Comedy Bang! Bang!: “Jenna Fischer Wears A Floral Blouse and Black Heels”

One of the biggest problems that Comedy Bang! Bang! must face is the translation of its podcast characters into TV characters. Consider the fact that many of the most popular characters in CBB history that have made the transition (like Paul F. Tompkins’ Andrew Lloyd Webber and Garry Marshall or Bobby Moynihan’s Fourvel), have had hours of character background over the course of several episodes, filled with plenty of improvisation. One slight word play trick or bout of confusion can create whole new levels of depth in a character. These multilayered characters have about five minutes to present themselves (who they are, and what makes them so great) in an episode, but when they can pull it off, it makes for a great episode, like in tonight’s “Jenna Fischer Wears A Floral Blouse and Black Heels,”.

The entire episode is framed by a “Who Has Done It?,” plot, as a crew member has been killed, leaving a mystery for the stain expert/inspector (Jason Alexander). With six suspects, the inspector tries to find the killer, but whenever he gets ready to assign guilt to someone, that person gets killed. Alexander is an interesting addition to this world, but the situation itself brings more laughs than Alexander’s inspector.

Jenna Fischer makes the second Office cast member in a row to appear on the couch, and most of her segment focuses on her past in The Office. For example, Scott points out that Pam should’ve ended up with Roy instead of that jerk Jim who was always sniffing around her desk. Also great is Fischer admitting that she appeared on the British version of CBB, known as BBCBB and also on the Transylvanian version, entitled Comedy Fang! Fang!, a great reference to the Halloween episodes of the podcast.