Yesterday, we received some thrilling news: Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff starring Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman finally has a trailer and release date! To celebrate this, we’re looking back at Mr. Show, the brilliant HBO sketch comedy series that Odenkirk stared in with David Cross. Here are some of Odenkirk’s finest moments from before he became Walter White’s sleezeball attorney.
When he played a rapist who gets an unusual punishment.
In this sketch, prison overcrowding becomes too much of a problem, so a creative solution comes about: release the criminal, but have a man follow him around letting everyone know exactly what he did. In this case, Larry Kleist, a rapist, is followed by a man wearing a board that says “I’m with a rapist.” Also while working his job as a telemarketer, he has to let the customer know he’s a rapist before he can say anything else. Naturally, this is leads to a lot of hang-ups. The subject of rape is an extremely difficult thing to derive humor from, but this sketch manages to pull it off. It also suggests a fairly apt punishment.
When he played a guitar teacher who sends some serious mixed messages.
David Cross is a young boy who wants to play the guitar, but has no instincts. Odenkirk is his instructor who is a little too encouraging. That all changes when Odenkirk receives a mysterious phone call from a doctor. As it turns out, he was just being nice because he thought the boy was dying. Unfortunately, a bunch of chart mix-ups leaves everyone confused. In the second half, the sketch gives us an interesting theory for why some of our least favorite celebrities have been famous for all this time.
When he took a lie detector test – and told some surprising truths.
No matter what question Odenkirk is asked, he always answers yes, and he’s always telling the truth. The joy hear comes partly from the questioners trying to think of creative new questions to ask, but also from Odenkirk’s brutally frank responses every time around. Not only does he cop to smoking crack, he enthusiastically recommends it (“It’s great. It’s crack. It gets you really high.”)
When he and David Cross played two rather deranged ad pitchmen.
Globochem is a multi-billion dollar corporation with a reputation for being pretty damn evil. So, Bob and David are the ad guys trying to fit the company’s reputation. Their plan for doing so involves a surprising amount of cursing, and a genderless pansexual mascot called Pit-Pat (he loves you!). The kicker is when an executive criticizes their work, and Odenkirk responds with “look lady, I don’t come to where you work and slip the d–k out of your mouth!” Which also happens to be their new slogan for Grandma Betsy’s Biscuits! I wont spoil the twist ending, but suffice it to say, they aren’t there for the reason you think they are.
When he played Ernie, a demented English kitchenware salesman.
In this send-up of 90s infomercials, David Cross plays a typical dorky infomercial host, while Odenkirk plays an eccentric Brit named Ernie, who claims to be selling a miraculously easy to use brand of kitchenware. What he winds up doing is simply torturing the woman who volunteers to test the product, tricking her into getting burned by the cookware (“the super-pan is not magical – it will burn you!”), and throwing burning milk on her. It later turns out Ernie has multiple personalities, and might hear voices in his head. From there, the sketch gets even weirder, as Cross’s character appears to be mentally ill as well. Ernie has one parting piece of advice – “Only British people can fly. You shouldn’t try to fly, and you shouldn’t listen to British people.”
