Review: Mr. Birchum “The Gym Rope Incident”

Of all of the episodes that have streamed thus far in the first season of Mr. Birchum, this one was by far the funniest. That’s not to say that we still don’t have the rookie mistakes that are all over the series that I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, e.g., lame cutaway gags (they had a set up for a Back to the Future one that I thought was going to score but it turned out to be a dud), explaining why some jokes are funny, and the entire Birchum family referring to Dick by his last name(still odd). But, this week we had some pretty funny dialogue to go along with a strong premise.

For starters, Jay Mohr finally makes his long-awaited appearance in an episode and it’s a good one in the form of Coach Murphy. The husband of Jeanie Buss has always been a strong “get” in my eyes and he joins in a week where we got just as strong contributions from Roseanne Barr as the Principal and Patrick Warburton as the Burly Man. Granted we kind of fly off the rails in getting everyone their two cents, but overall it’s pulled off well and does so in comedic fashion. Karponzi getting his comeuppance in an episode is a good payoff for those who have been following the show its entire run thus far.

Some technical flaws can still be seen in the animation department as well, skipped frames and such, but typically if the plot is good enough I can ignore those. This is one of those episodes. In terms of expectations of finally getting an episode that kind of delivers on the series’ promise to battle “woke” culture, this week’s episode has been one of the better examples of showing just that.