After an episode of Osomatsu-san that was both typical and atypical at the same time (if that makes any sense) – and the best of the season – we’re back on more usual ground this week.  That applies both to tone and quality, which means what we get is pretty madcap but with enough pathos to give it some bite, and a few big laughs mixed in with a machine-gun attack of gags that connect at a pretty high rate.

• First off, it’s “President Dekapan” – and the meaning behind this one could hardly be more obvious.
• That button thing…  I could totally see that happening.  Problem is, I don’t see anyone currently in the White House with as much sense as Totty.
• Licking buttons, getting spanked by magazines…  We’re in roughly similar territory here.
• The ventriloquism bit wasn’t a bit connect with me, though any Iyami is better than no Iyami.
• The best part of this bit was the oil baron who randomly shows up and throws down a wad of about a million Yen…
• It’s about time we had a Valentine chapter on Osomatsu-san.  Given that no holiday shows off the pathetic as pathetic more, it’s astonishing it hasn’t happened sooner.
• I know I’m a Totty partisan, but that whole sequence with the beauty masks had me rolling on the floor.  That’s so Todomatsu.
• “Boys Cherry” magazine… Oy.
• What was Mom thinking as all this happened – was it sympathy?  Horror?  Plain old shame and disappointment?
• “You can’t have my cat” was the biggest laugh of the ep for me.
• Poor Totty – even with the boys throwing Valentine’s Day, he still has to give himself chocolate.  These guys suck as big brothers.
• Finally, taking revenge on the cacao bean crop in Côte d’Ivoire…  I admit I didn’t see that one coming.