Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S16E07, or Your Biology’s Off

Seasonal Code: S16E07
Production Number: 345
CW Seasonal Code: S15E15

We head all the way back to the first taping we saw in Season 11, the Gary taping that gave us the very funny 11×01, featuring Cedric the Entertainer trying his hand at improv in Questions [and also Gary dominating Wayne during GH]. There was actually one more Cedric game left, so we have our second straight archived guest star show.

Scenes from a Hat:

“Unlikely things to read in a cookbook”
Ryan: “vegetable soup. First, take a leek.” [shrugs]

It really is that simple.

Gary: “okay, ‘have white lady come up to prepare meal for you.”
I love this one. Just a nice subversion of what was expected.
Wayne:

I love that move.
Gary even calls Aisha in. And then, as one more set-dressing:

I love this gag
I also love that after they all disperse, Wayne realizes Ryan was there, and what he was doing, and points it out to Gary.

“If people behaved like S&M enthusiasts in their regular job.”
I love the one lone guy who laughs after everyone else reacts, like a ‘HO-HAWW’. Aisha loves this too.

I love Gary and Colin’s, where Gary the barista throws the coffee in Colin’s face, and Colin replies with a very turned on ‘THANK you..”

Gary and Wayne’s ‘stuffing the turkey’ ass thing isn’t funny until Gary, in his french accent, starts nonchalantly making small-talk about his week as he stuffs Wayne’s ass.

Ryan: ‘lemme crush up this jalapeños…”

“DYAAAAAAAAIIIIGHHHH”
I laughed so hard at this. We all knew the pissing gag was coming back, but NOT LIKE THIS

Aisha: “this one’s for you, Ry, ‘pick-up lines that would never work.”
I like Ryan’s confusion as to why this specifically applies to him
Ryan, taking the gift anyway:

“Can I buy ya a drink” [resumes pissing]
IT JUST KEEPS WORKING

Wayne: “hey girl, it’ll be over before you know it.”
Ryan: “did one of the stars fall out of the sky, cause I can see Uranus.”
He’s had a few saved up, I bet

Gary: “I have hidden several candies around my body…[breaks]…if you find one that ain’t fermented, it’s yours..”
Gary is so underrated in this game, because he finds unsavory angles the other 3 don’t normally go for

Wayne: “they call me the Easter Bunny…”
And then he just…lets that marinate.

Wayne…then realizes the flaw. ‘I have nothin’ else, I just wanted to…”
Colin, on the other hand, goes right in, cause HE’S got a punchline: “They call me the Easter Bunny…because I only come once a year.”
TEAMWORK. That is why I love this show, cause you see these guys aid each other in getting the joke across the finish line.

A very strong SFAH to start us off, blessed with a great running gag from Ryan and lots of really good suggestions from all four, culminating in that great ending. It was structured like an ABC playing.

Duet: Wayne and Gary sing a Jamaican dance hall song to Cedric, “The Insurance Claims Adjuster”

This is a different, and slower tempo, backing than the eventual, iconic, Jamaican dance-hall one they’d do with Yvette Nicole Brown.

There’s nothing too revolutionary lyrically going on here, Gary and Wayne are doing some fairly standard rhymes and moves with this profession.

Cedric is given the floor to sing but he instead goes with a dance break
Gary: “now there’s one thing, as a matter of fact,
ya keep dancing like that, I’ll adjust your back!”
Finally a line that impressed me in this one

Wayne does lead this into a dance repeat bit that all three get in on, and it ups the energy and likability of the number.

Cedric does try some musical improv, and honestly does pretty well, going into a ‘as long as you pay your deductible’ refrain, which the other two build off. I think the most important thing is that he’s in on the number and is working with the energy of the song, even if he’s not as good of an improviser to make it better intrinsically.

Alright number. Definitely good energy, but it sort of went by nicely without doing much subversive or, honestly, funny. Cedric enjoyed himself though.

Wayne: “we were the oldest black singing group on the CW just then.”
Aisha: “I turned on the CW and it was UPN all of the sudden…”
Wow, THAT’s a throwback..

Props: Ryan and Gary vs. Colin and Wayne

This is a favorite of mine for the Gary-Ryan combo. Their ‘ahh, bats!’ one is great, because of how well timed the prop use is for both of them.

Wayne: “so it appears that the perp…cut Annie up and stuck her in these tubes.”
I like the occasional creative, slightly morbid ones we get in this game

Wayne and Colin’s ‘foosball by yourself’ one is silly because of Colin’s expression as Wayne bats him around. You can see Wayne cracking as he has to explain the joke.

I also like Colin’s airport scanner one, where he shoves the prop through Wayne’s upper legs. “Nope, nothin’ there..”

I love this reaction from both.

I’ve always loved the timing of this one:

Gary: “WHAT ARE THESE HIPSTERS DOING IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD?”
PFFFF. It’s so goofy. All Ryan’s doing is goofily bobbing around with a mustache.

Good Props. Some more elevated moments than the norm, and great stuff for both these pairings.

Newsflash: Ryan and Gary in the studio, Colin in the field in front of more extreme sports wipeouts

So already the rhythm begins. Someone falls. ‘oh’. And within 10 seconds, Colin’s caught on. “I tell you, for three hours I’ve been hearing THAT.”

Ryan, with an underrated line: “Colin, has anyone succeeded yet?”

I love that. ‘anyone actually succeed?’ MASSIVE CROTCH HIT.
Colin: “…ALMOST!”

As usual, the successive audience reactions just amuses Colin. “…LOOK HOW MANY THERE ARE.” It’s still really funny.

Ryan: “by the way Colin, you’re check’s at the desk you got sacked today.”
Colin knows he’s trying to give him a clue but he’s confused as to why that’d be a relevant in-scene move. “…what a horrible way to find out..”

I love the skiing wipeout where the poor guy keeps tumbling down the hill. Even Ryan goes “oh, WHEN IS THAT GONNA STOP?”

Ryan: “Colin, I don’t even wanna talk to you, I just wanna watch..”
I don’t blame him.

A routinely funny Newsflash. Obviously not a new concept for this game, but an amusing rendition or variation on it, and with enough fun new elements.

Greatest Hits: Songs of Dallas v2

Now we find out if they were hiding anything else behind ‘Everyting is Biggah’. And, ultimately, THEY TOTALLY WERE.

They reuse the ‘Colin and Ryan giggling’ setup shot from 11×01

I love Ryan’s description of a rap battle as someone who isn’t entirely familiar. Again, it feels like a Fred Willard Best in Show bit.

So…a Rap Battle song, where it’s Gary against a literal member of Freestyle Love Supreme. I wonder what’s gonna happen..

Literally Wayne’s first line: “I like you dude, don’t wanna put you down
This is a rodeo so you must be the only clown.”
HE’S CLEARLY DONE THIS BEFORE

It’s here where Wayne throws in “I took yo mamma and rode her like a bull.
The best I ever saw/put my spurs on and hollared ‘YEE-HAW'”

So Gary now has to rebut: “You’re messing with me now
I took your daddy, had him milked like a cow.”
WAYNE:

I love that. IMMEDIATELY confused.
Gary does have a strong rest of the verse, finishing off on ‘I ain’t no clown, you President Bozo’, but you can tell Wayne’s stuck on the milk.
Wayne: “I know that you didn’t like that, you got mad
I’m still a minute past when you milked my dad.”
PFFF. And this is the hook.
“…that wasn’t part of the song
You’re biology’s off, that’s just wrong.”
I love that. Your biology is off.
“I’mma try to school you now
…..DUDE, you milk a COW.”
So goddamned funny. And it’s lifted by Wayne’s confusion and disappointment, in character, in Gary.

And then it turns into an apology rap battle, as Gary tries to console a crying Wayne.
Gary, seamlessly: “have a cup of this. IT’S YOUR DAD’S MILK.”
BOOM

I love this. Just when Wayne thinks he’s ending the game with the upper hand, Gary steals it right back from him.

So the song ends, and obviously it’s a classic and I think everybody knows it. Wayne’s still cracking up. Aisha still hasn’t recovered:

And now Ryan and Colin have to follow that. Colin’s visibly still shaken.
Ryan: “Oh, what a wonderful, touching song…and what a shame that America will never see it.”
THAT’S WHAT YOU THINK.

Ryan: “…why would one gentleman want to milk the other’s father?”
Wayne and Gary both crack again. They’re all still stuck on it.
Colin: “I was told to respect…family remembers.”
Ryan: “yeah, and if not respect, ‘not milk.'”

Colin: “THERE’S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE ON THIS LP.”
Ryan, still recovering: “NO KIDDIN’.”

Colin begins to set up the Muppets number
Ryan: “oh, we have a children’s song? THAT ONE wasn’t…”

Colin’s first funny move is giving the Muppets song the title ‘G is for Gun’, which, already we’re in for something insane.

Gary, nailing this: “It’s time for lots of good stuff
It’s time to have some fun
It’s time to reach in my pocket, because G is for Gun.”
THAT ALONE IS FUNNY

They’re doing some easy Muppet gun control gags, like Oscar the Grouch as a crime lord and Count von Count tallying up the bullets in his gun, and they’re both having fun. Plus, they’re using this to go on really fun musical runs in the midst of the biting social commentary.

Gary: “They call me Snuffleupagus, look at my trunk
I use it to handle my 9mm, ya crazy punk.”
It’s coming off incredibly simply for both of them

I like the ending, where Gary and Wayne count off the number of gunshots, and Wayne finishes with “this is our given right”, which is a punchy, and funny, finish to this.

I can’t believe this, but just as good as the other GH from this taping, which was also excellent. This confirms that Gary had Wayne on the ropes for all 4 songs, and brought out the best of these two as well, even the extremely iconic rap battle one. The banter in response to the ‘dad’s milk’ bit is just as funny as the actual moment it happens, and both songs are insanely well-regarded by fans. I love this playing, probably more than the first one, which is saying a lot because I adore that Cajun one. But my god, Songs of Dallas may be an all-timer GH playing in full.

Overall: You know what we haven’t had in a while. A guest star show where the guest game is the single most disposable part of it, and that’s exactly what this is. When it was on the Australian group, I wrote off this show as a middling guest show simply because of the Cedric game, while making the mistake of writing off the non-guest games. I should be judging this as a guestless show that has a guest game by mistake. The single best things that happen in this show are in guestless games, like the pissing runner in SFAH, the duo tomfoolery in Props, Colin’s strained excitement in Newsflash and almost the entirety of Greatest Hits, which deserves its status as a classic Whose Line game, as it was crowned basically the night it aired. This is a very fun portrait of the taping, with a lot for Gary to do, great moments for all performers, callbacks to the Drew era, and a big finish that jumps off of a prior CW classic moment. It’s a really satisfying show, even if it isn’t perfect, or lacks a true improv scene game [besides Newsflash].

Show Winners: Colin and Wayne
Best Performer: Gary Anthony Williams, not just for GH, but for strong work in SFAH, Props and Duet. Dude had a strong, well-edited show and it was about time.
Worst Performer: Similarly, as Gary summoned the energy here, a lot of the time it was at the expense of Wayne, who had both more stumbles and more times where he deferred to others.
Best Game: Greatest Hits, by far.
Worst Game: Duet. I would have honestly been fine with Duet not airing and us getting another game in its place.
Guest Star Rating: 8/10, perfectly adequate at musical improv while having fun.
Should This Have Aired in S11?: It’s mostly Greatest Hits that makes me say this, but yeah, the masses needed to see Clowns in a Barrel in its initial taping rollout.

COMING UP NEXT: A long impromptu hiatus mandated by CW that pissed off a lot of fans, followed by a return to a season 12 taping featuring Jonathan, with some juicy guestless stuff ready to air.

Whose Watchdown is it Anyway: S11E01, or I Don’t Work in this Area

Okay. So here is where the CW era gets…difficult to classify.

Starting in Season 11, the CW begins to adopt its own method of grouping the show into seasons. To them, a ‘season’ of a show does not apply to the episodes that air in succession in a given calendar year, or season. From here on out, the producers of Whose Line are going to be thinking more about international markets, and how their airing systems work. So even though Season 11 only consists of 20 aired episodes in 2015, it technically counts as a 28-episode season in international markets if you count the first eight episodes of Season 12.

So, technically, I am in the minority when I say that Whose Line Season 11 only had 20 episodes. I don’t see why CW and Hat Trick would need to complicate the numbering structure of a show marketed to exceedingly general audiences. This gets even more complicated in the later seasons, where episodes of Season 16 are airing on the CW but because they already aired in Australia, they’re technically Season 15 episode. This whole thing is insanely stupid.

So, I’m going by the wikipedia customs of seasons. Anything that airs on the CW from the start of a summer to the beginning of fall and then stops…is a season of Whose Line. So S11 has 20 episodes, and all of them aired in the US in 2015. I know it’s difficult, but it’s the simpler method of doing this.

Okay. Season 11. 2015 tapings. Where are we at?

Once again, we’ve got 10 tapings over all, split into halves. Unlike last season, there is carryover, and we can keep getting first half tapings in the second half of the season, and in S12, and a second-half tapings spills over into the first. The players are basically the same- Nyima has left, so instead of finding new talent, Gary does 2 tapings and Jeff does 3. This is Keegan’s last taping season before he becomes too popular of a get for the show. Otherwise, everything else in this season stays pretty much the same.

Once again, guest stars are mandated. Keegan gets one, everybody else gets two. This season’s batch of guest stars stay mostly to the quality of the last season’s. We’ve still got a lot of CW synergy bookings, but they’re…slightly better than usual, because we have some Jane the Virgin people like Jaime Camil and Gina Rodriguez coming in. The usual smattering otherwise, some sports bookings, some random bookings, and some genuinely cool guests that speak to a lot of people’s childhoods [one of which ends up being a CW synergy booking anyway, how about that?]

Enough setup. We start with an episode from the initial Gary Anthony Williams taping. Gary is looking a lot slimmer from here on out. The guest star is another black stand-up type- Cedric the Entertainer, who came to prominence on the Original Kings of Comedy tours with Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey and DL Hughley. He also had a nice amount of movie success in the mid 2000s, popping up in movies like A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even the Madagascar films. He’s a pretty cool booking, and he wanted to try out some improv stuff, as we’ll see in a game tonight.

As we zoom in for intros:

Ryan, for the first of many times over the next few seasons, gets into position. Colin is amused.
Sure enough:

Amazing

Then, as Aisha nearly falls off her chair to start the show:

Just…already we’re in the loosest, goofiest mood

Aisha punctuates her intro line with “I’m still alive.” That is one hell of a way to start a season.

Weird Newscasters: Colin anchors, Gary, Colin’s lap-dancer for the evening, co-anchors, Wayne, Manic Irish dancer trying to start the world’s biggest Riverdance in the studio, does sports while Ryan, 19th century showman looking for new acts for his freak show

Right as we get our opening pan, Ryan does a hearty point to someone in the audience. This will come back later.

Colin: “I’m your anchor, Carlo Cause the tire’s flat”
PFFFFF

Gary isn’t too showy as a lap-dancer, but he does fit seamlessly into character, being seductive but also aware of his size.
Colin: ‘…I now know the meaning of the word fear.”

Colin dubbing Wayne ‘Chauncey’ causes a second’s break from Wayne. Not sure why.

Wayne does a very nice thick Irish accent, even though it’s more stereotypical than anything [you want to hear a real Irish accent? Join the Whose Line fan community]. And, of course, Wayne’s riverdancing is actually pretty impressive after being schooled by a dance instructor back in S4.

I do love Wayne beckoning several rows of audience members into riverdancing with him, and how into it they all are.

Wayne, to the audience members: “I’ll pay ya in potatoes, now get the hell out of here…”
[somewhere, Dara O’Briain is unenthused]

Gary: “Uh-oh, I dropped a crumb…”

Colin: “AH, IT’S SO COLD IN HERE.”

So naturally funny. Colin’s barely in character there.

Ryan puts a lot of energy and showmanship into this one
Ryan, going towards the cameras: “Lucitia, all the way from Pomona, California”
Cameraman: [moves out of the way]
Ryan, following him: “WHERE ARE YOU GOING, COME HERE LUCITIA.”

Ryan, chuckling as he gets two bespectacled guys out of the audience: “THE D….THE DORKY SIAMESE TWINS! TWO MEN, EIGHT EYES!”

Ryan even pulls an old guy out of the audience, “Weird Willy Waxman, the weakest man on earth.” Man, Ryan is absolutely nailing the Barnum-esque atmosphere of the character, and with gusto.

Also, I love how lawful everyone onstage is by raising as Willy “attempts to lift the stage”, and just going ‘OHHH’ in unison.

Right as Aisha buzzes, Ryan goes to ‘Willy’, and says “you asked me to bring you up!” Right as the game started, offscreen, the old guy must have gone ‘DO ME’, and Ryan happily obliged. I’m so glad the audience is that into it on this version.

Not a perfect WN, as it didn’t really get going til midway through Wayne’s, but the motorboat moment and Ryan’s entire quirk [heh] lifted it for me. A nice fun mood-raiser to start us off.

Questions: Wayne, CEDRIC, Colin and Ryan: Passions erupt at a high school reunion

THAT’S RIGHT. CEDRIC TAKES PART IN A QUICKFIRE IMPROV GAME.

Cedric is wearing a paperboy hat as he comes on…forgetting, perhaps, that this is a GAME INVOLVING HATS.

Cedric: “I see you’re a captain now.”
Aisha: “Ooh, you already” BUZZ
Cedric: [awkwardly shuffles back to the step]
THIS IS WHAT WE’RE IN FOR, FOLKS

Ryan:

That’s more like it.
Wayne: “Say, have you seen my chick who couldn’t ask questions?”
Ryan, in an ill-fitting voice: “WHAT’S SHE LOOK LIKE?”
[I can’t even describe it]
Wayne, very confused: “…what the hell are you doin?”
Ryan: “isn’t it obvious?”
Wayne: [nods]
BUZZ

Colin, arriving with a unicorn wig: “weee…who…..”
BUZZ
MAN
Ryan: “…well who???”

Ryan and Wayne have a good rapport going, until Wayne asks “do you have a Jag?”
Ryan: :”….nnnggggoooooh, I’ve got a Jag…”
BUZZ
Still, funny way of getting through it

Cedric enters in a fireman’s hat
Wayne, making it easier for him: “where’s the fire, hot stuff?”
Cedric: “…where’s the hot stuff, hot stuff?”
Okay, he’s learning.
Wayne: “would you like some punch?”
Cedric: “would you like, uh, my hose?”
[Cedric’s way of volleying seems to be asking other negating questions atop rather than furthering the scene. Again, he’s new at this.]
Wayne: “what’s your water pressure? Can you HANDLE the hose?”

Cedric: “tell me this…” [cracks]
Wayne: “would you like to know how to ask a question?”
Cedric: “…OH DARN IT”
BUZZ

Ryan, in a hippie woman wig: “WHYYY DO THE BIRDS SING UP IN THE SKY?”
Wayne, joining in: “why do the angels come down and fly?”
Ryan: “why can’t you tell me that you love me sooo?”
Wayne: “And why don’t you pester me, bitch WHY DON’T YOU GO?”
BAM.
Ryan sneers as he exits.

A truly strong Questions. Wayne had a stranglehold on 90% of the game, and dueled with Ryan throughout its duration. Cedric learned over time but was still clumsy, yet that didn’t take away from the game’s strength. Even Colin’s sole snafu was funny. Just a great, substantial Questions round.

World’s Worst: thing to see or hear in a superhero movie

I love Colin’s first one- he goes into a phone booth to change clothes…and becomes trapped in there. Screaming for help with no sound.

Gary, being himself: “OH POWERS OF FLATULENCE, COME TO MEEEE..”

Some of these are simple superhero gags. Ryan as spiderman whose webs won’t start. Wayne as Batman whose Batarang doesn’t come back.

Colin: “I need a symbol that will strike fear in criminals’ hearts…”
He then gets pooped on, steps in it, then gets an idea. The audience doesn’t get it entirely, and there’s thin laughs, so Colin makes it entirely clear: “…SHIT MAN!”

Gary: “whoa, dude, I misread the symbol…thought you asked for FRAT-man. PARTTYYYY! FLATULENCE!”
I love Gary

Colin: “Look in the sky…it’s a plane!……”

Colin is so good at making even the simplest jokes funny.

Wayne, in pain…turns to Colin: “….SHIT MAN!”
HAAAA
Yeah, Wayne breaks the partition and requires help from the other side in WW, this until-now separate, individual game.
Colin:

Eventually:

Wayne: “…ya gotta help me out, Shit-man…”
Colin, with one of the greatest meta lines in the show’s history: “I don’t work in this area.”
SO GOOD. Aisha and Wayne love that line.

Gary: “AND USING THAT POWER, MY LIMBS WILL EXPAND….KNEE-GRO….”
And he says it another time until it sinks in.
Wayne:

Not the only time Gary will tempt the racism police this episode.

Ryan: “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…GAH….[weak, emotional voice]…WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT?”
A rare line that’s honestly funnier with the bleep.

An insanely strong WW, marred by some obvious ones early, but the most creative ones came from Gary and, yes, Colin. I find it very affirming that Colin’s first-ever World’s Worst was him struggling to be funny in this same suggestion, yet 23 years later he absolutely knocks it out of the park.

Aisha: “so many wonderful things happened.”
Colin: “…where?”

Living Scenery: Ryan and Colin are astronauts whose spaceship flies into an asteroid storm, they’re forced to make a crash landing on a hostile alien planet; Wayne and Cedric are props

This is a guest star show, and honestly this game is the only time where it truly feels like one. All the other games are befitting of a normal show.

Cedric is immediately great at ‘shower’ motions, even cleaning Colin himself. So Colin and Ryan won’t have much to worry about with him.
Colin, to Ryan still looking: “HEY, PRIVACY??”
Ryan uses Wayne as a curtain…then looks past him anyway

Colin uses Wayne as a towel down below, which cracks up Gary in the back. Cedric is good cause he keeps being the shower til Ryan has to remind Colin to turn it off.

Ryan tilts back using Wayne as a chair
Colin:

Colin: “HEY, MY KNOB’S STUCK.”
PFFFFF

Ryan, cracking up by pinching Wayne’s thumbs: “I’m trying to navigate the sh…ip…”
Colin:

I loved this. Gary losing it. Ryan losing it. Colin just confused. As evidenced by 10×23, it is HARD to throw Colin, but this comes close
Colin: “WHY ARE YOUR CONTROLS SO SMALL?”
Ryan, still gone: “I don’t…”

Ryan, standing up after sitting on Wayne for a minute: “ah, my chair was takin’ a BEATING…”
Wayne: [now releases and starts cracking up]

The switch between Cedric and Wayne as airbags, then torpedoes, then airbags again, is continuing the seriously funny vibes from the chairs bit. This is one of those playings where everyone’s just kinda gone, and the scene needs to keep going nonetheless.

I also love Colin confidently walking with Cedric as his ‘exo-suit’. Gary loves this as well.

Ryan uses Wayne as a jetpack, so Wayne lifts him:

Ryan: “I’M A FOOT OFF THE GROUND…agh…I CAN’T BREATHE…”
Wayne has to sit down from that. Ryan still hasn’t recovered. “That jetpack fucked me up, man…”
Wayne:

A seriously funny LS. So many moments where everybody was laughing, or I was laughing, or both. Cedric was good at this game, but also as amused by everything as Gary was in the back. Ryan had the toughest time dealing with Wayne, and either crushing him or having his windpipe nearly crushed. That ending was hysterical. Probably one of the funniest LS games in a while.

Ryan: “I wish I could have sat in my chair for an HOUR.”
Wayne: “i was laughing the whole…”
Ryan: “the chair was startin to vibrate on me…”
Aisha: “your chair’s not gonna be able to have anymore children”
Wayne:

Wayne, who has already been divorced at this point: “I want one more.”
Aisha, to the audience: “any takers?”
DAMN

Greatest Hits: Songs of Dallas v1

The reign of city-based GH playings begins here.

Why are Ryan and Colin cracking up at the beginning of this game? What happened??

Colin: “Hi, we’ll be right back to our movie with Liam Neeson as a man who rescues the wrong woman in Mistaken…”
PEFECT

Ryan, on Dallas: “It’s a lot like Houston, only without the culture.”
HA. The audience groans but HA.
Colin: “well, there’s one place I wouldn’t vacation at for you…”
Ryan, very genuine: “Don’t worry, I WON’T.”

Ryan’s transition: “it makes me think about all the exotic animals around there, and it makes me think of The Lion King.”
Colin, for the second time this show:
Colin: “I was wondering where you were going with that…I still don’t know.”

This Lion King number is the return of Wayne’s African Chant recitations, which is a goofy mood to start us off with.

Wayne has some really funny lyrics to this to start off, leading to the chorus ‘tall boots, short horse, big spades, must run away’

Gary and Wayne have a run in this song where they A.) have fantastic harmony, and B.) are in sync in terms of choreography. They even have a unison final note that Wayne barely keeps composure with.

A really fun Lion King number from both of them.
Colin: “wow, that song just makes you wanna hit Elton John”
PFFFFF

Ryan has another very strained segue that causes Colin to crack a smile. Man, he is just easy to throw tonight.

Gary, best known for Cajun characters already, takes the lead on this one, and gets both the tone of music and the rasp of the accent down perfectly.

Wayne ends his verse with a motorboat noise, and then brings it into the chorus [“EVERYTING IS BIGGAH, RBRBRBRBRBRB…..”]

Just the chorus itself of, ‘Everyting is biggah, everyting is biggah, everyting is biggah OVAH HEEEAHHH” is funny enough, because it fits right into the style while also just being funny as hell.

Gary: “I knew a man who was born one day, he was already biggah than his mothah
YEAH, IT’S TRUE, IT’S TRUE, IT’S TRUE, AND HE WAS SIX TIMES BIGGAH THAN HIS BROTHAH”
[It’s so seamless, and so natural, that it’s really working]

Wayne comes into some trouble during his verse. He’s clearly not as at ease as Gary is in this style, and he’s sort of lazing through it, but towards the end of his he struggles with the English language [“and that is the pants, and I come hard in a sock” I’M SORRY WAYNE, YOU WHAT HARD IN A WHAT NOW???]
He settles on: “I’m so big, I’m gonna take my pants off.”

Gary, thankfully, takes the reigns of the chorus immediately, and I thank the improv gods because it gives us this dynamite moment with the chorus:
“Everyting is biggah ovah heah” [Wayne: ‘ovah heah?”]
“Everyting is biggah oveah heah” [Wayne: “ovan heah!”
“Everyting is biggah…

Gary: “…EVEN THAT……”
And he just refuses to say the word he can say that clearly rhymes with ‘biggah’. But in not saying it, Wayne and the audience know exactly what he meant. So you just see Wayne’s expression slowly change to a mild smirk:
To impressed surprise:
Gary: “EEEEEEVERYTING IS BIGGAH OVAH HEEEAHHH”
Wayne:
Yep. He’s gone. He’s impressed that Gary went there [or rather didn’t go there], but he’s gone. And Gary just finished off a hysterical, and fun, Cajun number. WHICH MEANS, BOYS AND GIRLS…I think Gary did better than Wayne in this Greatest Hits. I think, for the first time in so long, Wayne is no longer the alpha in a singing game. It’s a huge moment, and one that deserves more recognition. Gary may have sat out of two games, but look at how he Cajun’d rings around Wayne there. That might be one of my favorite GH numbers, just from how much fun Gary’s having.

So, immediately post-song:

Wayne is gone. Laura and Linda are gone. Gary has shown no sign of cracking. It’s not easy to set off a bomb and come out unscathed, but Gary did it.

Gary, walking back to the seats: “school them…”
Wayne: “yeah, that’ll TEACH PEOPLE…”

A pretty great GH. The Ryan-Colin banter is good because it’s Ryan on full offense, and Colin just confused as hell. And the songs themselves are great, with emphasis on the Cajun number, a standout moment for Gary.

Overall: Folks…we are starting S11 with a 10/10 show. Only a few moments of WN took away from a very funny, classic-seeming show. The two central quickfire rounds, Questions and WW, were funny for different reasons- Questions was a one man show featuring Wayne mostly schooling Cedric, while WW was collaborative while also owing to Colin crossing the partition to Wayne. Living Scenery also got some huge improv laughs out of me, and GH had that immortal Gary moment plus some great GH stuff. Perhaps not a super-high-tier show from this version, and I know we’re getting some awesome shows this season, but I really loved this one, laughing hard several times, and I think it’s a great way to start this season.

Show Winners: All four
Best Performer: Ryan got the edge, but it was very close. His stuff in WN, Living Scenery and GH made it clear that Ryan was taking the offensive all night, and it was paying off.
Worst Performer: I have to give this to Wayne. Despite a strong showing in Questions, he had the most moments tonight whether he either had trouble or deferred.
Best Game: Living Scenery made me laugh hard just from Ryan’s troubles with Wayne, but there were so many little moments [‘Hey, my knob’s stuck!’] throughout.
Worst Game: Weird Newscasters started slowly, even though I enjoyed the latter half.
Guest Star Rating: 8/10. Cedric was a standard, functional guest star who enjoyed himself while also making a few faux pas’. He was better in Living Scenery than he was in Questions.

COMING UP NEXT: Jeff Davis appears in time for the first CW corporate synergy booking of the year.