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Scrubs and Better Off Ted are a great American Idol alternative

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the monster that is American Idol is back on television. After watching a few seasons of the glorified talent popularity contest, I gave up on it last year and decided to throw my viewing power behind Reaper. Unfortunately we all know how that story ended, with the cancellation of Reaper (and I still miss it).

In a similar move, this year I will be watching Scrubs and Better of Ted, which are both as good as canceled. While they’re here, though, they are still great TV.

This week both shows had pretty strong outings. I really think that Scrubs 2.0 has found its footing and I think it’s actually pretty good. The same sense of humor is there and all the new characters are beginning to find their way. Lucy, who I was not so thrilled with at the beginning of the season, has become more entertaining and dare I say that I am even tolerating Cole these days? It’s a shame that this reboot never really had a chance. Of course, nothing official has come down from ABC, but the ratings for Scrubs are pretty bad.

Of course the ratings for Better Off Ted are even worse, and I’m not quite sure why. I swear, it gets funnier with every episode and has become one of the smartest and wittiest shows on TV. This week’s first of two new episodes may have been the funniest outing of the whole series. Veridian Dynamics released a memo to the whole company with a little typo: “Employees must now use offensive or abusive language in the workplace.” It was a clever concept and was only made even better with some of the great insults that were hurled as the employees strove to follow the memo:

  • “You big-eyed stick insect”
  • “Back alley crab muffin”
  • “Tory-loving royalist”
  • “Sad jar of hobo urine”
  • “Your breasts should be displayed at the Swiss museum of miniatures”
  • “Naggity nag nag bitchy bitch”
  • “Your head looks like a lizard buttflap, you snot-wipe”
  • “Nice man-boobs for a panty-snatching steroid muncher”
  • “Douche nozzles”

Classic. I know where I’m going to be on Tuesday nights, and it won’t be watching American Idol.

Photo Credit: ABC

Categories: | Clack | Episode Reviews | General | TV Shows |

7 Responses to “Scrubs and Better Off Ted are a great American Idol alternative”

January 12, 2010 at 11:30 PM

I hope and pray BOT does not get cancelled. Truly the funniest show on TV. And if you liked the insults hurled on the show, you have to seek out the video online of the definitely NSFW (or broadcast TV)insults. Some of them will curl your hair, but they’re hilarious!

January 12, 2010 at 11:49 PM

I used to be an American Idol fan. I watched about 5 minutes today and I think taking a two hour long shit is better than AI. The 5 minutes also happened to be with that gay high school kid from NH. Annoying little asshole, makes all young gays look bad.

OK I started to go on a rant there. I ended up reading some old college notes. lol

January 13, 2010 at 4:23 AM

The 2nd Season of BoT has been extremely lackluster IMHO. The first 13 episodes were a blast, now all of a sudden it feels so extremely off.

Scrubs on the other hand is still extremely funny, even without Zach Braff, just like the other Bill Lawrence comedy of the season, “Cougar Town”.

Oh and everything is a good alternative to AI. I wouldn’t watch that crap if I were getting money for it.

January 13, 2010 at 7:52 AM

Funny, I’ve thought that this season of BOT has been better than last for the most part.

I agree though about Cougar Town — love it.

January 14, 2010 at 10:39 AM

Agreed, and I think the main changes were making Linda batshit insane to go along with her straight girl routine, and bringing back the weird co-workers from previous episodes. “The Great Repression” was just genius.

To be fair, Better Off Ted was dead long before Idol arrived. I had heard that unfortunately Scrubs will be moving into the empty Wednesday slot instead of BOT, so we’ll have to enjoy the few episodes we have left.

I can’t believe you left out the lines, “I’ve been Lem-basted,” “You’ve just been Phil-a-busted,” and “We just got Ted-ucated.”

Oh, and the video to which CRDFilm referred can be found at this YouTube link.

January 14, 2010 at 10:42 AM

Those were great quotes, but I was sticking to the insults.

I saw that clip last night, it’s amazing (but has NSFW language FYI). It seemed to me like they were filming it in anticipation of an “uncensored” version for the DVD. I hope I’m right, because that would be EPIC.

January 13, 2010 at 11:15 AM

I could understand the appeal of American Idol for maybe 3-4 seasons, but I just don’t understand how so many people could still find it entertaining after all this time. Seriously, is it that entertaining to watch an overblown singing contest week after week, year after year? I can’t even wrap my mind around the possibility.

Then at the same time good comedy like Scrubs and great satire like Better Off Ted are floundering. Smart, funny and quick-witted TV is beaten out by a repetitive singing contest.

Either the Nielsen system is terribly fubar, or the viewing public is…or a little of both.

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