On MacGruber, the jokes are more important than the plot -- even if they land 60% of the time

Pajiba

"The plot, such as it is, hardly matters," says Dustin Rowles. "It’s the jokes that matter, and they land a good 60 percent of the time, and the best ones often involve elaborately disgusting sex scenes with Kristen Wiig. It’s one joke stretched beyond its breaking point, but that’s also the point. If you tell the same joke over and over, people will laugh the first time, they might chuckle the second time, they will be increasingly annoyed the next few times before they grow outright angry, and then they will come back around to laughing again the 10th time you tell the joke. MacGruber operates almost entirely in the realm of the 10th time. The cast — Forte and Wiig, in particular — completely commit themselves to the absurdity of it, and therein lies the remaining joy of MacGruber: Watching great comedic actors abandon their dignity in service of a laugh. Sometimes it works. Sometimes, it doesn’t."