Tales From Dog River 04.26.08: Corner Gas - Episode Ten
Posted by Randy Harrison on 04.26.2008
Dog River has comedy night but there's not a lot of funny going on from the comics, and Lacey tries to add some culture to the town with a book club. Probably not the best idea for small-town Saskatchewan, but she's trying.
If it's Saturday, it's time for Tales From Dog River, the bestest review of the bestest Canadian show on television, Corner Gas. We're on our way back to rural Saskatchewan for the tenth episode of the first season "Comedy Night". A comedian makes his way to Dog River for the annual comedy night at the Dog River bar and he ends up making a less than favorable impression on the town, while Lacey decides that it's time to start a book club, with less than favorable results. Once we're done with the plugs, it's time to head to the show for laughs, laughs and more laughs.
And for those of you who may be new fans of the show, new fans of the review, or might just need a refresher course on all things Dog River, be sure to check out the debut edition of Tales From Dog River to learn everything you need to know about the town and all of the quirky folk that call it home.
Episode Ten: Comedy Night (Originally aired on March 24, 2004)
Playing off of last episode, Brent is sitting in the Ruby reading the Howler, where the headline blares about the new call center being built in Wullerton. Hank comes by and hears the news and they both spit on the ground when they say Wullerton. Lacey wipes it up off the floor and wonders why everyone has to do that everytime someone says Wullerton. Brent claims that they don't and then he does it again the second that she says the name Wullerton. He says that they'll try to keep a curb on it so that it doesn't happen as much, but of course Oscar comes in and talks about the call center coming in Wullerton and everyone spits, even Lacey. Brent notices and proudly proclaims Lacey as being one of them now.
After the opening credits, Lacey is talking to Karen about a book that Karen is reading and it turns out that all the ladies in Dog River have read it, although apparently the last book Oscar has read was the manual for their toaster oven. Brent's messing around in the gas station doing nothing and Hank comes busting in talking about how Bob Lang, the comedian that everyone loved last year when he performed is going to be on TV that night. Lacey sits with all the gals that have read the book and suggests a book club idea, and all of the rest of them agree that it might be a little too girly for them. Lacey says that they could get a man to join and suggests Brent. Emma seems a little suspect of the whole thing, but Lacey is convinced and when she asks Brent he's happy to accept. He says that he's been itching to read The Saint In New York, a hard-boiled detective novel. Lacey talks about how they've already chosen a book and that Brent should read that one first, before he asks about little sandwiches. Lacey figures he's being sarcastic, but Brent makes sure she knows that he's never sarcastic about food, especially sandwiches.
Over at the bar Hank asks Paul if he can MC the comedy night and Paul sets him up with a little audition right then and there. Hank barely gets a line out and Paul is already cracking up so he goes ahead and hires him as the MC. This won't end well I'd imagine. Back at the Ruby, Lacey's written up a synopsis of the book that Brent was supposed to read, along with some pre-thought opinions, but Brent won't have any of it. He says that he's reading the book and enjoying it so far. Lacey says that Brent should still take a peek at the suggestions she made and Brent says that he must have missed something since he thought that a book club was where you read a book and then you talked about it. Hank sits and tries to make a joke about words like synopsis and hypnosis and Brent looks at him like he's a lunatic. Hank continues to try to make jokes but there's nothing funny at all about any of what he's saying. Lacey says that she used to work at a comedy club and that it's not easy to get laughs. Hank talks about how much he loves that show Whose Line Is It Anyhow? and Brent makes a joke about how the "bald guy" has to do a cameo in everything, leading to Colin Mochrie, said bald guy, walking past them portraying some random guy named Dave. That's awesome. Lacey brings up what Hank might do if people heckle him and he gets worried about what might happen if people make fun of him.
Later that night at the bar, Hank, Lacey, Brent and Oscar are watching TV with Oscar bitching that he can't watch wrestling because Hank wants to see the comedy guy on TV. Oscar says that there's nothing good on TV anymore and nothing's funny on TV either. The comedy guy comes on the talk show and the comedian talks about going on tour in Saskatchewan and seems to not be liking it very much. He tells a story about hiking in Saskatchewan and Brent realizes that the story that he's telling is actually a story that Brent told him the last time he was in town. Brent is disappointed because he can't tell that story anymore, while Oscar freaks out, pounding the bar to demand that it get turned to the nature channel. Brent asks how many beers he's had, which I'm sure is probably a good-sized number.
The next day Lacey asks Brent how the book is going and he says that it's grrrrrrrrrrrrreat!! Hank comes in and says that he has a plan to help himself get ready for comedy night. He wants everyone to heckle him until his performance so that when he has to perform, if anyone heckles him, he'll be ready with the snappy comebacks. Brent says it's the stupidest idea he's ever heard and Hank ends up offended by it and then tells Hank to shut up and that he sucks. Hank's hurt again and Lacey explains it to him again, but he ends up still not really getting it. Poor Hank. Lacey says that a lot of comedians have standard lines for hecklers and she'll write some down for him and Hank gets all excited because he'll be able to put them on flash cards. Brent's outside helping someone with some gas and he tries to tell his hiking story again to the guy at the pumps, but he doesn't want to hear it, saying that he watches TV too.
At the book club meeting at Emma's place, Oscar makes a grab for the sandwiches but Emma whacks him back into line with the book. Oscar calls it a sissy book club and then decides he's going to leave anyhow. They ask Brent about what he thought of the book and Lacey tries to save him but he manages to sound really smart with his point, and Emma tells him to have a sandwich. Brent thinks that it reminded him about The Saint In New York and then pulls out the book. We flip back to the bar and Hank tells Davis that he's wearing a nice shirt. He means it as an insult and then has to explain it when Davis thanks him for the compliment. Davis figures that he was being sincere and then says that he likes his shirt, while Hank bemoans his lack of heckling from everyone in town. Davis heckles him and Hank can't come up with an insult because he's stuck. Back at the book club Brent is talking about The Saint In New York again and Wanda, Emma and Karen all think that they should read this book next, while Lacey ends up disappointed because she had chosen the next book for them to read.
The next day at the Ruby Karen is getting a coffee and Lacey says that she needs to talk to her about the book club. Emma comes up and talks about how great the books have been lately, and they're all detective novels from Brent's collection. Lacey says that they've moved away from the kinds of books they should be reading a little. Karen and Emma both think they've learned a lot from the James Bond books that they read and that they can keep going with it. Brent is leading the book club and talking about First Blood and John Rambo, but Lacey has had enough and says that there's a lot more to reading than detectives and mercenaries. Emma ends up wondering whether Lacey even read the book and Brent turns the tables on her, saying the same thing to her that she did to him after the first book that the club read. Lacey says that if they're going to read books like this, they'd might as well just watch the movies. Emma and Wanda agree and Brent says that the first movie should be Delta Force. Lacey decides that she's going to leave the book club and she does.
Brent is helping Emma to clean up after the book club meeting and Oscar comes in asking if there are any of the little sandwiches left, which makes Brent laugh. Oscar says something about a rowboat and Brent starts to tell him the story the comedian stole, but Oscar stops him and says it's Brent's fault for running around telling his stories to everyone, The secret, according to Oscar, is to keep all the funny stories to yourself so only you can enjoy them. He leaves laughing at his own stories and Brent just turns away not even wanting to know. At the gas station a little later, Brent ends up face to face with the comedian that stole his story. Brent recognizes him and says that he went to the show last year and that they hung out, dropping hints about the story that the comic stole. The comic doesn't get it and keeps asking for directions to the bar. Brent finally snaps a little and the comic just kind of looks at him confused and leaves.
That night at the bar, the place is getting set up for comedy night and Lacey and Brent take turns heckling Hank, who's learned his insults well and zings them right back. Oscar says hi and Hank tells him to shut up. Paul welcomes everyone and introduces Hank and someone shouts out encouragement, prompting Hank to mistake it for a heckle and start with the insults. The people don't seem to get that Hank is just using the one-liners and they start to turn on him for being mean. Brent hopes that the way that Hank is bombing that it might make Bob Lang's show a lot worse. Brent is still sore about losing his story and he wants the comic to get booed off of the stage. Lacey says to give her two minutes and she'll make it happen. Hank keeps bombing and Lacey's in the back with the real comic, saying how much she loved him the last time he was in Wullerton. He thinks his agent made a mistake and asks about a town that Wullerton hates. Lacey says that he should say as much bad stuff as he can about Dog River and the comic thanks her for the advice.
The comic comes out and then starts going off on all of his anti-Dog River material and they start to boo him off the stage after giving him the silent treatment. He tries to kiss-ass and offers a toast to Wullerton, prompting everyone to spit and then REALLY boo him off stage. They even chant to bring back Mean Hank, while Brent says that he should never get on Lacey's bad side. Lacey finally relents and says that she's going to go back to movie club. After the break, Brent is sitting in front of a bunch of equipment, talking about how everyone should make an effort to check out the books that were mentioned on the show as part of the book club. He tells us all to visit our library and then Colin Mochrie comes back to tell us how cool reading is, as Brent says that he has to be in everything. The credits roll with both of them grinning goofily into the camera and that's it for the episode.
Dog River Speaks
Sadly, there weren't really any GREAT sequences this week. A lot of good ones, but nothing that was utterly hilarious. I expect Dog River Speaks to return next week with a vengeance though, so for now let's get to the Most Valuable Gasser.
Most Valuable Gasser
The Most Valuable Gasser honor for this week's episode goes to Hank for his repeated efforts at stand-up and the fact that he tried so hard to be funny and just couldn't do it, but in the end he was able to get the acceptance of the crowd, just because he wasn't making fun of Dog River like the "real" stand-up comic was. This particular storyline allowed Hank to show all aspects of his character including his sheer idiocy, and also his softer side when he would end up all sad and hurt every time someone heckled him and he forgot that he had asked them to. There wasn't a lot else going on in terms of superb performances, just a lot of really good ones, which allowed Hank to slip in with his subtle turn for this week's MVG award!
That does it for this week's edition of Tales From Dog River everyone, and thanks for stopping by. Be sure to come back next week when I'll be taking a look at the eleventh episode of Season One, "Hook, Line, and Sinker". Hank and Karen go on a fishing trip out of town and for whatever reason Karen finds herself falling for Hank, while back in town Lacey and Brent end up having a battle of wits, in public, drawing the attention of everyone in town. I'll be looking forward to seeing you all then and remember that Dog River might be 40 kilometers from nowhere and way beyond normal, but the people of Dog River, and fans like me, sure seem to like it that way.
The 411: Not a great episode since there was not a lot of good stuff going on. The whole thing just seemed a little flat and there were a few good moments, but nothing terribly earth-shattering. I'd actually call it the weakest episode out of the whole season so far, unfortunately. It might be a personal preference thing but I just didn't get it, I guess.
