Episode Title: “Hi IQ”

Production Code: 0620

Reviewed By: Nitzan Gilkis (n_gilkis@yahoo.com)

Rating: 5 out of 10

“Hi IQ” is the favorite episode of many people I know, but personally I can’t see what all the fuss is about. In my opinion this is a very mediocre episode, and it’s certainly weaker than the two similar ‘do-it-yourself episodes’ that followed in its footsteps a few seasons later – “User Friendly” and “The Hood, the Bud and the Kelly”.

Al: Whatever happened to the spirit of do-it-yourself?

Peg: It’s alive and well in our bedroom…

The two great minds in action

The Workbench 5000 storyline can only be described as idiotic. Ed O’Neill and Ted McGinley clown around making fools of themselves, faced with a banal script full of done-to-death physical comedy and (to put it mildly) unsophisticated humor. Everything that happens to Al and Jefferson is utterly predictable, from the ‘drilling accident’ and Al’s face getting burned by the blowtorch to Al and Jefferson getting electrocuted, and none of it is funny. Jokes like the ones about the L-shaped and 7-shaped pieces are simply lame. Observers Peg and Marcy save this storyline from being total crap with the occasional funny remark, such as yet another flashback from Marcy’s traumatic past (involving the shiny new bloody toys she used to get for x-mas). Having them trade photos of their husbands’ misfortunes is a nice idea, but the wives’ ‘Crash-Lottery’ in “The Hood, the Bud and the Kelly” was a better one.

Al: I have everything I need right here.

Peg: Oh Al, you got shower-in-a-box.

Peg: ‘Some assembly required’. Should I take it downstairs and put it on the ‘no assembly achieved’ pile?

“to men”

The storyline about Kelly being invited to a high-intelligence club party is almost as bad, and suffers from some very weak writing. I don’t know about y’all, but I could see where this story was going from the moment Bud read the invitation letter (odd that Bud couldn’t). I mean, what reason other than a ‘pig party’ can you think of for the invitation? Anyway…We get a lot of ‘Kellyisms’ (“he who laughs last laughs west”, “it turns, therefore I am”, “make new thoughts but keep the old, one is silver the other is gold”) but none of them are funny. Nor are Kelly’s successive failures to open the door, and basically all the attempts at portraying Kelly’s stupidity seem forced and uninspired. The word ‘uninspired’ can be used to describe pretty much every aspect of the plot here, I guess. Did any of you actually laugh at the foreseeable invisible-postman joke, or at Bud making it into the party by beating up a geek and stealing his badge and glasses? I doubt it. Did anyone find the “sheer pointless violence” used by Bud and Kelly at the end a satisfying revenge? I don’t think so.

Bud: We’ve gotta get back at these people the Bundy way.

Kelly: But I like changing my underwear…

“I’m good with my hands”

So, what is good about this episode? Well, as is the case with most MWC episodes, there are some good one-liners scattered throughout (especially in the first scene), most of which I have included in this review. Also, I really liked the way the script makes fun of network executives and public-school teachers by including them as people’s ‘dumb-dates’ at the party (Kelly’s prompt “that doesn’t prove anything!” after being introduced to the LA public-school teacher is a gem). And the ending, which hints that Kelly is smarter than Al, is kinda cute.

Peg: Want some dinner?

Al: Not tonight, Peg. I’ve learned to live on plaque.

Kelly sets things straight

All in all, a below-average episode with few memorable moments.