If this was quantifiably measurable, I don’t imagine this season would be any less densely packed with humor as the previous three. Part of the reason it doesn’t seem like it was quite as funny, as I said before, is that we’re comparing the first time viewing of season 4 with the third, fourth, or fifth viewing of seasons 1 through 3, accompanied with the repetition of the jokes and lines with friends. What we should be doing is comparing it with the first time we saw the first season. The experience is rather similar. Season 4 brings a new tone and rhythm to comedy as we know it, and on top of that, shows changes to characters with whom we were previously deeply familiar. Season 1 had many laugh out loud moments, but they required quite a lot of foundation-building in the earlier episodes.
The similarities extend to which characters are the standouts of the season. Gob and Tobias’s episodes are being cited by most people as the strongest of this batch, although even their appearances in this incarnation of the show took some time to win me over. Again, this is eerily reminiscent of the characters’ introduction in the original series, at first seeming far more ridiculous than the tone of the show seemed to permit, but quickly becoming the most uproariously funny parts of the whole thing. I didn’t get Tobias’s “Fallacy/Phallusy” song at first, but when it’s repeated time and time again, it becomes increasingly hysterical. I’m starting to find the same thing is the case with Gob’s “Same.” In fact, I would be surprised if anyone found the entire story unfolding between Gob and Tony Wonder as anything but some of the funniest bits the series has ever produced. There’s so much good that it’s easy to forget how many laughs there actually are in the season. It’s why the show benefits so much from repetition.
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