Super Karate Monkey Death Car (NewsRadio episode)
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Super Karate Monkey Death Car was an episode of the show NewsRadio. Mr. James' reads from his newly-re-translated autobiography, while Andrea subjects the staff to polygraph tests.
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[edit] Summary
- Episode No.: 4-4 (57)
- Production No.: 403
- US Airdate: November 04, 1997
- Written by: Josh Lieb
- Directed by: Tom Cherones
- Guest stars: Dave Allen as Lackey, Mark Conley as Pilot, Lauren Graham as Andrea, Zuhair Haddad as Maitre d', Brian Posehn as Fan, Ron Jeremy as Fan, Michael Raysses as Technician
- Recurring characters: Andrea
[edit] Plot
After Mr. James' failed autobiography is translated into Japanese and is a big success in Japan, he has it translated back into English. Andrea makes the staff take lie detector tests. Lisa is worried that her criminal past will cause her to get fired. Matthew pretends to be a waiter.
[edit] Autobiography Plot
Several years earlier, Mr. James had written an autobiography describing his rise to the top of the financial world. The book failed in America, but the Japanese edition was a best-seller. Instead of re-issuing the old book, Mr. James had the Japanese version translated back into English.
Mr. James takes Dave to a book reading at a Books Etc. store in Manhattan. Unfortunately, Mr. James has not seen any advance copies of the book, and is surprised to discover that the title has been changed from Jimmy James: Capitalist Liontamer to Jimmy James: Macho Business Donkey Wrestler. And, as Dave has predicted, quipping at one point, "it works so well for VCR instruction manuals," the rest of the content is similarly garbled and mistranslated.
Needless to say, the book reading is a disaster. Mr. James starts reading a chapter dealing with his rise to riches on Wall Street, and utters these immortal lines:
"I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street. Many days no business comes to my hut. Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute, for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo..."- (Mr. James then turns the page)
"...dung."
After taking a few awkward questions from one of the three remaining audience members, an unnamed fan played by Brian Posehn, Mr. James takes Dave to Japan for a sushi dinner at the Tokyo Airport. Once there, fans show up outside the restaurant, waving signs and even holding aloft a giant papier mache model of his head.
[edit] Polygraph Plot
Andrea announces to the staff that today, everyone is going to take a "really fun test". Joe manages to steal a copy of the test and brings it to Dave. It turns out that Joe had stolen the questions for a polygraph test (which Dave repeatedly refers to as a lie detector test, to the annoyance of Joe and Lisa).
The staff secretly meets at a French restaurant to discuss the polygraph test. Matthew shows up dressed as a waiter and pretends to take their orders (he brings Bill a free steak and doesn't even bring water for the rest of the staff). Dave starts reading the questions; when he starts reading ones asking about criminal pasts, Lisa reveals that she had committed a number of crimes, such as:
- breaking into a library in order to study for a history test, because her copy of The Federalist Papers was abridged and the library had the complete edition;
- stealing a car so that she would not be late to take her SATs;
- breaking into a post office (a federal offense) because it was a long weekend and she still had not received any college acceptance letters.
Lisa said that she never went to a real jail, just "Juvie" (Juvenile Hall). This really turns Bill on. After a discussion on whether Lisa can "beat the test," Dave informs everyone that not only does Lisa have to lie to save her job, everyone else has to lie as well, as the next question asks if, to the best of their knowledge, any other employee has committed any crimes. Matthew then reveals that he is not a waiter; he'd been following them on their lunch hour, and pretended to be their waiter so he could hang out with them. The WNYX staff leaves the restaurant, and an infuriated Maitre d' fires Matthew. Matthew informs the Maitre d' that he can't be fired, since he doesn't work there--and then offers his resume.
Dave, Lisa and Beth start plotting to save Lisa's job.
Beth starts chewing an herbal gum that she purchased in Chinatown that dulls her nerve endings. She ends up burning her hand in the coffee maker.
When Andrea interrogates Dave, he admits to having shoplifted when he was a kid, while the polygraph detects as a lie. Andrea and Mr. James agree that Dave is "just the cutest thing," and Andrea lets Mr. James take him to the book signing (see above plot).
After Lisa gets hooked up to the polygraph, she blurts out her past crimes. However, instead of firing Lisa, Andrea thanks her for her "really super honesty," excuses the polygraph technician, and shares a criminal past of her own: -- namely arson, she burned down her ex-boyfriend's house.
[edit] Trivia
- In the episode "Negotiation" from season two, Lisa mentions that her brother Greg had invented a computer game, called "Super Karate Monkey Death Car", that he sold to Microsoft.
- In the DVD commentary for this episode, it is revealed that the inspiration for Mr. James' book came from a series of articles in Spy Magazine, where something is translated through a number of languages before it is rendered back into English.
- Brian Posehn plays the audience member at Mr. James' book signing who asks questions on the excerpts read. He appears later in the season as a member of Dave's a capella singing group, Chock Full O' Notes, in "Chock".
- If one looks carefully, they can see legendary porn star Ron Jeremy in the crowd of Jimmy James's book reading.
