First Impressions: Knights of Prosperity

Rarely does anything live up to the hype, most recently we saw this with the dismal performance of internet failure Snakes on a Plane. And after making fans wait for over fifteen years, there is no way Chinese Democracy can possibly live up to the hype even if it turns out to be the best Guns N Roses album. But finally after eight months of waiting to see it, Let’s Rob Mick Jagger (also known as Knights of Prosperity) more than lived up to my expectation. And what a pedigree the show has most importantly that it’s from the guys who brought us the second best show this decade, Ed which means it’s being produced by Worldwide Pants, David Letterman’s production company. (All pictures courtesy of ABC)

Then on the other side of the camera you have Donal Logue, one of the funniest men comedic actors around but recently has been stuck in roles that don’t fully represent his talents, but his janitorial turned crime boss Eugene is right up his alley. No annoying kids or improbably hot wife here. And his crew is all top notch too including standout Rockefeller Butts because, well, his name is Rockefeller Butts. His Barry White like delivery makes all his lines automatically funny. The other stand out in the cast, for an entirely different reason, is the gun toting token hot chick who quickly goes to the top of the hottest token hot chick on television today. I don’t really care that her accent is so thick that I can’t understand haft the things she says. Any bets on which other Knight will get lucky with her first (my money’s on the intern)?

Other Knights include Eugene’s toilet cleaning buddy Squatch who apparently isn’t too fond of foreigners (token hot chick excluded) which leads us to the Indian taxi cab driver Gourishanker who is more than happy to throw insults back to Squatch. But it’s Gourishanker who recruits the naive intern who thinks the crew is working on the Jimmy Fallon starring Taxi 2: Step on It. Now I don’t really like doing lists except for award shows but there were a lot of great moments from the first episode I just had to share them:


- “Wisdom? Who do you think I am, Morgan Freeman?”

- The generous of the Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache throughout the episode

- Eugene’s grand entrance

- Everyone’s reaction to Eugene’s “Let’s rob Mick Jagger” proposition

- “I don’t get it, why Mick Jagger? Why not some other celebrity like Alex Trebeck, Willem Defoe, James Wonder Beek, or Jeff Conoway?” “Who?” “Kenicki”

- “Whoa, whoa, Gory-what did-you-just-call-him? Yeah I’m just gonna call you Gary”

- “Issue one, that name sucks.” And there own ideas for their name

- Being criminals with bright orange shirts (win one here)

- Donating to charities like Feline Aides.

- The intern listening to Meredith Brooks lone hit

- “Then why didn’t you think of it Pocahontas” and basically every racial slur Gary and Squatch hurl at each other

- Mick’s indoor penalty kicks

- Squatch’s photo hat.

- Gary’s favorite part of a woman

- Bridges of Madison Country: Wasn’t that a movie?

- The token hot chick’s back story in Colombia

- The guys’ response to the token hot chick’s asking to join the gang: “Mi Casa Su Casa Baby”

- Instead of changing out his janitorial clothes, Eugene puts duct tape over his name

- The token hot chick packing heat. A lot of heat. “What are you, criminals or children?”

- “If either of you come near my Maria again I will humpty dumpy you punks”

- The reveal of Mick’s security while the musak version of Start Me Up plays


course it looks like Mick won’t be the other target as there will be plenty of guests for the Knights to rob including Bob Saget Ray Romano, Sally Jessie Raphael and… Screech? And of course with Letterman involved that means Regis Philbin, along with Kelly Ripa, may be targets. Hopefully Letterman himself or sidekick Paul Shaffer (who wrote the theme song) will eventually become targets. But if the original target Mick Jagger doesn’t get nominated for Best Guest Star in a Comedy Series at next year’s Emmys that will be the biggest sham ever.

Verdict: Now this is must see TV. It may not be as funny as My Name Is Earl but it’s by far the funniest new show this season. Surely it will take a while for them to rob Mick Jagger because even though they were smart enough to steal the key they weren’t smart enough to steal the key to the storage locker. Knights of Prosperity airs Wednesdays at 9:00 on ABC but you can watch an encore of the first episode tonight at 9:00 or you can watch the most recent episodes at ABC.com.