Comedy Bang! Bang!: “Jesse Tyler Ferguson Wears A Brown Checked Shirt And Stripey Socks”

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but it takes a lot to make a multi-camera family sitcom.* It also takes a lot to make a “talk show slash sketch-comedy hybrid.” Now if you’re doing both of those at the same time, then that’s sure to lead to some wacky, hijinks-filled scenarios. That’s the case for Scott Aukerman in “Jesse Tyler Ferguson Wears A Brown Checked Shirt And Stripey Socks,” an episode that actually feels like it’s a long time coming if not long past due. Comedy Bang! Bang! is far from the “typical” sitcom, but it’s so far removed from the stereotypical family sitcom that dominated the ‘80s and ‘90s that it’s amazing Comedy Bang! Bang! took this long to tackle the subject.
While Ty Burrell’s episode focused too much on dad jokes to get into Modern Family (and modern family sitcom) territory, “Jesse Tyler Ferguson Wears A Brown Checked Shirt And Stripey Socks” embraces it, using it as a springboard into the world of Scott Through The Heart, Scott’s “old” sitcom that he’s been cheating on with his “new” sitcom, Comedy Bang! Bang! It’s written simultaneously as an extramarital affair based on being in a rut and a disillusionment with the predictable routine of those laugh track-riddled sitcoms.
It’s also all an excuse to make hipsters and critics—Comedy Bang! Bang!’s viewership—hear the Tim Allen grunt from Home Improvement for the first time in maybe 15 years. After all, the aesthetic of the Scott Through The Heart opening credits is 100 percent that of Home Improvement, right down to said grunt from Aukerman family dog Milo. He’s got a TV wife named Barbara and a TV son named Kayden, and even includes the most cookie-cutter sitcom status—busy dad has to get his son the perfect birthday gift. All while making sure Scott’s sitcom family doesn’t learn about his sordid affair, er, other TV show.
Much like the Dirty Little Weasels bit, I’m a sucker for riffs on the classic family sitcom format. One of my favorite (if not the favorite) Saturday Night Live sketches from this season is Good Neighbor’s ‘80s sitcom sketch from the Chris Pratt episode. So while “Jesse Tyler Ferguson Wears A Brown Checked Shirt And Stripey Socks” is an episode that doesn’t have the out-of-studio segments that have come to be a ridiculous joy on Comedy Bang! Bang!, it luckily has such a strong framing device that it’s easy to forget about that. Comparing the episode to the still terrific Lizzy Caplan episode, the on-the-nose dialogue about the state of these types of sitcoms (kind of like the countdown in the former) doesn’t change the importance of the argument:
Scott: “Hey, can I ask you something? Are things around here getting a little stale?”
Barbara: “What do you mean?”
Scott: “Don’t you think that this might be an outdated institution that we’ve grown out of?”
Barbara: “What, our marriage?” [LAUGH TRACK]
Scott: “No. This sitcom.” [HUH? TRACK]