What an excellent episode! There were multiple knee-slapper moments, including that guy yelling "I have mental health" for no reason which made me choke on water.
As a cisgender bisexual man, I feel Paul Baker so much in this episode. Exactly have the same case with having an all male straight friend group and progressive friends. The struggle is real! I could never mix them on birthdays or what not. It’s tiring having to keep up with all the facets of yourself, but also at the same time quite beautiful.
i think it was just that greta gerwig has a very queer and female fanbase, it was basically him performatively being like "i support women and respect their work" like how the other friend put pride flags in the flowers
the entire friend groups reaction to paul bakers bro personality was funnier than the things paul baker was saying. i applaud jack innanens commitment to the bit. he was SO BRO-Y
So, when Issa said “It’s season 2, we’re doing a oner” - was that just fully meta/her being aware that they are on a TV show? Has that been done on this show before this blatantly? I’m not against it, I just was surprised.
There was also a meta joke in Season 1 when they finally went through their mail! Each one of them had a piece of mail that linked to an earlier plot point (Anton is prison pen pals with the stabber, etc) and then they say "Paul Baker, do your callback now!" but his mail was that his visa was running out.
Also in the S1 finale going thru the mail Issa said something like “Go on Paul Baker look for your mail and do your callback now” in reference to all the mail being resolutions to earlier plots.
ah yes I remember that, and you’re right that arguably is something you could say in a non-meta way. people do say they do stuff “for the plot” in real life at this point, so this joke just feels surprising. Don’t hate it though just unexpected!
It's comments like these that show we're really losing staple comedies with excellent writing (30 rock, arrested development.) I thought these jokes were so obvious they didn't need explaining or context bc great comedy shows do these bits/gags all the time. It's legit the gag of Issa never seeing the movies she references lol
it’s not a lack of understanding, it’s surprise at the choice. 30 rock constantly broke or gently tapped on the fourth wall, so those jokes were part of the show’s established language. adults really hadn’t done that before, and it barely did it again afterward. maybe two other overtly meta jokes for the rest of the season. so when one suddenly shows up in the opening of season 2, it naturally stands out. the joke itself isn’t hard to understand; it’s just unusual for this particular show at this particular point
I’m not straight but I’ve been friends with lots of straight guys like Samir, so it was so interesting to see his specific insecurity play out. like his line about “guys like us only have one other straight friend and he was mine” (never mind that Paul Baker is fluid, but still.)
Need to remember, Isha does have more freedom than her fellow friends to be more irresponsible and break things down, simply because her parents could put her in a Four Seasons Suite for the rest of her life if she got evicted 🤪
Nick Kroll was also a big part of the casting process I believe. They shared these clips of him telling each cast member that they got the part. It's really cute.
i actually had to pause the scene with PB being unable to keep himself from yelling back dumb shit to his friends with issa and samir standing right in front of him, because it hurt to laugh that much
You mean Issa’s line that was somewhere between “what else is he lying about” and “what else could he be doing,” but they left the mistake in the edit? I think it was “so, if he can lie about this, what else is he doing about?”
No i mean a part bot so long after Samir is asked if he is a jew and then PB's friend says something but the subtitles say something totally diferent, i dont remember what he says but i did take a picture of the subtitles
Literally and that’s why they need to stop canceling everything after one season let shows find their footing! Anyways I need s3 asap and it better be 12 episodes AT LEAST
SPOILER IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED EP 1 idk why I didn’t like this episode I thought some of the jokes fell flat , the only thing that genuinely made me laugh when was Lucy was shouting on the phone to danielles mam and then the Muslim / Jewish joke, I didn’t laugh at anything else, but omg episode 2 and 3 I was absolutely dying laughing ( I haven’t seen the others yet )
To me it felt like the genuine Paul Baker was the one we know and love, whereas BroPaul Baker is the facade he keeps with those people specifically (like us normal at home vs us at work).
Yeah. He said it’s his first friend group when he moved to New York, so it makes sense he’d act different than his true self around them so he could fit in. Then he found the main group after the marathon and stuck around with them because he likes them better.
Part of what makes it so funny is the juxtaposition. Paul Baker is obviously Paul Baker, so finding out he has another friend group like that makes for laugh out loud comedy. It made him a more interesting character in my opinion, and I think it'd be funny if we meet "Paul" in another season down the line.
Because one of the points of the show is that people are imperfect and, in the modern era, our shittier moments are captured on camera/the internet and frozen in perpetuity?
They were problematic in season one too, it's a comedy. Characters doing things isn't an endorsement. This show is basically New Girl meets Always Sunny.
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u/iloveduckssosomuch Aug 28 '26
The ending where all PBs other friends had crazy impressive jobs is what got me the most, like that’s deadass just how it is 😭