Review: Universal Basic Guys “La Gloire Du Bouffon”
Overview
Mark learns to play a new instrument; Tammy confronts her fear of clowns.
Our Take
The La Gloire Du Bouffon is the name of a book with the idea of it being adapted to a stage play and because Mark ends up learning how to play a calliope he is suddenly able to summon the cast he needs to put on “A Clown Ballet”. The problem is Tammy is deathly afraid of clowns and Rhoda is none too thrilled that her son has chosen yet another instrument to waste her time with though seems perfectly happy to help Hank learn how to play piano so as to swoon some single ladies.
Lead characters playing instruments probably isn’t the freshest idea, and admittedly I was expecting a very paint by numbers effort when I saw the set up coming, but actually I’m thoroughly impressed to which the depth Tim Saccardo went into helping uncover this whole mythos about circus clowns both the communities in which they derive and what the therapy is for people who fear them. To do so the show continues to amass a guest stars list that is getting increasingly impressive week after week including the likes of Will Sasso, Chris Elliott, and how about Dana fucking Snyder as the voice of Rhoda? This show is pulling NO punches this season in big name talent, that’s definitely for sure.
Universal Basic Guys may not look at it, but there’s some serious hardware under these covers. An increasingly stellar voice cast, increasingly weird episodes being written by a guy who has plenty of experience in doing the same for American Dad, and a constant sudden urge to eat a bunch of hot dogs after each episode is a show that’s doing things that is ensuring it’s survival on the FOX Network for years to come, and is by far FOX Original’s best animated comedy.
