Cast: Greg Proops, Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and Drew Carey

Question before I begin the game reviews: any thoughts on what the different colors for Drew's cards mean? I'm thinking blue for games and yellow for Drew's jokes and green for the Drew games. Yes, I've noticed them before but this time I thought I'd mention them. So on to the games!

Survival Show: Post Office setting (all four)
Well, I'm a Survivor virgin and proud of it. But I come from an area that had a local contestant on the show, so it would impossible for me to not know about this show. (I'm STILL seeing newspaper headlines about this show! Can you believe it?) I do know one thing, if I have to watch Survivor, please make it the WLiiA version! I enjoyed this game, but I don't think I'd like to see it played too often. I thought Wayne took an interesting position with his character. And I laughed at him using the Etch-A-Sketch to write his vote on. Ryan voting himself off the island was a nice touch. But I wonder if it wasn't a little planned that all three would get kicked off at the same time. I guess only another playing of this game will answer that question. I think Greg was actually the funniest here. Yes, he was essentially the straight man again. But he still had the best lines. "Who is everyone talking to? I'm available to host the Price Is Right." That may be, Greg. But I don't think the Price Is Right is ready for your delightfully sharp sense of humor yet. I tried to figure out what each was saying to the camera after they were all voted off. But I could never make it out. Which was the point I guess. This game wasn't a laugh out loud, screamer. But I was amused.

Scenes from a Hat: [scenes = when it's unwise to say I don't care to her; people you wish would just shut up; men that women don't seem to go for; pickup lines of the elderly; things you shouldn't do when confronted with a street gang; things you shouldn't joke about with your girlfriend's mother; difficult things to sell door to door]
Or as I call this playing: The Wayne and Greg show. Only a taping attendee can say whether or not this was an editing effect or if this game just played this lopsided. But it certainly wouldn't be the first time in WLiiA history where one or two players dominated Scenes from a Hat. Sometimes a player is hot; sometimes not. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. Almond Joy has nuts....... Oops! Sorry. Madison Avenue temporarily possessed my brain. I'm back now.

A couple of things struck me during this game. For the second topic, "People you wish would just shut up", you can see that Wayne just beat Ryan done from the steps. We never get to see what Ryan intended to do. Did Wayne steal Ryan's Drew slam? Was Ryan edited out? Or did he just decide not to do what he intended? Wayne's Drew slam was good and Greg, in particular, liked it a lot. Ryan really liked Greg's Alex Trebek slam; you can hear him laughing above the others. I enjoyed Greg's tickle fight response to the gang members. I think that was my favorite Greg line. As for difficult things to sell from door to door, well, I suspect there are some places that Ryan could easily sell what he was offering! My personal favorite from this game: Colin's pick up line of the elderly — "Why don't you touch your toes and feel my breasts." He does come up with some left field ideas sometimes.

Reunion: Greg, Colin, and Ryan = drill sergeants
A new game that seems like 3 of a Kind followed by Funeral. This one really had me laughing. I couldn't understand half of what they were saying, and I think that's part of what I found so funny. Colin's drill sergeant was especially unintelligible. And the song killed me. I could pick up a few words here and there. But I loved watching them try to synchronize their lyrics, stay on key, in tune, in character, use appropriate hand motions, and make the whole thing look natural. Which for the most part they managed quite well. During the game, I wondered why the editor inserted the shot of Drew doing the little teapot routine after Ryan's, well, let's call it a "variant", on the at ease position. But afterwards, I understood why they put it in. I probably wouldn't have understood Ryan's "Nothing can get past the teapots" comment without that shot of Drew because when I see people standing with hands on hip, I don't automatically think of the little teapot game. So I guess that the shot of Drew was in there for people like me. (Sorry, I apologize to all who didn't want to see Drew there. Including myself!) I loved the look on Colin's face after Ryan announced, "I'm Canadian. That's how they stand." You could almost read his thoughts, "Hey! When did this turn into a Canada slam??" But he let it slide. Mostly, I think because the moment had passed and Ryan had moved on to "Peacekeepers."

And then came one of those rare moments that makes WLiiA different from every planned and scripted sitcom on television. Drew's mistake on the next game announcement. A lot of quick thinking went into this glorious blooper. Points to Ryan and Greg for reacting so fast and coming downstage to replay the game. Double points to Laura Hall and Linda Taylor for picking up Ryan's cue and coming in with the song accompaniment. Triple points to the lighting crew who brought down the players' chairs lighting as if it were a real game. (And if they did that just by habit, I don't care. I'm still giving them triple points!) It all worked beautifully!

Greatest Hits: Songs of the Safari; Ryan and Colin sell; Wayne sings
Eight hundred fifty-two songs on a two CD set. Isn't it amazing just how many songs WLiiA can fit on a two CD set? And tonight, we finally found out just the WLiiA recordings artists manage that amazing mathematical feat. Ryan: No song is more than ten to fifteen seconds. I loved Wayne's expression at that. Just out of curiosity, I timed Wayne's song. At fifty seconds long, his Fats Waller tune probably accounted for five songs all by itself! The Ryan and Colin banter really picked up after that first song. "Get out of town and take a bus!" Greg's expression when Ryan actually did get up and walk off really made me laugh. "Whoa! He took Colin literally." I think Wayne's Jamaican rap song was probably my favorite song that he did. I don't ordinarily go for rhythmic spoken songs, but this one got my toes a tappin' and my nose a runnin' as Colin might say. (Laura and Linda seemed to really like this one too.) And when we came back to the guys on stage right, I was in seventh heaven. Ryan: I think we might have to put a label on this one. I could have sworn I heard the word "ants home". (I caught the word / phrase too and thought it was deliciously clever.) Colin has this way of just staring at his fellow performers until they cannot keep their composure any longer. He did it to Wayne last week. This time it was Ryan's turn. I'm sure the only reason Ryan added in "I'm sure I did" was because he couldn't keep looking at Colin any longer without cracking up. Then Colin mentioning his favorite artists: Van Gough and Beethoven. Ryan: Oh I love that dog! Like Laura, I nearly fell over with that one. I thought Ryan and Colin were in fine form. Since I'm not a Tracy Chapman expert, I don't feel qualified to judge the success of Wayne's impersonation. I do know that I thought his song was marvelously done except for the "I'm melting" insert which simply didn't fit.

Props: Colin and Wayne = foam disk with 2 cyclinders hanging from 1 side; Drew and Ryan = 2 green foam shapes looking like the letter P
Something of a let down after Greatest Hits. But then to me, props is rarely a stand out game. The three I remember liking best were the B on the shoulder; the circumcision one; and my favorite: "You mind the Qs. I'm minding the Ps."

Credits: Ryan = Dr. Frankenstein; Colin = his monster being taught to read
I liked this credit reading. (Did you notice Ryan consoling Colin, patting him on the back, when Drew announced that Colin was the monster?) Ryan's "No more church and steeple" kept puzzling me until just this very moment while I was typing. This was from the same taping as last week's Greg episode. During the players' introductions to that episode, Ryan looked like he was playing the children's church / steeple / people game. Maybe the reference to church and steeple was related to that intro? Or maybe to some other game that hasn't been broadcast yet. It has to be related to something. It's just too odd a reference to come out of the blue like it seemed to on this show. A little mystery with which to end the episode, I guess.

Best Game:
This was easy for me. Greatest Hits had me crying laugh tears. I loved the Ryan and Colin banter, and I thought the songs were exceptionally good this time.

Overall Comments:
Well, by now you're probably wondering if I watched the same episode as you did since my opinions are so different from just above every other person who has commented on the show. I guess the answer is that I probably didn't see the same episode. Oh, the games were the same, and the players were the same, and the jokes were the same. But the show just wasn't the same. Sometimes humor is all about mood. What mood are you in when you see or hear something. Non WLiiA case in point: my husband and I rented a movie that almost everyone thought was a bomb. We laughed ourselves silly. It was exactly what we wanted to see at that moment. (We've been very careful to not watch the movie again. We doubt it would be funny a second time.) And I think that's why I really enjoyed this episode. It was exactly what I wanted at the time. And it will always have a warm place in my memory.

© LKK 10/30/00