Tuesday Night Comedy Rankings: A Honey Roast for 'New Girl'

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Tuesday night is huge for television comedy. In order to make sense of all of the options, we've decided to rank the best shows each week to suss out who is coming out on top. 

1. New Girl

Do you need a sharpie hand note, like Nick, to remember where we left off three weeks ago? Here, let us remind you: Nick and Jess’s relationship ended in a hilarious crumble of ashes (quite literally, as they set part of their bedroom on fire). Last night’s episode was the aftermath of that break-up, because as Jess put it, “boob season” is officially over.

“Big News” should’ve been all about the demise of Nick & Jess, but one thing got in the way: Winston was accepted into the police academy (if this ends up being somehow related to the Key and Peele reboot …). So instead of setting the loft into disarray, Nick and Jess pretended to still be a couple for Winston’s sake, as he (not unreasonably) requested the day be all about him. But of course that didn't work out, and even though they pretended to be okay with the break-up (Nick took some of Schmidt's anxiety pills and Jess ran to a studying-for-the-GED CeCe), it was obvious that they weren't. The episode concluded with a "honey roast" of Winston (it's like a roast, but you say sweet things instead) until Jess commandeered and turned it into a roast-roast. What does a wine-drunk, cat-costumed Jess really think of her friends? Coach has too many sweatpants and needs to buy real pants, CeCe's hair is so long, and Schmidt has a big head. Oh, and Nick (among other things) yells Yahtzee! when he climaxes. Good to know.

New Girl earns the top spot this week because pretending to make the episode not about Nick and Jess while actually doing the opposite worked surprisingly well, and it gave all of the characters something to do (even CeCe, who we all know is often left hanging). It followed up what may well be one of the best episodes of the series and didn't drop the ball – so far, the end and aftermath episodes of the Nick/Jess relationship are funnier than any of the episodes during. Plus, there was Tran (!), the cutest Winston yawn, and a sly reference to James and the Giant Peach. 

2. The Mindy Project

Mindy was still semi-slogging along in the post-Mindy/Danny landscape, this time with Mindy trying to date. She received help from Peter, who has transformed from an insufferable douche into a sorta sweet douche. Peter’s strategies landed Mindy with a seemingly nice guy played by New Girl’s Max Greenfield. Unfortunately, this attractive guy who actually turns out to be a jerk was not Greenfield's New Girl character Schmidt. Honestly, the lack of a crossover between New Girl and Mindy was something of a missed opportunity, considering Schmidt would have been ten times more interesting than this random guy.

On a completely separate note: points to the episode for giving Xosha Roquemore something to do as Danny attempted to bond with other coworkers after losing his friendship with Mindy. 

3. About a Boy

The story line here was pretty much the same as always. Will was a bad influence on Marcus; Will saved Marcus from some bad decision; They both learned some valuable life lessons. Still, Marcus had a bit more personality than he usually does, however, giving the episode a little jolt. Forced by his mother to play the slopmaster in his class's mini Dickensian society, Marcus started counterfeiting the currency, and gaming the system. All the while Will was using his royalty money to try to woo the hot doctor played by Adrianne Palicki. It all fell apart when Will realized what Marcus was doing, and ran to school to take the blame for Marcus's bad behavior. My goodness, Jason Katims, let these people have an edge!  

4. Growing Up Fisher

While Fisher continues to not be worth your time, last night's episode was probably the best of the series so far. The characters weren't too insufferable, and actually had a couple of good lessons: guys who do magic tricks are the actual worst, and sometimes guys with face tattoos can be pretty cool (somehow, those are two separate story lines from last night). But also, what's with Runyen's mother thinking Henry is a bad influence on her kid? Henry's a weirdo, sure, but Runyen turned Henry into a stalker and a peeping Tom, on separate occasions. Really, that might be the most toxic friendship on television. 

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.