This week’s Kroll Show, “Krolling Around With Nick Clown,” was my favorite of the season so far. The sketches were joke-heavy and fun. There were a slew of guest performers and smaller cameos, most important being Jane Levy in my favorite sketch of the season. After a few bumpy episodes, here’s hoping Season 2 is finally hitting its stride.
The Shark Tank parody, “$igning Bonus” was solid. It included Zach Woods as Cal Culvers, a gambling-addicted baseball player, Paul Brittan as an Argentinean soccer player and, of course, Darrius Garrett as the recurring Gatorade bathing football player Dante Lavonte. These athletes are ostensibly offering their signing bonus to whomever pitches them a great new business idea. This brings on a cavalcade of dummies including Lamorne Morris from New Girl pitching an umbrella for your umbrella, “That’s the top umbrella. It keeps you nice and dry, so you’re not wet with the… ya know what I mean?”
”$igning Bonus” was great, but the best part of the show was the unveiling of the new sketch “Madison’s Choice,” which is a spoof of the show Felicity. Jane Levy nailed the self-interested over-narrator who can’t decide between a pretty boy jerk and a mawkish nerd who kind of looks the same (both are played by Kroll). This sketch mocks exactly what was wrong with a show I actually enjoyed, which brings the viewer a unique brand of satisfaction.
Rounding out the show was Jon Daly’s Gene Creamers character—Gene being most famous as Coach Teacher on the Degrassi Junior High parody “Wheels Ontario”—doing a PSA for Canadian youth called “Get Out.” I really enjoyed the Canadian-style exercises, even more so when I learned they might be referencing an actual ‘80s and ‘90s Canadian exercise campaign called “Body Break.” This episode was worth it for that discovery alone.
Some Highlights:
1. Retta as the TSA agent flirting with Ref Jeff in his new job.
2. “Okay, so this is a cumbersome physical metaphor for sexual misfortune?” – Zach Woods on the “Umbrella Umbrella”
3. When the Ben-type character in the Felicity spoof “shows” Madison how to using dining meal points by standing behind her referencing guys hitting on girls in cheesy movies using tennis or golf instruction.
4. Children throwing their hands up and down doing “Canadian sit-ups.”
5. And Seth Morris’s Bob Ducca character explaining what injured him before his ”$igning Bonus” pitch:
“I was thrashed. I was sleeping in a cul-de-sac. Some creature picks me up and thrashed me around like a rag doll.”
“Was it just a man?”
“I don’t know. I woke up in a veterinary emergency room.”