Better Off Ted: The Impertence of Communicationizing
I trust the writers on Better Off Ted to do something new and unexpected with old tropes. That's basically the premise of the show. It's an office comedy that doesn't necessarily avoid the usual topics of office comedies, it just approaches them from a more surreal, irreverent angle. “The Impertence of Communicationizing” is a prime example of how this show manages to take played-out concepts and update them just enough to make them relevant again.
The big, attention-grabbing plot in this episode is an error in a recent company-wide memo that not only encourages but actually mandates verbal cruelty in all Veridian employees. That on its own was amusing, but the more intelligent jokes in “Impertence” had to do with some subtle twisting of traditional gender politics. It begins with Veronica and her memories of an old business competitor who she may or may not have cheated out of a promotion. The foreign sensation of guilt eating away at her, Veronica descends to one of the company's tiny, subterranean offices to check up on sad sack Walter Palmer (the P is silent), played with gratifying restraint by Chris Parnell. After discovering that Walt's life is about as depressing as humanly possible, Veronica takes pity on him and stumbles into a series of uncomfortable date nights.
In an attempt to cut her awful romantic outings with Walt short, Veronica consults Linda about how to send a man running for the hills. Linda's advice dips into some ridiculous stereotypes about commitment and babies, only to have that tactic blow up in Veronica's face. This alone would have been enough to demonstrate how Better Off Ted is smarter than those misogynistic ideas, but there's also a nice moment at the end of the episode that even knocks preachy gender concepts. When Veronica learns that she only got that promotion five years ago because upper management wanted to gawk at her gams and marvel at her inexplicable man-smart brain, only Linda even bats an eye. Everybody else shrugs the news off. It's good to know that this show isn't just funny, it's also up to date on its post-feminist dialectic.
In a far more immediate (and significantly less mature) bin of laughs, this episode is dotted with now-mandatory insults that manage to be funny mostly because of who casts them and when. A staff meeting punctuated with terms like “douche-nozzle” is something I'm pretty sure has never been done on network TV. Phil and Lem even construct a math equation to formulate the perfect insult. Sure, it gets them beaten silly with a tank of water, but it was worth it.
Best Moment: Debbie, the new-ish office girl. I hope we see more of her in the remaining episodes of the series. Not that Better Off Ted is in need of more quirk, but her brand is unique.
Biggest Laugh: Call me a child, but the fact that the H.R. woman's name is Janet S. Crotum had me rolling.
Episode Rating: 5/5- The best of Better Off Ted are both silly and smart. That's the very definition of this episode.
