All too often, the subjects of Kroll Show’s satirical barbs are already a few months or years past their sell-by date, thereby lessening the comic impact (cf. the continued tossing under the bus of Larry Bird for his back problems and Kelsey Grammar for his pomposity in a parody of Cheers). This week’s episode, though, proved that Kroll and his friends are at least paying a little attention to what’s going on in the current media landscape, and their work was all the funnier for it.
The best was their excoriation of bro-country, that weird subgenre that aims to mash up modern Nashville country with house and hip-hop music. Of course the progenitors of this were Bobby Bottleservice and Peter Paparazzo, who starred in a perfectly over-the-top video meant to both assert their down home bona fides and their sleek bro-ness.
If that wasn’t enough, it included an appearance from Senor Feeture, a Pitbull parody with an outrageous Cuban accent and a serious foot fetish. As explained earlier in the half-hour, he’s a gent who spends all his time in a room with a green screen so he can more easily inserted into other people’s songs and videos. It’s spot on musical commentary that skimmed the border of the outrageous while also remaining completely plausible.
The show also featured a great appearance by Chelsea Peretti as the hostess of a fashion makeover show Look Like Dis. As she always does, this comedian played it to the hilt, emphasizing her bubbleheaded drive to turn a mousy lawyer (played with aplomb by Jenny Slate) into a sex goddess. Like Slate or peers like Catherine Martin or Nora Dunn, there just doesn’t seem to be anything Peretti can’t handle comedically. She adds such a weird personal spin to her every line, a rare and marketable quality. Prepare to see her in even more supporting roles on TV and in films for many years to come.
The rest of the episode served only to deepen the weirdness of Wheels, Ontario with further strange Canadian stereotypes (a love of root vegetables, a hatred of the residents of Prince Edward Island) as well as giving Nathan Fillion something to do other than do his procedural crime show. Solid enough stuff, especially the introduction of Tunes’ evil, Quebecois separatist twin sister but nothing to really crow about.
Robert Ham is a Portland-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.