It was Jon Pertwee, the actor who played the third incarnation of The Doctor who coined the popular saying "It's easy to be silly, but it's difficult to actually be funny". And I cannot think of a show where this phrase applies better to than The X-Files. As great as the show is, comedy and The X-Files has very seldom worked well. One of my favourite pieces of TV of all time is the season 5 episode "Bad Blood", a pitch-black comedy episode with tons of post-absurdist humour and off the wall hilarity mainly due to the episode's "he said she said" nature. But that was a one time deal. Watching Mulder and Scully pratfall their way through this episode was about as painful to watch as you'd expect, and not in the good way. Thank god this was the last comedy episode ever in the series, especially seeing as the dreaded "c" word and The X-Files go together like black oil and vodka
I remember it just as clear as day when the advert for the episode aired on ITV. The plot was threadbare enough and the idea of a satire of Hollywood may have seemed like a good idea on paper, but it was wasted with cheap and tasteless gags that simply just did not work at all. In tact, the bath tub phone call scene is without a doubt one of the worst moments in The X Files history and a testament to just how far the show had fallen in the 2000s. And to top it all off we get a painfully unfunny zombie dance sequence at the very end. In a way I guess this episode was to be expected as much of the episodes surrounding it were just dreadful but back then this made my then-7 year old self feel embarrassed to be a fan of the show. And years later it's still painful to watch, maybe even more so than the first time
I remember it just as clear as day when the advert for the episode aired on ITV. The plot was threadbare enough and the idea of a satire of Hollywood may have seemed like a good idea on paper, but it was wasted with cheap and tasteless gags that simply just did not work at all. In tact, the bath tub phone call scene is without a doubt one of the worst moments in The X Files history and a testament to just how far the show had fallen in the 2000s. And to top it all off we get a painfully unfunny zombie dance sequence at the very end. In a way I guess this episode was to be expected as much of the episodes surrounding it were just dreadful but back then this made my then-7 year old self feel embarrassed to be a fan of the show. And years later it's still painful to watch, maybe even more so than the first time