Few TV shows have ever caused me to absolutely keel over laughing than Whose Line is it Anyway? This was an Americanized version of an English improv show, hosted by Drew Carey, and featuring performers like Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten, among others. I have watched a few episodes of the English show and I do think it's pretty funny as well but since this is the version I know best, this is the one I prefer. My mom discovered it long before I did. One night, I remember hearing her laughing like crazy in the living room and when I went to investigate, she let me in on what was so funny. I began watching it with her, slowly learning how the show was played, what the rules were, etc. Eventually, Mom stopped watching it on a regular basis but I continued on, watching it for many, many years, following it from ABC to ABC Family. I am convinced that this is one of the most criminally underrated and hilarious shows ever.
The show went like this: Drew Carey hosted and there would be four performers. At a certain point in the early seasons, the three regular performers were Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles, with the fourth person either being Brad Sherwood, Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Jeff Davis, or Kathy Greenwood (it was always random who would be on the show). Drew would choose improvisational games for them to play that were written on his cards and would sometimes get suggestions from the audiences. The show's hilarity came from the fact that there were really no rules to this show and the cast members could do whatever they wanted in the games, sometimes pulling poor, unsuspecting audience members into the games. This would sometimes result in things getting out of control and it was always funny as hell. Sometimes, the performers made it clear that they hated certain games and that would result in hilarious backlash from them against Drew; other times, the games were so hard and the suggestions the individual performers would get were sometimes so weird that it would be funny to watch them try to pull it off (and they would show their mastery of the art by doing so more often than not).
At first, I had mixed feelings about Drew Carey as the host. He would often make really bad jokes that caused you to roll your eyes and he seemed to think he was being funny when he wasn't. He also tended to beat a funny line to death by repeating it over and over and it could get annoying. At a certain point in the series, the last game of each show would involve him joining the cast (there would be an arbitrary winner who would get to sit it out) and he proved that he wasn't the best improver. However, as I watched the show more often, I began to really warm up to Drew. He seemed like a nice guy (I've heard he really is) and you could always tell that he was having a blast. The best thing about him was his hilarious, high-pitched laugh he would bust out whenever things got really crazy and it often did. It was an infectious laugh and often made you laugh just from listening to it. But I think the thing I loved the most about Drew was his laid back way of hosting. No offense to Clive Anderson, the host of the UK version, but whereas he seemed a bit more stringent in hosting, Drew's presence made it feel like they were all a bunch of buddies getting together to have a good time and that's what I like.
Wayne Brady became a regular performer of the show by the second season (this had to be one of the first things he was ever involved with). His biggest skill was singing and dancing, at which he was incredibly skilled. In many of the singing games featuring him, they would throw different music styles at him or make him sing while imitating a famous artist and no matter how crazy it would get, he would always master it. It was remarkable. As an actual improver, though, he wasn't the best. He wasn't horrible, but he was nowhere near the level of Colin and Ryan, who were veterans since they were on the UK version. I sensed that the writers of the show knew he wasn't the best because his suggestions were never that difficult to pull off; however, Wayne always made the most of it and he would sometimes do something hilarious, even if it wasn't always intentional. He also seemed to be enjoying himself (which is more than I can say for him as the host of Let's Make a Deal).
Colin Mochrie was my favorite of the show. He was just so hilarious and really skilled at improv. He was the one who often had everybody else dying of laughter at the end of each game while he finished it. His skill at holding in laughter, even when something very funny was going on, was one I wished I had because I've often laughed at the worst possible moments. What made him so funny was not just that he said outrageous things but he would often say it with a sweet, soft-spoken demeanor or sometimes come out of nowhere, acting all crazy. Another endearing thing about him was that he knew when he'd just said something that either wouldn't make it to air or would get a lot of people angry at him and his reaction was often as funny as what he said. He often was the butt of jokes, which either stemmed from the fact that he's bald or Canadian. However, you couldn't help but go, "Awe!" at him when he acted hurt and his friend Ryan would comfort him. He could give as much as he could get and those that made fun of him often wished they hadn't. It's a shame that this guy has never had his own show because it would be awesome.
Ryan Stiles was one half of a very funny comedy duo, the other person being Colin. Whenever they acted in a scene together, Ryan often acted as the straight-man to Colin's madness but Ryan could be capable of some really crazy (and often raunchy) stuff himself. He seemed to get the most bizarre suggestions from the show's writers, even more so than Colin. I'm guessing they were trying to see if they could stump him but they never did. Ryan hated the game "Hoedown" more than anybody else and almost always ended it by either insulting Drew, the staff, or the game itself. (The uncensored outtakes of him singing hoedowns on the DVDs are priceless.) There was one hoedown where he was either completely drained of ideas or just refused to do it because Drew had to come up behind him and sing for him. Ryan was almost never the arbitrary winner of the show and had to endure the hoedown, which was often the last game of each show. Still, he always came out on top.
Like Colin, Brad Sherwood often said really outrageous, politically incorrect things on the show. He was the one whose stuff was often so dirty that they couldn't air it (as seen on the outtakes) or if they did, things would get awkward. Still, he was definitely one of the funniest non-regulars and blended in well with scenes involving Colin and Ryan or acting as Wayne's singing partner. Greg Proops was also a very funny non-regular. What I liked about him was that he seemed much more intelligent and cultured than everyone else, which made the crazy stuff he would do even more funny. He was the best at foreign accents as well, especially German, and his acting in games was superb. Jeff Davis was really good at both singing and improv; he was very skilled at impressions and foreign accents and always seemed to have the most confidence of everyone. Chip Esten was it his best when he was singing; as an improver, his skills were fairly lacking. The humor from his performances came because he sometimes blew his suggestion. But, he always seemed like a nice guy and I really liked his level-headed attitude towards all the craziness around him.
There were some women improvers on the show as well, though most of them didn't last very long. Denny Siegel was always my favorite woman improver because she could be as wacky as the men most of the time (although her lack of skills in the game Scene To Rap often made me cringe). She was really good at a game called Hey You, Down There, which acted as a 1950's instructional film and she was the narrator while Colin and Ryan were the ones acting out the task. The woman who appeared most frequently was Kathy Greenwood, whom I couldn't stand. I don't know why she was chosen to appear so often because she had no improv skills, often barely participated in the games, and sometimes, barely said a word the entire show. I knew a woman who was a big fan of the show as well and Kathy was her favorite, something I was never able to understand. The worst woman improver by far was Karen Murayama, who only appeared in a few episodes, thankfully. She was absolutely awful, especially at guessing games. She was so bad at figuring out a person's quirky that you often wondered if she was stupid. (One time, Brad was supposed to be an Amish guy and she thought he was Sean Connery. What?!) Drew pretty much said she was stupid when he said, "Don't ever go on Celebrity Jeopardy." The best, however, was Josie Lawrence, a veteran of the UK version who appeared in a couple of episodes. I wish she'd stuck around because she was really funny with her British sense of humor and sophistication.
There were celebrity appearances on the show, either as a fellow cast member or appearing for only a few games. Robin Williams' episode was freaking hilarious. Also good were Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Griffin, and Stephen Colbert (long before he became well-known for his political satire show). Other celebrities who appeared were Jerry Springer, David Hasselhoff, Richard Simmons (God, wait till I talk about that show), Florence Henderson, Sid Caesar, and Hugh Hefner, among others.
Drew often awarded points at the end of each game, although he always stated that Whose Line was, "The show where everything's made up and the points don't matter." His descriptions of how useless the points were often got a chuckle out of me. (There was one episode, however, where he decided to actually keep score, although that was forgotten by the end of it.) There was also banter between him and the cast members between games, which only added to the laid back fun of the show. The show also had its fair show of inside jokes, usually caused when somebody flubbed a line or said something really outrageous. These included an episode where Drew referred to Africa as a country and the cast would not let him forget it for the rest of show; Colin discovering that Wayne is actually really ticklish and tickling him throughout the episode; Colin randomly saying, "Meow" in a sexy way and it was repeated throughout the episode; Chip blowing a game where he was supposed to be singing Mel Gibson and the Wrestler but somehow got it mixed up with professor, among others. Even the credits were funny because after the first season, Drew had some random cast members read the credits in a weird quirk.
There are so many memorable moments from this show that if I were to try to list them all, this post would go on for pages and pages. What I'll now do is go through my favorites and talk about some of my favorite moments from those games.
Scenes from a Hat: Probably my favorite game, this one involved Drew pulling suggestions written by the audience out of a hat and the performers having to act out whatever situation was described.
Robin Williams: Probably the funniest one by far was the one on the episode with Robin Williams. It started out simple enough with them acting like bad superheroes but it started getting funny when the suggestion was, Bad Topics for an Interpretive Dance. Ryan said, "Diarrhea flows like a river." Robin did him one better by saying, "Impotence is a horrifying thing," starting out in a small position and gradually standing up. Next was, If Entertainers Worked Funerals. Robin came out and said, "Alright, start the truck Johnny," and acted like he attached the corpse to a car battery. He then yelled, "Wow, look at him move! Isn't that incredible, ladies and gentlemen? With just six volts, you can make your relatives dance again!" Ryan and Colin came up doing various funny things; Ryan acted like he stuck his head in the corpse's mouth; Colin acted like he twisted the corpse into a shape and said, "A dog,"; and Ryan acted like he stuck his hand up the corpse's back-end and said, "Harry and I would like thank you all for coming by, wouldn't we, Harry?" One that, for some reason gets me to laugh is, Frivolous things to ask for when a genie grants you three wishes, and Colin simply comes up and says, "Uh, two Cokes and some chips." Next was, Inappropriate Anecdotes to tell on a talk show and Ryan came up, pointed at his wedding ring, and said, "Okay, long story short, this is the stone I passed." So damn funny!
I Didn't Mean to Cook Your Dog: One suggestion one time was, Songs about life's embarrassing moments. Colin came up and sang, "Hey, I didn't mean to cook your dog, but hey those things just happen. I was just standing there and his little toes, they started tappin'. So I cut his throat, (something about a goat), and then I put him on the barbecue..." Before he could go on Ryan, as he often did, took off the stage, as if to say, "Okay, that's enough."
If Actors Were Completely Honest During Their Acceptance Speeches: During that suggestion, Colin came up and said something that was outrageous, half of it was bleeped but I think you'll know what he said: "Man, I can tell you how man BLEEP I've had my BLEEP up just to get this." Wayne and Chip looked absolutely horrified. Wayne came up and said, "It's been an honor working with Colin Mochrie all these years." I bet it was.
Bad Times for a Woman's Water to Break: Yeah. The funniest parts during this one came from Colin and Ryan naturally, who first acted like they were riding horse's when Colin's water broke and then acted like they were going down the wedding aisle. Even funnier was the next suggestion was, When a Deep, Passionate Kiss is Complete Out of Line, and the two of them repeated that aisle moment, then acted like they were going to kiss. Hilarious.
Read a Book, People: This came during the suggestion, Outtakes from the Hillbilly Shakespeare Festival (or something similar). Wayne came up and said in a redneck accent, "Hear ye, the two revenuers from Verona approacheth." No one reacted and Wayne, keeping his accent, said, "Read a book, people!" Everybody broke up laughing and Drew's laugh was hilarious.
Things You Can Say About your Boat, but not you Girlfriend: Colin came up and yelled, "She's takin' on water!"
Song Styles: Wayne Brady (and Brad or Chip if they were on that particular episode) would come sing songs either to an audience member or by himself. Every now and then, the other three performers would provide back up for him. This was often a game where I didn't pay much attention but there were instances that were hilarious.
Village People Polka: This was an instance where Wayne was joined by everyone else, including the audience member (a sanitation worker named Howard), singing in the style of the Village People (they all wore hats to match the various members). It started out typical enough, with the song being played in the style of YMCA, but then about halfway through, something went wrong with the keyboard and the music started going really fast. Everybody started moving and singing fast to keep up with it (Colin's face was hilarious; he was like, "Help!") and Wayne even sang, "How'd this song get so damn fast?" Finally, they had to cut it prematurely and that's when Drew said, "I didn't know the Village People did polkas." Even funnier was that Drew pointed out that Wayne spelled Howard as H-O-R-W-A-R-D and Wayne said, "It's hard to spell at 210 beats per minute." However, Wayne spelled it wrong before the music went crazy so he couldn't use that as a defense.
Singing Strip-O-Gram: Drew brought down this elderly woman who was a lunch lady and he revealed to Wayne that he sing to her as a singing strip-o-gram. Everybody immediately burst out laughing and this is the only time you could hear Colin unable to control himself and laugh out loud. Poor Wayne was so embarrassed but he went through with it, unbuttoning his shirt and unbuckling his belt as he sang. The best part was the last verse that he couldn't finish. He sang, "You get to have a little spaghetti and two great meatballs..." Wayne lost it right then and Drew had to take his glasses off because he was laughing so hard. After it was over, you could hear Wayne tell the lady that he was sorry! He sat back down and he said, "I feel so dirty!" Drew said, "You feel dirty? How about poor Leigh, the lunch lady?"
Weird Newscasters: The performers act out a news show. Colin is the usually anchor but Brad is if he's on the episode, Wayne does sports, and Ryan does the weather. The co-anchor, sportscaster, and weatherman have an odd quirk they have to act out. A lot of the fun comes whenever Colin is the anchor; he gives himself and the rest of the guys weird names and comes up with hilarious news stories. Some of my favorite names he gave himself were: Ti-Toe through-to-tulips, Horse-Ye-Rode-In-On, Keith My-Pasthy-White-Butt, Thore Just Thinking About It, and Oswald That Ends Wald. He gave his co-anchors names like Smiley Dick (Chip), Dwayne Da-Bathtub (Ryan), Reggae Jackson (Wayne), Ruby Squealer (Wayne), and my favorite, Gunther Do-Something-Amusing (Ryan: his face was hilarious when he heard that name). There was one time where Brad was the anchor and Colin was the co-anchor and Brad gave him the name, Baldy Flap-Scalp (lol!).
Colin's best top stories to me were: a man who was swallowed whole by a whale escaped today by running all the way to the end until he was pooped out; when talking about a human cannonball who was shot out of a cannon along with his donkey, Colin said, "It took the doctors six hours to remove Linguini's head from his ass"; he talked about how Rudolph the Reindeer was killed when he was flying over Barcelona and was hit by a flock of birds and a 747. He said that eyewitnesses reported, "That the reindeer in Spain was hit mainly by the plane." He also once talked about how Hugh Hefner prevented a bunch of friars from planting flowers on his property and said that someone commented that, "Only Hugh can prevent florist friars."
Some of the best quirks were when Wayne had to be an old vaudeville star whose plastic surgery collapses. The faces that guy made were downright terrifying. Ryan once had to be a Bigfoot caught on camera and desperate to escape being filmed. The noises he made and the way he ran off just break me up. One of the funniest was we had to be Frankenstein's monster looking for a mate and he pulled this poor guy out of the audience, took him behind the green screen, made a bunch of passion noises, and they both came out looking like they had been really hammered. It was hilarious. Wayne had to be Jerry Lewis one time but he clearly didn't know what he was doing and blundered his gag, which made it even funnier. Colin once was the co-anchor and he panicked at the slightest thing. When Wayne acted as the Spanish Crocodile Hunter, he accidentally sent a wad of spit flying and Colin acted like it was in his hair. Colin also once acted as a nudist and when he went to get out of his seat, he said, "These damn seats are vinyl!" He then acted like it was stuck to his butt and when he got it loose, he put his foot on the stool with his knee up. Brad acted like he was trying to block his privates and he about cracked up.
Party Quirks: One performer would act like the host of a party and the other three would have bizarre characters they'd have to act out, with the host having to guess who they are. This game had some of the craziest moments to ever happen in the entire show.
Ryan Breaks the Light: Ryan's quirk was that he had to be Carol Channing whose head keeps getting stuck to things. He headed head-first right to Drew's desk, which has a neon light on the front, and he accidentally smashed the light. Everything came to a screeching half as everybody tried to compose themselves: Drew, after realizing Ryan wasn't hurt, laughed so hard his face turned red and Wayne had to turn his back to the camera so nobody would see him laughing. The amazing thing was Ryan, being the trooper he is, insisted they go on with the game and stayed in character until Kathy Greenwood finally guessed who he was. I had the utmost respect for him after that.
The Melissa Incident: Wayne had to be footage from King Kong vs. Godzilla and grabbed this woman out of the audience. What he didn't realize was he'd pulled her skirt up and everyone in the audience as well as everybody in the country watching the show could see her underwear. He let her go immediately but he felt horrible and Drew was rolling. Chip as the host was great because he was trying to get things back under control. All in all, I felt so bad for that poor woman but I myself about passed out, I was laughing so hard.
Colin Gets Too Hot: Colin's quirk was that he was convinced that everybody wasn't the sex they claimed they were and was trying to find out for sure. Colin proved nothing would stop him in carrying out his quirk: he started grabbing everybody's crotch! Soon, all the other cast members were trying to get away from him, especially Ryan, who had to be shooting studly photographs for the cover of romance novels, and had to try to look sexy while covering his crotch. Colin also did grab Kathy's breast at one point. This isn't the best episode to use to introduce to a newcomer to the show because they'll think it's the gayest show ever.
Merchant Seaman: Colin's quirk was that he was an angry sperm looking for an egg. He was the last one left and Brad (I don't know if he'd figured out or not) asked him, "Were you in the marines because you look like a merchant seaman." I about died at that point. Colin's face was really funny.
Brad Goes Too Far: Brad was hosting the party and when Colin came in, his quirk was that he was a performing seal. He was doing the body movements of a seal as well as the barking. That's when Brad said, "I'd like you to meet BLEEP." I found what was bleeped out what Stephen Hawkings. Everybody in the audience groaned at Brad and Colin had a look of sheer horror on his face. It passed but I'm sure Brad received a real guilt trip from the censors afterward.
Show Stopping Number: Ryan and Colin would act out a scene, joined eventually by Wayne, and whenever Drew pushed the buzzer, they'd have to make up a song using the last line they said. Naturally, Drew would wait until they said something stupid and then hit the buzzer.
Without a Hole, Where Would You Be?: The scene was Colin and Ryan were working at a Swiss cheese factory, having to poke holes in the cheese, and Wayne came in at the Hole-In-Things Fairy. When Colin asked him why he puts holes in things, Wayne said, :"Because without a hole, where would you be?' Drew hit the buzzer and after Wayne gave a shocked look to him, he sang, "Without a hole, where would you be? No place to <nnnh!> and no place for the pee." He went on but when it was finished, everybody was laughing and poor Wayne walked back to his seat and totally face-palmed.
Hey, Buster, Hire My Friend!: The scene was Ryan and Colin were working in an office and Ryan had just been fired. Colin said he was going to go up to the boss and say, "Hey, buster, hire my friend!" Drew hit the buzzer and Colin sang, "Hey, buster, hire my friend or I'll put my foot right up your end!" And then, out of nowhere, he started making weird noises, going, "Whirr, whirr, whirr, aba zeeky no goy ah!" Ryan stopped him and asked, "What the hell happened there?" It was so out of left flield!
Improbable Mission: Colin and Ryan are secret agents carrying out a mundane task, and Greg or Wayne gives them their instructions.
The Cat!: This was one of the funniest moments ever. Colin and Ryan had to wash the burnoose for the Emir of Groovefunkistan. From the get-go, it was obvious that neither of them knew what a burnoose was. It was funny enough when they acted like they put the burnoose into the bathtub to wash and Ryan had to fart in the tub to agitate but it got really crazy when Colin said, "It's taking too long. The Snackafark of Emir will be here!" Ryan tried to keep acting but he started laughing and Colin yelled, "The cat!", which he'd suggested earlier as a way to clean the burnoose. That tipped Ryan over and everybody was dying at that moment. Colin then said they needed some fabric softener, "Saying, well you can't have static cling! The burnoose will stick to his..." everybody broke up again and he just said, "thing!" He then yelled, "The cat!" again and Ryan had to turn his back so nobody could see him dying of laughter.
And that's only a small sample of the many hilarious moments on Whose Line is it Anyway? There are so many more games and moments I could mention but I think I've spoiled enough already. If you've never seen this show before, by all means watch it on ABC Family or watch clips on YouTube. Few shows are just plain and simple fun as this one was. Drew once asked if any of us have this much fun where we work and I'm sure few of us could say yes. It's a shame that the show had to end and even though Drew eventually created a new show called Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, it doesn't match Whose Line to me. A show that honestly funny just doesn't come around that often.
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