39-09-06 Office Invoices - Magnifying Glass

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BILL IDELSON 

Vic is busy!

Vic is doing some number crunching. It's obvious hard work, as his out-loud ciphering seems quite preposterous.

Meanwhile, Rush comes home to get a magnifying glass and has Blue Tooth Johnson waiting outside by the garbage box. Rush seems to want to torment Vic as he stands far away and yells the whole episode and talks way faster than he normally does. Here's a comparison of Rush speaking normally versus his faster talk in this episode: {{{HEAR}}}

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Vic is trying to do some office work at home, but his hopes of a quiet afternoon are dashed by Rush.

This is such a classic episode. Though there’s no Sade in it, this is one of the ones I use to introduce the characters to people. The character interactions are just wonderful. At fourteen years old, Rush is still in between being a child and and adult, and both sides are on display here — he’s mostly an annoying kid, but his teenagerhood comes out in his martyrlike reaction to Vic’s grumpiness and his overly-civil, formal language as he negotiates with Vic. It is hilarious how often Rush reminds us that Bluetooth Johnson is out by the garbage box, as if he is hosting some foreign statesman. 

Vic goes on a long emotional journey from patient to frustrated to about-to-explode to exploding to slowly going crazy. I feel bad for Sade having to bear his barely-contained rage when she calls him on the phone — she hasn’t been here and doesn’t know what’s going on.

I am so sympathetic to Vic though. The sound of the telephone instantly fills me with dread and annoyance, and I wish we didn’t have to have them. And one of the most irritating things in the world to me is when people shout across one or two rooms instead of going to the room the person is in and talking quietly to them there, as Rush does throughout half this episode. Oh, it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

The ending of this episode reminds me of a scene in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest where a man is waiting for someone to arrive at his home and is going through a psychotic, paranoid episode. The doorbell and the phone ring at the exact same time and he is completely paralyzed because he doesn’t know which one he should attend to first. In some ways this is the comic version of that psychodrama. (Psychocomedy?)

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Another show for Vic to shine in but Rush has just as many lines. And Rush seems to be purposely annoying. As stated, he talks louder, faster and is shouting from a distance (probably the kitchen) in most of the episode. Not to mention the fact that he keeps talking while Vic is on the telephone.

Add to all of that the fact that he's breaking things and has Blue Tooth Johnson just a shout away, this show has Rush at his all-time best at acting like a child rather than a 14 year-old.

Trivia:

The gem of the show is Rush on the phone to his friend, Smelly Clark. I particularly enjoy the "very trivial" part near the end: {{{HEAR}}}

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