What to Think

The second episode of Mr. Show opens with Senator Tankerbell at the podium railing against government funding of the arts. The conservative Southern senator makes a bizarre analogy to an obscene joke involving a traveling salesman and a milking machine. Then, the show proper opens with Bob alone onstage. He explains that David Cross is not doing the show because certain artists are being supervised by U.S. senators, and David is being forced to wear a tracking collar that gives him a shock every time he steps on a stage. Bob convinces David to do the show, and he’s in agonizing pain until Tankerbell turns the collar off. There’s also a sketch about “”The Book of Marshall”” with the lost apostle who speaks like a late-night infomercial host (“”Jesus, what if I told you the meek could inherit something a whole lot better than the earth?””). In another sketch, Odenkirk portrays a voice-over actor laying down a string of promotions and disclaimers, including the infamous “”Mr. Pickles Fun-Time