Does anyone remember Graham from Saved by the Bell? The character had a one-episode stint in "Cut Day," the one where Slater and Jessie break up and no one cares because they aren't Zack and Kelly?
Yeah, this guy. Well, here, he plays a sweaty, tweaked-out armed robber. Which is unfortunate, mostly because he did so well as a recycling-obsessed MEGA DORK whose shirt served as a perfect 3-D interpretation of the SBTB opening credits. Anyway.
We start here.
Inside, Brenda tries to study, while Dylan plays with her hair and is generally adorable...other than the fact that THE GREEN SHIRT. NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo. I thought we had left it behind in an on-fire dumpster earlier in the season.
But! Brenda's had enough of this shit, gathers her work, stands up and tells him, "Obviously we're not gonna get anything accomplished here, so I think we should go to a public place. Someplace preferably very well lit."
(Also: if you'd prefer to listen to me talk about this one rather than reading the overly-descriptive garbage-pit I call a "blog," head on over to the amazing The Blaze with Lizzie & Kat podcast and tune in to hear my ramblings on this very episode.)
Without further (non)ado...
...we open here...
...and then we're inside, where Brandon and his wee arms are exiting the back room carrying some kind of electronic device box.
He's followed by Worthless Nat, not being worthless for once, and Jim, non-sexually tag-teaming another box.
Jim sends Brandon to get another box out of the car and tells Nat, "I got a good feeling about this...did you read the brochure my client sent over? This is the perfect place for one of these things." Yes, a diner is a perfect venue for karaoke. He continues, "You already have a well-established clientele. This is only gonna bring in new traffic. Believe me, that cashier's gonna ring." I think what we can conclude from all of this is that Jim has clearly quit the CPA biz and is now a low-classy karaoke salesman.
Brandon re-enters with the box in hand, and Jim tells him, "Make sure the whole crew is here tomorrow night when we crank this baby up, 'cause we are gonna rock and roll." Take it easy there, Fonzie.
Brandon makes a face like one you'd make when you finally come to the realization that your father's a complete disgrace.
In which a series of painful hysterical mix-ups and misunderstandings cause me to cry myself to sleep a little harder than normal. Read on for all the agony hilarity!
We start off with Sappy Music as Jackie flips through a photo album, full of Jennie Garth's Kelly's baby pictures.
There's this one of Jackie looking at a Baby Kelly, at a time in her life when she wasn't coked up to Jesus. I mean, I hope she wasn't.
Young Jackie holding Baby Kelly.
Pigtailed Kelly in one of those requisite class portrait shots with the 1980s' sky-blue background.
And another.
We fade to Current Day Knocked Up With An ABOMINATION Jackie, flipping the pages of the album, smiling vaguely. Because she knows that she was such a heaping garbage-bag-full of a drug-addicted, alcoholic crap-mother and doesn't want to ruin her next kid's Mother-Daughter Fashion Show in fifteen years? I assume?
Enter Kelly, who sees what her mother is looking at and smiles, asking, "What are you doing?" Jackie tells her, "Oh, I was just remembering how sweet it was to hold a baby in my arms while still managing to cut a perfect line of coke, that's all." Kelly decides to brag about herself, even though it has nothing to do with what Jackie just said: "Yeah, I was kinda cute, wasn't I?" Jackie's only response is to laugh politely because it's not always about you, Kelly.
Kelly decides to cut a bitch by making her feel like a weathered, hanging-on-to-sobriety-by-a-thread old hag (oh, wait) and is all, "That was a long time ago." Jackie concurs, adding, "I'm too old for this."
As Jackie posts up to the island in the kitchen, Kelly asks, "You're going to the doctor today, aren't you?" Jackie corroborates this, saying, "As if I need him to confirm what every home pregnancy test on the market has already told me." Kelly asks, "What does Mel have to say about all this?" And I answer, "Who THUH FUCK cares?"
Which is basically Jackie's answer as well, seeing as she completely ignores the query and busies herself making eggs. Kelly presses further and discovers that Mel doesn't know that Jackie's pregnant, because all he ever talks about is the day he'll finally be rid of his atrociously-coiffed, burden of a son, when he can finally throw all the all-night, group-sex-filled debacheries he's only ever dreamed of.
Kelly insists that Jackie must tell him and it's not a big deal: "He doesn't want a baby, you don't want a baby. Why don't you just tell him that you're taking care of it?"
Jackie says nothing as the Serious Synth version of the theme song plays...
...and then we're in the living room, where we see the backs of the following heads: Cindy, Jim, Brenda, Dylan, AHHHHHHHHHHHHNdrea and her rat's ass...rat's ass, and Brandon's, who's sitting on the floor where he belongs. They're immersed in some news report on the television, which goes a little something like this: "You've heard the old expression 'children should be seen and not heard'? Well, now there's a government survey that wants to know what kids have to say on a variety of subjects, but one of those subjects has some people up in arms. Evan Eber reports."
And then AHHHHHHHHHHHHNdrea like, NERD SPEWS all over everyone, "Oh! This is it! This is it! Turn up the sound!" You're in someone else's house, bitch! Have some manners.
Onscreen, there are various shots of campus-y-looking places and a voice over of the reporter: "Many of the questions pertain to sex, and therein lies the controversy. Critics contend the government-funded survey promotes a message that casual sex is okay."
As he speaks, we get more shots of students walking around, and protester-types holding up signs that say things like, "SEXPERTS GO HOME!!" which mostly reminds me of this and if these so-called "SEXPERTS" are anything at all like Carrie Bradshaw, then, yes, please do go home. Because you clearly suck at your job and are annoying.
Here's a shot of 27-year-olds-parading-as-17-year-olds coming down a staircase, that shitty dweeb John Griffin from a few earlier episodes among them.
Another shot of signs with some wicked burns on them, including one that reads, "CASUAL SEX KILLS" and another, ""SIN SURVEY = SINFUL WASTE." These people better step up their protest sign game if they ever want to work their way up to protesting homosexuals' funerals on behalf of the Westboro Baptist Church. The reporter continues: "They claim that teen pregnancy, AIDS, and other consequences of adolescent sexual behavior cannot be prevented unless we know something about the behavior itself." The behavior itself being...? Teenagers are horny?
On the screen, Mrs. T!...
...followed by this middle-aged lady, who must be a school counselor or perhaps a teacher at West Bev or...oops. It's just AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHNdrea. My bad.
AHHHHHH: "I look awful!" *crickets, a squeaky door opening and shutting, someone coughing, as no one disagrees with her* Finally, the uncomfortable silence is too much for Cindy to bear and she provides an over-the-top, "Oh, you do not!" that no one believes anyway.
Dylan, again grabbing the much-lusted after Line Of The Episode prize with this gem: "How come I don't see your bones up there, squeef?" of Brandon.
Brandon points to the t.v. and says, "There I am! Right there! That's my elbow, right there! See?" Everyone leans in for a closer look because Brandon is a lying sack of shit. Brenda attempts to soothe her brother's ego with, "We could see your whole face if the sign wasn't luckily covering it."
And then this Rando Man who's WEARING A POLKA DOT ASCOT, because he apparently had to get himself all fancied up for the protest, addresses the issue: "Our public health is not served by prying into every corner of our children's lives."
Shot of AHHHHHHHHNdrea, SHDH as Ascot finishes up: "This is a wrongful allocation of taxpayer money, and we think the department should freeze the funding immediately."
Then we finally see Evan Eber, as he ends his story with a wooden, "No matter what happens tomorrow, one thing remains clear: when it comes to the issue of teenage sexuality, everyone's passion can become inflamed." Gross. And: Evan, you're terrible at job.
So Brandon is sad that he "ended up on the cutting room floor," and Jim reassures him with, "Better luck next time, champ." It's pronounced chump, Jim. Chump. And then the Boring Old People are off to bed, and I'm not quite sure why AHHHHHHHHHHNdrea didn't join them. Also, Brandon, like a boor, sits on the arm of the sofa with his feet on the seat. And no one says anything, maybe because they're all oblivious, but most likely because he's a known asshole and they're not in the mood to deal with it.
And then Brenda and Dylan start making out, like, he sort of ROLLS ON TOP OF HER AND WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FREAK SHOW FUCKING FUCK IS THIS FUCK??? HER BROTHER IS RIGHT THERE. Number of times I made out with my high school boyfriend in front of my brother? Well, I didn't have a high school boyfriend until I was almost out of high school, but that's beside the point. The answer would've been zero.
Brandon fronts like he's not going to be masturbating to this image later and awkwardly asks of AHHHHHHHHHHHNdrea, "So, uh, staff meeting first period tomorrow, huh?" and she's all, "Yeah," and he's all, "Great," and she's all, "Great," and I'm all, "Fuuuuuuuck."
And then these pigs continue to make out IN FRONT OF HER BROTHER and I'm physically ill right now. Physically ill.
In which fucking Steve, man. Just...what a blight upon mankind and his friends and curly hair everywhere.
So we start with approximately 87 hours of track and field events in slow-mo. First up is this guy doing the long? jump? And panting. And grunting. Also presented in slow-motion.
And then this different guy lands in the sand pit thing or whatever, with a bunch of Randos watching from the sidelines. All of this is nearly as fascinating as the early-episode hockey antics we were subjected to during "Fire and Ice."
High jump. More grunting.
These people run around the track, huffing and puffing and some are wearing Spandex bike shorts, which was required of anyone participating in a physical activity in the early '90s. Or by girls like me who badly wanted to be their middle school's Clarissa Darling or Kelly Kapowski and failing miserably on all counts.
A baton is passed. My nose begins to bleed because I've snorted a bunch of methamphetamine in a desperate attempt to stay awake.
This 37-year-old man prepares a shot put. We'll be dealing with this piece of shit's smug face more in a few minutes. Anyway, he - SHOCK - grunts and throws the shot.
Steve. Stretching. In one of his trusty Forever 21 clearance rack racer-back tanks. Which provides just a hint of a view of his right nipple. Thanks for that, Steve.
There's a gun shot, unfortunately not directed toward Steve's hair. It was actually a starting gun for these FUCKING GROWN MEN, like, straight-up 30-something-dudes, to start their hurdle race.
Then we get this shot of an old-school stop watch being stopped or started and we see that it belongs to...
...This Guy! You know, the guy in "The Next Fifty Years" where Dead Scott dead-Scotted himself into that great big dude ranch in the sky? Mr. Chapman! Or, Chappie, as I like to call him (no, I don't, but it stays for the remainder of the recap).
Here's a guy pole vaulting and can you guess what he's doing while vaulting? Can you???
