S04.E11: It's My Jane In The Box

[yeswedo]

The celebrity players are Yvette Nicole Brown; James Pickens; Abby Wambach; Greg Grunberg; Aja Naomi King; and Joely Fisher.

[Rinaldo]

Yvette is always good news. And we long-ago Heroes (Season 1) fans know to refer to Mr. Grunberg as "Grunny."

[Primetimer]

Too many showcases for Hammy Jane. But still.

Read the story

[iMonrey]

I actually don't mind Song Sung Wrong. I'm on the fence about whether it's really just an ego trip for Jane Lynch (she's really not that great a singer, so I hope not for her sake). I do think some of the songs go on for two or three bars too long though. But, that's kind of the trick of it - you have to sing along and sing OVER Jane when she does the wrong lyrics, or it throws you. Assuming you ever knew them in the first place. I'm able to do this aloud, from the comfort of my sofa watching at home, but it would be a lot harder standing there at the buzzer I think.

 

The game I don't like is Jane in the Box. I also don't like the one where they inflate the balloon (similar concept). I don't like the ones that feel random. Like, three people on one team can miss and inflate or crank or whatever, then ONE person from the other team suffers the consequences from those losses. It doesn't sit right with me. 

 

I like the pantomime games but the one where their hands are tied behind their backs and both teams are competing at the same time make it hard to tell who's winning (who's getting the answer first). 

 

But wow, Yvette and Grunny were an awesome team in Celebrity Name Game. Both were good and they worked well with each other.

Edited March 28, 2016 by iMonrey

[Rinaldo]

Actually I recall at least one final round in which Yvette Nicole Brown was involved (with a good partner too -- Zachary Levi maybe?) which didn't go well. A combination of the two cluegivers not coordinating well and excessively hard names to guess, as I remember (maybe wrongly). So she's not magic.

 

But this time it worked great. He chose absolutely the right two people, and it seemed as if during the break Grunny had agreed that she would speak first for each name, so they didn't talk over each other.

[peeayebee]

I'm glad Greg did well in Celebrity Name Game because he was bugging me during the game with being "on" all the time. Hated all the jokes about Jane's box. I hate that game, too.

 

Abby Wambach surprised me with how well she did (except in Take the Hint).

 

I'm not a Song Sung Wrong hater, but man, like iMonrey said, a couple of the songs were way too long. I got the one for American Woman wrong because I thought the line was "Won't you let me be," rather than "Mama let me be."

 

I really liked Pic A Name. Was that new? It was fun. I also like Back to Back. I like anything mime-y or charade-y. At first I couldn't figure out what Greg was doing for 'kidney.' Then I realized it was kid + knee. I love when Aja and Abby looked at each other as they started 'kickstand' and just started laughing.

 

Take the Hint was fun, though I was getting a little annoyed with Joely using her hands. And Aja actually doing the Y for "YMCA" was a no-no imo.

 

I wanted to get a closer look at Jane's pendant. It looked pretty nice.

[swimmyfish]

I really liked Pic A Name. Was that new? It was fun. I also like Back to Back. I like anything mime-y or charade-y. At first I couldn't figure out what Greg was doing for 'kidney.' Then I realized it was kid + knee.

 

Is that what he was doing? I would never have figured that out. Amazing.

 

 

. And Aja actually doing the Y for "YMCA" was a no-no imo.

 

The answer was actually Village People, I believe, rather than the song. So I thought that was a pretty good clue

[weightyghost]

This episode reminded me of a game I miss - the one where they had to bet on the number of words it would take to describe a show. I found it always hilarious, and kind of hard and if I remember, the audience wasnt told what the answer was so we could play along.

 

I don't like too many of the new games, including the box/balloon, singing the wrong words ones that were this episode. 

[peeayebee]

The answer was actually Village People, I believe, rather than the song. 

Yes. I should have said she was doing the Y from YMCA for The Village People. It was a good clue, but I don't think physical clues should be allowed. By itself, saying "Y" probably wouldn't have done much.

[BobH]

Definitely one of the better episodes of the show. All the celebrities seemed to be happy to be there and good in at least a few of the games, but not immune from sometimes amusing foul-ups, but not usually attributable to sheer stupidity like other celebs. Both civilians were pretty good too, and I liked most of the games, and even those I usually don't like had a few good moments thanks to the personalities of the players.

Great final round, both Greg and Yvette worked well together, and the civilian was pretty good at guessing quickly and passing quickly when he knew it wasn't something he'd get right away, instead of getting hung up on it like some players are.

Edited March 28, 2016 by BobH

[April Bloodgate]

Obviously, they did great in the final round, but it seemed to me like maybe they thought they couldn't say movie titles. For both De Niro and Mike Myers, they described their most famous film rather than just naming it.

[Rinaldo]

I think it was more a matter of the title not immediately coming to mind. Greg did eventually say Raging Bull.

[needschocolate]

I found Pic a Name to be frustrating to play along with.  I need them to show the pictures and not cut away to different camera angles.  Usually, the players would yell out the name before I had time to figure out what all the pictures were of.   

[frogzapper]

 

Take the Hint was fun, though I was getting a little annoyed with Joely using her hands. And Aja actually doing the Y for "YMCA" was a no-no imo.

 

I agree - I thought those would have been violations too! Did Jane ever say that physical gestures are not allowed?

 

On a related note, for games where they're trying to make someone guess a name or word, are they allowed to "sing" clues? (I'm talking about games where singing is not inherently a part of the game, of course.) I watch Craig Ferguson's Celebrity Name Game as well, and I've always wondered if they're not allowed to sing clues on that show too since I've never seen anyone do it, but I think there are many instances where it would have been really helpful.

[Black Knight]

I don't know where else to put this - does anyone know what happened to the 12th episode, Ladies Night? It was promoted at the end of this episode and listed as a recording on my Tivo, but when the night came, it didn't actually air, there's no thread for it here, I don't see a future listing on my Tivo.

 

I'm disappointed because not only do I like this show in general, I was really looking forward to seeing what Bellamy Young is like. I'm a big fan of hers on Scandal, but I've never seen her as herself, outside the show.

[David Thomas]

Keep meaning to point out that I am one of those people who doesnt watch this tv show (or basically any show cause I dont own a tv) and yet I still enjoy a little one on one TaraJoe time.

Edited April 15, 2016 by David Thomas

[yeswedo]

I don't know where else to put this - does anyone know what happened to the 12th episode, Ladies Night? It was promoted at the end of this episode and listed as a recording on my Tivo, but when the night came, it didn't actually air, there's no thread for it here, I don't see a future listing on my Tivo.

 

I'm disappointed because not only do I like this show in general, I was really looking forward to seeing what Bellamy Young is like. I'm a big fan of hers on Scandal, but I've never seen her as herself, outside the show.

 

No date has been announced yet! Hopefully it will actually air.

[Black Knight]

Thanks, yeswedo. I guess NBC realized how stupid the new timeslot was. Maybe they'll hold the episode over to the next season.

[jhlipton]

I found Pic a Name to be frustrating to play along with.  I need them to show the pictures and not cut away to different camera angles.  Usually, the players would yell out the name before I had time to figure out what all the pictures were of.   

 

Usually the pictures for games like this are shown before the guessing starts and large enough to see.  I have a decent size TV and I couldn't see some of the clues. Booooo.