TVSquad

(S02E21) Boy, did this episode speak to me.

Like Chris, I've never been very good at math. This is an example of how my brain tries to solve a basic math problem:

Problem: x + 9 = 18 - 2x

My Brain: I haven't had Corn Flakes in a long time.

See? It's like it doesn't even try. If numbers are involved, my brain pretty much shuts down and starts playing elevator music. Perhaps if I had been offered pizza like Chris' class I would have done better, but I doubt it. At least Chris had some outside help from his mother and grandmother. I also had outside help from a tutor, but despite her efforts, she just couldn't get through to me.

Hello, everyone. Are you enjoying your Saturday? That's great. Here's some funny videos I found:

First of all, our own Paul Goebel is doing a series of funny vlogs for NBC's DotComedy as The Remote Controller. He's already predicted the demise of FOX's Drive before anyone else. Will he use his Nostradamus-like skills to make even more chilling predictions? Who knows?

Have you been watching Human Giant on MTV? You should, it's a damn funny show. Check out this sketch of one of the most intense job interview you'll ever witness. It'll make you "put on your marshmallow pants and hit the boo-hoo button."

This holiday episode of Everybody Hates Chris will air on Monday, December 11 at 8 pm, but here's a little taste of what to expect. I'll have a more-detailed review up after the show airs.

It's Christmas in Brooklyn, and Chris has discovered the joy of the season, and more specifically, the joy of putting items on layaway. Over time he's been slowly paying for gifts for his family, but when he gets sick, he worries he won't be able to keep working and have the gifts paid off before Christmas. His father, who takes a job playing Santa at a department store (narrator Chris Rock points out it's more than a little odd that a black man is playing Santa Claus at a department store called "Goldsteins") gets Chris a job taking pictures of the kids. Julius, always concerned about money, tells all the kids the presents they want are too expensive.

The "Kris" in the episode title refers to guest star Richard Lewis, but I don't want to go into too much detail and ruin the episode. I will say, however, that Lewis turns in a great performance. He alone makes the episode worth watching.

(S02E05)

Malvo: It's hard to rob a gun store. They got guns.

This wasn't one of the funniest episodes of Everybody Hates Chris I've seen, though I chalk that up to the show having a somewhat more serious point to make than other episodes. Chris, after being allowed to tend the corner market for the first time by himself, ends up robbed by the neighborhood's repeat offender, a thug named Malvo who's constantly in and out of jail.

(S02E04) Tom Peters may be a man who's "full of ideas" but he hasn't held down many jobs. This becomes a problem when he finds out one of his stepsons is having a career day at his school where parents come in to talk about their occupations. Tom decides to pay the Mayor a visit with a fruit basket consisting entirely of bananas, and he slips his resume in for good measure. Tom's resume flashes on the screen for only a few seconds, but his list of "jobs" includes such things as being a spokesmodel for chronic nocturnal emissions ("An illness I know all too well"), his ill-fated job as vice mayor of Hoboton, and his stint as a voluntary zoo guide (it felt like real work).

I remember briefly receiving an allowance when I was growing up, but for the most part I never received any kind of weekly stipend from my parents, nor did I ever ask for one. It was pretty much understood when we were growing up that money had to go to more important things like food and shelter, and like Chris' father in last night's episode, on those rare occasions when I would ask for money I would get a speech from my father about all the free food and utilities I was able to enjoy on a daily basis without having to work at all.

Chris' father, in some ways, reminds me of my own father, but he's probably like anyone's father who worked more than one job to support a family. There's a great moment in the episode where Julius (Chris' father) is trying to squeeze the last little bit of toothpaste out of the tube. It's shown for about two seconds, but it illustrates how important it is for him to make money stretch as far as it can go. When Chris decides he wants a leather jacket like everyone else seems to have, his father lets him come to work with him. The work turns out to be much more difficult than Chris bargained for, but their night together adds a new dimension to their relationship. By the end of the episode Chris has a better understanding of who his father is and how hard he actually does work.

Last night's episode seemed more character driven and less reliant on "gags" than other episodes, and it also focused heavily on the financial situation of the family, which is what really draws me to the show. Too many sitcoms focus on affluent families, or people who live extravagantly without any visible means of support. Those shows aren't bad necessarily, but when I watch Everybody Hates Chris I feel a kind of empathy and camaraderie toward the characters I never felt, say, listening to Mr. Huxtable steer the ever-malleable Theo on the right track with some instantaneous words of wisdom. Chris is funny, not just because the writing and jokes are solid, but because the characters actually feel like real people.

Last night's episode of Everybody Hates Chris was a rerun, so I didn't watch it. However, I did tune in for the last few minutes and noticed something I didn't catch when I watched it before. The family is sitting around the table, and Julius, the father, who works several different jobs, is wearing a pair of overalls with the name "Overlook Hotel" over the left pocket. Would that be the same fictional Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's novel The Shining? What exactly was his job there, cleaning up the blood every time the elevator doors opened? I thought it was pretty cool, though I'm not sure what the point was exactly.