These pot luck Osomatsu-san short vignette eps haven’t generally been my favorites.  But they do provide a pretty good barometer of where the health of the series is, because there’s nothing for the writing to hide behind.  It’s pure gag comedy, and that’s either funny or it isn’t.  If that was the measure here, this episode more or less aligns with my overall take – the series (and the writers) are pretty tired.  That, I suspect, is why they seem to be doing better with semi-serious material, which requires them to stretch a little rather than keep reinventing the humor again and again.

• The hair skit – as spare as Chibita’s mane.
• The baby skit – see above.
• “Docking” – OK, there were a few funny moments here, but the gag went on way too long.
• Totally didn’t get the point with Iyami and the youkai.  He doesn’t get used all season and that’s what you give him to do?
• The Chibita protein thing, I have to admit I didn’t even really get.  Was it satirizing something specific?  Because otherwise I kind of didn’t see any point to it.
• “Matsuzou’s Job” was amusing if only to hear Inoue Kazuhiko riffing gibberish.  It was so utterly random that it almost worked but again, just a bit too long.
• The A.I. doing Totoko’s voice gag was a little funny, but not exactly sophisticated – you knew where it was going, and it went further than you thought.
• By far the funniest skit of the episode was the “Governor Jyuushimatsu” (of Jyuushimatsu Prefecture) chapter.  This one genuinely made me laugh, right from the intro with Jyuushimatsu riffing on “Governor” with the narrator.  The thing is, if you’ve ever heard Japanese local politicians speak, this was completely realistic.  “Platitudes” doesn’t even begin to cover it.  The capper for me was “James Rodriguez”.