The Comedians
Season 1 Episode 4 “Celebrity Guest”
Directed by Larry Charles
Written by Ben Wexler, Larry Charles, Billy Crystal, Matt Nix
Starring Billy Crystal, Josh Gad, Megan Ferguson, Larry Charles, Stephnie Weir, Steven Weber, Denis O’Hare
FX
Air Date: Thursday, April 30th, 2015 10pm

Last week The Comedians finally hit its stride and was laugh out loud funny. Josh Gad and Billy Crystal created magic while high in a late-night convenience store and as a result missed an awards show where both were nominated. FX President Denis Grant (Denis O’Hare) is delaying the premiere. Billy sees the writing on the wall, especially when Kristen (Stephnie Weir) compares them to mold”¦ you know, in a positive way.

Everyone’s starting to panic”¦ NO ONE IS PANICKING!!! Billy seeks comfort from his mentor, comedy legend Mel Brooks. The scenes between them are genuine and great filled with jokes that come organically. Billy makes the comparison to Mel and Carl Reiner; “Carl, incredible, handsome”¦ and then time took him in an alley, and beat the shit out of him.” They discuss ways to make the show smoother, but Mel shoots down the idea of having guest stars because its too gimmicky. Touche Mr. Brooks. Josh meanwhile has recruited Oscar winning Frozen songwriters Bobby and Kristen Anderson-Lopez to write a big song and dance number. When Billy lets it be known he met with Mel Brooks, everyone from Josh down to the show’s comedy writers assume it means Mel will be the big guest star”¦ after all who doesn’t want to see a Miracle Max meets the 2000 Year Old Man sketch? I’m serious, that would be amazing!

One of the things the show it really good at is interspersing the “Billy and Josh Show” sketches into the show. There are continuously funny sketch involving the two doing a dueling dialogue gag. It’s been done before, but it’s still really funny and they kill it in the scene. We also get a hilarious payback from the “song and dance gimmick” as they do a phenomenal duet that had me rolling.

While it certainly is the “Billy and Josh Show,” I’m developing a kinda, sorta crush on Esme (Megan Ferguson), whose irreverent assistant character is growing on me”¦ like mold”¦ you know, in a good way. She has an episode long conflict with the office copier that is straight out of Office Space, but leads to a great closing sight gag.

The best thing about The Comedians is that as a show within a show concept, it’s actually making me want to watch the “Billy and Josh Show.” I’m loving all their sketches and if it actually debuted on FX, I’d watch. Each Comedians episode so far has been funnier than the one before it. They (Gad and Crystal) are finding their groove together. For 21 minutes every week, The Comedians is the show I most often laugh out loud watching. And c’mon, can we please get a Miracle Max meets the 2000 Year Old Man?!?!

The Comedians Episode 4: Celebrity Guest debuts tonight at 10:00 pm EST on FX.

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