I’m wondering what sort of petition I need to set up or Kickstarter we need to fund to keep at least part of Kroll Show still on the air. The PubLIZity sketches that have been peppered throughout the show’s run are consistently the funniest and sharpest segments, thanks primarily to the perfectly over-the-top work of Kroll and cast mate Jenny Slate. Listening to them mangle the English language while sipping their ever-present drinks never seems to disappoint.
This latest chapter of the PubLIZity saga took an even better turn with the appearance of Nathan Fielder as a charming bachelor who hires the firm to plan a party for the Illuminati. As you’ve hopefully seen from his show Nathan For You, Fielder is the master of underplaying his lines so his flirtatious comments to the ladies landed with an extra bit of zing to them. And it made the Lizzes befuddled and delighted reactions even more delightful.
Equally as good was the absolutely ridiculous Crab Cab clips that showed up in the episode, a bit that apparently one of the writers has been trying to get on the show for a while (according to his little between sketch interview with Kroll). A take off of Cash Cab, whoever is riding in this taxi—driven by one of Kroll’s best creations, Fabrice Fabrice—will win a crab if they answer a question correctly. That’s it. A simple, borderline stupid, but perfectly executed bit. There was even a little pathos thrown in the mix when Fabrice asks a girl if she loves her boyfriend, and she can’t do it. Mixing the bitter and the sweet works almost every time.
Less impressive was the framing story of a group of hackers trying to take down the Illuminati by gathering them all together at the PubLIZity party and revealing them to be the CEOs, world leaders and lizard people that they apparently are. It reminded me of those interstitial, connecting bits from Mr. Show episodes that sometimes didn’t land because the folks writing them didn’t seem to have their heart in it. Here, it felt like an excuse to try and tie together the PubLIZity weirdness and even the Crab Cab bit, but it needed a lot more time to bake.
Robert Ham is a Portland-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.