The most important thing Workaholics has taught me to date: hovercrafts are aphrodisiacs; they’re like the oysters of the sea.
“To Kill a Chupacabraj” puts the guys in a small claims court after their coworker Montez sells them a defective hovercraft that they planned on impressing girls with at their pool party. Without it, the bash would just be “a bunch of guys wearing straw cowboy hats and squirting each other”—and that’s a bad thing.
Like most Workaholics episodes, there is a series of one-liners that propel the episode past something frat boys would watch instead of studying towards something that strives to be as offbeat as Community. The choices of having failed law school applicant Anders try to talk to a nonexistent jury followed by Adam’s Southern influence “lie-ering” were funny within themselves, but it’s actually the timing and beats that surprisingly show just how far the show has come.
When this slacker comedy first started out, it was funny because you couldn’t believe they were getting away with most of the jokes/plots they were presenting. It was a good example of getting a group of friends together to write about inside jokes and make them for the masses. Slowly, the show evolved—yes, Workaholics has evolved—into a show with some substance.
Most episodes feature quick scene after scene focusing on raunchy jokes, but this episode featured two fleshed-out scenes, making it seem more like two extended, connected R-rated SNL sketches. The courtroom scene was one thing; the kidnapping and interrogation, however, was on a different playing field altogether.
Watching the trio try to terrorize a star witness proved how far the show is willing to go to get a laugh. It spoofs the bumbling idiot character so well. If this show were a film, it would be along the lines of B-rate buddy cop flicks and those Scary Movie wannabes. But that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes you just need to sit down and watch seemingly mindless entertainment that is hilarious with a subtle hint of intelligence thrown in.
To further prove the show is gaining credibility, The Black Keys stopped by for a cameo. Seeing the duo play two guys with bodacious ponytails was perhaps the best cameo of all time. Their five seconds of screen time didn’t take away from the show. “To Kill a Chupacabraj” wasn’t billed as “see the Black Keys make an appearance!” While it was known they were going to be on it, the writers treated the band like they were just another group of extras thrown in as a bit joke.