Joke density! Sweet, blessed joke density! On Monday, July 20, the Happy Endings cast aired a special charity-event episode and live Q&A aftershow with proceeds going to World Central Kitchen and Black Lives Matter, and for fans of the dearly departed series, it was comedy manna, as Dave would say. The reunion finds the gang in a Zoom hangout, reacting to the “pandemmy†in ways both expected and surprising (we knew Alex was dumb, but COVID-denier dumb?). Max (Adam Pally) is high off his gourd on weed-fed steak. Penny (Casey Wilson) is obsessed with her frontline-doctor boyfriend, has grown out bangs because she can’t get her ’tox, and has an at-home Brazilian Zoom tutorial booked with her wax person because she wants to give herself a “doubie lando†(double landing strips) as a tribute to the Twin Towers. Jane (Eliza Coupe) is thriving because she’s “been running pandemic simulations since grade school,†while her husband, Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.), is doing a ten-week self-tine in a hotel in Florida … or is he? We won’t give away his location, but “Parasite sex†is involved. Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) is exercising her right to eat meatball subs in public indoor settings, and Dave (Zachary Knighton) has picked the perfect time to emerge from his 12-week social-distancing retreat to launch his new, no-utensils restaurant. Oh, and there’s a wedding, a surprise baby, and a drama-Zoom-bomber, but we won’t spoil those.
The Happy Endings ensemble has better comedic chemistry at an awkward social distance than most shows have at the best of times, and it’s a joy to see them make rat-a-tat pop-culture puns and fake-vomit together again. After the episode, they had a moderated live chat with series creator David Caspe. When asked whether they would want to revive the show, which ended after three seasons in 2013, Caspe said, “Everybody is sort of in a different place as far as getting everybody together, making it work business-wise for all these different companies. I know we’re all willing and want to do it. I know it’d be fun. Yeah, we want to do it, man. Anyone out there? I think we all want to do it.†Here’s hoping they actually get to return to TV together, if only so we can see the rest of Brad and Jane’s “Get Busy Philipps or Get Busy Dying†Busy Philipps drinkware collection.