Has a show’s plot ever relied so heavily on whether or not a character is horny? On Workaholics, very often the motivation for the stupidity of these characters’ acts has to do with what’s in their pants. Much like the way anger and the desire to get rich often fuels the gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, getting the blood flowing is what, well, gets the blood flowing for Adam, Ders and Blake in almost every episode this season—very possibly even the series.
Yet in “Beer Heist,” this motivation and the escalation of the horniness and mission at hand make this one of the flat-out most fun episodes in its fourth season. As the title implies, “Beer Heist” sends the three guys on a beer heist, and yes, these three guys going on a heist isn’t that original. We’ve seen “Heist School,” the best scene this season in “Snackers” revolved around an elaborate heist, and most of their plans could be considered of the heisty nature. But in “Beer Heist,” the stakes are constantly rising and the definite eventual failure that is to come does make it one of their finest heist hours.
While on a beer run, the trio encounter three nineteen-year-old girls who ask them to buy beer for their college party. Their attempts to win them over are flawed from the beginning, walking with a limp to show off their supposedly huge penises and being incredibly mean to the girls like they learned in The Game. This should come off as just plain rude, but instead its just a clearly misguided attempt that shows just how stupid this approach is.
As a last-ditch effort to win over the girls for sure, Adam suggests they steal beer from an unwatched beer truck, but when the truck starts to take off, their quick beer run leads them to a truck-to-Volvo beer transport, grand theft of a hot tub worth of beer and three broken legs.
Consistently this season, Workaholics has seemed more disgusting than past seasons, and when Karl gets involved in the heist halfway through, it indeed takes that turn. For some reason though, his disgusting inclusion doesn’t distract as the use of bodily fluids has in the rest of the season. After stealing some garbage lasagna for his new Hollywood Hot Tub Tours, Karl must wear an adult diaper, you know, just in case. Somehow the guys’ plan for the most part works out, as they steal enough beer for the entire party, even though they probably still won’t get lucky with the girls they have gone to such desperate lengths for. While escaping from the brewery roof, Anders, Blake and Adam make a decision: they will jump onto the road and risk injury rather than jumping in the beer and ruining the girl’s time. They each jump, with each breaking a leg bone, earning the respect of the girls for acting hot like Steve-O, but Karl hasn’t seen this pact and cannonballs right into the beer, poop filled diaper and all, spoiling the entire operation. It works here better than the rest of this season, because it doesn’t feel as tacked on, but rather a great little surprise at the end that changes the spirit of the entire episode.
It’s also hard not to love the bookends of friendship the episode gives us, as the three seem unfazed by their failure, but are still happy to have grown in their friendship. It’s this friendship that keeps the show strong and it’s always nice to see these moments of these guys without agenda, just having a good time together. But it’s also nice to see episodes this hilarious straight through, even if it is something we’ve seen before from this show, like heists and boner-fueled plans.
Ross Bonaime is a D.C.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.