Today, I want to know what you think was the most well-constructed TV farce episode.
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
A standard plot in TV sitcoms is the farce, where characters are maneuvered into comedically ludicrous situations for the sake of laughs. Farce is EXTREMELY common in sitcoms, but because it is so common, TV shows typically seem to grow tired of actually setting the farce up well. Characters will do stuff just because they need to do them for the farce to work, and that’s just poor writing. A classic farce is constructed in such a fashion that you legitimately can believe that a reasonable person could actually find themselves caught up in the absurd position in the episode.
However, even good farces tend to take a few leaps here and there, moments where you’re, like, “All Character X has to say to clear this entire confusion up is one very normal thing, and they just don’t get to that point for…reasons.”
So I want to know what you think was the BEST constructed TV farce episode, an episode that both combined a hilariously ludicrous situation with one that was completely supported with a setup where everything actually made sense.
For me, I’m going with the classic Frasier episode by Joe Keenan, Season 5’s “The Ski Lodge,” where Frasier, Niles, Daphne and a swimsuit model friend of Daphne’s, Annie, go to a ski lodge where there is a handsome ski instructor. Frasier is trying to woo Annie, but Annie has her eye on (newly single) Niles, who has his eye on Daphne, who has her eye on Guy, who has his eye on Niles. The trick is that Frasier and Niles’ father, Martin, is also on the trip, but he recently had a blockage in his ear that is messing up his hearing, so he inadvertently tells everyone involved that the person that they are interested in is also interested in them, leading to hilarity.
Keenan put so much meticulous effort into making everything make perfect sense in how people react to each other, setting up the dominos and then they all fall in one epically hilariously bedroom romp, with the perfect capper of how, when the dust has settled, Frasier realizes that he’s the only one there that NO ONE had their eye on!
Okay, that’s my pick. How about you?
And feel free to suggest future Pop Culture Theme Time topics to me at brian@poprefs.com!
it’s hard to dispute the awesomeness of that Frasier episode, but I’ll put in a word for “An Old-Fashioned Wedding” from Cheers. It’s Woody’s wedding, taking place at the mansion of his future inlaws, and everything goes wrong–Rebecca insults the caterers who walk off the job, the dress gets ripped, Sam flirts with a married woman whose husband comes after him, and, oh, the officiant dies. Of course, the gang pulls together to save the day in hilarious fashion.
It’s not quite as perfectly crafter as “The Ski Lodge”–but what is? And if that Frasier episode didn’t exist, this one would surely place highly on any top sitcom farce episode list.
I always liked the “chain of favors” episodes of M*A*S*H where one favor would be swapped for another up through the line until one broken link would bring the whole thing down.
I don’t know if this counts, but the episode of NewsRadio where Catherine quits and Jimmy is trying to figure out why by asking everyone else. The farcical portion comes in when Catherine convinces both Joe and Bill to come to her place after she’s left.
Came here to say what Tommy said – Woody’s Wedding was a classic farce, one that I remember thrilling to as a kid.
My vote goes for WKRP’s “A Fish Tale.”
Showrunner Hugh Wilson wrote it to satisfy the network, who wanted the show to go in a more zany direction. Wilson purposely wrote the show so over the top to thumb his nose at the executives who wanted it. The problem was it was so well done it it is probably the second-best known episode of the show, just behind the Thanksgiving Classic “Turkey’s Away.”
This was a great choice! I need to rewatch this episode. Frasier was generally wonderful with farces. Another great Frasier farce was season 5’s “Room Service,” where Niles sleeps with Lilith.