Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E10, or Respect for Surfboards Everywhere

Seasonal Code: S15E10
Production Number: 714
CW Seasonal Code: S15E09

For the last S15 show of S15…yeah, I know, we go back to the Greg taping that gave us E1, and feature another former kids show actress, Adrienne Houghton [or Bailon], Disney channel stalwart and star of the Cheetah Girls movies. She’s also competed on Masked Singer and was a co-host of The Real on FOX, which is like the View, but replace Alyssa Farah Griffin and Joy Behar with people who actually give a shit about social issues.

Ryan has some maracas by the time the shot gets to him.

Weird Newscasters: Greg anchors, Colin, evil head growing out of Greg, co-anchors, Ryan, great moments from history, does sports while Wayne, Manic athletics coach putting his team through a brutal training session

Greg: “A Kremlin-controlled carrot has been spotted playing golf at the White House.”
Like a lot of Greg’s Trump material, there’s no satire. Also, this makes 30 references to that election. Hadn’t been one in a while.
Yeah, this is all just clapter and non-satirical stuff, and it sucks because Greg used to be really subversive.

Eventually:

This is already perfect.
Colin: “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL. Oh, maybe I’m getting a HEAD of myself.”
…god bless. Even Greg loves this

Ryan: “let’s go over to the weather, IS IT THE WEATHER. NO, IT’S THE SPORTS. I got a little mixed up there…”
He’s been doing weather for 20 years, who can blame him

Ryan hits some highlights, like the invention of the wheel and flight, and then just goes into “impeachment proceedings began today against Donald Trump, BUT WE KNOW THEY’RE NOT GONNA GO FAR.” Like Greg’s, not doing too much with that. Also, now we’re at 31.

Ryan keeps riffing about his weather days. “No longer there because I lied about the weather one week…I SAID ‘FUCK YOU, I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE WEATHER…”
I love that he kept going, because the actual quirk wasn’t much. Him playing off of himself was the best of this

Then, we cut to Greg, and then Ryan, without cutting back immediately, goes “I’M NOT BITTER ABOUT IT. I didn’t like doing the weather in the first place! Sports is much more interesting…”
I love that he’s harping on this.
Greg, finally: “thank you, Ryan, I’m glad to see the medication’s working out.”

Wayne: “It’s raining outside. It’s gonna rain all week long. I suppose you think that’s a good reason to keep training. WELL, I’LL TELL YOU WHAT, YOU LITTLE BITCH.”
The score so far. Greg’s doing easy stuff, Colin’s in support, Ryan’s doing easy stuff and stumbling. Wayne just had to do the littlest amount to take the league, and he jumped out in front with that intro.

And then Wayne takes the entire studio entrance row and puts them through warmups, and it’s great.

Wayne, to a female audience member: “WHERE’D YOU LEARN TO HIT A TETHERBALL LIKE THAT? WHAT ARE YOU A GIRL? oh, you’re a beautiful woman.”
PFFF

Then, as Wayne gets back, Ryan snaps his neck. “AND THAT’S THE WEATHER.”
PFFFF. So instead of doing his actual quirk, which he did alright with, Ryan basically invented a new quirk of ‘used to do the weather and is bitter’, and that was way funnier and had a full scene arc. It’s almost anti-game, and means more than the makeup of the scene itself, but it’s an amazing move.

Greg: “stay tuned for anti-vaxxers vs. climate change deniers on a new episode of Too Stupid to Die”
…this one’s aged well actually.

An interesting WN, because Wayne had the only good quirk, but the meta-game stuff made this even stronger with Ryan’s. It doesn’t completely work as a Weird Newscasters playing, because neoliberalism has ruined Greg’s ability to be the straight man in this game, but Ryan playing with his weather mishap made for the best laughs, even off of Greg and Wayne.

Song Styles: Wayne and Adrienne sing a pop anthem about “men should smile more”

Wayne gets the suggestion by asking a woman what men should do more, and it’s a very fun antithesis of the closet sexism a lot of men have. Case in point, Aisha mutters “you’d be so pretty if you smiled more, Wayne”
Wayne:

There’s not a ton of lyrical laughs in the first part of this, but I like Wayne using a sarcastic, tired voice in approaching the men who this song is for, even throwing in a sarcastic smile of his own.

Then, Wayne hands it to Adrienne. And Adrienne has no idea what to do with this. She can keep backing him up, but she can’t really take the lead herself. And so it’s awkward for a few beats. Wayne has the bright idea to have her sing to an audience member, but that also gets in the way of the melody of the song. So it’s just clumsy so far.

I like that Wayne turns this Matt bit into more of the double-standard, making him turn around, bypassing the resume, and adding the line “don’t break your head on the glass ceiling, heading for the stars.” It’s a really fun edge that would probably be better off if Adrienne was in any way comfortable doing musical improv.

This ends clumsily, and without a ton from Adrienne. I mean, she did try, and she did what she could to keep the song going, but Wayne gave her the floor so many times and she couldn’t do anything outside her comfort zone. So he kinda had to carry the whole number. Which is fine, but I get the feeling he didn’t know that going in. So yeah, not a great Song Styles.

Living Scenery: Ryan and Colin are a couple enjoying themselves at the beach when they spot some swimmers in trouble out at sea; Wayne and Adrienne are props

The beginning of this game is Colin shaking Adrienne around as a bottle of suntan lotion. Again, another moment where I don’t think she knew what she was getting into.

It is funnier seeing Colin use Wayne as a towel for Ryan, even getting the crotch area. Ryan does not hide his dissatisfaction at this, loudly going ‘OHHHKAY’ when it happens.

Ryan: “Oh, honey, look, a CONCH!”

This is great. You’ll notice though, that Adrienne is still fucking standing there, horrified.

Ryan: “oh, honey, blow the conch for me!”
WAYNE:

I absolutely love this. But again…Adrienne is adding nothing.

Ryan has another really funny move, remembering what the scene is SUPPOSED to be, and going ‘HELP! HELP!’, bringing in the plotline of the drowning people. Just…not giving Wayne OR Colin the satisfaction.

Unexpected laugh at, after Wayne goes ‘help, I’m drowning!’, Colin just stopping and yelling “WE’RE DOING OUR *BEST*” in the most Colin way he can.

So Wayne’s just sitting near the audience with Adrienne as a surfboard to save him.
Wayne: “I’ll just rest…this is not my surfboard to ride.”
Ryan: “NO, LAY DOWN ON IT!”
pfff
Ryan: “What’s more important? You drowning or you using someone else’s surfboard?”
[man, it’d be a lot better if the action was centralized and people weren’t shouting at each other across the studio]
Wayne: “…I don’t want…who owns this surfboard to beat my ass!”
This entire show is just people having awkward reasons not to do anything and it’s beginning to piss me off.

Ryan: “DO YOU WANNA DIE?”
Wayne, barely even in character: “…I don’t wanna get SUED…”
And with that, as Adrienne has done like ONE THING THIS WHOLE GAME, that being LAYING ON HER STOMACH AND OCCASIONALLY THROWING HER ARMS UPWARDS, Aisha ends the game.

So…what the hell was that? What HAPPENED? People kept inventing reasons for things not to happen. Adrienne wouldn’t do props because she was too inexperienced and overwhelmed. Ryan wouldn’t let Wayne do the funny thing with Colin because the scene had to progress. Then, once the scene needed to progress, Adrienne refused to do Props again except for one meaningless one, and Wayne kept coming up with meta-scene reasons NOT TO DO THE THING THE ENTIRE SCENE PLOT HINGED ON. Absolutely nothing happened in this game, and a lot of the game was people screaming at each other from opposite points of the stage.

What’s even more infuriating is that a lot of this improv hinged on people saying yes, and they didn’t. Wayne’s refusal to use Adrienne as a surfboard is funny because he knows Adrienne is married and doesn’t want the husband to kick his ass. I was thinking it was an NBA player. Adrienne’s married to a christian rock singer. So like…calm down Wayne. But back to my point. Wayne realizes it’s funnier to say no than to do the thing, but Living Scenery is a game that hinges on both the performers and the prop actors doing the things they may not want to do, and look ridiculous. So Wayne just decided he wasn’t gonna play Living Scenery. This was the last straw. Not having to hold Richard Simmons. Not having Ryan’s foot up his ass. No, having a woman married to a guy who sings about how great Christ is agree to be his surfboard, that did it. Boo, Wayne. BOOOO.

BTW, I’m not saying christian rock singers are all soft, but like…look, unless Wayne knows the guy and has had a run-in with him in the minimal ‘famous black Christians who sing’ circle, I dunno why he was so adamant. Ride the guest, Wayne. Yes and!!

AND YET as Wayne wraps up the scene, what does Wayne say? ‘You are so game’. The same thing he’s said to a lot of S15 guests. Adrienne was…I suppose game, but she didn’t fucking do anything, didn’t go out of her comfort zone and wouldn’t even do the funny thing in just getting under Wayne so he could shut up about not wanting to ride her. She’s not game, you’re saying that because you can’t quite to ‘way to hang me out to dry’, or else the big, scary preacher you think is gonna kick your ass is gonna kick your ass.

Fuck this Living Scenery. Themed Restaurant should have aired, because at least that game has Muppets.

Alright, I’ll…I’ll calm down. A Whose Line game hasn’t made me this mad in a while. Hoo boy.

Wayne: “I was not gonna ride that surfboard cause I wanna keep my house. And I have respect for surfboards everywhere.”
This is the third straight game where they’ve played to the audience rather than actually doing funny things. What the hell is WRONG with this show??

Scenes, OOH, from a Hat:

“If Strippers Used Their Moves for Everyday Tasks” I’M SORRY, I’M GONNA STOP THE WRITEUP AGAIN. Okay, all the clapter so far this show about ‘trust women’, ‘believe women’, ‘respect women’, and I’m not knocking it, I’m just pointing it out, this is a show that’s playing to the strong women, FIRST SCENE OUT OF THE HAT, ‘DO STRIPPER MOVES’. On one hand, it’s 4 men, so, technically playing to the audience some more. On the other hand, the producers are men, so they have the idea of ‘okay, make fun of female strippers’. Isn’t that quite the juxtaposition. ‘Women are strong and shouldn’t be trifled with’, next game, ‘STRIPPERS ARE GREAT’. Lordy lord.

I will say…Greg whisking the eggs with his boobs is pretty funny.

“If Every Movie Starred Characters from Star Wars”
Greg, kneeling: “A BIGGER BOAT WE WILL NEED.”
YES! THAT’S GREAT!
Wayne, to Aisha: “…these are gonna be some old movies.”

Greg: [Darth Vader noises] “THE COLD NEVER BOTHERED ME ANYWAY.”
The show, after getting on my bad side this whole time, is now trying to win me back by editing Greg well. Sounds like a bold strategy, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off.

Ryan, as a much taller Yoda: “OHHH, QUIT YOU I CANNOT.”
This gets Wayne. I don’t blame him. Brokeback Yoda?

“Weird things to do in a gym”
Ryan: [eats lunch]
I liked this move. It’s simple, but it’s funnier the more you think about it

Greg, being Greg: [takes bong rip]

“Sandwiches you’d never wanna eat.”
Ryan:

Perfect

Lots of self-contained stuff but better than a lot of the rest of this show.

Greatest Hits: Songs of the Motel

The Ryan-Wayne GH combo returns!!

Colin: “we’ll be right back to our documentary on glass coffins….Remains to be Seen”
JESUS CHRIST

AND WE’RE OFF

Greg actually managed to bring a good satirical point with him, building up the history of great black artists, “and then along came Elvis Presley to take all the glory.” Now, while I do dig this, it does go back to Greg’s 2019 worldview of ‘the only people that matter are women and minorities, regardless of whether or not they do things in the interest of white billionaires’. So it’s not perfect. And again, it’s slightly claptery, but it’s better than his earlier Trump stuff.

I will say, and I owe this to Greg’s Whose Live GH experience, but he’s so smooth in introing the song and making it so that it feels seamless. For ‘pool on the roof’, he even adds in a detail about ‘you know those hipster motels’.

Ryan, top of the song, as Elvis: “hey baby, I’d like to take a swim somewhere.”
He’s still pretty good at this.

This first number is friggin great. Wayne’s Elvis is still awesome, Ryan’s Elvis is great, they complement each other perfectly. Ryan, unlike Adrienne, knows how to both do backup and keep a song going. The way Wayne whips around at the end of the chorus and does a ‘A-THIRTY-FIRST FLOOR, THERE’S A POOL ON THE ROOF’, that’s friggin awesome. Some audience members squeal at that.

Wayne has a very funny verse:
“Pool on the roof, kids running by
Oh, little pool, I push them, OH MY!”
Ryan also has a pretty fun one:
“There’s a pool on the roof, pool on the roof
Get inside, act like a goof!”
How is this going better than the one with two musical professionals an act or so ago?

Ryan: “pool on the roof, everywhere
[motioning downwards] OH MY GOD LOOK AT MY FACIAL HAIR”
…so that’s two mistakes Ryan’s made tonight.
Wayne: “…I’m looking down there.”
Ryan: “I thought that was my face.”
Wayne, still perfectly in time: “I wasn’t prepared!”

Ryan, post-song: “…I point to my groin and realized I said ‘facial hair’.”
So he at least realizes something went wrong, and he owned it. Also, phenomenal Elvis number

Colin: “they certainly don’t write classics like that anymore.”
Greg: “they don’t, because there was a law passed in Tennessee..”

I love the way Ryan sinks once Colin mentions ‘Simon and Garfunkel’. Like ‘oh lord, I’ve gotta do my Paul Simon’

They play this one like a game of All in One voice, doing the whole song in harmony. Ryan’s pretty much taking the lead.

It is very funny seeing these two do the line “there’s a gift shop in the lobby, and shopping’s my hobby” in this unison. It’s both good and silly at the same time.

What’s great about Wayne is that he can take a verse where he doesn’t know where, musically, Ryan is going and end it with very strong harmony either way. “I need some shaving crEEEAMM..”

There’s a very funny long note they almost get stuck on but is impressive enough to stay and impress the audience.

There’s even an awesome final note that we zoom out on. How is a Ryan-Wayne Simon and Garfunkel number the best musical moment in an episode that has a fucking Cheetah Girl in it.

Excellent GH. I love this GH schematic because it switches things up, provides new dynamics and gives Greg, Ryan and even Colin and Wayne other strengths we don’t always see. This was no exception, and had lots of really impressive moments.

Overall: …..GREATEST HITS. A FANTASTIC GAME OF GREATEST HITS. A SENSATIONAL GAME OF GREATEST HIT-what are you talking about, there’s no other games here. GREATEST HITS! THAT’S WHY THIS EPISODE IS WATCHABLE!

Fucking hell, has there been a sadder first half in this show’s history. Not that Duet was all bad, not that WN wasn’t saved by Ryan’s snafu, but…Adrienne Houghton was just not a good pick to guest on this show, and her hesitance to go outside her comfort zone made the show suffer. Duet was salvageable just from Wayne’s hook, but there was not a single salvageable aspect of Living Scenery, which didn’t land a SINGLE prop usage all damned game, save for maybe one Wayne thing that didn’t get paid off. And look, I try to be subjective in this, I try not to bash, but Living Scenery may be one of the worst games in recent history, which is a lot considering I think I just said that about the Helping Hands from the Chris Jackson episode. I really don’t like when people refuse to improvise, and this game had a fuckton of that, coming from Wayne of all people. Even if SFAH and GH were better, and there were great moves from Ryan and ESPECIALLY GREG happening throughout, that couldn’t save this show for me. This show committed mortal sins, sins that will never be forgiven.

I will never watch the Cheetah Girls again. Or the sequel. Or the third one, which Raven Symone had the bright idea to just skip entirely for good reason. Two of which I actually haven’t seen, and, again, never will.

Show Winners: All four
Best Performer: Ryan Stiles. Did great work all night, even saving some mistakes that a lesser performer couldn’t save.
Worst Performer: Wayne Brady. The biggest and most monumental no in this improv show’s history came from him, and I have to call him on it.
Best Game: Greatest Hits was really good.
Worst Game: Living Scenery was a non-game. An anti-game. An ex-game. Fuck it.
Guest Star Rating: 5/10. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but release Adrienne’s Themed Restaurant. I wanna see if she could do that one. She couldn’t do either of these two.

COMING UP NEXT: I’m hoping for something better, and this next one, which is another Brad show that brings us back to S12, is, from what I recall, MUCH BETTER.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E09, or Like a Sausage Gone Wrong

Seasonal Code: S15E09
Production Number: 701
CW Seasonal Code: S15E08

We go back to the Jeff Davis S13 taping that gave us episodes featuring Chip Esten and Cornelius Smith Jr. for an actual, non-Chip guestless show. Oh man. There’s some good stuff in here.

Hollywood Director: In a post-apocalyptic world, Ryan and Jeff are a couple frantically looting an abandoned supermarket, when suddenly Jeff’s furious mother, Wayne, who is turning into a zombie, smashes in

Ryan begins the scene worried about his weight. I do love Jeff’s read of the response to this, “WE’RE IN A POST-APOCALYPTIC WORLD, WE CAN’T BE PICKY.” Again, just stating the scene verbatim.

Then, after another Ryan line, Jeff goes it again. “I don’t think you’re taking this POST-APOCALYPTIC PERIOD SERIOUSLY.” But this time, Jeff trips over a word and all the P’s draw spit towards Ryan.
Jeff, leaning in: “WHAT PART OF PPPOST-APPPOCALYTPTIC-”
Ryan, barely holding it together: “ALRIGHT, I GOT IT, I GOT IT.”
You can already see Ryan and Jeff’s stage dynamic coming in handy here

Wayne enters moaning and limping
Jeff: “oh no….it’s my mother.”
Wayne: “UUUUUNGH. UNNNNNGH-couldn’t you do better for yourself?”
PFFFF. I love that move
Colin cuts and Wayne completely collapses. What a move.

Colin: “I haven’t seen that much crap since I worked with Elsie, the Fiber-Loving Elephant.”
[….]
Colin: “yeah, THINK ABOUT IT.”
PFFF. Already, this Director playing has this mood about it that’s really impressing me

Colin, instead of throwing impressions at everybody, allows them to choose, but goes to Ryan “try doing someone from THIS century.” Jeff loves this.
So, therefore, Ryan goes into a decent McConaughey

Jeff, as Walken: “…I can’t TELL who you AA-ARE.”
PFFF

Also, Jeff puts his entire ass into saying ‘…zzOMBIES’ as Walken, and this impression will never not crack me up
Wayne, coming in as Kevin Hart: “SAY IT WITH YOUR CHEST!”
I have to say, with him coming in on his knees, I thought he was Gary Coleman, because I’ve watched this show.

Colin, to Ryan: “GREAT Jessica Lange.”
And Wayne and Jeff go down. There is something in the air this taping.
Wayne’s laughing so hard that Colin needs to lean over and go ‘you alright?’

Ryan’s first line of dialogue in the swedish porn style is very funny. Just…simple swedish gibberish. Their entire scene is silly. And then, eventually:

…again, thank god these two have great stage chemistry.

Wayne, with perfect timing, enters grunting, sees what’s gone on, and waves them off and leaves. PERFECT.
AND WE CALL IT THERE. Colin’s even going “THAT’S how you make a swedish porn!”

Good lord that was a funny Director. Even if we only saw 2 styles, and not even the musical one, there was so much funny energy going on. So many little moves and moments added together. Already, I’ve got a good feeling about this one.

Aisha: “you finished very big…but I’m gonna have to subtract infinity points for…whatever that lovemaking thing at the end was.”
Ryan: “I just wanna hear you say ‘finished very big’ again.”

Doo-Wop: Wayne, Jeff and Colin sing about Brenda, who died in a freak pharmacy-related accident

Ohhhh boy. Okay. This one.

Right after Aisha gets the name suggestion, disaster strikes:

[PLOP]
Yes, in case it isn’t clear, right at the beginning of this game, Colin’s mic battery just launched itself out of his pants pocket and into the floor. While it’s a good thing the pack wasn’t halfway up his ass this time, it acts as a harbinger of doom for what is to come.

It’s badly mixed, but the cut to Aisha combines two different Colin reactions to this. One is his usual ‘eeehh-heh-heh’ genuine laugh, and the other is him muttering “for a second I thought it was my penis.”

Right when Aisha gives them ‘pharmacy’, Wayne’s biting his lip. There’s not a lot of material in pharmacies. He’s gonna have to think of as many as possible, and FOR TWO, because Dan always makes them redo it.
As the song begins, there’s a few looks between Wayne and Colin, gaining composure for the song, like “…well, we’ll give it a TRY…’

Wayne, like in the Horward Song Styles, begins with a pretty good opening line:
“Brenda, I wish I could give you hugs
Oh Brenda, she worked where they sold drugs.”

Right when Wayne says “I loved her in every single position”, you can see Colin give him a second’s puzzled look:

JUST THE SLIGHTEST GLANCE

Jeff’s verse is crass, but it’s very silly that the cause of death here is taking a viagra and “mak[ing] you explode.” AND THIS WENT OUT ON NETWORK TV. Jeff and Ryan fucked earlier and now this joke. Wow.

Colin: “oh Brenda, my mind’s in a muddle.
Just thinking of you, I’m wet as a puddle.”
AGAIN. THIS WENT OUT ON NETWORK TV.
Colin: “I’d bring you back, if it was in my power
OH DAMN WHY DID MY ERECTION LAST OVER FOUR HOURS?”
You begin to see Wayne crack here. Not because of Colin’s verse, which is funny, but he’s about to go into the ender verse, and…it’s NOT GONNA GO WELL FOR HIM.

So Wayne goes into the homestretch:
“Oh Brenda, so much love I’d want to share
Oh Brenda, I see you just lying there
Oh Brenda….she died….”

“….mneeeuuhhhhh…”
Yeah, he has nothing. So he just finishes the verse with gibberish. “OHOHOHOHOHOHO..”
They all know they’re gonna have to do this again, and that Wayne completely ran out of steam. The band keeps going for another stanza. SO COLIN…

I love Colin here. Just…keeping it going, playing to the cameras, going might as well. Meanwhile,
They’re all just vamping. THEY KNOW THEY HAVE TO DO MORE.

Eventually they filmed another Doo Wop, pretty much from the start, or at least starting with Colin, to make sure this one got an ending. So we start right at the beginning of Colin’s, and Wayne makes this clear by ending a nonexistent verse and just turning to Colin.

Colin, with another try at a verse that SHOULD HAVE BEEN OKAY, just airs out his grievances:
“Oh Brenda, can you believe it?
We thought we’d done a good job and maybe we could leave it.
But now we’re back, and we’re hurtin’ for a rhyme,
OH WE’RE JUST HAVING…A GREAT FUCKING TIME.”
THE WHOLE PLACE APPLAUDS. It’s a beautiful moment. I’ve talked about how weird it is when Colin curses, but his anger completely owns it, and builds it to a moment the entire audience can agree with.

Wayne finally gets a good ender, in the meantime
“Brenda, to love her, I wanna
She OD’d on medical marijuana.”
AND THEY FINALLY GET OUT OF IT.

As they head back to the seats, Ryan is clapping. “BRAVO! THAT’S ALL IT TAKES.”

A masterful, classic, hysterical Doo-Wop. What’s funny is that, until Wayne’s snafu, it was already a really funny Doo-Wop with great lines and a funny throughline, but then Wayne short-circuited and it got even funnier, while STILL landing on its feet. Colin made this even funnier, just owning the mistake and saying what was on everyone’s minds.

Secret: Colin is Pinocchio, Ryan is Geppetto; the secret is a wig and lingerie 

Colin begins the scene by stomping on Jiminy Cricket. THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE, AND AISHA, TURNS ON THIS.

Ryan’s Pinocchio accents, even as they go about the logical part of the scene, is incredibly silly and is his completely ridiculous kind of Italian accent.

I will say, the conceit, that Ryan is making a wooden girl for Pinocchio, plays really perfectly into the reveal of a wig and lingerie in the trunk
Colin: “…so what’s this girl you’re makin’ like?”
Ryan: “Pinocchio, it’s-a not-a for the girl, it’s-a for me..I get a bit a-lonely sometimes.”
Colin, perfectly: “…well you’ll have to explain how this gets rid of the loneliness.”

Ryan, barely confident: “well sometimes I-a put on de-a skimpy-wimpies and-”
Colin: “hang on, I wanna write this down. SKIMPY-WIMPIES? I have so much to learn.”
Colin has had Ryan on the ropes this entire scene.
Ryan, with a great move: “you don’t need a pencil, just use your finger.”

Ryan: “and things-a grow. You know how you lie and your nose-a grows? …the same thing for Geppetto.”
This is incredibly silly and I am enjoying it

Ryan struggles in putting on the lingerie, and he gets up to about his knees and gives up. “THIS IS-A AS FAR AS-A SHE GOES, RIGHT THERE.” He’s clearly amused by it as well
Colin: “IT’S LIKE A SAUSAGE GONE WRONG!”
PFFFF

Unfortunately that’s the ending line, but I wanted them to go on a little bit longer. This was a fun scene, but I think the edit was more concerned with getting the prop humor in rather than the full scene humor. I did like this one, and I loved both characterizations.

Ryan: “I was trying to say ‘skimpy one-piece’…but it turned into ‘skimpy-wimpies’..”

Scenes from a Hat:

“Weird things to say to someone on their deathbed.”
Ryan: “…YOU ARE FUCKED.”
Jeff: “you know, dad, there’s an energy crisis, you can’t just leave these things plugged in!”

Jeff and Wayne do a really good ‘beatboxing to the heart monitor’ one. Funny, too, because Wayne eventually breaks from beatboxing into sobs.

“If horror movie characters were drunk.”
Wayne lets everyone know what he’s doing by going ‘THE RING’ and then doing his drunk mime. Ryan is cracking up about this, repeating ‘THE RING??’ from the side.

I really liked Jeff’s drunk Dracula. Opening the coffin, sitting up, vomiting, laying back down.”

Ryan: [crawls through window monstrously]
Colin: “what time of night is THIS to come home?”
HA

“If Criminals spoke like Dr. Seuss” gives us pretty much a reprise of the ‘this shit is like real life’ one Wayne did with Brad a few seasons ago, but longer.

Decent SFAH. I loved how well-fleshed-out the horror movie ones were. I still think the CW would be better off if they had less SFAH, more big rounds rather than a small round every show.

Greatest Hits: Songs of the Barista

They did an extra GH without Chip. SPECIFICALLY TO PISS OFF THE WHOSERS

Aisha: “I kinda like this one, barista, someone who works in a coffee shop-”
Ryan: “WELL THEN WHY DON’T *YOU* DO IT?”

Colin: “we’ve showcased a lot of singing duos-”
Ryan: “I think ‘showcased’ is a really strong word.”
Colin: “alright, we’ve PLAYED them..”
Sometimes, the Colin-Ryan GH duo is as simple as lines like that.

Colin, in 2017: “sit back and listen to this Johnny Cash-Kanye West collaboration, Grounds for Divorce.”
Me in 2022: “OH IS THAT RIGHT? IS THAT WHAT THE KANYE SONG IS CALLED?”

Once the Cash-esque guitar comes in, Wayne looks over at Aisha and cracks up.

I do like Jeff’s initial Johnny Cash verse, because it very much has a Cash-esque plot, “you got me so jacked up on caffeine I had to divorce you.”

Wayne’s Kanye verse is great, because this is full 2017-era, ‘I’m a genius’, full of himself Kanye, where the music’s barely good anymore, and Wayne nails that.

There’s a cut as Jeff goes into the chorus, so I think a second Jeff verse was cut, cause we’re ending the song when we cut back.
Wayne: “I MAKE MY OWN COFFEE, POOPED OUT OF THE BUTTS OF CATS, IMAGINE THAT.”

Pretty good first number, but I still wish they would have kept Jeff’s second verse in. Times like these makes me wish that there weren’t three regulars with producing credits that made it difficult to edit a fourth without any.

Ryan does a full bit introing the rockabilly song, including saying ‘rockabilly hit’ repeatedly to confuse the shit out of Colin, and confusing the shit out of Wayne by calling the song “Machia-do-do-do-do-do.”


This is a great show for facial expressions.

I have to say, for an odd song title suggestion, Jeff and Wayne are perfectly in sync with this one, knowing the exact place to put the hook and put the title. In fact, Wayne even handles a key change he didn’t exactly expect really well in addition.

Jeff: “well if you give me a latte, I’m gonna say,
TAKE THAT GODDAMN LATTE AWAY.
You gonna give me some drip coffee, Jack
I’m gonna kick you [realizes and begins to crack up] RIGHT IN THE SACK…”

Wayne, as he did in the last number: “TELEPORTATION!” [exits]
dear god…
Jeff, as he realizes what Wayne’s done, cracks up as the song fades out. Ahhh man what a fun ending to this one.

Aisha, barely holding it together: “1000 points for everybody…5 fewer points to Jeff for cracking himself up…about KICKING SOMEBODY ELSE…in their testicular area.”
Jeff: “I couldn’t decide between ‘kick you in the crack’ or ‘sack’. These are these game-time decisions that are hard to make.”
Wayne: “crack or sack, taint dat the truth.”
HAAAAA and we go to the end of the show.

I was worried this would be a disappointing ender but the leftover insane energy saved this one, with some good banter moments, as well as that amazing ending mishap with Jeff. A worthy ending to this one, against all odds.

Overall: When the big game happens before the first commercial break, you worry the quality’s gonna go down hill. And while nothing after Doo-Wop completely matched the first act’s insane energy, this is still a really fun show with great games all the way through. Director and Doo-Wop are two great games to start, Secret and GH keep the momentum going throughout, and there’s so many little moves, like Colin keeping the dancing going, Jeff picking the wrong rhyme in Greatest Hits, Wayne giving up and leaving in two separate games, and Ryan’s word messup striking gold [again] in Secret. There were great improv moves in every game, and my only gripes came when games were too short. I would have honestly sacrificed SFAH for another style of Director and the end of Secret, but I get why the producers wanted SFAH here. Still, great show, one of my favorites of this season, and a worthy inclusion in this season, despite the constant cutting back to previous seasons with new material ready to go.

Winners: All four
Best Performer: Colin Mochrie. Pretty much every laugh came from him between Doo-Wop and Secret. The dude lifted the best games, including Doo-Wop.
Worst Performer: Ryan, sadly, deferred more often than not tonight.
Best Game: You’d think I’d go with Doo-Wop, but it’s actually Director. So many really small things here built on themselves to make a really funny, and very classic-seeming, Director.
Worst Game: Scenes from a Hat, but even then I enjoyed some of it.
Should This Have Aired in S13?: Yes, it definitely should have. The Doo-Wop was destined for greatness eventually, but imagine if we got this one in its taping year? Oh man.

COMING UP NEXT: Back to the S15 tapings for the last time this season [for some reason] for another guest show from Greg’s taping

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E08, or Shame Has Stopped Existing

Seasonal Code: S15E08
Production Number: 717
CW Seasonal Code: S15E07

So far, the guest star bookings have been…alright. A lot of synergy bookings, a lot of the same beats of Whose Line guest stars in this era. We need someone who has some improv ability, at least some musical improv ability, and who gets along with at least one of the performers.

Here he comes.

HERE COMES THE GENERAL, Ladies and Gentlemen
HERE COMES THE GENERAL, the moment you’ve been waiting for
HERE COMES THE GENERAL, the pride of New York City
CHRIS JACKSON

That’s right. Wayne Brady, in his kibitzing and canoodling with the Hamilton cast in Chicago, as well as in his era of musical improv takedowns in Freestyle Love Supreme, became very good friends with a tall, striking performer named Chris Jackson. Jackson was a Broadway lifer, coming up through In the Heights but getting parts in Memphis, and the ill-fated Holler if Ya Hear Me, even winning an Emmy for writing a Sesame Street song about black hair, before originating and NAILING the role of George Washington in Hamilton. Miranda wanted someone tall, strong willed and imposing for the role, while also subliminally reminding audiences of Barack Obama with Jackson’s stature and soft-spokenness. While he lost the Tony for featured actor [to Daveed Diggs, rightfully], he became a name himself for his contributions to the Broadway megahit, and has enjoyed modest fame ever since.

Also, apparently he was on Bull at the time? Meaning this was technically a CBS/CW synergy booking? …Fuck it, it’s the Hamilton stuff.

And so he comes on Whose Line to help out his friend Wayne, in what ended up being a VERY HAMILTON-CENTRIC TAPING [wait til S16 for the other one]. This episode, a Jonathan show from the same taping as E3, would showcase Jackson’s musical improv skills…and also his scene improv skills. One is better than the other.

Ryan, for his intro:

Also, I just noticed that you can see Rianna from E3’s Sound Effects in Aisha’s intro shot

Weird Newscasters: Colin anchors, Jonathan, auctioneer selling off his own clothes, co-anchors, Ryan, mad scientist turning into a fly, does sports while Wayne, very old man going backwards through his life, does weather

I am almost 100% sure the entire intro for this game was taken from pickups. First of all, Ryan’s ‘OH’ when the game is announced stinks of ‘bit more up, Ryan?’. Then, all the reactions to the quirks seem like it’s not the first time they’re hearing them. It does not feel like this is where we intrinsically landed in the taping.

Colin: “our top story today, a woman who found out her husband replaced their bed with a trampoline…hit the roof.”

Jonathan’s is a testament to his energy and fearlessness. Within seconds, he’s flinging his jacket into the audience. I want to make sure you know that after he’s flung the jacket, Colin turns to Jonathan like this:

Just…watching what he does next.

I love the little chuckle as Jonathan chucks his shoe into the crowd, trying not to hit anybody.

I love that Ryan suddenly offers to buy Jonathan’s belt. Like, they’re all just enthused as to how far he’s gonna go

Then, as Jonathan goes towards the woman who bought his pants, and begins removing them, you can hear an audible ‘NO’ from Wayne. Yes, once again, Jonathan wore white underneath.
Ryan: “it’s like prop sitcom underwear”
AND RYAN WOULD KNOW

And he gets the pants off. We cut back to Colin, just…amused
Colin: “this just in, shame has stopped existing.”
I think the Jonathan WNs bring out the sharpest ‘this just in’ lines

Ryan does a very good fly transformation…and then goes over to Jonathan and flies around him for a bit. Jonathan is pathetically trying to get out of the audience row, and Ryan doesn’t seem to be helping him much

Wayne’s is nothing groundbreaking, although he does have a nice run-in with a cameraman who won’t move out of his way. Meanwhile, as he’s finishing up, we switch camera angles and:

Thank you, Ryan

An alright WN. Jonathan’s gave us a really fun start, and even though Ryan and Wayne’s were kind of basic, there was this very off-kilter mood to the game going throughout it.

Aisha: “I’d like to give you points, Jonathan, but I’m just…too upset.”
Wayne: “The CW stands for Clothing? Whaaaat?”

Jonathan: “Who’s got my other shoe?”

How many injuries is this guy gonna have.

I love, as Wayne’s putting Jonathan’s shoe back on, Ryan just pulls a Cinderella’s stepsister and goes “IT’S NEVER GOING TO FIT *HER*.” Such a goofy move.
THEY TURN THIS INTO AN ACTUAL SCENE
Wayne: “…it’s you!”
Ryan: “NO, IT’S NOT HER, IT’S ONE OF US!”

Film Dub: Wayne, Ryan and Colin act out an awkward dinner

As they come down for this one, disaster strikes:


Which causes Jonathan to screw with him:

Same energy as everybody replicating Drew’s World’s Worst fall. Man, this is a goofy energy for a taping so far.

Already, there’s a silly mood to this Film Dub. Ryan’s giving his character a very funny voice. Wayne gives his character the waitress voice [“y’all want ham hocks?”].

Ryan, as his character sits down: “I think it’s time…for a game of Yahtzee.”
PFFFF

The cut between Colin slurping his soup and Ryan doing the same noise sipping his drink cracked me up. FULL GOOF, this one.

Colin then just really uses a random pause by his character. “I just came here to share…………my muffin recipe.”
Ryan, as his character bangs with both fists on the table again: “ENOUGH OF YOUR MUFFIN RECIPE.”
Wayne: “I’m bored, I’m taking an Uber home.”
how is everything working for me here??

Wayne: “walk this way..”
Colin, quick-thinking: “YOUR HAIR’S ON FIRE.”
Ryan, with one of the best out-of-context lines in a Film Dub in far too long: “PUT OUT MY DAUGHTER.”
That made me laugh HARD
Ryan: “PUT OUT MY DAUGHTER. [buckles]”
BUZZ

Wayne, heading back to the seats: “COMING TO THE CW, PUT OUT MY DAUGHTER.”

I laughed so hard at that one. On my first watch it was just a silly Film Dub, but jeez did that just build on itself. Ryan, Colin and Wayne all leaned into the goof and just gave a really silly scene. I wish more people knew about this one.

Duet: Wayne and Chris sing an R&B song to single lady Beverly, a retired veteran

I like Wayne, when he hears Beverly served in the Army, mentioning that he comes from an Army family. I think we’re gonna learn a lot about Wayne’s backstory in the next season or so, and this is just another window into it.

Wayne and Chris set this up like a ‘The Veteran’s Mine’, a sort of inverted Brandy/Monica competition between the two of them. It’s already a really loose feel, even if it very much owes to stock improv stuff from Freestyle Love Supreme.

The backing is a smoother version of the backing you may remember from the Wanya number.

Wayne starts in with some usual stuff about going down on the front lines for Beverly
Chris, without even cracking his knuckles: “I’ll make sure your bills are paid, I’ll even leave the seat on down
Cause baby, my love is like a handgrenade, I’LL BLOW THAT CHEAPSKATE DOWN.”
This is why I love Chris in this number. He knows what the hook is, it’s a competition between him and Wayne. He also knows that it’s a funny contrast when smooth R&B singers start completely insulting the other performers. And he also knows that it’s funny when Wayne loses, especially in comparison to someone as likable as him. Which is why this move works so well.

Wayne: “and when it’s nighttime, and we…bivouac…I’ll make sure that I’ve loaded my gun.”
That’s not only a great line, but I’ve never heard somebody use that term before. Again, it’s proof that Wayne grew up in a military family.

And then Chris comes back in:
“I’ll reconnoiter your emotions…I’ll survey all the lands..”
This is even more fitting because he’s General Washington

Wayne, jumping in: “and if you wanna go to school-CHRIS CHILL.”

I love this. Even funnier, once Wayne finishes his verse, Chris shoves him away. You can tell they’ve performed together, because this is pretty seamless.

Chris: “I’ll take care of your daddy…and I’ll take care of your mama.”
Wayne: “BENEFITS.”
PFFF. Yeah, just making it clear to all the non-military people watching [thank you].

Chris, making it clear: “I’m the only one of these two…with a chart-topping single with President Obama.”
I love Wayne’s expression after this, which wins her over a great deal:

Wayne plays such a great loser in this number

I love Chris telling Wayne to sit down, and Jonathan just comforting Wayne as he heads back to the seats. This is so fun

I love, as Chris gentlemanly bids Beverly adieu, Wayne just stands there pouting, arms crossed. And then Chris gives him a big bear hug. What a fun number. Chris Jackson knew exactly what this needed to be, and both of them played it perfectly. Not quite as good as the Wanya one, but a truly memorable one, and the peak of Wayne’s advanced guest star duets.

Wayne just hugs Aisha, absolutely defeated.
Ryan: “someone needs some extra points..”
Wayne: “Chris Jackson came up in my house and showed me the door.”
Perfect way of summing it up. In the context of that game, dominating as a performer is perfectly okay, because the hook was a competition, and I’m not calling it an improv boss move or anything. As we’ve discussed, Chris has improv experience, and he’d been doing FLS for years. The song improv he has down.

Aisha: “he drank your WHOLE DAMN MILKSHAKE.”
Wayne: “…but Chris!’ ‘it’s MINE.”

Scenes from a Hat:

“Really Bad Flight Attendants”
Wayne: [blows dart at baby]
Colin, smiling very wide: “THANK YOU.”
Ryan has Wayne explain that it’s a sedative. “Oh, I thought you killed it, you just put it out.”

Aisha: “bad things to do when seeing your friends’ baby for the first time”
Wayne, to Colin: “aww…augh..”
Colin: [blows dart at Wayne]
Exact opposite of what I thought this gag was gonna be

Wayne and Colin doing a ‘fling the baby up in the air’ gag and turning it into playing keepaway with the baby made me laugh

Aisha, to Colin: “oh, it’s so beautiful, it looks just like Ryan.”
Colin:

I love this

“Bad Things to Say on your Honeymoon”
Wayne: [has two kids]
Colin: [plays keepaway with them]
This gag is never not gonna make me laugh

Ryan, to Colin: “I think we should see other people.”
Wayne, entering: “hey, are you ready yet?”
This game has a TON of Wayne and absolutely zero Jonathan

And now, the immortal “Inappropriate Things to Say in a Tiny Voice”, the closest thing this era of the show has to a classic SFAH suggestion
Wayne: “…soldiers follow me….chaaaarge…”
Ryan: “…noah!..”
[Wayne’s already cracking up]
Ryan: “…it’s me, god!”
I lost it at this the first time. Spence 12Medbe put that clip of Ryan into the 3×12 Sound Effects [“I guess that’s the way the lord intended it, isn’t that right my lord?” “noah!”] and we loved that.

Wayne, galloping: “…the british are coming..”
THIS IS SO GOOD
Wayne: ‘one if by land, two if by sea…they’re coming and [incomprehensible]”
PFFFF. Even he cracks at that

“Pickup lines of Sportsmen”
Jonathan, finally taking the lead this game: “hey. You into FOOOOOOREplay?”
Pfff. And, of course, the game ends. AND THAT’S ALL WE HAVE FOR THE FOURTH SEATER TONIGHT, THANK YOU JONATHAN.

Pretty strong, and classic-seeming, SFAH. Lots of fun little runs, LOTS of scenes fit in here, and that hysterical tiny voice round. Unfortunately, Jonathan was kinda shut out, but lots of Wayne though.

Helping Hands: Ryan, hands by Colin is a flirtatious Broadway actress having dinner at an Italian restaurant with her co-star Chris, who she is hoping to get to know a little better

Chris, playing the part of the strong, handsome man: “I’ve been looking forward to it.”
Ryan, being horny: “I’ve been…REALLY looking forward to it.”

Ryan: “have you been in Hamilton?”
Chris: “yeah, but-”
Ryan: “I’d like a little Hamilton in me..”

So as Ryan starts handling the food, and throwing together some concoction, you can see Chris trying to stay in character but squirming visibly. This is not quite what he signed up for, but he’s trying to charm his way through.

The moment where Ryan starts hornily begging Chris to down the spaghetti garlic bread concoction would be a lot funnier if Chris didn’t stand there like a stone. Not a great support, and he’s not selling the vamping Ryan’s doing by evening playing off the horniness. It is a form of underselling that works when it’s not called into the spotlight.

I did laugh at Chris trying to take a small bite and Ryan just going “no no, the sloppy end, Chris.”
BIG LAUGH FROM WAYNE

And then:

…I have no words. And he just sexily works that visual. Chris, again, is not a great support because he’s barely even reacting to that

Ryan: “that’s more ball than I thought it’d be, Chris.”
Chris: “I get that a lot.”
Now if the audience were on Chris’s side, that would have gotten response..

…no comment
Ryan: “remind you of anyone you know?”
That’s awful, that glob of tiramisu with a breadstick poking out of it looks nothing like Lin-Manuel Miranda, in fact I’ll have you…[squints]….

Eventually, at the umpteenth no-sold, no-reaction moment from Chris, Ryan just snaps, saying “what is WRONG with me? I don’t see love in your eyes.” He’s really airing out his frustrations at Chris because Ryan’s been lifting this whole scene and Chris has been a terrible support.

So…to wrap up…look, Chris Jackson may be the single worst guest support in Helping Hands history. At least Laila Ali had fun and swerved the narrative. At least Matt Barnes knew when to add to the carnage. At least Willie Robertson squirmed more when he was around people of color. But Chris added absolutely nothing to the scene, and Ryan had to carry the entire thing. And while there were amusing things that happened here, this felt less like a scene and more like just an experiment in torture. I think this was a genuine failure because they had a guest star that made no attempt to truly improvise, which is a sad contrast from his great work in Duet. Just…disappointing and upsetting compared to the rest of this show.

Overall: Quality jambalaya. Some excellent games make up the middle of this show, like a hysterical Film Dub, a classic SFAH, and that truly impressive Duet with Wayne and Chris playing off each other perfectly. Weird Newscasters was also a treat just because Jonathan didn’t really have moments like that in other games. But Helping Hands is enough to not only kill the momentum, not only ruin this episode’s chances of being a classic, but ruins Chris Jackson’s reputation as a guest. Because my god, Chris was terrible as a support, and Ryan had to do Helping Hands by himself, which, in a one-note, repetitive game like that, is NOT something you want whatsoever. It’s rare that one game throws a show off so much, but I can’t call this episode truly great because that Helping Hands soils the whole lot. I can rewatch that Film Dub no problem, that SFAH, I think that Duet is a classic…but jeez does that last game ruin a good thing. And I hate it, too, because Wayne was on fire, and Ryan was in such a goofy mood, and this show does things so well. Just…not a great ending game.

Show Winner: Wayne
Best Performer: Ryan and Wayne were tied for a bit, but Ryan took the lead in more games, while Wayne hung back in WN and Film Dub.
Worst Performer: Jonathan was only in one game aside from being cut out of SFAH, but I cannot give him the loss. So Chris Jackson.
Best Game: Duet. What a great show of Wayne and Chris’s performing history.
Worst Game: Helping Hands.
Guest Star Rating: 7/10. A stellar first game and a terrible second game landed the General here, and he really could have used a right hand man in Helping Hands.

COMING UP NEXT: Back into the backlog, taking us back to S13 with Jeff.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E07, or A Drifter Made Out of Glass

Seasonal Code: S15E07
Production Number: 605
CW Seasonal Code: S14E11

After a small hiatus, we’re back into S15. Or, more accurately, we’re back to S14 leftovers, which means I have the international cut of this one. Hooray.

Anyway, this one takes us back to the S11 taping featuring HEATHER ANNE CAMPBELL. HELL YES. GOOD TO HAVE HER BACK, even in a backlogged show. In S14, a guestless Heather show was one of the highlights, let’s see if this one is the same deal.

Let’s Make a Date: Heather must choose from:
Wayne – Frat boy astronaut causing havoc on the space station
Colin – Cheerful Swedish milkmaid determined to milk everyone
Ryan – Obnoxious frog looking for a princess to kiss him

Just from Heather’s first line, I’m glad she got to do this one: “Bachelor #1, if you were a maple syrup, where […] would you go on a human body?”
EVEN SHE CAN’T GET THROUGH IT WITHOUT CRACKING. That’s moment one of the game!

Wayne’s is kinda simple, but he’s definitely nailing both parts of the quirk

Colin’s cheeriness right at the start of his is extremely silly, as is his…sort of nominal Swedish accent.

Colin, inevitably:

And then Colin drinks it, and has this very funny pause, and then “…mmm!”

I think they condense it into one round, because we already get,

And already he’s going over to Aisha


This is such a silly quirk and everything’s working. Also, shoutout to the guy behind Aisha laughing his ass off already
Colin: “…I guess little Olaf will go without tonight..”
PFFF

Heather: “Bachelor #3, my favorite animal is the dodo, because it’s extinct and I don’t like animals.”
Again, what kinda monster producer would say no to more Heather.

Ryan’s first ‘BRAAAAUUUGH’ croak is extremely funny.

Ryan goes over to Colin, and Colin’s immediately back into his overly cheery character.
Ryan:

PFFFF

I also love, right when Ryan’s gonna go in for Heather, him doing another ‘BRAAAUUUGH’ and hopping away

Then, as he goes into the audience and finds someone on the very end of the front row:

I will say, the lady in the front row does eventually kiss Ryan on the cheek, while somewhere in Greece someone shouted out ‘WHY COULDN’T THAT HAVE BEEN ME?’
Ryan, immediately:

This is…perfect

Ryan, to Colin, back at the stool: “I’m curious. Would you mind?”
And so Colin, knowing exactly what’s about to happen, sighs and kisses his cheek.
Ryan: “BRAUUUGH.”
Colin:

PFFF

Heather: “Bachelor #2 was a…swedish milk farmer?”
Aisha: “gender…?”
Heather: “…genderless.”
Aisha, buzzing: “SURE.”

I love this

A very good LMAD, with so many fun details in Colin and Ryan’s, especially off of each other. The downside is Wayne’s was essentially cut out for time, and while it was only an okay quirk, I kinda wanted to see what else he could have done with it. But alas, you get 22 minutes.

Newsflash: Ryan and Heather in the studio, Colin in the field in front of insects

Colin, ironically as some insects are feeding: “It’s been going on like this for 18 hours straight, but they stopped for a buffet lunch.”

Then, as the audience, and even Heather, aren’t hiding their disgust, Colin: “…it’s almost beautiful in a way, isn’t it?”
Immediately after that, with a shot of roaches all over someone’s foot, we get a full ‘AIIIIGH’ yell from Heather, the likes of which we haven’t seen since S9.

I love the shot of the guy about to eat the insect, and you hear both Ryan and Heather go ‘No’ audibly.
Heather, at the verge of hysterics: “Colin, I know you’re a journalist…YOU HAVE TO STOP THIS.”
I love that. As if Colin can help.
Heather’s even cracking up at that: “You have to stop it..”
Colin: “I’M JUST ONE MAN! I can’t stop it!”

Ryan: “Colin, how many do you figure there are now?”
Colin: “OVER TEN.”
PFFF. This is somehow a really funny Newsflash

Heather: “I don’t understand how you’re not running constantly or”
The shot changes to someone else nearly eating an insect
Heather: “OR SCREAMING LIKE A GIRL.”

Heather is…so damn good here. The next shot is someone eating an insect’s leg and she screams audibly. This is…why she’s such a good support, because her reactions are real

Colin: “…this is nothing.”

Colin: “I would say a lot of…bees or wasps?”
Aisha: “expand your guess.”
Colin, being literal: “…big bees?”
PFF

A very funny Newsflash. On par with S9’s. Very natural reactions from everybody, and Colin just had funny stuff to work off it with.

Whose Line: Colin is Prince Charming visiting the beautiful Cinderella, Ryan, with the glass slipper in hand

Ryan begins the scene drinking and smoking, which is a nice touch

A lot of the early part of this scene is serious, pretty straightly-told stuff from the fairy tale. It’s only when Colin, not caring about who Ryan is, goes “my entire family, through generations, have picked out wives through their footwear” that the funny begins to seep through

Ryan: “I felt like people were talking behind my back, I could hear people saying ‘does this look infected?'”
Interesting that Ryan takes an extra moment to read the line because he’s opened the paper upside down

I also love the comedy detail of Ryan limping around, going ‘could you put the other shoe on?”

Colin: “I’d like you to marry me and live in the castle.”
Ryan: “you have a castle?”
Colin, casually, like some of the stuff he did in Newsflash: “I’m a prince, c’mon.”

Ryan: “do you love me?”
Colin: “do I love you? How does this sound? ‘I killed a drifter and nobody cared!”
PFFFF. That caught me off guard. It’s like a punchline from Airplane or Top Secret
Colin: “WOULD I TELL ANYONE IF I DIDN’T LOVE THEM?”
Ryan, crossing as he says this: “would you kill a drifter for MEEE?”
I love that move
Colin: “I’d kill 2 drifters, I killed a GLASS DRIFTER.”
And now…Colin has thrown Ryan. “…what??”
Colin: “A Drifter made out of glass!”
…it was bound to happen eventually

I love the small move of Ryan coming to Colin’s side and Colin stopping and going ‘nipple’, so Ryan can move. Almost a callback to LMAD.

Ryan, for his next line, puts it at the end of some romantic vows, so that we get unfunny, poetic lines followed by “…quick, spank me.”

Colin: “I have waited my entire life for a beautiful woman to say that to me….and this is good enough.”
This, I assume, is Colin’s rebuttal for the end of LMAD

Colin has an angry rant, saying he’ll send his armies about anyone who disagrees with their union
Ryan: “what will your father say of this?”
Colin: “AAHHH….oh, good point.”
PFF. Colin was so close to saying ‘ahh, fuck ‘im.’

Colin sets up his last line as what he’s gonna say to his father, the king. “Just listen to this, dad….’get a load of these melons.”
And he makes it fit so that Ryan’s boobs will be enough to sell it to him. That’s pretty perfect.

A really, really damn good Whose Line. Some excellent scene work from both of them, great back and forths and lines, and a good extended quality that didn’t feel too truncated by the edit. Liked it a lot, glad it made it on.

Scenes from a Hat:

“TV Shows that shouldn’t be performed in a sexy way”
Heather: “Hi…welcome to Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” [flirts to camera]
BUZZ
Heather’s about to do a striptease to the theme song, but packs it up

Wayne: “today’s show has been brought to you by the letter [orgasms]”
dear god. He may not be getting on much this show, but he is making it count

Ryan, erotically: “…TV Shows that shouldn’t be performed in a sexy way..”
HAAA. I love this
Ryan: [buzzes erotically]

“Strange things for a psychiatrist to say”
Colin does a reprise of his ‘shrink that hears voices’ from S5, but I like him adding another one at the end, going “oh, now YOU’RE in?”

Heather: “I don’t have a puppet you can talk to, but I can fold my stomach over..”

Colin: “well, let’s go to the WHEEL OF PHOBIAS.”
Wayne: [talks in slow motion] I’m just fuckin’ with ya..”

Ryan does a hand puppet with another finger stuck through it. “That’s a tongue by the way.”
Aisha: “IS IT? IS IT, RYAN?”

Ryan, hungover: “aghhh what a fuckin day..”

Decent SFAH. Kinda close to a WW with that psychiatrist one, but some entertaining stuff.

Wayne, cracking up back at the seats, says Colin told him something funny, so Aisha awards him points.
Ryan: ‘we’re supposed to make WAYNE laugh? I’ve been doing it to THESE PEOPLE!” [motioning to the audience]
I kinda love that line

Greatest Hits: Songs of the Car Mechanic

Colin, introducing an artist: “he’s, uh, written music for people like Diddy-”
Ryan: “DIDDY?”
Colin: “…yeah, he did.”
Okay, that somehow works

Ryan: “Jason Derulo, I love him!” [stares blankly at the camera]
Colin: “…you have no idea, you thought he was a spanish yardstick..”
He can just do this without having to stretch a muscle

Wayne, inevitably, at the start of the song: “JASON DERULO.”

The backing here is pretty similar to Talk Dirty, to date this taping a bit

Decent Jason Derulo number from Wayne, as he’s clearly making a subject like car mechanics into a very dirty, innuendo-filled song, like Derulo would. He even does some sexy stuff on the ground, so he really nails the tone. It’s just not a lyrically funny song.

This is a funny visual though
I did like the ending, where Wayne gets exhaust and fluid all in his mouth

Wayne’s tap-dance number is really impressive, and this is a style he feels really at home with, vocally and movement-wise. There’s a bit where he’s full on tap-dancing in front of the stage and really making it work. Trouble is, the number is a bit short, as is the overall game.

So…that Greatest Hits was a good Wayne showcase round, but as an actual game of Greatest Hits it wasn’t much. One or two cool moments, and a lot of good stuff from Wayne, making up for his dormant first half, but yeah, pretty much ‘another Greatest Hits playing’.

Overall: Really good start, petered off in the second half. LMAD, Newsflash and Whose Line were such excellent games that reminded me of the heights of this version, as well as peak ABC WL. SFAH was a time-filler that was alright but not excellent, and GH was there because they needed to unload GH. Heather was edited better than usual but was still in only 3 games, 1 of which being a proctor in LMAD and the other being in SFAH. Wayne somehow was edited even worse, having his entire quick basically edited out of LMAD, and not getting much on in SFAH. So this was very much a Ryan-Colin-centric show, and as good as their moments here were, it sort of sets up a more Ryan-Colin-centric Greatest Hits, which this really wasn’t. So really, the issues I have with this show is that there wasn’t a ton of conscious throughlines, and a lot of this was edited out of practicality rather than making a wholly compact episode of a television show, which is sadly the case with a lot of WL these days.

I did like a lot of this show, and it did a lot that made me laugh. It’s just not perfect.

Show Winner: Wayne
Best Performer: Colin was the only performer to dominate multiple games for me. Whose Line and Let’s Make a Date were both his.
Worst Performer: It’s down to Heather or Wayne, and they both really only won 1 game for me, so I had to separate which one’s contributions were more vital to the show. Heather, at the end of the day, helped LMAD and Newsflash succeed in ways that couldn’t be replicated without her. Wayne did his thing in Greatest Hits. So…Wayne goes here.
Best Game: Whose Line was a classic Ryan-Colin duo scene.
Worst Game: Greatest Hits didn’t add anything new.
Should This Have Aired in S11?: I say yes, mostly for LMAD and Whose Line.

COMING UP NEXT: Back to the Jonathan Mangum taping from S15. Here comes the general.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E06, or I Think It Popped a Spring

Seasonal Code: S15E06
Production Number: 712
CW Seasonal Code: S15E06

For the first show of the Gary Anthony Williams taping, we bring on yet another Olympian guest star. This is a pretty high profile one- Adam Rippon, figure skating champion, Dancing with the Stars winner and gay rights activist. So I’m glad they got a good one, I suppose.

Also, I should note that they shot this episode in February 2019. February. Anyway,

Dating App: Gary must choose from
Wayne – Preacher who turns to a life of sin every evening
Colin – The world’s itchiest cat looking for the perfect scratching post
Ryan – The life cycle of a Thanksgiving turkey

Let’s Make a Date has been rebranded as Dating App to appeal to more young people. Hm.

Gary: “Match #1, I have been to Dallas, have ya ever been to any foreign cities too?”

Wayne’s is great, because he has his squeaky-clean preacher voice, waits for the sun to go down, drops a few octaves and goes “aww, HELL yeah.”

Wayne eventually goes over to Aisha and tries hitting on her, with a flask and everything
Aisha: “aren’t you a preacher?”
Wayne: “ohoho, I’mma make you scream for GOD…”
On one hand, some would say Aisha gave some of Wayne’s away, but on the other hand I think Gary got that Wayne was a preacher by the first part of his quirk, and it’s really the second part that he’s gonna need to work on.
…also HOW DOES THIS MAKE IT TO AIR?

Wayne literally mimes humping the back of Aisha’s chair, goes ‘EIGHT HOURS LATER’, and returns to his initial character. My god, this man is a pro.

Colin inevitably starts scratching his back against Wayne, and then Ryan, who cringes once he knows it’s coming.

AND THEN,

The entire…front row. Colin has that kind of dedication. Also, like 6 other audience members start scratching his back, which is a great bit of yes-anding from the audience

So, here is why I love Ryan. Of course he does a great turkey physicality. But what makes me laugh his the motion of him flipping his character, getting to November and squawking with fear. It is SO SIMPLE but it tells you everything you need to know.
Also, you can hear Gary laughing throughout this whole quirk, including the end where Ryan lays on a table and gets his head cut off

Gary’s guess for Wayne, as “a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde that goes from preacher to pimp” is even funnier than what was on the card
Wayne: “that’s the name of my new autobiography…”

Ryan: “one more hint, cause I don’t know if you saw, but [extended finger] this tells you I’m done”
Gary somehow thinks, because of the ‘stuffing motions’, that Ryan is “a very smart turkey who cooked HIMSELF”, which cracks up Ryan. That is DEMENTED

Aisha, saying what I was thinking: “I actually think Gary’s guesses were better than some of the original suggestions…”

Pretty good LMAD round [old habits die hard]. Kinda self-contained, one-round, not a lot of playing off each other, but good stuff.

Mixed Messages: Colin is the commander of a submarine which has sprung a leak and he’s called his first officers Wayne and Gary to help solve this crisis

This is the playing that made this game a favorite among fans.

Okay, this made me laugh: Colin, Gary and Wayne get up for this. RYAN GETS UP AS WELL. Then Colin looks at him and pushes him back to the seats. Glad they’re good to goof, even at this point in the taping.

I should also mention that the audience members who donated their phones are two white ladies named Elizabeth and Jillian

Colin starts off the scene by addressing the conflict
Gary sees the first text and almost has a mini-gasp, before looking at Colin and going “…Happy Black History Month…”
Colin: “oh, thank you.”
Aisha loves this, and turns back to Elizabeth and Jillian

Colin: “there is no bad time to remind people that…that’s happening.”
I kinda love how he says that. Being supportive while also puzzled at the timing

Colin: “you’re the chief officer, what do you think?”
Wayne: “babe, I’m in no rush, literally, I haven’t even gotten out of bed”
and then, “I promise I’m up but…my stomach is a bit upset”
These sound like excuses to, or from, a boyfriend!

Colin: “AND DON’T CALL ME BABE, I’M YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER.”
Gary, motioning to Wayne and Colin: “THESE young men grew up to be MLK AND Obama!”
pfffff. I think Elizabeth’s mom was just posting some black history month stuff
Aisha applauds emphatically. Wayne, at this point, gives this look:

to both the audience members and Aisha. Wayne is CONFUSED. I do not blame him.

Colin plugs up the hole, trying to move the scene together. Gary glances at his next text and can BARELY hide his joy: “BLACK HISTORY MONTH IS-”
Colin: ‘YES, I KNOW IT’S BLACK HISTORY MONTH! I’M VERY AWARE.”
That is the funniest bit. The fixation is funny enough, but that fixation grating on Colin gives this game a solid hook, or game, and just builds as it goes on. And it’s so funny. Forgetting the randomness of two white people being very excited about Black History Month, it’s just…such a funny juxtaposition in this tense submarine scene

Colin: ‘can we deal with THIS problem.”
Wayne: “my computer isn’t working” [mimes typing]
THAT is great. Also, you can see that as Wayne refusing to help Colin because he’s so angry about it being Black History Month

Wayne: ‘fixed it!”
Colin: “you fixed it? I wasn’t even looking! What did you do?”
Wayne: “…I’m outside your room!”
and since we need one more stinger line, Gary: “hahaha, MLK and Obama are my neighbors.”
BUZZ

I think this is the best Mixed Messages yet. ‘Stop talking about my ass’ is a good one too, and the initial ‘how big your tank is’ one is great, but this one is a classic, just because it seems like a random fixation that IMPACTS THE SCENE. While the scene also elapses and finds a solution. Really fun round of this.

Colin, to Gary: “I did not expect a text stream about Black History Month”
Gary: “SO MUCH!”
Aisha, as the audience dies down: “what were you gonna say?”
Gary: “that girl is WAYYY into Black History Month. THAT WASN’T ALL. Oh, there was more!”
And then Wayne goes over and gives a hug and a handshake to her. This is a great gag because when you think about it, it’s really wholesome. They care about black people. This show has 3 out of 5 performers who are black [tbh, I was about to give the fraction of black people on the show, but knowing my American history it would have been VERY UNFORTUNATE]. It’s, of all fixations, a really good one, and Wayne, even in a joking way, is right to appreciate it.

Song Styles: Wayne sings an 80s pop song to Adam

…no Gary? Why no Gary?

Wayne gets a ‘sports nickname’ from the audience for Adam, and a quick-thinking audience member comes up with the GENIUS name of ‘hypertension’:

Wayne is…impressed.
Adam, perfectly: “I’ve been called a lot of things…hypertension was never something I felt like I embodied, but okay…”

Another guy goes “MYSTERY KOOL-AID”
Aisha: “I think this audience DRANK the mystery kool-aid…”

I noted at the time this went out that this backing sounds…EXACTLY like Maniac by Michael Sembello

Wayne: “he’s got a love he savors
look at him, comes in 10 flavors.”
I BEG YOUR PARDON?

Something kinda awesome about the way Wayne goes from the bridge right into the chorus. Again, the man is a pro at this sort of thing

Another line Wayne doesn’t realize sounds wrong: “he may seem little, but his taste gets even bigger in your mouth.”
I think Wayne, unintentionally or no, is making fun of how over-the-top and irony-free a lot of 80s pop songs would be, and how they’d go over the line of taste without meaning to.
Also, you just see all 3 people in the back just writhe uncomfortably after that line

Honestly, the biggest strength of this song is Wayne’s vocal prowess, and his presence as a badass vocal lead. There’s some fun comedic hooks, but it mostly works because of how much Wayne’s putting into it as a song.

Aisha explains that ‘mystery kool aid’ is a term for “when you’d serve it up and it’d look one way and tasted another, right?”
Wayne: “I thought that you gave us a really cool name but that was actually something already?”
Gary: “Shoulda gone Hypertension, Wayne…”
Wayne, getting up: “BRING HIM BACK OUT! HYPERTENSIONNNAH!”
That’s great, but what’s even funnier is that Laura throws in one last synth bit just to throw it in. I love how quick she is to add to the goofs between games

World’s Worst: Thing to see or hear on a morning television show

Wayne: “Welcome to GOOD MORNING TRANSYLVAN-aaaaghhh” [dies]
I LOVE THAT ONE

Colin, doing his usual nipple-patting: “I’M IN THE TRAFFIC COPTER…I’M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!”
I’m not saying Colin shouting things is always the way, but…goddamn
Colin: “GET ME OUTTA HERE….FFFUCK!”
Ryan, carrying him back: “…we can’t say that.”
HA

Wayne: “to start our cooking segment, we have all the animals out in front of us.”
Aisha: “OH NO”
Wayne: “I will not be killing the animals…GUSTAF WILL.’ ‘GUSTAV KILL.’
PFFFFFF
Wayne just…goes to town. “I MAKE COAT!”
Gary, from the step: “NOOOO, GUSTAV! NOOOO!”
Wayne, after the buzz: “SEE YOU AT 10 AM.”
good lord…

Aisha, with one that was pretty topical in 2019: “Good morning, and welcome to Megyn Kelly Today”

Wayne: “and now, in honor of Black History Month,”

I love how much they love this gag. And honestly, it’s a great gag.


It’s so good. Wayne gets another black guy in the audience to jump in. Then Ryan and Colin come in and Gary just goes “NO. NO.” This is so great!

Pretty good WW, just from the extended energy emanating from it, and all the good Wayne-Gary stuff.

Living Scenery: Colin’s a flirtatious real estate agent demonstrating all the features of a fully-furnished home to her enthusiastic client Ryan; Wayne and Adam are props

Colin: “what I love about the exercise room is that outside we have these two greek statues…”

Colin: “…Apollo and…Kevin Hart..”
WAYNE:
INCREDIBLE

Colin casts Adam as a full body massager, which is great. He just has a random leg on on Colin’s thigh, which catches Colin off guard.
Predictably, Colin has Adam keep going

That’s great!

Ryan: “oh, ya had too much done”
Ryan and Colin: [friendly laughing]

Colin: “d’you wanna see the…space-bay?”
Adam: [audible laughter]
Ryan: “the house has a SPACE BAY?”
Colin, barely together: “yeah, it has a shuttle, c’mon..”

Colin: “c’mon, we’ll take the escalator”
and…this reaction always gets me:


Colin was NOT PREPARED FOR THAT. It’s like the reaction to the jetpack from Improv-a-Ganza
Ryan, smartly: “I took the elevator”

Colin has Ryan lie down on Wayne as a bed, and has Adam become a duvet.

The best part of this is you can hear Wayne giggling audibly as Adam comes down.

Ryan, as Adam gets up: “wow, I think it popped a spring!”
PFFF

Even funnier, as Aisha buzzes, Ryan points at Wayne on the floor and goes, bringing it back ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP, “AND THE TURKEY’S DONE!” Good lord.

Wayne, in hugging Adam, says “god, you were so game, thank you.” I triple-taked cause I didn’t hear the hard ‘m’ there.

Very, very good living scenery, mostly because Adam was a strong support and went right into what was needed, and the game was torturing Wayne mostly. Any one of these where you can tell they’re gonna start laughing at any second is a good one, and any one of these where the celebrity guest isn’t detrimental to the game is also good.

Aisha: “that’s what improv is about, commitment.”
Ryan: “oh, it is?”
HA

Scenes from a Hat:

The decision to end on SFAH, despite that game being a solid ender, raised eyebrows around the WatchWLIIATonight chat when this went out. Spence 12Medbe himself was confused and frustrated by getting SFAH now, especially considering that World’s Worst was already in this show. And then the game actually began.

“Pick-up lines in the zoo.”
Wayne: “hey, sweetheart, I’m hung like a me!”
Colin: “NAY.”
AMAZING

Gary: “I’m an african tiger, baby, and I ain’t…lion.”
Wayne: “ooh, you said that with pride!”
These are really fun

Ryan and Colin do one that Colin’s chuckling as he comes down for, where they just…seductively throw poo at each other. Ryan’s brief moments of getting off are great, and you can see Colin shaking his head

Wayne, having Colin as a monkey again: “hey girl, can I get some of that organgu-tang?”
JESUS CHRIST

“Bad things to say as you’re being arrested.”
Ryan: “you might have missed something, I’m just saying, search me again….there’s places you haven’t LOOKED yet..”

Wayne’s chuckling as he does the siren, for Gary: “anything you say is gonna be bad…”
And then he goes up and hugs Elizabeth again. Bringing the gag, and the show, to a close.

Decent SFAH. The animal round was ridiculous.

Overall: Solid guest show overall backed by a classic runner with the Black History Month stuff. That all being said, it was also a strong show for both Wayne and Gary, with the former being a standout in all his games, and the latter making himself known past the usual confines of a fourth seater, assisting from the sidelines and having great lines in games he’s usually not the focus. Adam was a great guest star who got the show, was up for whatever and was a great support in Living Scenery. This show had an outstanding round of Mixed Messages, turning that from a new idea with decent perks to a game fans would routinely enjoy, and great quickfire rounds to sweeten the pot late. Not to the VERY heights of this season, but a pretty great show that’s fondly remembered for the right reasons.

Show Winner: Colin
Best Performer: Wayne Brady. Dude was on fire all night.
Worst Performer: Ryan brought the least to this show, I guess.
Best Game: Mixed Messages. A full scene, with so many movement parts, a working ‘game’, and the immortal obsession with Black History Month by Elizabeth.
Worst Game: Gosh, nothing in this show was what I’d call bad. I guess World’s Worst was the most hit/miss, but even that one was still good.
Guest Star Rating: 9/10. Adam was in a good mood, added the right amount of effort to both games and didn’t overexert himself. He has a Dubbing coming in a few seasons, I recall that being the same quality.

COMING UP NEXT: A HEATHER GUESTLESS SHOW. FUCKING HUZZAH.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E05, or My Bungalow’s On Fire

Seasonal Code: S15E05
Production Number: 708
CW Seasonal Code: S15E05

For our first journey to the ever-flowing backlog of Season 15, we go all the way back to Season 10. There’s still some material to be farmed from there, and the current run of S10 tapings going on in S19 is proof of that. Kinda odd to see them going on this early, though.

So we go back to the Brad Sherwood taping of S10, which gave us two decent-to-meh guest shows, and nothing else to this point. There were some interesting games that were left in this taping, a few of which air here.

It’s off-putting to hear too-excited Aisha openings in the middle of lower-tone Aisha openings.

Aisha, with her experience at E3, does give the contestants some video game-inspired intros, like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Bioshock Infinite.

Questions Only: On a Romantic Singles Cruise

Wayne, as an irish cop: “would ya like ta see my nightstick?”
Brad: “Is that the same as a shalalee?”
Wayne: “…or a billy-club?”
[…]
Brad: “is that a question?”
Wayne, on the edge: “didn’t my inflection push it over the top?”
Aisha, buzzing: “NO.”

Colin comes up in a fish hat
Brad: “are you a goldfish-snack or a goldfish-fish?”
Colin: “would it make a difference?”
Brad: “not really.”
BUZZ

Ryan comes up in this mask:

And has this very silly, Charles Nelson Reilly but more effeminate type voice
Colin: “what the hell are you?”
Ryan: “Are you Gary Barber?”
Colin: [cracks and leaves]

Wayne, in a roman helmet: “would you like to see my horse?”
Ryan: “your TRRROJAN HORSE?”
That voice is always gonna work for me

Wayne and Ryan’s scene has the most amiable back and forth. I like Wayne asking if a hit to the boat is ‘POSEIDON’S WRATH?”
Ryan, suddenly sexy again: “can you feel that?”
Wayne: “are you a woman?”
Ryan, who realizes it’s an exit line midway through: “you’ll never knnooOOOOOOOOW…”
PFFFF

Brad enters with a snake-head hat
Wayne: “have you ever seen a black mamba?”
Brad, with wordplay activated: “does that cost extra?”
HA!
Wayne cracks and leaves

Colin arrives in a lady’s turban
Brad: “are you wearing a thong?”
Colin: “on my HEAD?”
Brad: [exits]

Ryan, using something other than a hat to do a character, arrives as the captain, stumbling: “c’n you tell me where da bridge is?”
Colin: “is it true you go down with the ship?”
Ryan: “WHO’S ASKIN?”
Colin: “have you been drinking?”
Ryan, suddenly: “d’you like this?”

Colin: “WHY would I like that?”
Ryan: “DO YOU?”
Ryan’s just showing off this game

An extremely good Questions to start us off, a lot more fully formed and scene-centric than a lot of Questions playings. Ryan was cracking everybody up.

Aisha, as this was Brad’s first game of his first taping back, welcomes him back to the show. She remarks it’s nice to have other tall non-Ryan people around, but Wayne reminds her that Colin’s 6’2.
Ryan: “I’ve got SHOES that are 6’2…”

Award Show: Wayne and Brad present the award for tough cops to Ryan and Colin

Last award show playing to date. Also, the subject matter of tough cops was a little iffy in July 2019, as there were currently ICE raids happening.

I like the prompter-reading sarcasm to start, especially an at-gunpoint Wayne saying “I say thumbs-up to our men and women in blue”

The ‘kidding the audience portion’ continues with Brad dubbing two audience members “Sgt. Desmond Mudflaps and Detective Spankwell Truehammer”

“…for their undercover work at a Kings of Leon concert”
that’s such a good joke. The guy on the right LOVES it

Wayne: “Officer Jenkins and Officer Jenkins, no relation”
This is just a funny shot. The lighting makes it.

I love how Colin arrests someone as he comes down to the stage
Wayne, as award shows have changed in 13 years: “This is Officer Jenkins’ first nomination…”
And Colin just throttles the guy as he accepts the award

Ryan has the genius move of getting to the stage and patting down Wayne.
Wayne: “BUT I’M ON THE SHOW.”
He finishes, and goes to Brad and says “you’re good.”
Glad they’re not afraid to make fun of cops, even in 2014
Wayne gets an idea and lies down:

“How does it feel, bitch?”

Ryan: “lot of people don’t appreciate what the two of us do on a daily basis…travel in a car together, hot…sweaty…”
Colin has an incredible move in just…shaking his head. Nonverbal, and terrific.

Colin: “we are here to make sure you can walk the streets” LOOKS AT WAYNE
Ryan: [tases Wayne]
JESUS
Wayne: “you just TASED me.”
Colin: “yeah, well if you can still talk it didn’t work right…”

Unfortunately the scene ends there rather than going into these characters and the award more, but I will say that to this point this was a really damned good game of Award Show, and pretty much every line and move worked. One of my favorites aside from the Bitter Divorce one.

Aisha gives points to “Sgt. Mudflaps”
Ryan: “one of the Beatles’ lesser known albums..”
HA

World’s Worst: Thing to say on a Cooking Show

Brad: “to properly tenderize the steak, you must beat your meat for approx. 20 minutes.”
Ryan: “the blender doesn’t seem to be working” [pauses…unzips]
I love Aisha’s audible cries against this one.

He finally leaves.
Brad:

“…I’m not eating that..”

Colin: ‘the rhinoceros, when excited, can get an erection up to two feet….just a fact…”

Ryan, simply: “heeeeeere kittykittykittykitty”
Brad: “I’m DEFINITELY NOT eating that…”

Colin, almost like a Mock the Week gag: “welcome to Cooking on a Hot Air Balloon…today we have shish-kabo-[thrusts upward]…aww, are you KIDDING?”

Decent WW. Lots of easy ones, and some nice bizarre ones courtesy mostly of Ryan.

IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN: Brad and Colin are two construction workers are on site; Ryan enters as their coworker who is late for work

IYKWIM RETURNS. As much shit as I’ve given this game, it was very nice to see this game return after a long layaway [if you know what I mean].

Both Ryan and Colin have a ‘goddammit’ expression as they come down for this one

Brad: “I’m gonna have to expect your wood, if you know what I mean.”
Colin: “go ahead, my rivets are overheatin’……if you know what I mean.”
AND THE GAME OF THE SCENE IS INTACT

Colin: “I’m just gonna get my jackhammer and vibrate like a kangaroo if you know what I mean”
WE CUT NOW TO SOMEONE WHO’S NEVER SEEN THIS GAME PLAYED LIVE:

Perfect

Colin, after Ryan enters: “it’s nice to see someone new on my erection, if you know what I mean.”
It ALWAYS WORKS

Brad: “I see your tool is down to the floor, if you know what I mean”
Ryan: “well, I’m out of caulking if you know what I mean”
Brad: “it’s hard to find a good caulk nowadays…the grouting.”
Ryan: “oh, I know what you mean.”
When Ryan and Brad go back and forth in this game, it’s excellent, and fluid. Colin just knows he has to permeate that.
and so
Colin: “I’m as happy as a lactating platypus if you know what I mean.”

Perfect

Ryan: “I can’t seem to find a stud, if you know what I mean.”
Colin, again not fitting: “I’ll get my stud-finder!”
Brad and Wayne loves this. Wayne’s howling in the back
Colin: “If you k-”
Ryan: “I GET WHAT YOU MEAN!”

Ryan: “I’m into the duplexes if you know what I mean..”
Colin, trying to match that: “My bungalow’s on fire if you know what I mean.”
GOOD LORD
I love that the second Aisha buzzes, Colin immediately breaks character, shakes his head and goes ‘what?’. Like even HE couldn’t understand what he was doing

Dear god. I think that might be one of the best IYKWIM games to make it on. The game of the scene is the same every time, but Colin’s bad ones were so ridiculous this time, and were so well-timed to screw the other guys over. ‘My bungalow’s on fire’ is such a silly one.

Colin remarks that the term ‘lactating platypus’ is “very popular in Australia”

Sideways Scene: Basketball players Colin and Brad are having a one-on-one when Wayne enters as their rival who challenges them to a game

I bet this game is easier to enjoy when it’s not being played every other show

I love that Ryan applauds because he doesn’t have to play this one.

Colin remarks at the top of the scene that “I’d be much easier to play if we had a ball”, and one conveniently rolls up to Brad.
Brad: “it was in that gopher hole.”

Brad is able to do a pretty great dunking move, as he’s no stranger to this game, having done it on the road with Colin sporadically over the years.

Wayne enters with a very amusing Russian accent

Sci-fi film style:

Brad: “I AM STUCK IN THE LASER VORTEX.”
This is all very silly, but Colin has a move that pushes it over the edge:

Colin: “I’M STUCK IN A BLACK HOLE.”
What a shot. Poor Wayne. Just…defeated.

Other than a few choice moments, basically the same as most Sideways Scene games, but it was at least fun.

Greatest Hits: Songs of Grandparents

The double edged sword is that there’s two more GH songs ready to air, but WL fans would have to stomach having another episode that ends with GH.

The dueling Elvises number is great, mostly because Wayne’s Elvis is as good as ever here, and he’s even able to do great Elvis singing with no teeth.

Noticeably, one of Brad’s verses was cut.

Decent number overall, if not the most funny.

Colin sets up another unconventional duet of ‘Willie Nelson & The Incredible Hulk”, which is just a funny idea. A lot like ‘Bob Dylan and the Swedish Chef’. As Colin says, “one is green, one SMOKES green..”

Colin: ‘so sit back and enjoy this lovely song, ‘I Never Really Loved Your Grandma”
THE AUDIENCE IS TAKEN ABACK

I actually love this one a lot. Wayne turns into the Hulk because Brad, as Willie Nelson, keeps singing over his cues. And it turns into “he’s getting mad because I’m being mean to your granny”. It keeps all the elements in mind
Brad: “…he’s ripped off his clothes, and I think he might beat up my fanny…”

This is so silly, Brad trying to do a calm Willie Nelson number while Wayne..

…what a goof

Wayne’s singing as the Hulk, while similar to his bigfoot singing from a few seasons ago, is still really funny and makes this worth it. I love the part where he tries to get in tune and does a very silly professional note as the Hulk

The second the number ends, Wayne just bursts into laughter, shaking his head as he heads back.

Not a god-tier GH, but that last number is a really silly one that I like.

Overall: When I first watched this one, I thought it was one of the weaker ones of this season. As I was going through it today, and saw games like Questions, Award Show and IYKWIM, I wondered why I’d thought it was so bad, but really, this isn’t a bad show as much as it’s weighed down by a lot of very okay stuff. You gave games like Sideways Scene and Greatest Hits, which feel more obligatory than anything despite funny moments, you have a great round of Award Show that’s too short, and your best games of the night are crapshoots that went really well like Questions and IYKWIM. So while I don’t think it’s as bad as I thought before, I can see what kept me from calling this one a classic. Yes, game selection makes up a lot of the work, but just because we haven’t seen Sideways Scene in a while doesn’t mean it’s a great game. Good news is Brad had a lot to do here, and we got to see him in his element in Greatest Hits and IYKWIM.

Show Winners: Colin and Ryan
Best Performer: Ryan was in a very fun mood tonight, especially early.
Worst Performer: Colin was kinda deferential this show.
Best Game: If You Know What I Mean. It felt classic.
Worst Game: Sideways Scene, despite the black hole line.
Should It Have Aired in S10?: I honestly think so, it would have been a breath of fresh air around all the mandated, guest-y ones.

COMING UP NEXT: We open up the Gary Anthony Williams taping from S15 to introduce an Olympian guest star.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E04, or I Forgot to Mention the Snakes

Seasonal Code: S15E04
Production Number: 715
CW Seasonal Code: S15E04

One of my favorite fun facts about Charles Esten is that, since his acting career has taken off again beyond the occasional role in a Kevin Costner movie, he’s reestablished the Charles in his name, and sort of retired going by ‘Chip Esten’. Except…for when he does improv. Here, on his return to WL as a fourth seater, he is Chip again. If you look at his Twitter bio, it says his characters, y’know, Deacon on Nashville, Ward from OBX, Josh from Stamford from the Office…Chip from Whose Line.

Which means Charles Esten is the first ever WL performer to do the show IN CHARACTER. Literally. He’s basically saying when he improvises he’s playing the character of Chip Esten. A lot like Stephen Colbert played the character of ‘Stephen Colbert’ when he hosted the Colbert Report, or Tim Heidecker playing the character of ‘Tim Heidecker’ on On Cinema. Except here, Chip Esten is a character…who plays all these other characters. So it’s a lot more complicated. 

Still, for Chip Esten’s first show back as Chip Esten, we get a guest appearance from Elizabeth Gillies, a former child star and was the main name on the CW’s Dynasty reboot, which literally just ended. Gillies is best known to people my age as Jade from Victorious, alongside Victoria Justice and some redheaded italian who could sing. I didn’t think much of this booking when I heard it, but then…I watched. And I got it.

For the record, this is what Chip looks like in his first taping in 18 years:

Yeah, embracing the full brawny, country music guy persona. Or, alternatively, the North Carolina-set teen soap baddie look.

Weird Newscasters: Colin anchors, Chip, Kermit the Frog who’s had too much coffee, co-anchors, Ryan, an Indiana Jones movie in 30 seconds, does sports while Wayne, the history of music, does weather

Finally, movies Ryan HAS seen

Colin: “welcome to the 6:00 news, I’m your anchor, Duncan…your…chickens before they…hatched.”
A RARE MISS FROM COLIN. Even CHIP gives him a look
Colin: “…lost confidence halfway through…”

Colin figures out his top story a little way in: “something new has been added to the periodic table, designated as Ah, it is, of course, the element of surprise.”
YES
[faint Wayne giggle]
Chip:

Part of him missed this, I reckon. Connie Britton is great but she doesn’t do puns.

Chip’s Kermit, I think with the years, now sounds more like Ray Romano, but he does nail the wild flailing:

Perfect

And then Chip just returns to the stool like nothing happened. Colin has a brief chuckle.
Chip: “…it’s not easy being caffeinated..”

Colin: “now let’s see what’s happening in the world of sports, with Puck Nightly, Puck?”
Ryan is NOT PREPARED FOR THAT NAME, and stops cold to just register: “Puck Nightly, thank you.”

I love the little ‘doot-do-doooo’ theme Ryan does when he whips across the stage. He…doesn’t remember the Indiana Jones theme apparently

I also love proof that he’s seen Raiders of the Lost Ark with some random melting faces thrown in

Wayne’s is pretty incredible, doing a fluid throughline from cavemen learning to clap and make rhythm to church singing, covering jazz, early soul, doo-wop, disco, rap and hip hop. It’s not a ha-ha funny one, but Wayne is just really impressive at making it feel like a natural progression.

Then, as Colin wraps up, Ryan: “I FORGOT SNAKES!”
PFFFF. At least it occurs to him

A pretty concise, tight WN, which probably explains why it was out first. More impressive than funny in parts, but good.

Aisha: “you did, you forgot snakes.”
Chip, getting up: “let’s do it again..”

Duet: Wayne and Chip sing a Cabaret number with Elizabeth about lactation consultants

Wayne gets someone from the audience to give their profession so they can make a sexy song about it, and a woman confidently admits she’s a lactation consultant. Chip, however, hears ‘taxation consultant’. All those years touring have blown out his ears, perhaps. So Elizabeth has to go ‘no, LACTATION’, and he gets it and laughs hard.

Now, Elizabeth is very game this episode, and you can see her agree to sing a bit, saying “if it feels right I’ll hop on in”, while already shaking her head on the concept. Chip’s still kinda gone.

Wayne’s opening: “it’s that time, I feel my hormones jumping
Time to open wide, get these mammaries pumping.”
Perfect. Also, Chip and Liz are doing great backup already.

Wayne: “Now I don’t know, the end result
How do I work these, who will CONSULT?”
Oh that’s great

So one of the things I love about this song is the staging and blocking. When Chip starts his verse, we get this position:

Liz is just…down there, matching Chip, and it’s a really cool, symmetrical shot. Also, you can tell a queer person by the way they sit down

Liz, by the way, is trying to keep composure during Chip’s first verse, which is funny because of, like usual, his lyricism, rhyming scary with ‘talking bout the dairy’. 

Chip: “I don’t know, I don’t know, where my wife went…”
And then disaster strikes. Chip has a rhyme. He just doesn’t know how to get there. In the meantime, Liz, being somewhat adept at improv, takes Chip’s gift and casts herself as the wife, going ‘HERE I AM’.
Chip just keeps the void and gets to his eventual rhyme, “TWO PER-CENT.”

One of the things I’ve always struggled with in this game, that may not be completely to its detriment, is how it deviates from the 4/4 time Laura and Linda are in. It’s a lot more free-flowing, overlapping over bars, kind of like a rap flow. And because I’m very particular and strict about time signatures and things, it always sounds a little off to me, like it doesn’t flow normally. But I think it just speaks to these performers containing the idea while not worrying about sticking exactly to the time signature. Which is fine.

It does sort of turn into Wayne and Chip being lactation consultants…who mostly consult Liz because she’s the only woman there. Liz even goes “Since I’m the only one here who can do it…I’m gonna keep it a secret.”
AND THEN WAYNE AND CHIP TURN THEIR CHAIRS AROUND AND THIS BECOMES THE GAME OF THE SCENE. Two men begging a woman to tell them how to lactate. THAT is funny.
And what’s great about this is that the back-and-forth turns into this sort of musical staccato that almost feels scripted. Liz saying “alright”, then shifting back to “NO.” It’s so good

Chip: “what could it harm, I once lived on a farm.”
PFFF
Liz: “YOU DID? Well this makes things very different.”
I don’t know if this is coming across but Liz is actually a natural in improv scenes. Look, I guess if you come up in the Dan Schneider school of acting, you get a lot of extra classes on extraneous skills like improv, having a secondary career, and staying the hell away from Dan Schneider.

Wayne: “does it have a battery, pump automatic
hanging to my knees, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC”
I know Chip is the most well-known lyricist here but Wayne’s doing some awesome ones

Very fun moment after Liz covers Wayne’s questions, she turns to Chip and asks him if he has a question. He literally goes ‘HM’ in time with the music. This is just insanely fun

Chip, after taking a beat: “trying to think what won’t…get me SUED..”
HAAA. Liz loves this too. 
After Wayne does another chorus, Chip finally thinks of one
“When you have a baby, are you allowed to laugh
can you put the baby on both, is it half and half?”
PFFF
Liz: “USUALLY…YOU JUST PICK ONE
The better one, you know, you can tell which one”
Also, this is the point where Colin just keels over, facepalming

Wayne just keeps pushing the silliness:
“when you have a baby it comes out smooth like silk
and if you’re dark like me, do you make CHOCOLATE MILK?”
Jesus Wayne. The game is just that men know nothing about birthing and they’re coming off more and more ignorant, and Liz GETS that. Also, she LOVES this move by Wayne
I also love that Chip knows that’s the exact moment the go right back into the chorus, and it’s a great ending.

So yeah. Fantastic song number. Similar to S13’s kindergarten teacher duet, this one had a very specific game, of Wayne and Chip knowing nothing about lactation, and Liz being the sultry but very rational consultant telling them how they’re wrong. Liz was extremely good at keeping up with them, even if, yes, she did get thrown once or twice. I love this one, and I think it’s one of the best guest singing games of the CW run.

Dubbing: Husband and wife pop duo Colin and Elizabeth, voice by Ryan, are working on some new dance moves, when suddenly Elizabeth’s jealous ex-boyfriend Wayne enters to show that he deserves to be in the group

Already, Liz is willing and able to get into a squabbling match with Colin without even using her own voice. And even THAT’s funny.

Colin suggests they do some of their ‘old dance moves’
Ryan: “oh Jerry, do you think you still have it?”
Colin: “shut up.”
HA

As Liz dances, Ryan adds in this…almost Bobby McFerrin esque vocalizing of music that also sounds like the yelps of pain from the Tinashe Dubbing.

This has very similar beats to typical Dubbing scenes, and it’s not especially funny so far.

What is funny, though, is the almost rhythmic ‘RENALDO NO NO RENALDO DON’T TELL HIM’ Ryan cries out as Wayne’s about to admit their fling, and how into it Liz gets. It’s even funnier when Wayne joins in. I also love how Colin sees they’re doing this and mimes taking a drink.
Even funnier, Ryan just starts going, almost sing-songy, ‘RENALDO, RENALDO’, and Liz starts HOPPING. Again, she’s in on the silliness of it.

Ryan, finally: “Renaldo and I slept together about 3 years ago.”
Wayne: “…and about 2 years ago. AND about 1 year ago.”
Ryan: “THAT’S WHAT I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO TELL HIM”
Wayne: “And about 6 months ago!”
Colin, perfectly: “don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.”
BOOM
And the funny thing is, that’s where we end! We don’t even do the dance-off ending, we just end on that high.

Not a perfect scene. It allowed itself to be goofy after a bit and then it was better, but honestly it didn’t really go anywhere. Also feels like it ended too early. But, fine Dubbing, Liz and Ryan together made it even funnier than it had any right to be.

Ryan: “I forgot the snakes again.”

Scenes from a Hat:

“Odd things to say in a sexy voice”
Colin, which comes after a Ryan up to the camera one so the camera’s still repositioning, which is funny: “…I forgot to mention the snakes.”
YES

Aisha, breasting boobily: “ladies and gentlemen, the next game is entitled…SCENES FROM A HAAAAT..”

Wayne might have the funniest one: “uhuh…push, Mrs. Johnson…”
Chip, on his heels: “…let’s make a DEEEEALL…”
Wayne, nodding: “that’s how I say it…”

Ryan:

“…WHERE DID THAT DOCTOR GO?”
Wayne, entering: “PUSH, MRS. JOHNSON.”
Ryan: “OOOH! AAAH!”
Somehow, Ryan wins the battle to see who cracks up the other

Chip, doing what I figured someone was gonna start with: “…I’m your lactation consultant..”
10/10

“Inappropriate times to burst into laughter”
Wayne: “Push, Mrs. Johnson…oh…heeheeheehee…”
Colin: [grabs it and shoves it back up himself]
Is that just his go-to move?

Colin, once he gets back to the step: “…Do you know any other names?”
I love this move. Just points out the one-dimensionality of improv surnames. Ryan is guilty of using Jim, or Phil.

Wayne, coming back up with Colin: “Push, Mrs. SMITH.”
Like that’s a step upwards. I took an improv class once, and one guy’s go-to surname was Henderson, and it got to the point where a few scenes later and he goes with Henderson again and it’s getting recognition laughter. 
Colin, of course: “I’m Mrs. JOHNSON!”

Wayne: “Aisha, will you make me the happiest man in the world?”
Aisha: “BAAAHAHAHAHAHA”
Wayne’s just kneeling awkwardly. Ryan comes in
Wayne: “MRS. JOHNSON?”
Ryan: “YES?”
This is so good

An extremely good SFAH, with the Johnson bit just flowing throughout wonderfully, like a full story was happening here. I am saddened that Chip wasn’t as much of a part of this, but his ones were at least funny

Living Scenery: Ryan and Colin are two hunters in the Arctic who have to make shelter when a blizzard hits; Wayne and Elizabeth are props

Colin remarks, at the top of the scene: “the arctic, nothing around for miles”. As a way of saying ‘man, it’s gonna be hard to find things to make props out of in this scene’. Nobody in the audience gets this til Wayne gives an audible chuckle, which gets Ryan to cast Wayne as a seal
Colin: “Two seals…OH I FORGOT, IT’S MATING SEASON.”
From the getgo, Liz is gonna go through the wringer. Liz crawls over to Wayne, thinks about what she can get away with on national TV, and then crawls away
Ryan: “they’re so confused!”
Colin: “unfortunately, that’s why the seal population’s dying out…”

Ryan and Colin use Liz and Wayne as an igloo. Colin has a pause, as Liz’s chest is against his back.
Ryan: “…you don’t wanna go anywhere do you?”

Colin: “you know what, why don’t we have a big icehole?”
Ryan, who’s seen this show: “…ICEHOLE?”

Colin uses Liz as a drill, who does the drilling by tapping her feet
Ryan: “hey, slow down with that.”
Colin: “NO…..”
And he just continues. That gets Ryan

The bit where Ryan catches Wayne as a fish, and gets Colin to hit it with a club, and Elizabeth just…KICKS AT WAYNE. That’s great. We haven’t had a guest kick the shit out of Wayne in a while. Ryan has her keep going, too. Liz just pushes him down
Wayne: “…thank you…”
Ryan: “I coulda sworn that fish said ‘thank you’..”
Colin: “well, they’re very polite this time of year…”

Ryan suggests they put their parkas on, and Liz just hops onto Colin’s shoulders.
Colin: “I don’t have to, my parka knows when I need it..”

Ryan, knowing the scene needs to end, suggests he and Colin dig their own graves. You can see Liz’s head hang down, not expecting that
Colin: “boy, this took a turn for the worse!”
Chip goes down in the back.
Colin: “well, you dig yours, I’m still feeling confident…”

Ryan then casts Wayne as a snowmobile
Colin, in a line that would be funny even without context: “NOW do you have the will to live?”

The end of the scene is, as both Wayne and Liz will be snowmobiles, Colin looks at Ryan and Ryan initiates rock paper scissors over who gets Liz. It’s a very funny ending. 

A pretty good Living Scenery. A few beats reminiscent of earlier playings, but just the way Ryan and Colin went about this one, and that ending quarter, set it apart from other playings.

Colin, to Ryan: “let’s kill ourselves.”
Chip: “WE SHOULD PROBABLY DIG OUR OWN GRAVE..”
Colin: “that’s what it’s like going out for a weekend with this guy…”
I’m amused at how that was the takeaway. Just Ryan going nihilistic all of the sudden

Hoedown: Roommate v1

Wayne’s is a simple one about having a ton of roommates, about 400. “All my roommates live with me in prison.”

Colin also talks about having a ton of roommates in a small space
“It really is so horrible, it really makes me squirm,
I’ve got thousands of them…….I’m a sperm.”
I think the theme of this episode is just pausing til the rhyme. Also, very classic hoedown verse from Colin.

Chip: “when I look back at all the money that I spent
I had to get a roommate, someone to split the rent”
He puts an arm around Colin here

Colin’s just confused
Chip: “It really is a pain, living with him there
At least in the shower, the drain’s not full of hair.”
Of course, another vicious bald slam from Chip. Colin’s reaction is perfect, just an over-the-top fake laugh, before pointing at Chip and going “THIS GUY.” Just failing to give Chip the angry reaction he expects

Ryan’s is cool because he you can tell the moment he realizes A.) the punchline, and B.) why it’s gonna work. So he’s talking about having a strange roommate, and he smiles and nearly cracks when he says “why he calls me ‘mother’, it doesn’t make much sense
I guess that’s what happens when your roommate is Mike Pence.”
AMAZING. And what makes it funnier is that while Chip went and slammed Colin, Ryan used his verse to slam Chip in a way, because Chip-sorry, CHARLES is a noted Republican voter. They use the wide shot, so Chip doesn’t have much of a response to it other than a chuckle. What’s he gonna do, DISPUTE that Mike Pence called his wife ‘mother’? He did do that, THAT isn’t fake news. It’s a lot like when Rob Smigel wrote an Operaman for Adam Sandler after Sandler voted for Trump, and included some Trump jokes that Sandler still had to sort of nod through, like ‘yeah, figures’. 
Also, notice how, once the verse ends, Colin looks over at both Ryan AND Chip, just making sure Chip’s not gonna strangle anybody. 

Pretty solid Hoedown. I think the second Hoedown from this taping is a bit more memorable. I remember hearing in a taping report that Colin had a verse referencing ‘dig my own grave’ from Living Scenery, and I’m puzzled as to why that didn’t make this show, even if his verse would do. Dig My Grave is a nice late-show gag that could have persisted, like the Helping Hands where Colin spilled coffee on himself coming back in that show’s Hoedown. But as is, it’s pretty good.

Overall: When I first watched this show in 2019, I thought this was a 10/10 show and called it the strongest one of the season. While this is an extremely strong show, I wouldn’t say it’s perfect. There are some games that are thinner than others, and I really think a game should have been cut so that everything would have flowed as well as something like Duet, SFAH or Living Scenery. And even if you do cut something like WN, you lose some of the prominent Chip material in this, which he doesn’t have a ton of. I think that this is a solid show, but it’s hurt by trying to accomplish so much while also having all 3 guest games, as well as hindsight knowledge as the rest of this taping’s material has come out.

My problems lie not with Elizabeth Gillies, she was a phenomenal guest who made for a really damned good Duet and a great improv support. Liz got what made each game funny and helped lean into it rather than detracting, and she did exceptionally well from a comedy standpoint in that Duet, as a contrast to Wayne and Chip. I just wish that the insistence on having all three of her games, which were all pretty good, didn’t hamper this show’s ability to deliver 6 games and still have room for, like, improv. 

All things aside, this is still a very good show, with great games like Scenes from a Hat, Living Scenery and Hoedown, and that killer Duet that I think is a career high. It’s just not as perfect as I remember.

Show Winner: Wayne
Best Performer: Wayne Brady did the most impressive stuff all night, and had fun moves in every game.
Worst Performer: Unfortunately, Chip had the least amount of screentime of the four, and ultimately the least to do. I did enjoy pretty much every second he was onscreen, but it was a fragment of show compared to everyone else.
Best Game: Duet, without a shadow of a doubt.
Worst Game: Dubbing had some fun points but felt like it was missing its second half.
Guest Star Rating: 10, Liz didn’t skip a beat this show, and enhanced all 3 of her games.

COMING UP NEXT: Back into the backlog we go, for a Brad episode from all the way back in SEASON 10. Some vintage games here as well.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E03, or Come Here, Get Moist

Seasonal Code: S15E03
Production Number: 720
CW Seasonal Code: S15E03

Our first taste of S15’s Jonathan Mangum taping is a guestless show, which is a kind gesture from the producers.

Ryan is asleep for the intros, and finally wakes up as Aisha comes down and starts the show

Hollywood Director: Ryan is an heroic Jedi Knight teaching his young apprentice Jonathan some lightsaber skills when Wayne appears as various other characters in Star Wars

Colin is back as director this season.

Ryan: “Jedi Knight from…STAR TREK.”
PFFF. And so it continues
Aisha: “you’ve never seen…ANY of these things…”

The first scene, it’s interesting seeing how the two improv mentalities of Jonathan and Ryan mix. Jonathan is playing this like a game of Forward Rewind, being very conscious of what he’s saying. Ryan is going for jokes.

Wayne suddenly comes onstage doing a very bad Yoda impression, which cracks up him and Jonathan. Jonathan does a force move that kills him. So we’re loose.

Wayne throws in a bunch at once, including Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and a jetpack that no one gets that he has to specify ‘boba fett’, before Colin enters

Colin: “that was so bad, Mexico offered to build a wall around it.”
28!
Wayne: “but who’s gonna PAY for it?”
Colin: “…they’re doin it…”

Colin: “alright, do it like frat boys.”
Ryan: “WHAT?”
Colin: “FRAT BOYS.”
Ryan: “I thought you said FAT boys..”
[this cracks up the side]
Colin: “…your choice..”

Jonathan, thankfully to his own water:

Then Jonathan tries crushing a ‘beer can’ on his head and slams a water glass against his forehead. YOU CAN HEAR THE AUDIBLE SMACK. You can hear Aisha’s immediate concern. How many times is Jonathan gonna hurt himself on this show? Yes, he’s a fearless, durable performer, but there’s so many moments on the show where Jonathan gets injured hilariously. I’m not saying I have a problem with it, though.
Ryan: “WHY WOULD YA DO THAT, MAN?”
PFFF

Then, suddenly, Wayne: “I’VE GOT THE FORCE!”

And Ryan, as usual, immediately turns away and goes ‘no..’, disgusted. I love that this always throws him. Also, OBVIOUS BULGE. GOING OUT AT 8/7C ON THE CW. But god forbid you say ‘balls’.
Ryan, as Wayne exits, is just going ‘WHYYY’

Jonathan gives Wayne a slow clap as he returns to the stage
Colin: “…there’s really nothing to say, let’s move on…”

Colin suggests they do it ‘really sexy, AND TOUCH EACH OTHER INAPPROPRIATELY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN”
Ryan, as it’s 2019: “WHAT??”
And then Ryan, as Colin exits:

It’s a moment that not a lot of people notice, but Ryan just casually grabs Colin’s dick as he exits. Going ‘THANK YOU’. Colin can’t help but laugh at that

This bit is…so fucking silly. Jonathan and Ryan feeling each other up while trying not to break. Wayne coming in, sitting in Jonathan’s chair and doing a Jabba the Hutt impression, which cracked ME up. And then Ryan giving him a lap dance.

Very funny, but, and I have to be the analyst here, not much of an improv scene. It was really just a series of performers trying to throw each other, and there wasn’t a lot of focus on making a scene and keeping something going. The initial scene couldn’t stay together, the styles were funny but not great improv, and it just felt messy. It was still funny, but it’s just a picture of how this show has gone away from actual improv since 1988.

Wayne: “I’m so happy I lotioned my legs.”
Ryan: “you’re welcome by the way”

Sound Effects: Ryan and Colin are two cops patrolling a casino which is suddenly raided by a gang of Russian criminals

Ryan makes a note of how nothing in the casino is making any sound, so Karen starts making a thumping, whistling kind of noise
Ryan: “ya hear that? Old Spitter’s firin’ up..”
Colin, shaking his head: “this casino has gone DOWNHILL..”
Blame sports betting apps

I love Ryan trying roulette and Gracie doing this babbling noise, which Ryan wasn’t expecting. “Someone spilled a drink on it.”

Colin receives a message on his walkie, and it’s Karen doing this…bizarre, near-Chinese nonsense talk
Ryan: “is it from Charlie Brown’s teacher?”
HA

I do love the moment Karen works out an actual word [10:00], and you see Ryan and Colin snap into place. Ryan’s just going “TEN O’CLOCK” in the same read as “HELEN *FROZE*?”
Colin: [checks watch]
Ryan: “no not the TIME, they’re tellin’ us where they are..”

Ryan prompts them to do Russian dialogue, and Gracie does some, to her credit, pretty good fake-Russian.
Colin: “That one’s a KLINGON!”
HA

I love Ryan responding to Grace’s gun-cocking noise by wiping himself off. “EVERYTHING’S WET AROUND HERE.” I…really love this game
Colin: “This is the DAMPEST CASINO IN TOWN. That’s their slogan, ‘come here, get moist!”

Colin tries shooting a guy with a bow and arrow, and Karen adds a ‘PING!’
Ryan, cleverly: “oh, they just fell in love!”
I love that move so much

Then, Karen does a very spirited alarm noise
Ryan:

“…that’s the gayest alarm I’ve ever heard in my life..”

My biggest laugh from this one is Ryan calling for help on his walkie, and Gracie answering in her fake Russian, causing Ryan and Colin to instantaneously panic. Again, audience members with comedic timing!
I also love Ryan cracking up trying to figure this out. “They’re on the wrong channel..”

Then, after Gracie responds with more gibberish
Ryan: “…what the hell’s going on with people around here?”

They end with a ‘sleeping gas grenade’, which Colin calls “one of the loudest weapons I have”, and true to form, Karen does give a big, good sound effect here, throwing them both off. It’s a very silly end to this.

GREAT Sound Effects. So many funny bits, lots of great responses and two very game audience members.

Ryan, saying goodbye to the ladies, compliments them both on the voice of the Russians

Moving People: Colin and Wayne; worldwide shortage of italian food

[oh no, how will they be able to play the Italian Eating Song?]

Like last show, I like they keep in the inside-baseball that is Wayne explaining to his mover, Josh, how the game works.

You don’t get a lot of moments where Aisha singles out an audience member who gave a good response, mostly because most of the parts of her getting a response from the audience are redone in pickups, but I love her responding to the fella who says ‘italian food’ by saying ‘THAT IS RIDICULOUS’. And using it anyway.

I like that Wayne makes the choice to have an italian accent in this [which is a choice we’ll be finding out whether or not Chris Pratt makes in a little bit], so that when he comes racing in yelling ‘NOOOO’ and ‘WHYYYY’ it’s even sillier.

I love how puzzled Colin is with how much Rianna is moving him, trying to make him clap his hands.

I also love how taken aback Wayne is by Josh backing up his ass but not his legs.

Colin mentions pizza dough, and Rianna starts moving his arm on the table. “The beautiful thing is, I DON’T EVEN HAVE TO LOOK AT IT.”
Rianna: [moves Colin’s head]
Colin:

PERFECT. I love Colin so much.

Colin: “I’ll run over to the fridge and get some…eh…”
Rianna: [twists Colin over]
Colin: “…OH…”
This is so silly. Rianna is a very aggressive mover
Wayne: “They don’t keep ben-gay in the fridge..”
Colin, with a line that sounds funnier in an Italian accent: “I have decided that I don’t want to have children anymore..”

Colin has Rianna launch Wayne some cheese, and there’s a pause…and Josh begins to bring Wayne down. Wayne has time for a very funny “OHNO” before falling. I got a big laugh out of that

Colin: “LET ME HELP YOU!”

You just hear Ryan and Jonathan get very worried that the 61-year-old Colin is about to drop.

Wayne: “THAT’S A SPICY MEAT-A-BALL!”
PFFFF. Aisha has no choice but to buzz.

Dear god. I liked E1‘s Moving People a lot, but this one was funnier. The movers were great, and it was at the point where these two were almost in pain. And they worked with it, and it just got to be even funnier as it went on. That last minute or so just kept getting me, just on what these two were doing, and how they were reacting.

Wayne: “I trusted that dude with my life!”

Wayne: “my daughter saw her college fund flash before her eyes..”

Aisha: “I gave Rianna to Colin because I thought she would BE GENTLE with you…”
Colin: “oddly, she kept trying to move the weight-bearing leg first..”
Just the bluntness of that

Scenes from a Hat:

“How to make your roommate move out”
Colin, ever the realist: “MOVE. OUT.”

Aisha, cuddling Wayne in front of Colin: “oh, is this your toothbrush?”
Wayne, reaching around: “oh, is this your OTHER toothbrush?”
Aisha: “is this your BOYFRIEND?”
Ryan, as everyone heads back: “people who don’t have sound are just gonna see you going-”

oh jesus, don’t let that get into the wrong hands

“Bad Things to Say or Do in a Crowded Place”
Ryan:

HOW IS *THIS* A RUNNER???
Aisha: “IT WAS MORE DELICATE THAN THAT.”

“Unlikely things to happen in the shower.”
DO I HEAR THREE?
I got a laugh out of this. Wayne just pushes Jonathan onstage and tells him to shower. He’s so confused. He does it, but he’s not sure where this is going. Then Wayne pops up.
Wayne: “I AM POSEIDON.”
Jonathan, genuine: “WHAT?”
It’s actually a really funny scene, where Wayne’s just stringing Jonathan along and trying not to crack himself

Jonathan has a fun one where he just does a golf swing in the shower
Ryan: “why did the water need to be on for that?”
Jonathan: “IT WAS UNLIKELY.”
Wayne, realistically: “it was a water hazard..”

Wayne comes back as Poseidon, then Jonathan shows up as Neptune, and they both party and shower together, which is extremely silly. Wayne adds in a ‘ROMAN AND GREEKS’ theme, which cracks up Jonathan

“Jingles from embarrassing medical commercials.”
Jonathan: “Colostomy, colosto-you, it’s where we put our pee and poo..”
oh jesus
Wayne:

Perfect.

Very strong SFAH. Just some of the wildest energy coming from this show, and it carried through this whole round.

Greatest Hits: Songs of the Astronaut

Colin: “we’ll be right back to our documentary on my buddy’s emergency vasectomy in Saving Ryan’s Privates in just a second”
PERFECT

Colin: “ya know…Songs of the Astronaut. Who can ask for anything more?”
Ryan, perfectly: “is that what it is today? I didn’t get the cheat sheets.”
Colin, shaking his head: “it’s like having a…stump..”

Colin, being literal: “this song was done by a group called ‘folk duo’…it was at a time when most of the good names were taken.”
It’s because it literally says ‘folk duo’ on the prompter card, and Colin’s using that

I dunno, I heard ‘folk’ and ‘astronaut’, and I thought they were gonna do a rendition of Please Mr. Kennedy from Inside Llewyn Davis

I like Jonathan’s meek little folk singer voice. Wayne kneels for the entire number.

Jonathan, impressing himself: “I am taller, you are smaller, that makes you the BALLER..”

Wayne and Jonathan do well in this one, with Wayne doing a good Garfunkel-esque falsetto to harmonize. I also like Jonathan’s meek ending line, ‘there was an escape pod, but I disarmed it earlier”
Wayne: “…what a diiiiick..”

Ryan: ‘yeah, Gary Coleman had a lovely voice”
HA

In the punk number, I like Jonathan’s furious drum-hitting face

This is actually a really cool punk-rock number, feeling simultaneously like Green Day and The Clash.

I also love the lyricism of the second verse, where Jonathan begs Wayne for CPR, and Wayne responds “I guess you gon’ die”
Even Jonathan’s dying yelps make for a really nice backing hook here. Fun number.

A basic GH for this era, but some fun stuff from Wayne and Jonathan all around

Overall: An extremely good guestless show. Nothing too overpowering, but two great guest games back to back [SFX, Moving People] plus a very strong SFAH and some excellent Wayne/Jonathan stuff all night [but especially in Greatest Hits]. There were a lot of big laughs from this one, with just so much going wrong without the show losing any sense of formula, and you could just tell there was a really fun energy in the studio as this was going on. The thing I’ve discovered with guestless shows in the CW is either they really stand out or they just pass right by, and this was closer to the former without being especially showy. It’s proof that there can be normalized guestless shows in this era, which is very good.

Show Winners: All four
Best Performer: Ryan Stiles, for latching onto things all episode and making jokes about them.
Worst Performer: Ultimately, Wayne needed help more than others tonight.
Best Game: Moving People, because dear god I laughed so hard at that game. A Whose Line game hasn’t felt that uncontrollably electric in a WHILE.
Worst Game: Ultimately director, for never truly staying together.

COMING UP NEXT: A fourth seater returns, and a CW synergy booking brings us a surprisingly awesome guest star.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E02, or I Heard You on This Side of the Hand

Seasonal Code: S15E02
Production Number: 709
CW Seasonal Code: S15E02

I usually hand over this blog to a guest writer when it comes to context I do not immediately have on a portion of the episode. Like Spence 12Medbe’s taping notes on the S13 Jonathan taping. Sometimes it concerns the details of the taping itself. Sometimes it concerns an aspect of an episode.

For this episode, we have a guest star that I don’t have a ton of knowledge on. Regretfully. However, fellow WatchWLIIATonight group member and friend of the blog Corrie-Luv [@TheFairlyLuvly1 on Twitter], suffice to say, does have a lot of knowledge on Tinashe, who guest stars on this episode, the first from Jeff Davis’s S15 taping.

So, I might as well turn over the post to her. Take it away, Corrie!

“Soooo…. Back in 2019, I was quaking with uncontainable glee when reports from a Whose Line taping listed Tinashe as one of the celebrity guests. Never in my life would I see my favorite RnB artist I’ve listened to since my college years appear on an improv show that I’d followed since I was a kid. But here we are. To give you an idea why I was so frickin’ excited about the news, let’s bounce back and give a proper rundown of who Tinashe is and where she was in her career.

Actress, dancer, singer, songwriter and producer: Tinashe is practically a veteran in the entertainment industry since she started at a young age. While I don’t wanna list every show or movie she was in, I will name 2 things I recognized her as: first, her motion capture modeling for the Hero Girl in the 2004 Christmas film, The Polar Express [Jordan sidenote, this was a movie I saw in theaters in 2004, and while I could place the voices of Tom Hanks, Michael Jeter and even Eddie Deezen, I knew not of Tinashe even then]; and second, years later, as an alternative RnB artist. She’s been in the music scene since 2007, first as a member of a girl group, The Stunners, then as a solo artist after they disbanded in 2011. Just like fellow R&B standout The Weeknd, Tinashe followed a similar path of self-composing, writing and releasing mixtapes during the 2010s (which I highly recommend you listen and check out, specifically Black Water and Amethyst, not sponsored) before she signed with RCA Records, hoping that a major, mainstream company would support her artistry and give easy commercial accessibility to general listeners.

Fast forward to 2018 and early 2019, a.k.a., the turning year(s) of Tinashe’s career. At this point, her relationship with RCA was in mid-turmoil. Since 2016, RCA did not prioritize on boosting Tinashe’s music career. After the lukewarm release of her over-delayed LP, Joyride, in 2018, she conflicted with management over promoting her next album, Nashe. To paraphrase, they wanted her to sing more in-house, pop, mainstream music rather than her own compositions. Plus, they just suck at marketing artists that don’t bend to their own will. With no creative control over her music, Tinashe took a break from the records-sphere and retreated to the television field, booking major gigs including: –

• Season 27 of Dancing with the Stars, which she didn’t win (she was eliminated 4th)
• The infamous Rent: Live as Mimi (which I’ll dabble on later)
• And of course: that one improv show on The CW

Eventually, Nashe was cancelled and shelved after a few pre-release singles failed to catch on, and in February 2019, Tinashe parted ways with RCA Records due to creative differences and went independent. The announcement of her departure was perfect timing because it happened the same month she was taping for Whose Line, which would air later in the year, long after she left her previous label.

I suspect the reason why Tinashe was booked onto Whose Line was because she recently finished Rent: Live in January, so they needed someone from the cast established and relevant enough to continue sweeping the “after-hype” wave or something. But knowing what transpired during the actual broadcast, let’s just say I’m very grateful the producers did not have Aisha mention her recent projects during her intro.

Actually, I’d argue the cluster-flop that was Rent: Live unintentionally prepared Tinashe for Whose Line, because in improv, when a scene falls apart, you gotta be ready to “Yes, and…” the situation, and tread on. She’s dealt with hardships the past year in everything she’s involved with, but she remained a high-class constant and unapologetically herself, which I deeply admire. Knowing that she was in the process of leaving her ex-label and taking back control of her music and artistry, any gig after Rent: Live would be upwards trajectory, so that means Whose Line would be a cakewalk.

I knew Tinashe was in a much better place than before and that she was gonna kill it on Whose Line. Her mood was uplifting, happy, and infectious, she was all game; nothing will stop her, not even a random gag. And the fact that she appears at the same taping with Jeff Davis (my favorite improviser, by the way), is the icing on the cake.”

I will add for the sake of relevance that Tinashe had a recurring role on Two and a Half Men, though I’m not sure if Ryan knows her. As evidenced by an incident in this episode. But other than that, that’s enough to give you idea as to why this guest booking was so different. Tinashe isn’t a CW synergy booking, she’s not a nostalgia booking, she’s not a ‘friend of the show’ booking.

Weird Newscasters: Colin anchors, Jeff, Colin’s frustrated wife determined to spice things up in the bedroom, co-anchors, Ryan, Acting out as many American presidents as possible in 30 seconds, does sports while Wayne, Character in ‘Fortnite’ going through a busy game, does weather

Well, both Ryan’s and Wayne’s date this firmly in 2019. Actually, shit, before we go on, lemme just check where the Trump references were at last season, uh…25. Cool. Alright, g’head

Colin: “10 out of 10 beauticians agree that if you tell your girlfriend she drew her eyebrows on too high, she’ll look surprised.”
Wayne has a BIG chuckle at this

Jeff’s is pretty good, just tearfully trying to satisfy Colin, including stripping naked and striking poses while crying.
Colin, of course: “are we having chicken again?”

Colin, bluntly: “I’m working.”

Ryan chuckles through his, doing a ‘I cannot tell a lie, it’s gonna rain today’, and then…placing his dog’s nuts on his head, and as nobody got it, goes “MAYBE A LIL’ TOO OBSCURE…”
Somehow I don’t even get that one

I love how Ryan ends his, going through the ones we do know, like Clinton [‘I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman’], then doing a mic drop for Obama and for the 26th Trump joke, goes “and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK I’M DOIN’..”
Very silly, but I think he nailed this

As Colin throws it to weather, Jeff’s kissing Colin’s cheek and Wayne’s cackling. This is where we’re at HERE.

Wayne starts his, then stops and giggles one more time. Man, he’s just GONE

2019. Wayne Brady flossing. You fuckers happy?

So Wayne does some fortnite dances, stops to shoot people, and then eventually crumbles and goes “…I’ve never played this fuckin’ game…”. The place goes wild, Colin breaks, and now we’ve gotten to the tip of WAYNE’s geek knowledge. It’s a very human moment for Wayne, and one he can take having gotten to this level of WL goodwill.

Very good WN to start us off. Not perfect, Wayne’s wasn’t exactly substantial, but there were laughs all the way through, Jeff brought it, Ryan’s was a really good one, Colin was responsive to everyone’s, and I just like the novelty of Wayne’s, and him not being up on a trend.

Heading back to the seats, Wayne admits “I KNEW THE DANCES. THAT’S ALL I KNEW.”
And we polish it off with Wayne and Aisha flossing. Because this is apparently what the masses wanted. This isn’t too long after Mock the Week had a similar flossing bit in theirs.

Colin: “Can I just say that Ryan’s Lyndon Johnson was very underappreciated.”
THAT’S who it was?

Song Styles: Wayne and Tinashe sing an R&B song about lying about your weight

Aisha pitches this as a Ja-Rule/Ashanti style duet from ‘thousands of years ago’.
Wayne: “ON THE CW.”

A woman in the audience, seated with a guy, says she lied about her weight once.
Wayne: “so why’d you lie…and why did you make her think she had to lie, YA BASTARD?”

So this is the first time I’ve seen Wayne do this, he makes it clear to Tinashe how it’s gonna work FOR US AS WELL. He goes “they play in, you’re gonna make up the chorus.” It’s the sort of ring work you don’t see them do very often, and usually it’s cut or drowned out.

I do like this as a throwback to 00s R&B stuff, and Wayne cracks me up immediately with his gruff, Ja Rule-esque ‘DON’ME’NOTHEEEGHHH’

Wayne already is throwing in fun lyrics, like “when I see you in the morning, when you’re in your thong”.
I really do like this as a body-positivity song, where Wayne’s making this girl know ‘it ain’t matter if you heavy’, and making her feel good about herself as she is.

Wayne: “got an ass so big you can break a levee
got a booty two kegs, drive it like a Chevy”
HOW IS HE SO GOOD AT THIS?

Gotta say, Tinashe is really comfortable here, and is good at boosting the hook and making it seem like a real song.

Wayne, still Ja Rule: “so the way that I love you, girl, that’s no bull
I’m not lying to you like it’s the Fyre Festival”
HAAAA. I was wondering if someone was gonna bring that up. Also, why are some people in the audience going ‘OHHHH’ at that. What, too soon? Ja Rule was innocent in cheating a bunch of influencers out of their money to sit on a landfill and eat cheese?

Wayne, after the buzz: ‘THE SINGLE DROPS NEXT WEEK.”
Yeah, even HE knew how professional that sounded. Really, REALLY impressive Song Styles, keeping last show’s track record of awesome, unironically good songs in this round going. Tinashe was great at keeping the theme going and hyping off Wayne, and Wayne did a REALLY good Ja Rule impression, complete with slamming him a bit

Dubbing: Flamboyant jazz dance instructor Jeff is audashauditioning Tinashe, voice by Ryan, to be in a sexy new dance troupe when suddenly her ex-boyfriend dancer Wayne enters to try to win the part

Yes, RYAN now does vocal work in Dubbing. OH BOY DOES HE.

Also, Jeff’s in the scene in Ryan’s usual role. So Colin gets to sit this one out. Colin even says, as the other 3 head to the stage, “have fun, kids!”

Jeff, in hugging Tinashe before the scene, even has to admit she was great in the previous game. THAT’s how you know.

Aisha apologizes to Tinashe when she reveals that Ryan will be providing her dialogue
Ryan: “it’s gonna be sexy, don’t worry..”

Aisha: “flamboyant jazz instructor Jeff is audashioning…Tinashe.”
Ryan: “AUDASHIONING?”
Aisha: “when you’re flamboyant, you say ‘auDASHioning..”

Already, Ryan is good at this, because he makes Tinashe do a dance move…then has her do it again. Colin immediately facepalms in the back

Jeff, taking the gift: “listen…I don’t know if you know who’s RUNNING this audashion…”
AMAZING

A lot of Ryan’s stuff here is almost like Moving People, where Tinashe flaunts her jacket and Ryan goes “let me take off my coat, LET ME TAKE IT ALL THE WAY OFF.”

So this has musical accompaniment, and so the music kicks in and Tinashe does some dance moves, and Ryan’s trying to keep along. ‘a-two, a-four, a-”

“OH MY GOD.”
Jeff FLINCHES. No one was prepared for that. I love Ryan’s reaction SO MUCH.
Then, as she continues dancing around, Ryan: “oh god, AAHHH, OW, AAGHHHH”
It doesn’t fit at all. Skillful dance moves narrated by Ryan in pain. So damn funny
Once it finishes, you can hear Wayne cracking up

Jeff: “I pulled a groin just watching you do that.”

As Wayne enters, Ryan explains he’s “a former lover of mine, not much I might say.” I like that Tinashe punctuates that by near-whispering that line to Jeff. Good touch
Wayne: “you didn’t have to put your hand up, I heard you on this side of the hand.”
PFFF

I love the little exchange Jeff and Wayne have involving Jeff’s pronunciation of ‘dues’ as ‘dude’. I miss these two doing improv scenes together

Jeff, explaining the dance move to Wayne: “I don’t know if you’ve seen Dirty Dancing, the great lift in the end?”
Wayne: “I’ve LIVED Dirty Dancing…the great lift in the end.”
Jeff: “Yes. One of you will be lifting the other one, and I won’t say who.”
He’s so good in this one. They should throw him in here more often.

The eventual dance number is very silly. Eventually Ryan has to subvert the expectations and yell ‘FLY INTO MY ARMS, BIG BOY’, and Tinashe does attempt to lift Wayne, resulting in more uncomfortable noises from Ryan [which is somehow still lifting this scene for me].
Ryan, of course: “OHMYGODYOU’RESOHEAVY…ohhh I pulled my vagina!”
AND SO:

You can hear Aisha go ‘OH RYAN’, which means Ryan’s just become Tony Slattery.
My favorite reaction might be Tinashe’s, who breaks character and looks over at the audience, almost for help
Meanwhile,
Dear god. Somehow Tinashe isn’t too shaken, but good lord.

Wayne, at the end, even says “you are so game”, another very transparent improv note that I agree with. She really rolled with this scene, even with that ending

Such a good fucking scene. Every single piece of it worked, every performance, most gags, and a hell of an ending. One of the best Dubbings they did, even if it did follow the formula that a lot of playings go for. So funny. SO funny.

After the game, Aisha has to explain to Ryan that it’s not like a groin muscle that people can pull.
Aisha: “I legitimately think you don’t understand groins, and you DEFINITELY don’t understand vaginas..”

World’s Worst: Deleted scene from Wizard of Oz

Wayne does a very drawn-out ‘I’m melting’, where I was waiting patiently for the joke. Once he’s down on the floor muttering it, he finally does a punchline: “…line?”

I love Wayne as the Cowardly Lion doing the ‘put ’em up’ to Jeff and then promptly bitch-slapping him. I love Jeff’s move of taking out his earrings.

Colin: “AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO” [snaps neck]
I got a good laugh out of that

Ryan: “oh man, we’re never gonna get over that WALL..”
27!

Jeff has an idea for a leg-humping Toto one with Ryan, but before he can get there, Ryan snaps his neck. Man, how many Jeff shows have a running gag involving neck snapping? Not that I’m complaining

Ryan, as the Cowardly Lion: “Be careful, Dorothy…you wouldn’t wanna pull your vagina..”
AND IT’S BACK
Wayne has to…let the response die down. Even going “how can I say anything after that?”

There’s a great moment where Ryan and Wayne are flying monkeys and they have NOTHING, so they’re just flying for a bit. Jeff eventually comes down and shoots them

Upon my initial watch of this in 2019, I called this a diabolical round of WW, and that is true. A lot of the best ones here were very dark, and involved neck-snapping or dead animals. It was very funny though, and there were a lot of ideas in there.

Living Scenery: Colin and Ryan are two thrill-seekers kayaking down the Colorado River before making camp; Wayne and Tinashe are props

Right off the bat, Tinashe’s rendition of an inflatable raft is pretty great
Wayne lays down as a kayak
Colin: “ah, I thought it’d be bigger..”

After some kayaking, Ryan suggests they set up camp. Wayne appears as an owl.
Colin, who sort of gives him the satisfaction but not quite: “oh, we haven’t eaten” [snaps Wayne’s neck]
PFFFF. And THAT comes back..

I love the little chuckle Ryan has as he roasts Wayne on a spit over Tinashe.
Colin, spinning Wayne: “almost done…just 8 more turns should do it.”
Wayne [audible laughter]

Ryan: “oh, the fire’s gone out”
Tinashe: [falls over]
Thank god, she’s got comedic timing
Colin: “that is the most dramatic fire we’ve ever had..”

I love that Colin enters the tent, made by Tinashe and Wayne, and it sort of opens up to fit his height.
Colin: “it’s nice, it’s even got the sunroof, too..”
Colin also uses Wayne’s crotch as ‘a little place to hang your jacket.’
This REALLY gets Ryan, though

Colin and Ryan decide they need to hollow out a tree, and Tinashe does a really good tree motion. There is a moment’s hesitation where Colin realizes it’d involve seriously handling a 20something year old woman, then goes towards Wayne and goes ‘let’s do that one’.
Colin: “I’m just thinking about a recent lawsuit I had…”

I love Ryan’s amused ‘oh-ho-ho-kay’ as Tinashe drills into Wayne.

Ryan: “this isn’t working, why would you drill a hole in a tree?”
Colin: “YOU TOLD ME TO!”
Tinashe: [falls]
Ryan: “oh, that drill is dead!”
PFFF

Wayne tries doing squirrels crawling over himself
Colin, refusing to give Wayne the satisfaction: “oh my god, gremlins!”
Wayne loses it.
Then Tinashe runs over flapping her arms
Colin: “IT’S THE GHOST OF THE OWL WE KILLED”
PFFFF. I’M GONE
Colin: “OH, THIS IS TURNING INTO HELL.”
What a read

Ryan tries turning this into a ‘it’s all a dream’ ending, but Colin refuses, going ‘THEY’RE STILL THERE!”

Such a funny Living Scenery. So many really good moments, the usual screwing over of Wayne, and Colin just driving the scene and losing Ryan in the best of ways. Tinashe was once again a very game, and able, support and did great here. So damn funny.

Props: Ryan and Jeff vs. Colin and Wayne

Jeff, very simply: “that is the ugliest iguana I’ve ever seen”

Jeff: “oh, heavens, that is a pulled vagina.”
AND WE’RE BACK. The ‘oh heavens’ makes is great

Jeff combines the props for a really fun ‘bowling one’, which Jeff makes even harder for Ryan to get a spare.

Okay props, but clearly Jeff and Ryan had more going on with theirs.

Overall: Yeah, they should have opened S15 with this one. Amazing guest games, including an excellent Song Styles we hadn’t seen the likes of before, a too-damn-funny Dubbing and an equally funny Living Scenery. And in between those we had a very strong WN, and good quickfire games. Jeff wasn’t as badly edited as Greg was last show, Tinashe was versatile and had fun, lots of running gags including the immortal vagina-pulling, the neck-snapping, and the little things that built up along the way to make this one great. Not quite a classic, as I don’t think Props was a strong idea for an ender, but an excellent episode that proved how great the Season 15 tapings could be.

Show Winners: All four
Best Performer: Ryan Stiles. The runner is his, but his smart moves in World’s Worst, Weird Newscasters and Living Scenery cemented this.
Worst Performer: aaah I don’t wanna. I guess Colin, because he had more straight roles, even if Living Scenery was a hell of a feat.
Best Game: Dubbing. The source of the runner, but also the funniest, and most well-put-together game they had tonight.
Worst Game: Props, for doing the least amount.
Guest Star Rating: Guys, Tinashe’s getting a 10. Tinashe not only did what was asked of her, but stood out in all three of her games, had enough improv knowledge to not sink under the others, and contributed to some of the show’s funniest moments. Remember, when Ryan pulled a similar ‘pulled her vagina’ joke earlier in the run, the guest wasn’t as focused on the scene. Tinashe took that and yes-anded, immediately clutching her lower regions. That is dedication. More CW guest stars needed to be this good.

COMING UP NEXT: A…guestless show? In S15? Okay, cool. This is how we start the Jonathan taping.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S15E01, or More Moisture

Seasonal Code: S15E01
Production Number: 713
CW Seasonal Code: S15E01

In Spring 2019, the Whose Line family would converge upon Los Angeles for the final time to date for five 2019 taping sessions.

Like in 2017, the backlog of episodes had accounted for only needing 5 tapings. Also like in 2017, the amount of this taping season’s material to actually air in 2019 would be very slim, and most of these would fill future seasons, most specifically 2020’s Season 16 for…obvious reasons.

With these five tapings, the production crew finally began to shift the focus of the tapings from the guest stars to more comprehensive guestless material. The bookings for this season would be another step backwards in quality, ranging from relatively relevant folk to CW synergy bookings to friends of cast members. But the goal would be to produce a loose, fun atmosphere so numerous guestless shows could be made from these sessions, and they would be.

Like in 2017, these tapings only relied upon five fourth seaters, but there was a swap-out for one of them. Yes, Jeff Davis, Greg Proops, Gary Anthony Williams and Jonathan Mangum would all be back, but due to supposed scheduling conflicts, Brad Sherwood would not be able to tape any shows. Luckily for the CW, the fourth seater who, until recently, had no openings in his schedule finally had one, and Chip Esten was able to return AS A FOURTH SEATER. This was a big deal to Whosers in 2019- Brad being left out was shitty, yes, but we’d get a Chip episode or three in exchange, which was exciting. This did mean that for the first time since the US series, there would be a difference in political opinions among the performers, and having noted Republican Chip tussling with the very liberal Whose Line team in 2019, in the heat of the Trump administration, was a ballsy move.

The CW would only give Whose Line 12 shows in 2019, and would give them a LOT MORE in 2020 to let out the rest of the S15 spoils. The short seasons were beginning to wear on Angst, though, and starting in 2019, Angst would begin to air some of the extra episodes that were supposed to air in the previous season in international markets. Meaning that the Whosers would see a lot of the S14 holdovers in S15, including some flashbacks to previous seasons, before they would air stateside. This would also happen in S16.

Again, if the CW were to air this show competently, we wouldn’t be having these problems.

Nevertheless, we begin Season 15 with, yes, a S15 taping, the Greg Proops taping. Our guest star is Chris Hardwick. Um…Chris Hardwick is a little hard to talk about now. Yes, he was a ubiquitous television personality for years, originating as an MTV presenter, and coming to my attention as the host of G4’s Tosh.0 ripoff Web Soup. He was most well known for being a host of Comic Con panels, AMC aftershows, and Comedy Central’s quickfire improv roundup @Midnight, home to comedians like Paul Scheer, Kumail Nanjiani, Ron Funches, Doug Benson and Natasha Leggero, as well as WL personnel like Heather Anne Campbell, Greg Proops, Rachel Bloom, Drew Carey, Wil Wheaton, and countless others.

But…in 2018, he was mired in a cancellation scandal from his ex-girlfriend who, to this date, no one is sure was legitimate or not. He was returned to all of his posts on TV, and any criminal charges were cleared as the investigators found no evidence of abuse, but the alleged nature of it left a cloud over his career. Not only that, but Hardwick filmed this appearance AFTER this cancellation period. He was still getting work, was hosting NBC’s The Wall, and was still a credible TV personality. Which, if he DID do it, looks really shitty.

So there’s this uncomfortable vibe of skeeviness over this episode, which is why Chris is only in two games here. ‘Only’.

I believe that starting in S15, Aisha’s intro-lines were provided backstage, so there’s a noticeable difference in audio quality from those to when we join her at the top of the steps.

Colin does a spit-take for his intro shot, while Ryan:

Questions: at a reunion

Wayne gets a laugh by wearing a troll hat, and being offended by Greg calling him a troll. “Don’t you know that words are hurtful?”
Greg, being Greg: “don’t you know that labels disable?”
Wayne: “…that’s deep..”

Colin, coming in with a unicorn hat: “where are all the chicks?”
Greg: “are you the horny one?”
Colin: “isn’t it obvious?”
Greg: “….yes.”
So already, it’s kind of stop-start

And the sad part is I know how some whosers who’d still get off to this

The Ryan-Colin scene here is just proof that their working relationship is just too good. Ryan just introduces himself as ‘Joanne Stromssen’, and that cracks Colin up.

Ryan, to Wayne: “are you wondering whether the curains match the drapes?…or the carpet or SOMETHING?”

Wayne trips up Ryan by, after Ryan does a ‘running with boobs out’ motion to refresh Wayne’s memory, asking “weren’t you in National Geographic?” Ryan just…winces through that slam and retakes the step

Wayne and Greg do some easy genie puns in response to Greg’s ‘I Dream of Genie’ hat.
Wayne: “do you want to rub the bottle?”
Greg: “…is the bottle still as small as it was?”
BOOM. Aisha has to back up at that one. I also like Greg, once the audience is taken aback, just turning to them slightly confused

Greg, finally: “would you like me to make it bigger?”
Wayne: “only if…ah…FUCK YOU!”
Greg: “FUCK *YOU!*”
I do kinda love Wayne and Greg’s dynamic as it’s evolved over the years

Ryan, with a lamp hat: “would you touch my bulb and see if it’s hot?”
Colin, as only Colin can:

And then there’s Ryan’s reaction. Because the taping literally just started, and I’m not sure but I have a feeling this could have been the start of the taping season, so he just looks at Colin and, barely even in character, goes “REALLY?”. Usually they have their ‘annnnd MARK’ thing because it happens sometime in the middle of the taping, but this is IMMEDIATE.
And Colin smiles and leaves, ending the game

Okay, let’s be honest here, that was a little messy. Because the tapings this season came after a couple years, this acted as more of a warmup round than usual, and it took longer to get people truly warm. So you’re gonna see a few clumsier playings of this from S15. This one had some good moments, and a great ending, but, yeah, mostly stumbling around.

Moving People: The planet is being affected by a shortage of water; Colin and Wayne

Yes, Moving People is brought back, and Wayne gets to play this time!

So clearly this is a game that involves a learning curve for the movers. The scene starts with Wayne on the side, prompting an entrance, and his mover getting the hint…eventually. Meanwhile Colin’s caught waving, and goes “I was just cleaning my wall for NO REASON”
What I do like is that when Wayne yells “STOP CLEANING YOUR WALL”, the audience member keeps Colin doing that motion. She understands comedy. Stop = keep going. Which, to be fair, is also something this episode’s guest star has lived by in the past [allegedly].

Wayne, slyly: “Thank you for coming to me because I was OBVIOUSLY not coming to you fast enough..”

Proof that Wayne has gotten better at improv in the past 20 years: as an inverse of Superheroes, where he always half-assed a solution, he thinks of an application to the problem, and says “you have to stop cleaning with water because we’ve RUN OUT OF WATER.” There’s that improv brain working
I also love the big reaction Colin has to this. Like a ‘YEUUUUUGHHHH’
Colin: “…the lack of water caused me to miss covering my mouth in surprise.”
PFFF

Wayne: “Even me, I’m pretending to be a teapot just so I can hold my own water..”

There’s a bit where Colin and Wayne have to run across the stage. Wayne is delayed by the time his mover is taking tapping his legs. Colin is stuck walking in sort of a wide-legged crouch
Colin: “I could move much faster if it wasn’t for my GIANT TESTICLES.”
Wayne, hesitant: “at a time like this, it’s a good thing you have giant testicles. Mo[..]ooore Moisture.”
I love how unhappy he is with saying that

Then, as Wayne finds water and they begin to dig, Colin’s mover keeps hitting Wayne in the face with Colin’s arm.
Colin, only hunched partway: “I just realized that if I’m going to dig the ground, I should probably GET CLOSER TO IT.”

Colin, bent over: “whatever you do, don’t be distracted by the snapping of my tendons.”
HE’S SIXTY-TWO FOR GOD’S SAKES

Colin is stuck holding a finger up. “I’m just gonna test for WIND.”
Dear god. He’s so damn good at this game

Then, Wayne tries getting his mover to turn his head where Colin’s pointing. She turns it the other way. It’s incredibly funny

The scene wraps up after that. I just took points away from Questions for its messiness, but Moving People’s messiness was one of its assets. This felt like a classic, UK era playing of this game, and Colin and Wayne were great at responding to these audience members while also trying their damnedest to keep the scene going. Very funny, and makes me wish they did more of these.

Song Styles: Wayne and Chris sing a fantasy metal song about substitute teachers

Wayne explains the genre to some people, cause Chris gets it. Chris even goes “there’s only one nerd in the audience going ‘HELL YES'”

Here, Wayne proves that his audience-farming and show-running abilities have gotten even better in two years, and asks for a profession that’d be unlikely for a power-metal anthem. I forget if I’ve said it on here or not, but if Whose Line ever evolves past the point of their current performers and seeks out younger improvisers, Wayne would be a fantastic choice to host the show. And, what’s more, he could do Drew games again and improvise with the new talent.

So, style-wise we’re already in business. Linda’s got the guitar line chugging along. Wayne knows the exact type of voice a lot of power-metal guys have here. I also like Chris doing backup in a growly metal voice. Clearly the guy knows that the comedy here comes from going over the top.

Wayne has some good lyrics here too
“The chalkboard spells out his name in magical hieroglyphs
He’s not the regular teacher but tonight the night is his”

And Chris proves he’s a good pick by breaking into a Whitesnake-esque voice in the chorus, even adding “WHY AM I TEACHING AT NIGHT?” This is the kind of Whose Line guest that the producers were trying to get more of, it just sucks that Chris’s status as a positive role model is a little hazy now

I also like his “EVERYONE COMES FROM THEIR HOMES/I’M SUBSTITUTE TEACHING THESE GNOMES.”
He’s…a natural, somehow

I like Wayne’s dramatic spoken word bit, adding all these comedy details, like keeping the fantasy setting but throwing in ‘from grades 3 to 6’ and ‘making the whole world his educational playground’

Chris handles another verse and throws in the quadratic formula, then takes a falsetto on the chorus. Man oh man, most guest stars don’t go for it like this but I’m glad he did.

Very fun number. I got some laughs on how lovingly over the top it got, but Chris was an excellent duet partner for Wayne, and they both absolutely both the tone and making the profession cool. Well done to all involved parties.

Aisha awards a million ‘fantasy points’: “all you have to do is roll a 12 charisma.”
Wayne, geekily: “you should have made a saving throw against doing a wrong answer”

Scenes from a Hat:

“Unlikely Lines from Romance Novels”, which Dan&Mark must have borrowed from Mock the Week
Wayne, with Colin: “my dear, it’s impossible to…roll a 12.”
THAT comes back?

“World’s Worst Mating Calls”
Greg: “IT’S SOFT.”
Colin: “RASH…GONE…”
And Colin just stands there for an extra few seconds and milks it

“Things You Shouldn’t Do to Try and Impress Your Date”
Ryan: “I can get you seats right behind the cameras for Whose Line”
HA
Aisha, to that row: “You can’t see ANYTHING!”

Colin, saving a Wayne one: “the clinic said I had the most sperm they’d ever seen in one person…”
Wayne: [uses cloak of concealment]

“Things Guaranteed to Kill the Mood in the Bedroom”, man all of these have the same theme
Colin: “…clinic said I had the most sperm..”
STILL WORKS

Aisha, bringing Colin up: “heard you, uh, had the most sperm they ever seen…”
HA
Colin, perfectly: “where were ya, I started without you”

“Bad People to be Marooned on a Desert Island with”
Wayne, bringing everyone up: “hey guys, so…there’s no water, no food, but…how ’bout we play some improv games?”
HA.
Greg: [winces and begins to walk off]
Wayne: “OOOHH AY DEE DI DEE DI..”
Ryan joins in somehow

Alright SFAH. Seemed a bit scattered and without a real winning scene idea. I did like the throughlines with Colin’s sperm, Aisha’s 8 kids and Wayne’s invisibility cloak

Helping Hands: Female college student Ryan, hands by Colin has prepared a meal for the first time to try and impress her date, the captain of the football team, Chris

I like the nice touch of Chris’s football captain outfit having a little ‘WL’ team insignia on it.

I’m not 100% sold on how Chris is playing this. I’m not sure if his hesitance and haphazardness is in-character or not. I do like that he’s just as confused as to why he agreed to come over Ryan’s as the scene is, but he’s a little unsteady as it initially progresses with the wine.

I did like Ryan spilling some wine on Chris’s jacket, and then licking it off

However, Chris’s more passive improvising is hit by Ryan, who had to repeat ‘let me have your plate’, to forcibly get him to hand it over, as he’s saying something. It’s a shock to the system that I think he needed.

Ryan, grabbing pasta: “would you like it with sauce or al…al without sauce?”
Chris, shaking his head as he says it: “you can’t have it without sauce.”
Again, Chris has this sort of ‘I’m not in control’ guise as he’s doing this, which isn’t the BEST move for an improviser. To be fair, he’s not the only guest star to do great in a singing game and stumble through Helping Hands this season, though I’ll add that he’s doing a bit better than the other one.

Ryan, getting the can of ragu: “oh god, how am I gonna open the top of that?”
Colin’s other hand comes around and easily knocks the cap off.
I also like a TON of ragu sauce falling onto the plate and knocking the pile of pasta off.

….your honor…
Colin pushes this far enough in to reach Ryan’s gag reflex, and he’s gotta yank it out. A sentence that hasn’t been typed since, I’m guessing, some fan fiction from the early 2000s.
Ryan: “…I got some wig in there too..”

The climax of this game is Chris launching a football-shaped cake at Ryan, and to Chris’s credit he sells it:

The moment of the hit is incredible. Chunks go flying. It’s fantastic.

So…a Helping Hands game. Not much to lift it past most CW playings. Good ending, a few good moments, nothing new. Chris did alright, but he didn’t really keep the scene going as much as he kept the game going. Decent in points but very samey.

Overall: When this went out, I wondered why this was the season’s best foot forward. There were better shows coming for s15, as we know now, and better guest shows. Why start with this one, which, while not awful, is a pretty unassuming start to a new season of tapings. And I just assume it’s because they wanted to get this out there before Chris Hardwick got cancelled again.

There were fun moments, like in Moving People and especially Song Styles, but a lot of this show sort of soldiered on with the same formula as previous seasons and didn’t have a ton to add. Greg was underedited, the reliance was on SFAH and Helping Hands, not a ton of true improv games, and just kinda blah ultimately. Not bad, not even remotely, but kind of disappointing considering that this was the first new WL taping we’d seen in two years.

Show Winners: All four
Best Performer: Wayne Brady, obviously. Wayne was responsible for some of the loosest, most impressive moments of the night, and he also led Song Styles to perfection
Worst Performer: I have to put Greg here because he was only in two games and one was a quickfire. So he really didn’t get to do much improvising here.
Best Game: Song Styles was pretty incredible, and a fantastic guest star duet.
Worst Game: Helping Hands, for being yet another uninspired CW Helping Hands playing.
Guest Star Rating: 8/10. He was so good in Song Styles that it was disappointing how passive he was in Helping Hands, though Chris’s excitement and zeal was definitely there all night.

COMING UP NEXT: We enter the Jeff taping with a guest star that hasn’t been cancelled, and doesn’t pull any punches, though she may pull some other things.