND MY WIFE TO DO THE REALLY DANGEROUS WORK.”
Oh good, he watches the show!
Greg: “MOOOOO” [pulls back mask] “We’ll be back tomorrow on the show”
THIS GETS GROANS FROM THE AUDIENCE
Wayne: “PARA MAÑANA……..MAS MOOOOOOOO”
Why is Wayne’s one-note one giving me the most joy?
An alright Remote Control. Ryan and Wayne had the best ones
Song Styles: Wayne sings to Jill, a high school volley ball coach from Calabasas, as Cab Calloway
Drew seems very amused by the Calabasas element here. I recall Greg [or maybe Jeff] in Improv-a-Ganza having an extended riff on Calabasas.
This is definitely an impression in Wayne’s wheelhouse, as he has the energy, vocal range, and physicality for it.
Wayne: “She wears a thong when she’s playing volleyball”
Jill: [buckles]
Wayne: “Because she’ll take your ball, AND SHE’LL SPIKE”
Lots of good lyrics in this one
Wayne even gets the whole audience parroting-back-scat to him, which proves how dominant he is as a performer
A very strong number from Wayne, arguably better than his song to Ivy. One of his better solo ones, for sure.
Sound Effects: President Ryan and fighter pilot Colin are watching an Independence Day parade go by when an enormous alien ship appears overhead, ready to attack Earth
I love Zara’s horrified, near-embarrassed reaction when she realizes she has to do SFX.
The first couple sounds Zara and Elizabeth give are very confused, and Elizabeth just keeps laughing through
Colin finally notices something
Zara: “WOOOOOOOOOO”
Ryan: “…it’s a cow on a parachute!”
[SEE? MAS MOOOOOOOOOO!]
Ryan: “THIS IS SOME PARADE.”
Colin: “Wait, there seems to be some sort of machine coming out from underneath it”
Elisabeth: “….” [breaks]
Colin: “…very quietly…”
Colin: “It appears to be a death beam”
Elizabeth and Zara are laughing too hard
Ryan: “Apparently it’s a DEAF BEAM.”
Ryan trials dialing his phone. No sound happens.
Ryan: “…seems TO BE BROKEN.”
How are they holding on?
Ryan: “you’re not just A fighter pilot, you’re the greatest pilot…..YOU’RE GOOD.”
HA
Ryan and Colin begin to explain that they need Zara and Elizabeth to make a REALLY LOUD ENGINE NOISE. Zara adds in a ‘PBBBB’
Colin: “…wait, lemme get the birds..”
Ryan: “Get these pigeons off!”
That’s funny as hell. This isn’t a great SFX, but Ryan and Colin are trying
Ryan has to give the plane a push start, because nobody will do an engine noise. Once they actually get in the air, Zara does another ‘WOOOOOOOO’
Colin: “Watch out for the cow!”
Ryan: “That cow is EVERYWHERE.”
Not a great SFX, as the ladies weren’t very good, and Ryan and Colin couldn’t do too much.
Scenes from a Hat:
This one recycles ‘if your thoughts were amplified on loudspeakers’ in its entirety.
It does add Colin going “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL”, though
Drew: “Whose Line is it Anyway in different countries”
Ryan: [does a Hoedown in Chinese]
That always makes me laugh
Wayne does a whole line with Drew’s glasses in Swahili
Greg: “I hope you are not watching the idiotic Belgian version. This is, of course, the French version, where NOTHING matters…”
The audience responds
Greg: “don’t laugh!”
BUZZ
Greg: “STOP BUZZING. THE POINTS DON’T MATTER, THE BUZZER DOESN’T MATTER…”
BUZZ
Greg, exiting, genuinely annoyed: “I ASKED YOU TO STOP!”
And we also get the entire ‘Things You Can Say About Your Boat’ round from 5×33. In its entirety. Why?
There is SOME good new stuff here, but the fact that there’s so much overlap from 5×33 is…telling.
Hoedown: First speeding ticket
Drew’s is clever, about how he speeds all the time, breaks all kinds of laws, “cause they don’t give no ticket to a rich celebrity”
Colin talks about being stopped for speeding on a bike
“I got up to that speed by unusual means
I knew I shouldn’t have had that extra helping of beans.”
Colin shakes his head. I’m told he did a ‘poo from food’ inspired verse that didn’t make it in.
Not a great Hoedown.
Overall: So was anything of note left from this taping? uh…Song Styles? That’s it. Some games were just very okay, like Director and Remote Control, and the rest were not very good at all. Half of SFAH was copied from 5×33. Why do this one with rejects and copies when you could have cut something else from any of the S5 tapings that didn’t get much out?
Show Winner: Greg
Best Performer: Wayne had the liveliest moments.
Worst Performer: Greg had little-to-no impact on this show.
Best Game: Song Styles, as it felt really fresh and deserved to air.
Worst Game: SFAH was literally a rerun with a few extra bits.
Should It Have Aired in S4?: No. It barely should have aired at all.
COMING UP NEXT: We’re out of the 6-show S4 reprise. Now we get two offerings from a weekend in September 2001 when everything was happy in Los Angeles. For instance, here’s something from a Chip taping that’s always been a sentimental favorite of mine from this era. It also ends with a first for the Drew years.
In which Jordan writes about stuff 
Greg: “The power of the lord compels you…the power of the NFL compels you..”
Ryan: “Please do something, she’s been peeing on my floor!”
I can’t offhand remember when Wayne Brady had his own talk show…. during Season 5 maybe? Anyway, one time Greg Proops was a guest, and they played that specific scene from Hollywood Director for Greg’s intro. This puzzled the Hell out of me for the longest time because i didn’t recognize this particular playing. When this finally aired in Season 7, I remember just thinking, “Oh THAT’S what it’s from!”
So weird that they used a clip from a game that hadn’t even aired yet.
Hollywood Director: Besides all of what you mentioned, I love when Wayne says “Hey! You are really mean!” Colin for once is stumped on a good comeback so he merely says, “…Yeah.”
The pigeons gaffe in Sound Effects is absolutely hysterical, partly because of the timing of how it interrupts Ryan.
In SFAH, keeping the French version of Whose Line going even with repeated buzzing from Drew is classic Greg. Though I too wonder why they recycled the “sailboat” jokes.
“Greg: “MOOOOO” [pulls back mask] “We’ll be back tomorrow on the show”
THIS GETS GROANS FROM THE AUDIENCE”
I don’t get this one. Is it a reference to something in particular?
I think he was calling Ricki Lake a cow.
so thank god he wasn’t the fourth seater when Ricki came on 18 years later.
Hollywood Director: So, the web domain isn’t muted on the Max/CW print. I guess http://www.crap.com was such a generic address and enough time had passed since the original airing that they just said “screw it”. As you mentioned, I love the abrupt ending to the backwards style- “Eggghhhh…” [beat] “…CUT!”
Remote Control: Something I noticed on re-watch is that Colin is barely featured. He’s in exactly two brief scenes, while Wayne and Ryan got significantly more time.
Song Styles: No unique observations, just a fun number.
Sound Effects: There are two types of playings: The ones where the audience members are so bad that the fun is watching Ryan and Colin struggle with what they’re given (Jurassic Park; oooooo), and the ones where the audience members are actually pretty good at the game and the fun is the synergy between them and Ryan/Colin (Tarzan, Noah, etc.) This one’s the former, but I laughed plenty so I can’t complain I guess. In particular I still find the pigeon gag hilarious.
SFAH: You’re right, didn’t need to air at all. At least not in its current form, which blatantly recycling footage. At least we got Greg’s hilarious French Whose Line bit out of it. It had a very Clive/Greg energy.
Hoedown: I have a soft spot for Wayne’s, since he talk-sings it instead of straight singing like he usually does, and his verse “I was streakin’ buck naked” was pretty funny. Also enjoyed Colin shaking his head after his “can of beans” punchline. Not the best Hoedown overall though.
Credits reading: This should’ve been the credits reading from 5.33, it made more sense there. Much as I love Wayne’s George W. mask in that one.