Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The big gamble
By Miss Alli | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 03.24.2004
Music that does not at all infringe on the copyright held by the owners of "Dueling Banjos" plays as we flip back and forth between Troy on the mic and Amy on the mic. At times, they seem to be talking at the same time, which is...really not good. Katrina says that she doesn't think the screaming was so helpful, and they're "missing something." And what specifically does she think they're missing? "Shock value."
Right on cue, doors onto the casino floor open, and a cage holding a white tiger is wheeled out. Everyone in the casino turns to watch, including Nick and Katrina, both of whom look a bit chagrined at this spectacle that is not their own. Nick finds himself with the microphone in his hand as the tiger is wheeled into the vicinity, and he says, "Please direct your attention to the 2003..." His voice trails off. "Well, I can't really beat a tiger," he says, and flips off the mic. Hee. Kwame interviews that "the tiger was fuckin' phenomenal." He compares bringing out the tiger to the psychological lift you get from dunking on the other team in basketball. He also calls it "a very Donald Trump thing to do," which I agree with. Only Trump would have had his name shaved into the tiger's fur. Bill, still in glass-half-empty mode, notes that although the tiger caused a lot of excitement, it also took people away from gambling. He's right, but it would rob from the teams equally, so I'm not sure it really hurts Protégé competitively.
Meanwhile, we get the obligatory "not so fast!" segment in which we are told that things are beginning to go better for Amy's team. They're signing people up, doing much better -- Nick claims that they're running on all cylinders now. Amy bitches about how bad the strategy was of bringing in the tiger. As opposed, I suppose, to all of her wonderful ideas, of which there have been...oh, right. None. "It's guerrilla marketing at its best," Nick says of his team's efforts, "and I think we're gonna win."
After the commercial, we return for the portion of the episode that was apparently directed by David Lean. The music swells grandly. "Dum dum dum dah!" it proclaims. The Trumpicopter lands near the Taj Mahal, and to the blare of trumpets, Trump emerges. He is next seen -- complete with pink tie -- descending the giant escalator in the middle of the casino. They shoot him from below in order to make him look huge. Oh, sorry -- "yooge." Fascinated people in the casino stare. He works a row of people sitting at the tables, just shaking their hands without even looking at them, really. Somehow, having Trump sort of diss you is almost more of an honor than having him pretend to like you, because if he respects you enough to admit he doesn't give a crap about you, you're really getting somewhere. Kwame is in the middle of greeting a woman when Trump arrives, and Kwame turns and comfortably announces him. Trump brings Troy and Bill over, and he reminds everyone that the drawing will be at 10:00 to win the money. Trump next approaches Amy, who bubbles over with excitement -- as usual. He tells her that he's heard that the other team is doing well, and she makes a disparaging remark about the tigers. Trump high-fives her and leaves. I kind of started really hating Amy somewhere around this point. She's just so full of herself. I've never seen anything really resembling a sense of humor or self-awareness...she's not as offensive as some of the other idiot women, but she's certainly not scoring any points with me.