A lot of comedies have relied on using double entendres to make certain scenes play funnier. Think of the time on Friends when Rachel discovered Monica went shopping for clothes with someone else and the ensuing scene made it seem like they were in a relationship and Monica had cheated on Rachel.
Workaholics used that same formula in “True Dromance” surrounding the trio’s relationship with their drug dealer. Get it? Instead of bromance (bro-romance) it’s a drug dealer-romance. Or a dromance.
The guys want to enter a pizza eating contest, but they decide that everyone fails because the pizza is too hot and too big for three people to finish in 30 minutes. Their solution is two parts. The first is to burn their tongues with hot spoons so the piping hot cheese won’t affect them. The second is to smoke weed, or grass as Anders now likes to call it, so they get the munchies.
Because Karl, their drug dealer hasn’t been returning their phone calls (on account of his dog ate his phone) they turn to a tattoo parlor because “all drug dealers have tattoos.” Instead they find a wholesome father-type artist saying they’ve gone to the wrong place. Luckily a pretty dealer, played by Rumer Willis, shows them a world they never thought possible.
Karl is distraught and treats the betrayal like it’s the worst event ever. He hates all of the trinkets they now have and refuses to believe pot brownies exist. He leaves yelling, “Brownies are made out of fudge!”
In perhaps the best cameo of all time, the new dealer, who they dub “Dragon Tattoo,” invites them to hang out with Lori Beth Denberg. Yes! From All That! My childhood was slightly ruined when she yelled, “here’s some Vital Information for you” before taking a hit with Adam, Blake and Anders in a Jacuzzi.
Of course bliss couldn’t last forever. Eventually Dragon Tattoo hands them a bill, which they laugh at because Karl never talked to them about money and would accept other forms of payment. Surely these slacker telemarketers don’t have enough to cover the tab, which includes Denberg costing $250 an hour.
From a story standpoint, this was a pretty basic—yet classic—plot development. Introduce an awesome guest star, have things run smoothly, then let things turn nasty and kill a goldfish as a threat. Last week’s premiere counted on jokes upon jokes to make the episode funny, but this episode really showed how well the crew can flesh out a story, regardless of how ridiculous it is, in a classic format.
In past seasons, they’d be 20 percent done. But since the episode total is doubled, they’ve got 18 more to go. At first I was worried things would get stale, but they might have enough tricks up their sleeves to make it work.