Episode Report Card Lady Lola: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Absolutely Cab-ulous
By Lady Lola | Season 5 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.30.2010
Downstairs, Lemon pays a visit to the editors to get the show's opener. She butters up the curmudgeonly editor Richie (Paul Giamatti) by engaging in conversation about annual visits to Islander hockey fantasy camp and his role as a Confederate soldier in Civil War re-enactments. She pulls out her Julia Roberts laugh, he compliments her cowboy hat, and wham-bam-thank-you-Lemon, he's pushed aside a segment for the Today Show to work on the editing for TGS.
Meanwhile, Tracy hails a cab to get to the hospital. He has no money, but this rare Caucasian cab driver doesn't seem to mind. Once he gets inside, the driver informs Tracy that he's in the Cash Cab and will have to answer trivia questions to win money and reach his destination. Tracy worries he won't fare well (har har) given his top level of education being "middle school in an Exxon station," but he has no alternative, so it's a go.
Back at the studio, Richie drops off Lemon's opening reel for the show, along with a CD of some "authentic" Civil War songs that he warns her not to play around her black friends. Lemon gives him a hug as thanks, and of course he hangs on way too long before taking some of his oddball editor friends back to the seventh floor. Lemon hands Pete the reel. Frank, who's nearby, becomes agitated that Lemon is cheating on Carol with Richie. Apparently, Richie has been talking up their new bond. Jenna tells Lemon belatedly that her new confidence is a double-edged sword. Lemon impulsively tosses out her rockin' cowboy hat, but Pete warns her not to let things with Richie sour, because he'll take it out on TGS. Jenna and Pete urge Lemon to take one for the team, so she salvages her cowboy hat from the trash, flicks off some spaghetti sauce on Pete, and two-steps down the hallway begrudgingly. He screams out behind her that she ruined his shirt: "You know, neighbors who wear my exact size don't die every day!"
We return to the cash cab, where Tracy uses this little gem to figure out the construction date for the Statue of Liberty: "I remember going to the Statue of Liberty centennial, 'cause that year someone had spread a rumor that she was gonna slip outta her toga, and I wanted to see some green boobies. And the Mets had just won the World Series, 'cause that night I was randomly attacked by a Mets fan that I had threw a bottle at. That was 1986. And centennial is a hundred years, because 'centipeding' is having sex with a hundred women. I got it! 1886." Ladies and gentleman, this is how Tracy lives his life. Next up, Tracy easily answers that Shamu is an Orca whale, adding for the host's benefit that an Orca is very difficult to keep in a home aquarium.