Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S16E17, or Send in Mr. Binks

Seasonal Code: S16E17
Production Number: 357
CW Seasonal Code: S16E07

25 years ago, Star Wars: Episode 1 released in theatres. Star Wars fans had waited 16 years for a new chapter, they were hyped by promotional material and the scope of the world George Lucas was hinting at, and they lined up thunderously to see it. Ultimately, while initial response was kind, the fans eventually soured on the film, and on the prequels. It was for several reasons, mainly Lucas’s matter-of-fact dialogue, some restrained performances from Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, the overuse of CGI and over-expansive worldbuilding.

But chiefmost- fans did not like Jar-Jar Binks, the comic relief gungan character played by Ahmed Best, who was the lead characters’ guide to the central plot involving the gungan world. Jar-Jar was a new kind of Star Wars character, in that he was obnoxious, annoying and never shut up. Involving him in multiple action sequences and pivotal moments in the film seemed a mistake, as it felt like tonal whiplash seeing actually-well-orchestrated action cut with either Jake Lloyd as Anakin getting a read wrong or Jar-Jar doing something unfunny. The character was phased out in Episodes II and III, and the fanbase has since embraced the very talented Ahmed Best, and in some cases Jar-Jar himself.

The bottom line is that fans felt betrayed by Lucas, and were angered by the presence of a character like Jar-Jar in their otherwise mature space-opera starring space bears and a lizard voiced by Fozzie Bear. To this day, many Star Wars fans despise Jar-Jar, as he represents everything wrong with the prequels, or even the Disnification of the franchise.

Whose Line did manage to head off the Jar-Jar argument at the pass back in 1999, with Wayne spending a Denny taping throwing shade at him, but it was mostly that. Then, 20 years later, this episode was released.

For the last S16 show to not be taken from a S15 taping, we go back to the S11 Jeff taping that gave us the Karla Souza and Gina Rodriguez shows. This one I remember thinking very fondly of.

World’s Worst: sci-fi movie clips

Ryan, as only Ryan can: [chestburster, then:]

Colin: “live long and prosper-CRAMP!”

In between the silly, Jeff and Wayne throw in a silly one
Jeff: “we’ve got aliens in the wire.”
Wayne: “…pardon me, señor..”
Jeff: [TURNS GUN ON WAYNE]

And then:
Jeff: “MEESA JAR-JAR BINKS!”
Wayne: [enters and slits his throat]
IT IS THAT SIMPLE

Ryan and Colin do a very silly scene off vampire Ryan biting a drunk Colin….a pause…and then Ryan drunkenly joining in with Colin’s singing.

Wayne, with serious Mock the Week energy: “in space, no one can hear you scream…unless you sign up for AT&T’s new cross-country plan.. ‘AIIIIIIIGH’. [chuckles] She heard me!”
He makes it so natural

Ryan does another fun one with a guy shaving, turning into a werewolf…and then rolling his eyes and shaving again. Some Mad Magazine energy there.

Jeff jumps off that with another werewolf setup, only to turn into: “HI, MEESA JAR-JAR BINKS”
And then Wayne enters with the knife and has to sort of dance around Jeff, as Jeff knows that’s where Wayne’s going. So Wayne just kinds stands there angrily with the knife, and puts it away. The hook has already been established- if Jar Jar is going to show up, he’s marked for death immediately.

Ryan ends with a really silly one, with a Day the Earth Stood Still-style alien getting back in his ship…and struggling to start the gas. Wayne just pulls up as a cop as Ryan just struggles. Very silly, and without much dialogue.

The Jar-Jar stuff is the big takeaway as far as the show is concerned, but there was some really good extended scene energy, especially coming from Ryan. I liked this a lot as a show-starter.

Aisha points out that Dracula isn’t a sci-fi movie
Colin: “it was Dracula 3000”

Doo-Wop: Wayne, Jeff and Colin sing about Maria, who died in a freak plumbing accident

Wayne: “Oh Maria, she can no longer walk
Because I spackled it from the back and she loves my caulk”
OKAY, THAT’S THE FIRST VERSE? You audibly hear an audience member react to that. Jeff begins to lose it, but thanks to a quick edit [as this seems to be the result of two different playings], he’s fine by the time we cut back.

Jeff has an easy bush joke.

Colin, winning me over immediately: “oh Maria….what the hell?
You died three weeks ago…..what’s that smell?”
PFFFFFF. I laughed so hard.
And then Colin chooses violence
“We only went out for two weeks in December
Boy I was surprised when I found out you had a MEMBER”
….NOT THAT THERE’S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT, says trans rights activist Colin Mochrie..
Also, the second that happens:

Wayne, with his arm around Colin: “Maria, I loved you, don’t you feel me”
Colin: [TURNS CONFUSEDLY TOWARDS WAYNE]

Wayne also sneaks in the line “you love plumbers, you banged Mario AND Luigi”
Now, granted, that does keep them to doing a clumsier ending verse, and you can tell they’re not sure how they’re gonna end the song. Jeff, however, directs the three to a rhyme and they go for it.

The ending note…is one of the most bizarrely-out-of-sync musical notes I’ve heard from this team in a while. Jeff is the only one to start on time. Then Wayne goes for a low, then high note. Colin, then, decides to do falsetto gibberish to set him off, almost as a parody of what Wayne was doing.
Wayne:

Jeff, the only one still holding the note, breaks. The song ends, they all break down and hug, and the madness has ended.

Oh man. Aside from being wonderfully off the rails, that’s a great Doo Wop playing, with a lot of great lines and moves by all 3 throughout. What makes it a classic is the ultimate showdown between Wayne and Colin, as Colin KNOWS he can crack Wayne up very simply, and Wayne knows he has to carry the song. That final moment is unbelievable, as it misses musically only for it to hit comedically. A favorite for a reason.

Aisha gives all the points to Colin for that.
Colin: “never had a lesson..”
Wayne: “well now you know what to do with all those points..”

Newsflash: Ryan and Jeff in the studio, Colin in the field in front of butts

Great moments in Newsflash timing:
Colin: “it started out slowly a few moments ago, and then it just started to BUILD! BUILD! BUILD!”

And then:

“This area does worry me a little..”

The package: [features clips of a female backside]
Ryan: “well that doesn’t look so bad-”
The package: [features two guys twerking from behind]
Ryan: “AHH, nevermind..”

Ryan’s clue about a ‘dairy air’ definitely ensures that Colin has it, and so he knows that motioning in the vicinity does lead to good comedy payoffs
Colin: “I’m so close, I just wanna run in there and be right in the middle and see what happens.”

And then, as Jeff suggests Colin “go in deep”,

Jeff: “I TAKE IT BACK! I TAKE IT BACK!”

…I don’t even know what to say.
Ryan, who has to watch this: ‘OH!”

This is an entirely different kind of torture Newsflash. The image of Colin turned over towards him with his ass out is…too much

Colin, who definitely knows it: “I tell ya, this is like CRACK.”

It started off pretty good but it built into a really funny, and complex Newsflash. Butts alone had good material, but once the WL guys were brought in, it went up another level. Lots of funny moments here.

Scenes from a Hat:

When this went out, people were confused as to why World’s Worst and SFAH went in the same episode. They wouldn’t be for long.

“Lines you wouldn’t hear in a tourism commercial”
Wayne, being himself: “Idaho: come on, black folks!”
then Wayne, craning himself to smile: “WELCOME TO HOLLYWOOD, LAND OF NATURAL BEAUTY!”

God I haven’t seen that since 5×20’s Weird Newscasters

Jeff is about to start his, does a false start, then begins his ‘COME TO GERMANY’ spiel. Before he can get to the punchline, Wayne enters and slits his throat, BRINGING IT ALL THE WAY BACK TO WW
And then, as Jeff’s still on the ground:
Wayne: “…oh I’m sorry, I thought it was Jamaica..”
PFFFFF
I love how Wayne leaves Jeff out there, and Jeff just decides to walk back, as the joke wouldn’t be as funny as the laugh Wayne just got with that
Aisha: “he thought you were a Jamaican Jar-Jar Binks?”
Wayne: “I DID, I THOUGHT YOU WERE JAMAICAN JAR-JAR BINKS..”
Dear god…

Jeff cannot believe this. The thought of a Jamaican Jar-Jar is just too much for him.

Wayne initiates a fun ‘come to Jersey’ one where Ryan, Jeff and Wayne all get in an Italian-accented screaming match, and while I’d like to deny that that isn’t the entirely of my state’s culture, it certainly is quite a bit of it.

“Annoying people to share an office with”
[…]
Ryan, completed by Colin: “none of us have ever been in an office…”
Lots of theatre jobs, amusement park jobs

Ryan, to Jeff: “check out my new screensaver. It’s me and the wife.”
Jeff: “yeeeah…”
Ryan: “…you like that?”
Jeff: “NOO…”
It’s that simple sometimes. Jeff’s very good at stealing a scene just with a character choice
Also a silly move of, after Jeff closes the laptop, Ryan opens it back up again to marvel at it

And then the rebuttal:
Jeff: “Check out my new screensaver…it’s me and your wife!”
Ryan: “SHIT!”
And a great move in Ryan’s character being into that

Ryan, paging: “Sylvia, can you send in Mr. Binks, please?”
PFFF. THAT ALONE.
Wayne: [enters]
Ryan: “…Jar-Jar, I’m gonna have to let you go.”
Just the contrast. This goofy cartoon character from Star Wars in a serious rejection scene
Jeff: [enters and slits Wayne’s throat]
OF COURSE
I love Wayne giggling back at the step. “Mr. Binks…”
It even throws Aisha off before the next scene

“Bad things to read on a prescription bottle”
Wayne, very simply: “…this shit will kill you.”
Jeff: “if erection lasts longer than 6 hours, call ME…AT..”
PFFF

Colin: “…may cause lousiness?”
It’s not a big joke, but it’s a sneaker-upper that gets Wayne and Aisha.
Wayne, entering: “hey, how ya feeling, Jim?”
Colin: “…lousy!”

Jeff: “take twice daily. Warning, may cause Jar-Jar Binks syndrome…..MEESA LIKE!”
Wayne, entering: “Mr. Richards, are you enjoying your prescription?”
Jeff: “yes, I-”
Wayne: [slits Jeff’s throat]
Jeff, who was somehow not expecting that:

You can get the ‘OH COME ON’ just from how he falls
Wayne, to camera, from the steps: “I will NEVER LET JAR-JAR LIVE ON THIS STAGE! I VOW TO YOU- JAR-JAR SHALL NOT PASS!’
Jeff: [waves flag behind him like Les Mis].
Ah god this is so goofy

Postgame
Ryan, to Jeff: “were you talking about your penis?”
Jeff: “I don’t know.”
…I bet that has to do with another scene that got cut

Yeah, very strong SFAH, actually making the most of its runtime rather than being a show-filler. The Jar-Jar stuff made it iconic, but there’s a lot of small scene moves that Jeff and Ryan made that really impressed me.

Greatest Hits: Songs of the Zookeeper

I like the bit as Aisha’s trying to field the suggestion where Ryan and Colin are throwing in gibberish to confuse her. She even looks over at them, confused.
Ryan: “oh, we’re makin’ up our own.”

Colin: ‘Hi, we’ll be back to our documentary on the giant alligator of Australia, the lizard of Oz, in just a second”
That one got me. I didn’t expect it to.

I love Ryan doing an elephant impression and explaining, coolly, “that was a PACHYDERM, my friend..”

Ryan, at the mention of Gangsta Rap, does a James Cagney impression with a rap stance.
Colin: “obviously you’ve heard this song, because it’s gangsta rap WITH GANGSTERS.”
PFFF
I love the cut over to Wayne and Jeff. Not expecting that challenge at all.

Colin, going back to one of his standbys, titles the song “The Snakes don’t have a pit to hiss in”

Wayne…does record-scratching as James Cagney. And it’s absolutely perfect. So even THIS is a challenge they can meet.

Wayne does a really good DMX impression in this one, the lines just roll right off. And then disaster strikes. Wayne forgets the title mid-verse. So he tries: “snakes ain’t got…no pot to hiss in..”

Jeff is also fantastic at doing a rap song as a 1940s gangster. He gets the crowd going, and he and Wayne are waving in unison. It’s honestly incredible.

Jeff runs off during one of Wayne’s verses, which initially confuses Wayne, but it turns out Jeff has a different strategy:

They even nail the ending, with Jeff stepping away from the DJ table going “TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!” It would have been completely understandable if the song didn’t work, but they still really sold it.

Ryan: “I love that song, and if you don’t, I’ll beat ya into a meat pie and cover ya in yer own crust..”
Colin’s silent, disgusted head shake sells this.

Ryan and Colin do some Scottish babbling before the Scottish rock style. Ryan’s verges on yiddish, but Colin throws in an ‘OCH AYE’ for good measure.

This is a relative both of the Irish rock numbers this duo have done as well as the international metal ones, like Kelp and the Japanese metal one. Wayne does a pretty impressive verse, then Jeff rolls in with completely indecipherable angry Scottish singing. That’s all it takes.

Jeff, eventually audible: “a tranquilizer dart, it is a work of art
You shoot it in the air, it kills the little fart”
He can do THAT as well!

Even better, the two start singing and dancing in harmony to round out the song, and it’s pretty damned awesome, with the same intensity as before.

A pretty good Greatest Hits. We’ve clearly seen better ones this season, but I like this one, and it has a lot of really impressive work from Jeff and Wayne.

Overall: The CW shows that are gonna have the longest shelf life with Whose Line fans are gonna be the ones that recapture the spirit of the original without trying as hard. And this show, which just had some fun games, some classic ring work between Ryan and Jeff, Colin and Wayne, and Wayne and Jeff, and a really silly running gag that just kept delivering, would definitely fit in with the ABC run. It’s not trying to be big, there’s no tentpoles [other than GH, and even then these feel like the less showy GH songs], it’s just a funny show. Doo-Wop is the classic takeaway, but World’s Worst, Newsflash and SFAH all had classic moments, and GH was an excellent showcase for the Wayne-Jeff duo. Not many weak points in this show, and a lot of really funny moments. Undoubtedly one of my favorites of the run, and I’m glad the CW finally put it out.

I’ll mention this: looking at this season again after 4 years, the stretch from 16×11 to 16×16 is…kinda rough. A lot of very okay shows that either come and go without making much of an impact, do SOME things well but aren’t a season standout, or do a lot of things sloppily and only impress me for one game. And considering how strong S16 started, it kills me that it loses momentum like that in that range. It took forever for me to get back to this season because of how ‘nothing’ a lot of those shows were. But starting with 16×17, this season finishes as strong as a season of this show CAN finish, and you’re gonna see what I mean with these next 3 shows.

Show Winners: Colin and Jeff
Best Performer: After 3 shows of being in the worst category, Wayne Brady leads this show just for dominating the night’s best games, and having very few moments of really feeling thrown.
Worst Performer: I’m putting Ryan here because his standout moment was pretty much World’s Worst. He had some solid stuff all night, and me putting him here is kind of unfair considering that all four were excellent this show, but I couldn’t put Colin here considering the middle of the show, and I couldn’t put Jeff here considering how strong of a presence he had all night.
Best Game: Doo-Wop. It may not seem like much initially, but so many little moves keep it building til that final breakdown.
Worst Game: World’s Worst had the most ‘misses’, in a sense, but even then it still has the Jar-Jar runner.
Should this have aired in S11?: Absolutely. It would have fit right in with some of the other guestless shows of that season, a nice, breezy, running-gag-led show that everyone can enjoy.

COMING UP NEXT: If you thought THIS episode’s Doo-Wop ended in an absolute trainwreck, wait til ya get a load of this one…