1113  -  “God Help ye Merry Bundymen”


Synopsis:     In the middle of the Christmas rush, Gary has Al and Griff train two new
workers.  Once trained, Al and Griff are fired due to their laziness and are forced to find new
jobs.  Meanwhile Marcy’s expensive imported nativity statues she planned on using for the block
decorating contest are stolen and held for ransom by Bud and Kelly, while at the same time Peggy
decides to enter the contest with her model neighborhood made out of gingerbread.

Thoughts:   Strictly placed in the middle of the collection of MWC Xmas episodes.  This
episode is placed in my opinion right after the Phone Sex episode and right before the first Xmas
episode, with the parachuting Santa.  It is also one of the brighter spots of the last season.
What makes this episode suffer most however is Pegs sudden desire to want to do work, namely bake
the gingerbread house’s.  As even Bud comments, "First time you’ve ever cooked, and we can’t eat
it!"  Being the last season, it was not the best time to want to develop the character of Peg. 
Whereas in earlier seasons, Al founded NO MA’AM, Bud and Kelly gained some motivation to want to
find work (and in Bud's case also go to school and graduate), Peg remained lazy throughout most
of the shows run.  Thankfully she would return to her sloth like ways by the next episode,
"T*R*A*S*H". 
	
	Bud and Kelly typically make up the B story with their theft of the Mary and Joseph
statues.  It allows for another one of Kelly’s great over her head jokes (she puts on moustache
and glasses while talking on the phone to Marcy, along with disguising her voice).  Her
impersonation of I believe Jimmy Cagney during the show is another excess for this episode.  It’s
only funny the first time, to me anyway.  I’ve had some people tell me it’s a riot.  Another
point to bring up was when Marcy pays a visit with cookies, during the Bundy scarfing scene, Bud
accidently eats one of her buttons on her sleeve.  Bud back in "It’s a Bundyful Life" took her
wedding ring when the family pats down Steve and Marcy.  A reused joke to a point.  By the way,
those two guys who replace Al and Griff?  Let's hope they get acting lessons because I wasn’t all 
that impressed with them.  Maybe it should work out for the better to see that these guys can’t
compare to the originals.

	Jefferson is again sadly relegated to a minor role in the show.  He should’ve been given 
more to do.  Being the huckster we’ve seen him to be, you’d think he’d pose as a Charity Santa
trying to collect money (and then see him spend it at the Jiggly Room).  Peg and Marcy are only
featured in a few scenes.  The rest of the show is centered on Al and Griff in the A story trying
to find jobs, and the B story with Kelly and Bud's scheming.  You could almost say that a C story
concerns Peg's efforts to build her model neighborhood, but that’s stretching it a bit, since it
is only two scenes.	

	For plot, it’s okay but for the last Christmas episode, they could have and should have
done a little more with it.  We’re pretty sure that Al will get his job back by the end, (and
thus continue his curse of working at the shoestore) and Kelly and Bud’s plans are almost
guaranteed to backfire.  Without reading the quotes at the bottom, watching the show, were pretty 
sure Kelly will do something to screw everything up, and sure enough she does.  The one thing
that surprised me though was that unlike most of the other Christmas episodes, nobody complains
about presents.  After the first three Xmas episodes of the family wanting presents, the writers
thought that the family evolves a little.  All the family wants is a Christmas tree.  Does Al at
least succeed at providing a tree?  It won’t be spoiled here.

Rating:  6.5 shoes out of 10.  Maybe 7.  It’s not a bad episode, just not spectacular, but it is a 
nice enough way of sending the Bundy’s off in what was their last Christmas episode (unfortunately).


Quotable Quotes:

Marcy:  "Well I just came by to tell you that this year I am finally going to win the
 neighborhood decorating contest."
Al:  "What are you going to stand out front and be The Little Drummer Boy?"

Marcy:  "Forget it!  My Holy Family is going to kick every yuletide ass on the block!"

Gary (to Al and Griff):  "Merry Christmas Jingle boobs."

Gary:  "Teach them everything you know, when those five minutes are up, get this place
 straightened up!"

Peg:  "You see that cotton candy, that’s asbestos!"

Gary:  "These two kids have done more work in the last 3 days then you’ve done in the last 25
 years!"
Al:  "But I paced myself!"

Bud:  "What were you doing sticking the statues out of the car window?!"
Kelly:  "Wh, What were you doing driving through a tunnel?!"
** They must have hid the statues at the mall.  In "Chicago Shoe Exchange", Bud says that to get
 to the doctor at the mall, they have to go through a tunnel.  Interesting?

Peg:  "I haven’t won anything since I was Miss Teenage Wanker!"