Case 8.5, File 07: Planet of the Frohikes

AKA: King Kong Vs. The Lone Gunmen

There are handful of comedy maxims that, despite being critically regarded as "Lowbrow" remain broadly true across all mediums. Among them is the fact that, monkeys are always funny. Plenty of movies, tv shows and comics have hung an inordinate amount of faith on the idea that a monkey's very existence can make any scene inherently comedic. And they're right, for a very limited amount of time, but after that, you have to have something to back up the monkey or people are gonna start feeling ripped off.

Our episode kicks off with some monkeys in a lab listening to Shakespeare and trying to type it out, because the scientists never heard of a metaphor. And one of the scientists is shocked to see one of the monkeys actually doing it...only for it to not be there when he gets other scientists. But when they leave the monkey starts writing his memoirs. So I guess he should have liked, checked his other tabs. It takes like 5 seconds scientist dude.

Anywho, we then check in with Yves, who is at some hotel pulling a trick on a French guy when Frohike and Langly waltz in demanding she explain an e-mail they got. When they get back to Lone Gunmen headquarters, they show Yves the e-mail and an attached audio file talking about the sender being held prisoner (spoken by the voice of the actor who was reading the Shakespeare in the lab). They're on the road to blowing it off, but Jimmy convinces them to go check it out and Yves demands she get to tag along.

Once there, they find out what we already know; It's a behavior lab for chimps, but Jimmy figures the monkey actually sent the e-mail and lets him out. Before you start thinking Jimmy's smart now, he falls, hits his head on a rock and gets captured while the Gunmen are forced to flee, because the plot needs him to get captured. After a bit of cajoling (and incident where the monkey tries to steal their car), they eventually get him to reveal that he can use a voice synthesizer to talk. It turns out his name is Simon, he and the other monkeys are being bred to be super smart spies and assassins and he contacted them to try and escape. If you can't roll with that, you should probably bail out of this episode now.

"It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times!?"

After a little more prodding, Simon tells them that the Soviets created another monkey assassin, named Bobo, and he's in hiding at the national zoo in DC, waiting to assassinate a French minister. So they leave Langly with Simon to try and rescue Jimmy (who is trying to be talked into helping the scientists) while Byers, Frohike and Yves go to foil the assassination. Simon immediately gets the jump on Langly and ships himself off to the zoo while Langly gets captured by the scientists, in case you're wondering how that's going.

Down at the zoo, Yves and Frohike capture the monkey, but Byers gets paranoid and ends up getting caught by the French minister's guards, at which point Yves figures out the chimp they captured is just a normal chimp, but they're willing to pretend it's Simon to exchange him for Langly, Byers and Jimmy. The scientist sees through their plot, but Jimmy tells him the twist; That Simon is at the zoo and set this whole thing up to get the heat off him. But, double twist, Simon WAS actually the monkey they captured (which Jimmy figured out) and since the scientists think they have him, they're going to stop looking for him, and he gets to live out his live at the DC zoo with a lady chimp from the same program he was in. So that's a happy ending, I guess.

Planet of the Frohikes is, much like the previous couple episodes, not even trying to keep up the veneer of being a dark science fiction story and has instead descended into full on farce. The episode is, as I pointed out above, putting a lot of trust in the idea that monkeys are funny, and while that stuff isn't great, it's well put together enough to not wear out it's welcome by the end of the episode. Honestly, the best stuff in this episode is probably the stuff outside just "Hey, there's a monkey, monkeys are funny."

For instance, there's a solid amount of good character work that underpins some of the more successful gags. This episode probably has the best understanding on how to deploy Jimmy of any episode so far. The bit where he understands more about the situation than the rest of the Gunmen is a nice runner, especially since it relies on the fact that the rest of the Gunmen just dismiss a lot of the dumber concepts. I also love the scene where he fails to lie to the scientist, followed by the bit where the scientist manipulates him; It's a realistic level of dumb for an adult to have, and the actor has a lot of fun with him flailing around trying to lie.

"I swear the monkey captured me, this isn't a sex thing!"

I'm less enthused with Yves part of the plot. Oh I love the opening scene where she's on some adventure of her own that Frohike and Langly blow; I like the idea that she does, in fact, have a life outside of these weirdos, and the resulting scene is a lot of fun. But after that she doesn't actually seem to do anything, just hanging around occasionally dropping exposition, and she doesn't seem to have anything to gain from being there. The show is pretty desperate to keep Yves in the plot and I think they would've done better just deciding it's only weird if they bring it up and having her basically just be around the gang.

The rest of the comedy is a mixed bag; The Gunmen themselves have some pretty solid work (I like Byers just deciding to tackle the French minister cause he got paranoid) but the Monkey Business (forgive the pun) is pretty weak. Much better is the brief sequence where they think they're hunting a monkey assassin, partially cause a Monkey Assassin is a fucking awesome concept (one which the episode doesn't deliver on) but also because Byers, Frohike and Yves all saying Bobo completely straight faced completely cracks me up. My comedy tip is that taking incredibly silly concepts very seriously is funnier than monkeys.

The actual plot is barely more than an excuse to hang jokes on and probably wouldn't hold up to scrutiny, but it's breezy enough that it's easy not to care. The twist at the end of the episode is reasonably easy to guess if you're paying attention to some dialogue in the first act, but it's still entertaining to watch the Gunmen realize they've been had. It's also probably got the best balance between the Gunmen; Despite the title, all three of them get more or less equal time and use in the plot. Although I do wish we got more out of the bit where Frohike is the only member of the group not in federal custody. Watching Frohike and Yves try to rescue the other three on their own would be a lot of fun.

I can see why Byers would try to tackle the Minister, that monkey looks pretty shady.

A comedy can be as complex and meaningful as any other genre, but the genre still has lower critical respect, because it has an easier job; To make you laugh. A drama has a lot of hoops to jump through without a lot to fall back on, but if a comedy can make you laugh, it can forgive a lot of flaws. And The Lone Gunman is making me laugh, pretty consistently, so even when the plot is weak, I can forgive it. Apparently 2001 audiences were less forgiving.

Case Notes:

• The set they use for the behavioral testing lab feels really cheap for some reason, like a bad computer lab in a high school.
• Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I kinda dig the idea that the monkey is intentionally pulling a One Froggy Evening on the scientist. Wish they did more with it.
• Frohike and Langly immediately showing up to fuck things up for Yves is amusing, although I'd like to see her just do her thing more. If the show had gone on longer, it might have eventually had time for an episode about Yves, where she does does her own thing occasionally intersecting with the Gunmen.
• Frohike and Langly dropping the sheet rope over the balcony and then hiding on top of the umbrella is clever.
• It's amusing that the Gunmen would think Yves is responsible for the e-mail, even though it's mostly just an excuse to get Yves into the plot.
• Honestly, I'm impressed that Yves managed to recognize Edward Woodward by voice. I can only think of like, 3 or 4 actors I could do that for.
• I like how delighted Jimmy is at the monkey, and also that he's the first one to figure out Peanuts is a chimp.
• "If what I'm saying is so stupid, how come Yves isn't laughing?" is an great line that makes me think Jimmy understands more of how he's regarded than he lets on.
• I feel like if you're doing animal testing, you gotta have something heavier than a simple padlock, animal rights activists will be all over you.
• "Never leave a man behind, not even Jimmy," is a solid line.
• The Lone Gunman have a switch in their car that flips their license plate up so people can't see it, clever.
• I like the bit with Frohike trying, and failing to interrogate Peanuts, it's kind of flatly ridiculous but played straight faced.
• Jimmy being smart enough to know he can't tell the truth but dumb enough to not come up with a reasonable cover story is a nice middle ground for his intelligence.
• We're just gonna keep calling Peanuts his "Slave name" huh? Yike.
• Okay, not gonna lie, Simon giving himself the last name "Potentloins" is funny, especially since no one wants to acknowledge it.
• Yves explanation for why they want intelligent animals (spying and assassination) is solid, but I like the idea that the reason it's not working is that they can't be assured the animal will want to go along with it.
• The scene where the scientist interrogates and manipulates Jimmy is really good, the writers have a good handle on exactly how dumb Jimmy is, and in what ways, and the scientist does a good job wrangling info out of him.
• The reveal there's another Chimp, named Bobo, who is an assassin, would be too silly for any X-Files episode to pull off, but The Lone Gunmen is already basically a farce, so it pretty much works.
• The chimp having overpowered Langly and tied him up is a funny visual, but honestly I'm getting more mileage out of everyone saying "Bobo" without acknowledging how silly it is.
• The whole sequence with the assassination is decently funny, but I especially like that Byers just decides to tackle the French ambassador. Seems like there was a better way to handle that.
• Frohike awakening as the only member of the team not in federal custody feels like it's something that probably happens to him more often than most people
• Yves figures out they've been played by Simon pretty quickly, although we have the only piece of information required to figure out why he did it.
• Everyone meeting out on a darkened bridge for a prisoner exchange that involves a chimp is really funny, once again primarily because everyone plays it dead straight.
• Everyone is pretty mad at Jimmy for betraying Simon but he's betrayed them like 3 times in a row, fuck him.
• The reveal that Simon switched places with Bobo and set the whole thing up is funny but I also like that Jimmy figured it out just because he can actually recognize the differences between chimps.
• As always these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out so I can afford my own animal assassination experiments.

Current Celebrity Watch:

As Yves points out, the voice of Simon's voice synthesizer is Edward Woodward, famous for being the main character in the 1980s tv show The Equalizer. More relevant to me is the fact that he played the main character in the excellent 1973 film The Wicker Man. If you've only seen the terrible Nicolas Cage remake, I recommend you track down the original, it's great.

Future Celebrity Watch:

The lab's head guard is played by Peter Bryant, who is currently on Riverdale as Principal Weatherbee. I've never watched Riverdale, but everything I've heard about it makes it sound like a prank gone horribly wrong.