Punchlines Reviewed

Gabrielle is struggling with writers block as Xena sleeps. Aphrodite arrives to help her and gets Gabrielle to tell her about their day. It begins with a bet between Gabrielle and Xena that Xena can`t get through the day without losing her temper. Things don`t look to promising, when Gabrielle takes Argo to a river to wash her, only to find it is one sacred to Lachrymose, god of despair. He shrinks Argo into a shetland pony!

vMeanwhile Xena and Joxer go shopping in and Ancient Greek supermarket while Gabrielle tries to get Lachrymose to change Argo back by telling him funny stories - cue for episode clips. However this doesn`t work, and when Gab is also shrunk Joxer must try and help without letting Xena know.

The episode ends with a huge pie fight - for no real reason, but it is this that finally gets Lachrymose to laugh and restores order. Xena, who was pie free for the whole fight, finally gets hit by a custard pie missile from Lachrymose in the end. A fairly thin sounding story...?

Well yes, it is no epic adventure, but I thought this episode was a great deal of fun. I suspect the inspiration for the whole episode came about because someone saw the cute little pony that is a dead ringer for Argo. I liked Lachrymose a lot. The actor is quite a well known New Zealand comedy actor I think, and he certainly had good timing. I also thought the supermarket set was amusing. The production design team went to town with all sorts of little details, like trolleys, musak, announcements and slippery floor signs. The custard pie fight was pretty funny if you like that sort of thing. It was yet another non-violent episode for Lucy I suppose.

The set up story with Gabrielle and Aphrodite was also amusingly done. Gabrielle had some really nice pyjamas! Aphrodite is always worth watching. Alexandra Tydings brings a liveliness to the proceedings.

There was quite an array of clips - a lot of them very short ones to illustrate a point. eg. Xena getting grumpy, Gabrielle`s funny stories, however, they were fairly well chosen.

Hits

• The Gabrielle/Aphrodite stuff - added virtually at the last minute - is the best part of the ep. Aphrodite in her bubble bath and in those glasses was a giggle.
• The cute little pony really was like Mini Me, Argo style!
• The production design department had a ball making that ancient Greek supermarket..lots of amusing touches like the slipper floor sign, the musak and the annoucements.

• Why was that pie fight in there? Fairly daft slapstick.
• While the pony was cute, it is REALLY a good enough reason to base an episode on it?

Not a ground breaking episode by any means, but another lightweight fun one.

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