I watched the director's cut on Hulu (and caught the regular cut on TV), and I think it addresses some of @avclub-6997a8bd0e1042b70b60c5c879a1780e:disqus's concerns. Without giving too much away, most of the additional footage deals with Leslie and Ben being conflicted about whether to attack Newport during the debate.

I would've laughed harder, but I was too busy being impressed by how well they handled the serious-moment-then-back-to-comedy transition. As the speech went on I was getting more and more worried that they wouldn't be able to pull it off, but they nailed it. Exactly the right character saying exactly the right thing…

There's also the fact that Newport isn't running for president. I agree with @avclub-c54c561b74163f70a5572998e3955227:disqus that Bush was never that cartoonish, but if someone like Bush can become president, it's not so implausible that someone like Newport could win a city council election—especially in a city his…

@bradwestness:disqus My immediate thought was that it planned only in the sense that Fallon didn't know Armisen was going to be back there (sort of like the way they make Bill Hader break during the Stefon bits by changing a few lines at the last second). If the West Coast version looked more rehearsed, maybe that's…

I don't know or care if this is an unpopular opinion around here, but I think there's a lot to like about Grantland—none more so than the fact that they hired the fakegrantland guy just for being so good at making fun of them.
http://www.grantland.com/bl…

As am I. Orlando is to Florida as Florida is to the United States.

I was just about to say the same thing (about the political-campaigns-in-sitcoms comment), because that struck me as a very strange opinion. I'll concede that off the top of my head I can't think of any evidence to the contrary—The West Wing wasn't a sitcom (though it was probably one of the funniest dramas ever), and…

I think they're equivalent in that he's awful because he's an entitled dick, which doesn't really have anything to do with anything else about him. Yeah, maybe he wouldn't be so awful if he wasn't rich, so I guess you're right that his class status is more relevant than his sexual orientation, but the larger point is…

If we can all agree that Colton is a terrible, derision-worthy cartoon who in no way represents the gay community (and I think we can), let's not also assume that he is a typical rich person.

I like the "Florida Stanley" thing, if only because Tallahassee is in no way the tropical vacation paradise he seems to have in mind—it's a large South Georgia city that happens to be a few miles on the Florida side of the border—and he's not about to let that bother him.

How about Jemaine Clement's David Bowie impression?

Yeah, it's very possible that I'm just being irrational. I referred to Survivor because I think they've done a good job of creating terms and phrases that people recognize as having specific meanings within the show, without drifting too far into contrived catchphrase territory, but I'm sure that's a difficult balance…

My only complaint with this show is, can't they come up with something less awkwardly generic to say than "I pushed my button" (or the many variations thereof) in reference to selecting someone? I don't watch a ton of these reality/competition shows, but it seems like the successful ones usually do a good job of…

“I don’t want to touch that. I just want to play with you and experiment.” RUN, LINDSEY. RUN.

Wait, are they? This was the first episode I've seen, and with the strange father/daughter/husband/wife ambiguity, the multiple scenes taking place in what appeared to be a high school for people in their late 20s, and the fact that I was only barely paying attention, it was all very confusing.

The lesbian sketch would've been a good choice for the end-of-the-show slot, because it was more strange than anything else (certainly more strange than funny). I don't think they were trying to make fun of the lesbian stereotype, because they tried to make Barkley actually look kind of feminine (an impossible task,…

I was hoping at least a few of the female characters would be played by cross-dressing men—not as part of the plot or anything, but because those actors actually did have to pretend to be women to get jobs.

Also, it should be noted that, with the exception of the pilot, not a single episode of Happy Endings was aired in the correct order. I don't know if ABC felt more comfortable mixing up the episodes because the show was conducive to it, or if the creative team tried to keep it episodic because they knew the broadcast…

I remember seeing an episode and thinking, "wow, that wasn't terrible—some of the jokes were funny, and there was just enough emotional depth to keep me interested." So I looked it up and, naturally, it was, like, the third episode of the first season. Before everyone involved realized they didn't need to work that…

I don't know either, but I'd bet on Smoltz (who's one of my all-time favorites). I remember Thunderstruck being established pretty early during his run as closer, which went from the second half of the 2001 season through 2004. Putz, according to Baseball-Reference, first became the Mariners' regular closer in late…