Comedy Bang! Bang!: “Uzo Aduba”
(Episode 4.31) “Uzo Aduba Wears a White Blouse and Royal Blue Heels”
When it comes to the gimmicks—as Scott has called them—of Comedy Bang Bang episodes, there are two different ways they’re handled. The first way is to go all-in, embrace the theme and completely engage with whatever insanity this gimmick will allow, much like The Brew in the last episode, “Weird Al Wears a Different Hawaiian Shirt.” Then there are the episodes that simply use the gimmick as merely a way to create the smallest semblance of a plot for the episodes. It sounds like the lesser of the two ideas, but often Comedy Bang! Bang! makes the bookends to the episode work. The biggest problem with “Uzo Aduba Wears a White Blouse and Royal Blue Heels” is that it should’ve been one of the all-encompassing episodes, and instead ends up being the latter.
As the first episode back from its hiatus, “Uzo Aduba” has a solid plot, but it’s one that never gets as crazy as you’d hope. In the future, all comedy has been outlawed. Jokes, bits and the rule of three is forbidden and comedians have ben put into camps, thanks to a joke comedian Jerry Jocks (played by James Adomian) told on Comedy Bang! Bang! Thankfully former Futurama writer Doctor Travers (John Hodgman) and his 12 Monkeys-ish device that can transfer the consciousness of older Scott and Kid Cudi into their former selves and stop Jocks’ horrible joke from outlawing comedy. However, Scott decides that, instead of stopping Jocks, he’d rather give a big speech and have all comedy but Comedy Bang! Bang! outlawed, and meanwhile, Cudi is distracted by the IT girl Katie (Cleopatra Coleman). So Scott and Cudi get to attempt to do their favorite things: giving a speech on TV and having sex!
“Uzo Aduba” is such a big idea and Comedy Bang! Bang! has handled time-travel in their show in really fun ways, but here it’s mostly relegated to occasional reminders that Scott and Cudi are from a period where President Snooki is a reality an Adam Sandler is a martyr of the comedy rebellion. As an episode of CBB, it’s pretty bare-bones, with no real cutaways and no visits to the future, except for in the very beginning and end. It’s still plenty of fun, but it’s easy to see where, if the episode had gone fully for the bit, it could’ve been better.