Billy's Back On The Street, And In Our Hearts

Thank God that, since the last new episode of Billy On The Street aired a million years ago, we've had the pleasure of seeing Billy Eichner on TV in his recurring role as Craig on Parks & Recreation. I mean, I follow Eichner on Twitter (and I strongly recommend that you do the same), but in that context, I have to read all his tweets as if he were screaming them while running past me in a maroon hoodie. Now that Billy is back On The Street for its third season starting tonight, he can yell straight at me again.

Billy On The Street is technically a game show: players answer pop culture questions on the promise of winning money or material goods, but they're tiny amounts of money (doesn't "Quizzed In The Face" top out at $50?) and worthless items (like a cat scratch post). But the fun of watching is not in playing along with the questions, which anyone who's ever set eyes, for a split second, on the cover of an Us Weekly would ace: it's seeing Eichner interact with the citizens of New York City.

In the Season 3 premiere, for example, our Quizzed In The Face contestant is septuagenarian Lorraine, a now-retired former IT company COO originally from Baltimore. One of the first things she says (after all those things) is that she doesn't want to play, but Eichner talks her into it, and the longer the game goes on, the more Lorraine's basic cluelessness comes through -- even after an actual Young Person is snagged to help her. All the while, Eichner alternates between encouraging and berating her, trying to keep the game going despite her stated resistance and total ignorance, and Lorraine rolls with it, because as all New Yorkers know: when you're accosted by a complete basket case on a sidewalk in the Flatiron District and you make the mistake of slowing down to engage him, you have to see the encounter through to the end, whatever that end may be.

Quizzed In The Face is fun (generally most fun if the player is either WAY into it or NOT INTO IT AT ALL), but I live for the Lightning Round. Here's a sneak peek at the round from the season premiere.

Someday I hope I'm half as cool as "Twitter Is A Force" Girl. ("YES, BITCH!")

In addition to being hilarious (the only thing better than seeing Eichner lose patience multiple times with the same stranger is seeing him lose patience after each ten-second interaction with a succession of strangers), this is the part of the show that makes me most homesick for New York. Of course there are other cities with pedestrian culture where you might, while going about your business, suddenly have an impossibly tall man in your personal space, asking your opinion about Queen Latifah -- which, for the record: Team Full Of Shit. But the ways people play along with Eichner -- or don't -- feel extremely New York-y to me. If they're into it, it's like, "Yes, of course this would happen to me when I'm on the way to Duane Reade to buy corn plasters." If they're not, their overreactions tend to be even crazier than Eichner's baseline mania. I may have only lived in New York for five years...but I feel like I saw or was part of either side of those transactions just about daily. I miss it!

And as if all that wasn't enough, the premiere episode also features a segment with Olivia Wilde, who proves I wasn't wrong to have been turned around on her last week on Portlandia by once again sending up her persona as a pretty girl in comedy. So you should watch it because it will entertain you, or watch it because it confirmed one of my pet theses, or for any of a thousand other reasons. Take the next few hours to find Fuse on your cable guide, and thank me later. YES, BITCH!!!!!

Billy On The Street airs Wednesdays at 11 PM ET on Fuse.