With last week’s “Fry Guys,” I lamented the use of gross-out humor in a show that is usually smart enough to play dumb without being too disgusting. Nasty humor can be funny, but watching two guys vomit into each other’s faces wasn’t exactly the way to do it. So when this week’s episode, “Snackers,” starts off with Anders getting an explosion of crap in his face, things weren’t looking so good, yet a great final third and the boys finally coming out on top saves “Snackers” from turning into an actual shit storm.
Once Ders gets a face full of feces, the episode actually starts, with the guys throwing a party for Karl, since the episode of Cheaters he stars in is airing. To appease the guest of honor, the trio has to go snack shopping—specifically for a popcorn tin with three different flavors—at their favorite grocery store: the office’s break room. Since Alice has caught on to her secret shoppers, she is appointing a position of break room manager. Montez nominates himself with a platform set to “healthify” the break room, while Anders, Blake and Adam elect Jillian to work their plan through her. When Jillian does win the election, she becomes power hungry, locking up all snacks and setting alarms (cat statues that meow when someone approaches) to help ration the eats.
While the adventures of Anders, Adam and Blake are usually fun to watch, they often fall into the stereotypical paths you’d expect them to. It’s not a bad thing, but it can get tiresome at times. That’s why it’s always a nice change when an episode features some of the show’s great supporting characters. “Fry Guys” did this well, too, but “Snackers” focuses largely on the insane Jillian and Karl’s diva-like behavior. These two are always welcome additions, especially when they are at their extremes as they are here.
Besides the insanity of these two, what elevates “Snackers” to greatness is the final act, which is Workaholics’ take on Ocean’s Eleven/Ocean’s Thirteen. (They really missed the mark with Ocean’s Twelve.) The three guys plan a heist to get the snacks out of the grasp of Jillian and her cat alarms, yet when Jillian discovers the plan, she explains their own plan to them, as characters are known to do in such films. However Jillian’s explanation far exceeds their plan, which as Matt Damon’s Linus would say in Ocean’s Eleven is a “smash-and-grab job.” Jillian’s theory would make Danny Ocean proud, with Karl going into air ducts, sneaking behind the cabinets, sucking the snacks out with a vacuum and escaping with a fake toilet box. (In reality, the plan involved distracting Jillian long enough to beat at the locks with whatever they can find in the break room.)
The misdirection here is wonderful, as the longer Jillian’s explanation gets, the greater the payoff as it becomes clear that they aren’t smart enough for such an operation. Still, it’s so rare for these three to get a win, even if their reward is only a bunch of snacks for Karl to eat while him and the entire party watch TV. It’s that ending and the humor that can come from well thought-out jokes that makes “Snackers” such a nice surprise and the highlight of the fourth season so far.