I don’t know what it is about it, but I love the entire genre of married life minutia jokes. All the little stuff that goes on behind closed doors (and I’m not talking sexually) that are just a part of life for married couples, and that so often go unmentioned, are ripe for comedy.
Take last night’s episode of Rules of Engagement. The effect that the snooze button has on your spouse. Oh yeah, I know that one well. I’m not a “bonus sleep” type of person like Jeff; I just like getting in another ten minutes, whether I have the time for it or not. My wife is not a heavy sleeper, so when that alarm goes off again and again every ten minutes….
Which would have been a fun joke even if it were confined to a cold open. But the entire episode evolved from that point, and culminated in a naked Jeff climbing into bed for nothing more than some sleep.
Which was all Adam and Jennifer’s fault. They really are an unconventional type, even though there’s nothing technically wrong with their nude sleeping (although I loved how Jeff reacted to their use of their sheets as one giant pair of underpants). But the whole “no side of the bed” thing? I have a great quote, which you can see below, but I feel the need to address this issue directly.
No side of the bed? Forget for a moment that getting the good side of the bed is one of the triumphs of a new marriage. What about the nightstand issue? If you don’t have a side of the bed, you can’t rely on the fact that your stuff is just an arm’s-reach away! Can you imagine that? Your book is over there. The good tissues. Your watch. The alarm clock that’s set for your needs. And if you’re my wife, your collection of paper scraps and receipts are in the other drawer. Can you imagine the madness? It would be anarchy!
Jeff and Audrey are usually my champs on this show, but never more so than last night. I enjoyed Jeff’s Jell-O theft/domestic abuse confusion, although the plot, combined with Brick getting hit by a flying beer bottle on The Middle, does make me wonder why abuse has become a source of comedy these days. But I loved when Jeff said, “I’ll pay for the damn Jell-O!”
But he and Audrey weren’t alone, joined by the battered personal assistants’ club. I’m enjoying Timmy, but in the last two weeks we’ve seen Russell turn into nothing but a caricature of himself. Is it possible that David Spade is being phased out, as we just see him sending Timmy on mission after mission? If that’s the case, I have to say that while I love the addition of Adhir Kalyan to the cast, Timmy can never fill the role that Russell plays in this group. Timmy’s cool as an extension of, but not as a replacement for, Russell.
And I must give a congratulatory shout to Jeff for his methods of cutting Audrey’s spending while she was in Cancun. Reporting her credit card stolen so that she couldn’t charge anything? Brilliant!
“We don’t have set sides of the bed.” – Jen
“We sort of lie down wherever.” – Adam
“What are you, farm animals?” – Jeff
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 09, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
