Mark Watches ‘Galavant’: S01E04 – Comedy Gold

In the fourth episode of the first season of Galavant, the team bickers to their own detriment, and King Richard tries some comedy. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Galavant. 

I feel as if this show is building toward an inevitable disaster. In both the plot lines featured in season one, the main male character is stumbling toward a conclusion that everyone but him can see. In the case of King Richard, the man still believes that if he finds the right combination of behavior, attitude change, and knowledge, he can win over his wife, Indeed, practically every scene of his involves him pursuing some non-sensical solution to Madalena’s complete disinterest. Nevermind that she has frequently just told him that she is not attracted to him, that she will literally never be, and that she was just in it for access to power. 

So, after learning that his wife has been cheating on him with the jester, he decides to… ask the jester to make him funnier. Which is… lord, y’all. You can’t just make a person funnier! I mean, you can study comedy, improv, and the like, but that’s not what this is about. Richard thinks that a few tips will make him funny, thereby unlocking his wife’s hidden attraction to him! Which is… also not how that works, either. Dude, she was just attracted to him. She could have sex with someone with no strings attached, and that’s ALL. But Richard can’t see this, just like he can’t see that he’s a laughingstock. 

That’s sort of the whole point with his character and the parallel to Galavant. It’s even more ironic and tragic that both men pine after the same woman, who has NO INTEREST IN EITHER OF THEM. She only cares about what they can offer her, not what she can offer a partner. And like Galavant, Richard has been made DEEPLY aware of this before, and yet he ignores it. After terrifying the jester, performing terribly during his lessons, and assembling the whole castle for a performance, Richard ignores Madalena’s clear rejection AGAIN. She literally tells him not to go forward with his routine! And he does it anyway! And even when he makes her laugh genuinely once, he still thinks that is all he has to do! HE’S SO LAZY, Y’ALL.

I wouldn’t say that Galavant was lazy, but he’s so sure of himself that he can’t see the obvious when it is right in front of him. (Or, in the case of “Comedy Gold,” fully confessed to him out loud just feet away.) The episode opens with Galavant’s characteristic certainty. They just have to cross the sea and then they’ll be in Valencia! Except… no, it’s not that easy. No matter how badly Galavant wants it to be easy, Isabella and Sid are there to frequently remind him that he doesn’t actually know what he’s doing. Well, that, and also that he has TRASH opinions about trail mix. How the fuck do you hate cashews? I get being allergic to them, but they’re so good??? Also, who gets trail mix and only eats the raisins out of it? An EVIL BEING, okay. EVIL.

Anyway, not wanting to turn this into a trail mix discourse post. (Or do I?) For a while, “Comedy Gold” actually veers away from the parallel between Galavant and Richard to explore the ever-present bickering and rage between Galavant, Sid, and Isabella. Look, this is probably familiar to any of y’all who’ve gone on road trips or vacations with people you’ve not traveled with before. It is truly one of the easiest ways to determine whether or not you’re compatible with a person. I definitely couldn’t be in a romantic relationship with someone who was a terrible travel partner. If it’s a friend, I just travel separately. But with this trio, they don’t have a choice. They’re stuck together, and thus, when the land pirates take them and their possessions, they quickly have to stop bickering and start working together.

It’s a really cute little message, and I also need to acknowledge openly how fucking FUNNY the land pirates are. I know dissecting jokes often makes them unfunny, so I don’t want to delve too deeply into this. But the writers of the show manage to give the trio a glimpse of a possible future. They may become as dysfunctional and useless as the Land Pirates if they don’t learn to agree and get along. Granted, it’s a clear exaggeration because WOW, the Land Pirates really committed to their trash pirating. They’re so horrible! But in a show where the future seems to be written in stone—there’s certain disappointment waiting both Richard and Galavant—this plot allowed our heroes to sidestep an inevitability.

Which is why it’s so frustrating that Galavant didn’t just LISTEN when Isabella was telling the truth!!! Dude!!!! STOP BEING YOU FOR ONE SECOND.

The video for “Comedy Gold” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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