Review Demonstrates How To Make A Racism Joke Without Being Racist

It's a special kind of treat when a performer who's been plugging away for a while in always good, always memorable guest roles finally gets the star vehicle he deserves and that -- luckily for all of us -- is exactly what's happened for Andy Daly with Review. This week's is only the show's second episode, so it's pretty incredible how quickly all its element have locked into place, as one segment in particular showcases beautifully.

Comedy performers don't generally have to display a gigantic acting range. If they've come up through sketch and improv, they will have learned how to be goofy, game, and light on their feet, and if the various characters we see them play are variations on their basic personality -- see Brian Huskey two weeks ago as the judgmental head of a condo board on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and this week as a judgmental podiatrist on Suburgatory -- those personalities are funny, so who cares? So it is with Andy Daly, who's almost never not playing a grinning, avuncular dork with excellent diction and manners, from Jon's lawyer on Delocated or Kenny Powers's ex-girlfriend's new fiancé on Eastbound & Down. So because we already know Daly as a basically decent fellow of the sort you'd expect to make small talk with at your next block party or PTA meeting, we can roll with it when his Review character, Forrest MacNeil, accepts all his Review assignments with the same willing spirit and unshakable enthusiasm, even when those assignments are horrible.

Speaking of horrible: this week, a viewer challenges Forrest to find out what it's like to be racist. And Forrest jumps in with both sensible suede oxford-clad feet.

The joy of the setup is that Forrest is such a sweetie that he can't even fake racism convincingly ("Shut up about your catering business!" = funny for the rest of my life), which Daly's fabulously specific beige dadness sells easily and helps keep us on Forrest's side even though he's trying to be racist. But when the segment shows us that, actually, Forrest is totally racist and has been all along but that he's racist in such a benign way that the friend who's been targeted by Forrest's stupidity the most hasn't even bothered to confront him about it, Daly sells that too: he's ignorant, but he's not malicious. And finding something like this out about himself in the process of reviewing racism is just another fascinating aspect of the assignment. If he'd never done it, he wouldn't have been able to condemn racism -- with a half-star review -- with such authority!

A less confident show might have waited longer to establish itself before attempting a joke this potentially risky, but god, everything about it works like a motherfucker. Forrest MacNeil's review of racism: Five Stars.