With the exception of really strange episode titles that don’t exactly roll off the tongue, ABC’s Happy Endings is giving me a lot to laugh about. Two new episodes aired last night, “Of Mice And Jazz-Kwon-Do” and “Dave Of The Dead.” Just as the last time two episodes played back-to-back, I enjoyed the second of the two more, but they were both extremely enjoyable.
The reason I liked “Dave Of The Dead” so much is because of the entire storyline was devoted to making fun of hipsters. There was a time, right after college, when I probably could have been characterized as some type of hipster hybrid, living in Park Slope and wearing cardigans and frumpy dresses from Urban Outfitters. No more! Because, as Penny points out, having to know what’s cool is exhausting. And who am I really trying to impress, anyway?
Max’s four rules of being a hipster were dead-on, and hilarious. Here they are, in case you missed them:
Hipster Rule #1: Never try. Never put effort into anything.
Hipster Rule #2: Only like things ironically: books, movies, TV shows, the environment.
Hipster Rule #3: Never show too much enthusiasm.
Hipster Rule #4: Everything is dumb. If someone says something you don’t understand, just say, “Over it.”
The other storyline of this episode begins with everyone joking that Dave is a zombie, but does a nice job of quickly getting to the heart of the matter, which is that he is stuck in a rut in his job and needs that extra push to pursue his dream of opening a restaurant. (And his work scenes totally reminded me of Office Space, one of my favorite movies ever.)
And finally — have food trucks jumped the shark yet, or what? I know that, personally, I’ve eaten more food from a truck in the past two months than I have in the past two decades. Maybe that’s just Cleveland? (Although I do have extremely fond memories of the grease trucks at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ. Fat Darrell, anyone?!)
“Of Mice And Jazz-Kwon-Do” quotes:
“You, my friend, are a gaycist.” — Max, to Brad
“What?” — Brad
“You think that all gays are the same. You think just because Franklin and I are both friends of Elton, we’re just gonna pack it up, move to Vermont and start selling antiques?” — Max
“My name is Yoni. Which in Hebrew is short for ‘God’s gift.’ Unfortunately, in Sanskrit, it means ‘female genitals.'” — Yoni, the krav maga instructor
“I had to be completely still, which is why I was lying on the couch, and I had to take off my pants, because the mouse could hear my … jeans.” — Dave, to Alex, explaining his behavior when she walked in on him at the apartment
“Dave Of The Dead” quotes:
“Toby’s here. Why is he still dressed like that?” — Penny, confused by her date’s mismatched outfit on a non-laundry day
“Oh my god. You know what he is, right? … He’s a hipster, Penny. All those things you like, he likes them ironically!” — Max
“Meet my friends, Ione and Atticus. She has a blog about zines and he won the mustache contest three years in a row.” — Toby, introducing fake hipster Penny to his friends
“I don’t care.” — Atticus
“See that guy? [Gestures to guitar player] He’s right-handed; he refuses to play with his dominant hand. It’s too commercial.” — Toby
“He’s huge in the abandoned gas station circuit.” — Ione
“What do you think?” — Atticus, to Penny
“Oh, uh … over it.” — Penny
“Totally, super over it.” — the hipsters
“Hey everybody! Look over there! Sofia Coppola‘s playing badminton with Jason Schwartzman!” — Max, distracting the hipsters from the fact that Dave’s food truck has no food
Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose 
on May 05, 2011 @ 09:05 EST5EDT
