The Mr. Show Effect

Grab a couple beers before watching these guys, you won't be disappointed.

At the end of last summer I caught some fairly recent episodes of Family Guy, a show I had given up on sometime around when they first got brought back from cancellation. It was funny! I was surprised and pleased. Then a couple weeks later I made a point of tuning in for some more recent episodes and they SUCKED. What was going on? Then it hit me: the “good” episodes were the ones I saw while drinking beer and the sucky episodes were the ones I saw while completely sober. I've started calling this the Family Guy Effect: something that sucks when you're sober but is the best thing ever when you've been drinking. Recently, however, I was watching some Mr. Show DVDs and realized that in fact this should more correctly be called the Mr. Show Effect. Nowhere is this phenomenon more pronounced than while watching Mr. Show. Every time I've watched it sober I have been baffled by its cult following, but when I grab a couple beers and put on Mr. Show I start gushing about how Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are the sadly unrecognized comedic genuises of our time.