Second Look: Mr. Show with Bob and David ‘The Cry of a Hungry Baby’ – A Little Ass-Knockin’

It always amazes me how little Mr. Show with Bob and David is mentioned when people talk about comedy in the 1990s. Maybe it was the relatively short lifespan (30 episodes over 4 seasons), or maybe it was the fact HBO played the show at midnight or later through most of it’s broadcast run. Either way, Mr. Show is a sweet little piece of television history, often what I consider the spiritual predecessor to Chapelle’s Show in how it blended socio-political commentaries with juvenile humor (Mr. Show had the word ‘fuck’, Chappelle’s Show had its fart jokes) into memorable pieces of television.

Entitilitus/Hitler Sings (Open): B+

Not including the little Ronnie Dobbs PSA that acts as a cold open to the pilot, our introduction to Mr. Show with Bob and David does a nice little job of setting up some of the show’s absurdist tendencies (which would be fully embraces in later seasons), all underlined with shots at the American public education system and middle-class ignorance. See, Bob missed the first day of school, so he never learned about more than five states the rest of the way (including Chim Cham) – and as the American public education system would do, they pushed him along with the little American flag in his hand that he runs around the crowd with. For David, he went to public school, which led to confusion for him between Anne Frank and Hitler (he gives us a bit of his one man show Hitler Sings; “I just want to be speciallll”).

Sure, they aren’t really taking pot shots at American education explicitly in ‘Hitler Sings’, but it was a topic the show would visit here and there throughout the run, so it’s not hard to think that it would be in the minds of the writers here. The point of the sketch is to introduce Bob and David in a humorous way – and it does just that, even switching what would become their trademark styles, with David playing the more reasonable Odenkirk character against Bob’s more Cross-like, hyperenergetic and slightly douchy style.

Guy in Audience/Hit By Truck: B+

As Mr. Show went along, there was less coherency to the transitions used to tie sketches together – and it always makes me fond of early season sequences like ‘Hit By Truck’ when there more of an emphasis on these in-between bits. It’s short, but David and “Ernie” (Bob’s mopey, high-pitched character) walking down the street was a great display of the dichotomy in comedic tendencies between the two: David went for the aggressive comedy (giving him the finger, shouting “fuck you asshole!” as he drove away with his friend Kevin) while Bob got to showcase his warped sentimentality, as Ernie gets sad seeing all the change in the world around him (Bob and David changing after getting a show, his friend changing into an asshole, a caterpillar changing into a butterfly) and subsequently gets hit by a car (a fine lesson: spend too much time bitching about the world around you, you’ll die without enjoying it).

Of course, Bob’s character getting hit by a car transitions neatly into a shot of Bob as a priest in the beginning of the next sketch. The Resurrection of Odenkirk!

Asshole At Party: A-

Bob and David are usually at their best on this show when dealing with one of two things: common social situations in middle-class America, or poking fun at establishments like religion, the government, or the welfare system. ‘Asshole At Party’ is a bit of both – and the show’s first extended skit, giving us our first look at some of the first season’s regulars: John Ennis, Jill Talley, and the infamous Tom Kenny, though they’re mostly relegated to the background (Jill’s little asides to the priest are pretty amusing, though). David plays the dickhead at the party being obnoxious and making needless bets, betting nobody that he could eat cigarette butts, balance a glass on his head for an hour, than eat said glass after breaking it on the floor.

What it devolves into is a witty little take on the way us humans (religious or not, though the priest’s inclusion in this activity is surely no coincidence) follow these silly, convoluted rules and traditions, even when it makes no fucking sense to do. He ends up the slave of David’s character for a year – and then it’s all revealed to be a big joke everyone’s playing on the priest, as he runs around with a banana in his asscrack, screaming “I was born out of Satan’s ass!” and dancing. It ends with a silly little monologue by Bob, talking about how when life gives you lemons (or a sweatshop), you make lemonade (you run said sweatshop, even if you’re not that proud of your part in life).

Change For A Dollar: A

The next sketch ‘Change for a Dollar’ is the easily the pilot’s best, and one of my favorites in the entire series. Based off a phone conversation David had with a caricaturist, Bob and David wrote the sketch about a man’s request for a dollar’s worth of change going from conveience store employee, complete with Bob Odenkirk as a company executive, dancing hilariously in a pink golf shit. It’s a multi-layered bit, as Bob and David play various characters (but always interacting with each other, never versions of themselves) who have this ridiculous way of sounding like they’re thinking about or calculating something in their heads. It’s an absurd little bit, but it marries the lighter material with a hilarious take on the corporate ladder taking over American business structures in the 1990s, which has lead to today’s systems, where a return or exchange needs passwords, card swipes, and key unlocks at many retailers. And it doesn’t overstay its welcome (which again, later episodes of Mr. Show suffered from at times); after a few back and forths between Bob and David’s characters (including David as the President: “Hey, fuck you asshole” is definitely the way the POTUS should answer his phone), Bob’s character steps outside and we are fully introduced to the legend of Ronnie Dobbs.

Ronnie Dobbs/Ronnie Dobbs Movie: A-

Before Kim Kardashian, before the first E! reality series (remember that Tara Reid show?) there was Ronnie Dobbs, a character David developed after watching the original reality show, COPS. The Ronnie Dobbs sketch is really a precursor to the celebrity obsessed culture of today’s society: Ronnie Dobbs became famous for ridiculous and overtly-engineered reasons – British cameraman Terry Twillstein films the ‘coppers’ on FUZZ: Las Vegas, and sees an opportunity for great wealth in the man who manages to get arrested in every single state in America.

It’s eerie how it parallels the plight of reality stars these days: they get famous for being untalented messes, enabled by those profiting off them (Ronnie even points out to Terry: “You’re an enabler, man! Get out of here, you British frog!”) and doomed to live an unsatisfying life of diminishing returns (by the end, Ronnie’s so famous he doesn’t drink and can’t get arrested anymore). In fact, he’s so entitled and removed from what made him Ronnie Dobbs that he dies of entitlitis – an unfortunate turn of events Terry turns into a melodramatic Hollywood production (taking a shot at Hollywood biopics in the process) of Ronnie’s death.

‘Ronnie Dobbs’ is such a genius bit – and although it’s certainly not the finest moment for either Terry or Ronnie (the musical blows it away), it’s a hilarious introduction to two of the show’s most signature characters. And it eventually devolves into a perfectly typical Mr. Show ending: an advertisement for incubation pants, where Bob pulls a baby chick out of the crotch of his jeans. Sure, it’s a bit of an abrupt ending – but as David points out, they’re filming in a fucking restaurant (more on that in the observations), and they need to start serving the wings and things to the wanting customers.

‘The Cry of a Hungry Baby’: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

– why is Ronnie Dobbs chained to a link fence in Park City, Utah? Of all the places we see him getting arrested, this one makes me the most curious.

– I love the fake beards and wigs on this show. In the commentaries, Bob often talks about how important it was for them to keep the show looking and feeling low-rent, because he thought it added to the atmosphere and humor of every sketch.

– Ronnie: “y’ll should put condoms on both ears…. I think it’s funny.”

– “Mr. Show??? More like Mr. Blow, you assholes!”

– “Wow. They’ve really changed.”

– Jill’s little cameo at the beginning of ‘Change for a Dollar’ is classic: “Take a picture you jack off, it’ll last longer!”

– Very brief Brian Posehn cameo, as one of the cops who show up at Ronnie’s mansion to not arrest him.