The Sarah Silverman Program (S02E09)

Sarah Silverman overslept. Upon realizing this, she predicts that her sister will call her about getting lunch at any moment. She does! Sarah deduces that she must be psychic. Walking into the kitchen, she even sees far enough into the future to know that she's going to walk to the fridge and drink some Orange Juice (which was, reassuringly, Simply Orange juice).

Meeting at the same diner they always do, Sarah and her friends discuss her psychicness -- or, a few minutes later, her lack thereof; she realizes that she's not psychic, her friends are just predictable. Going by typical Silverman judgement, she decides to instantly disown them, and sets out to find some new ones.

So begins a strangely funny homage to the old Sesame Street songs, in which tone-deaf kids barked under seventies-era bubbly-fonted words. The song introduces her new friends, who are all strange enough to be found at your local State Fair. Except for Mark the Chinese Lawyer.

Meanwhile, Todd Barry makes a cameo as a completely unnecessary grief counselor, who thankfully utters no mention of the Doggy Bounce, hired by Sarah to cheer up her ex-friends. After being disowned, Sarah's friends find themselves in the midst of a medical emergency having to do with Steve's "pot tits", in what I can only imagine is a thinly-veiled attempt to include marijuana in every episode this season (and applaudably, though not overly creatively, so).

The end of the episode is half-predictable, which is only half less-so than Sarah's friends. Predictable or not, it wasn't exceedingly funny, and I think I only laughed twice during the entire episode. Sarah Silverman is great at portraying those little emotions that only comprise a second or two of face time, which is impressive. Also, I can't say enough about how hilariously lame Jay Johnston's character, Jay, is. He must have so much fun playing him. "Making New Friends" was made up largely of bad puns and one-liners, and barely chuckle-worthy jokes, but it imparts the important lesson that emotionally retarded people only have to buy absurd gifts to keep friends.

3/7

We Rate Stuff