The Battle of the TV Shows that Pull off Musicals Suprisingly Well
Futurama's 'The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings' |
VS |
Scrubs' 'My Musical' |
I can’t believe everybody’s just ad-libbing!
Typically, a ‘musical’ episode in a TV show would indicate a “we’re about to jump the shark” cry for help. It’s tough to cross genres without upsetting your entire fan base, and even tougher to produce a show that lives on as one of the series’ best. Futurama and Scrubs both achieved this, though, Futurama in its fifth season and Scrubs in its sixth. It takes time to work up the gusto to attempt something like this.
Both episodes are superb, though Scrubs’ “My Musical” deserves added props for an entirely lyricized episode, whereas only the final portion of Futurama’s “The Devil’s Hands are Idle Playthings” is sung. Of course, the quality of “I Want My Hands Back” is not rivaled by any of the eight songs found in “My Musical,” and the episode as a whole is one of the series’s best.
Favorite lines from each:
Futurama
(Fry’s opera) Robot Devil: “Well, I don’t see any danger / in gambling with a stranger. / For my head is of a most amazing thickness./ I’m stupid, I’m stupid / I’m stupider than you. / I’m stupider than you in every way.”
Real Robot Devil: “Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!”
Real Fry Singing: “Destiny has cheated me / by forcing me to decide upon / the woman that I idolize / or the hands of of an automaton. / Without these hands I can’t complete / the opera that was captivating her. / But if I keep them, and she marries him. / Then he probably won’t want me dating her.”
Bender: “You may have to make a metaphorical deal with the devil. And by ‘devil,’ I mean Robot Devil. And by ‘metaphorically,’ I mean get your coat.”
Scrubs
J.D.: “You’re the only man who’s ever been inside of me.”
Turk: “Whoa, whoa, I just took out his appendix.”
J.D.: “There’s no need to clarify.”
Turk: “Oh no?”
J.D.: “Just let it grow more and more each day. It’s like I married my best friend.”
Turk: “But in a totally manly way.”
Carla: “For the last time, Turk, I’m Dominican!”
Turk: “Don’t make a big to do, I was simply testing you.”
Carla: “Then why’d you tell J.D. our baby’s blaxican?”
Bloody shoulder guy: “I was shot!”
J.D.: “Check the poo!”
That Bender line is one of my favorite lines from anything, ever.
Futurama’s “The Devil’s Hands are Idle Playthings,” for the win.
Labels: FTW