Where to Stream: W/ Bob & David

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You don’t have to have watched Mr. Show to get what’s going on W/ Bob & David in their four new half-hour episodes of sketch comedy on Netflix, although if you watch the fifth episode first, you’ll not only catch up on what makes Bob Odenkirk and David Cross laugh, but also on what they thought would make you laugh most.

In Episode Five, a 56-minute making-of documentary, Cross even muses: “Well, you’ll see, or have seen. I assume. Although it might be interesting to watch this and then go watch the four – but it might be too late. You might. It’ll either be occurring. I have no control over it.”

We at Decider don’t dare to control the order in which you choose to view these episodes, but we do want you to enjoy your viewing as much as possible, so here’s an episode-by-episode cheat sheet so you can keep up in the conversation with any of your friends who identify as comedy nerds.

Religion, race relations and jokes at the expense of other comedians, oh my!

1 Episode 1 You’ll want to know that the boys tried to make a “better” version of Roots, but you can save yourself time and energy by not seeing “Better Roots.” Instead, watch this: SKETCH: RESOLUTIONS Why? “Resolutions” includes most of the things Mr. Show fans grew to know and love over the past two decades: Moments for each of the supporting players (Jay Johnston, John Ennis and Paul F. Tompkins, plus a voiceover from Scott Aukerman), premises that’ll bleed into and pop up in the scenes to come, a moment when Cross breaks the fourth wall (telling the pizza guy of his cash payment, “Here, this is fake, you can keep all of it”) and a GIF-affable moment of PFT throttling a slice of pepperoni pizza. SKETCH: PRILO-VAC Why? It’s funny enough to see Odenkirk’s Jonah Abramovitz from the “Resolutions” sketch become the first Jewish Pope, funnier still to see him jump out of a scene for one fake ad and straight into another, and then straight-up nonsensical for him to adopt a Southern accent to portray an “actual user” of Prilo-Vac. Until you remember that this fake ad reminds you of a real one. And that Cross and Larry the Cable Guy started feuding in the media and their respective books almost a decade ago. Here’s Pope Jonah for Prilo-Vac: And here’s Larry the Cable Guy for Prilo-Sec:



2 Episode 2 Episode Two has several lighthearted moments: watching Odenkirk steer a good cop/bad cop sketch into completely unknown territory, Cross playing Albert Einstein in the backstory for his most improbably famous portrait, and a dry-cleaning duo who somehow stain clothes in the shop and make up for it by co-writing a new Broadway musical (see GIF above). But the only moment you need to know for small-talk purposes is that an opening scene in which Bob and David tease/threaten an idea of showing a picture of the Prophet Muhammad pays off in the end when [at 29:58] Odenkirk says a third time: “A profure of the pigment mohafed,” prompting 72 virgins to materialize around them. Only these virgins are comedy nerd superfans of Bob and David, pestering them about Breaking Bad, Arrested Development and more.

3 Episode 3 This episode features several funny scenes, including a TV cooking competition that can’t ever quite get cooking because the single dad (Odenkirk) feels like he can’t win when deaf Chef Chrissie (Mary-Lynn Rajskub) already has the sympathy of their “Shark Kitchen” judges; and a human-hunting proposition that just needs to become fair and balanced. But here are the three sketches to commit to longer-term memory. SKETCH: SHANGY BROS Why? This sketch starts off mocking a Steve Jobs type of digital guru, with a pronounced emphasis on “dig-i-tal,” then introduces a play on prop comic Gallagher – who in real life sued his brother for false advertising after booking live shows as Gallagher Too – as “Shangy” employs his two brothers (a Sloan Kettering neurologist and a disabled roofer) to portray him as Shangy 2 and Shangy 3 at other gigs. The long hair and the watermelon-smashing are dead Gallagher giveaways. Bonus fun fact: Stephanie Courtney (who plays “Flo” in Progressive’s TV ads) shows up at the end of the episode as Shangy 2’s wife/lover. SKETCH: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS Why? Seeing Keegan-Michael Key as the police officer to stop Gilvin Daughtry (Cross) should let you know you’re in for laughs. The way Daughtry flusters and unravels, though, eventually smothering himself in blackface and getting smothered in mace by the white police officer (Johnston). Too funny. [At 17:43] “YOU don’t have to control your bowels! Menendez CLAUSE!!! CITE this clause to an officer!!!” SKETCH: CUNT AGENT Why? If you think “the C-word” has power, just imagine what happens if a guy (Cross) who regularly throws that word around in casual conversation could make the object of his derision suddenly appear behind him? Would he use it for good? Could he bring back runaway girls or terrorists on the run? Yes. He. Can.