What Is Comedy

What is comedy? Is it someone falling down? A good chicken crossing the road joke? A picture of Vicki and Miss Piggy? Kristen Wiig's voice?

It's all of those things, because comedy is subjective. So what Slade finds funny might be different than one Tamra finds funny. That's why he might think that calling Tamra the Michelin Man is high comedy, and she might think it's fighting words. Let's take a gander at this episode and see what what humorous and what made us shriek in a comical fashion, shall we?

That's What Friends Are For
We open with Vicki and Tamra having a little egg white breakfast, and disucssing the goodbye terms from the painting pary. This, of course, finally allows Vicki to explain how she feels about Tamra and Gretchen buddying up.

I'm going to be honest. I'm not sure anything made me laugh as hard this episode (sorry Slade!) as Vicki's BFF voice. I love when Vicki tells a story, because she has a delightful storytelling voice, that's slightly different from her regular dialect. It's higher and faster, as though someone is speeding her up on a Talkboy, and I adore it, particularly when she's discussing "bayous of junk." Then Vicki wins me over even more by delicately explaining what exactly the term" brown nose" means. Be careful Tamra -- don't do anything that could jeopardize access to this woman's hilarity. Continue to shower her with gifts like "nipple nibblers." That could work.

In other fledgling friendships, Alexis and Heather went to lunch, which was filled with its own nuggets of awkwardness. Heather thinks Alexis is an enigma. Alexis thinks Heather's hoity toitty. At the end of the day Heather thinks their only similar features or having twins and being women. . . At least that's something! Build a bridge with that tiny sliver of common ground ladies!

How to Get Naked Wasted
Remind me never to try out material in front of Slade's mom, Liz. Woman does not pull any punches with her critiques, and instead of lauding Slade with praise, she reserves all her kindest words for the dogs. Not only is his mother rough on his act, but she's also nervous about him proposing to Gretchen. And as if he needs another scathing review, Gretchen doesn't exactly love his "In the News" act that eviscerates her fellow Housewives.

Heather, Alexis, and Sarah arrive at the Improv to see how his method works out. Heather, besides her illustrious acting career, also dabbled in stand-up (which leads Alexis to comment that she specializes in "football feeding," which to me sounds like the most terrifying way to eat. I know it's for babies, but it is my new nightmare). And so the lights dim and the ladies await what witty retorts Slade and Gretchen have cooked up. . .

Gretchen's comedic style seems to lean heavily on nudity (Hey it worked for Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and the crowd seems slightly confused by her bikini strip down. Slade's style -- pelvic thrusts and ferocious digs. After showing a pretty heinous faux photo of Jo (throwback), he gets right into it with the other gals. . .

All I'll say is it's a good thing Tamra and Vicki chose to skip the two-drink minimum at the Improv. There's a pretty much 100 percent chance they wouldn't have loved the "news" Slade delivered.

On the ride home, Slade thanks Gretchen for her performance, but she's not really feeling the team spirit angle. It seems Gretchen won't be comfortable with them becoming the O.C.'s Abbott and Costello. She doesn't want him breaking up the friendships she's trying to heal. But Slade could care less. Instead he welcomes them to his house of pain will gladly type Miss Piggy and Vicki Gunavalson into Google for you. We’ll see how that works out at the '80s party.

On Some Serious Notes. . .
In a land of less laughs, Eddie and Tamra are also talking serious. Eddie wants to talk about them moving in together. But Tamra's a little hesitant. Simon won't sign the divorce papers, and she has some reservations about how the children are dealing with things playing out. And so over fondue, she breaks it to Eddie that she needs more time to sort things out. Hopefully the melted cheese, softened the blow of her needing more independence. I find that always helps when people tell me bad news.

Briana chose to soften her rough news to with guacamole, as she and Vicki discussed her health over dinner. I want to give some mondo props to Briana. She's extremely resilient and good humored (herpes jokes!) in the face of adversity. Briana seems a little closed off in the men department, and seems a little dubious of Vicki's new relationship. Hopefully she will come around to opening her "love tank" to someone else.

Besides the divorce drama, Briana is having her thyroid removed to see if the tumors or cancerous. But she's feeling super positive, and so are we. Let's all send Briana good vibes.

Next week everyone loves the '80s, and maybe hates each other! Until then, let's ponder the definition of comedy. Leave yours in the comments!