I Genuinely Believe ‘Pangs’ Is The Funniest Episode Of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ – Junkee

A bear! You made a bear! screams a bedraggled, blood-hungry vampire, riddled with arrows and tied to a chair. Undo it! Undo it! Its from the classic Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode Pangs, and its an inherently funny scene.

Screaming Undo it, undo it in a panicked voice has turned into a staple in my life when the consequences of our actions turn into the metaphorical bear, sometimes all you can do is scream a whole bunch.

Buffy is an inherently quotable show even its most serious episodes (minus The Body I guess) are packed full of memorable quips, and the snappy dialogue the show is known for.

As a result, its sometimes hard to pinpoint the FUNNIEST of all episodes. They all have their moments of good lines, great jokes, hilarious moments.

It seems that the hilarity of a true comedic Buffy episode has to provide a confluence of great witty gags along with high physical comedy and brilliant comedic setup. Theres a lot of scope for humorous setups in the world of Buffy magic gone awry, weird demons, horny ghosts, uncontrollable musicals but the brilliance is that they dont devalue the narrative by being funny. The world is still in danger, even though were having a chuckle.

Theres a bunch of episodes that achieve this combo: Tabula Rasa, where everyone loses their memories, or Band Candy where all the adults revert to their teenage self, or Something Blue which features a sad, blind drunk Giles and a love-drunk Buffy, to name only a few highlights.

But for me, I can never move past the high absurdity, the unexpected farce, and the dark humour of Pangs for one of the funniest episodes of Buffy. Heres why.

Its important to note that this episode has an extremely dicey foundation a bunch of white writers and white characters trying to engage in the ethics of Thanksgiving, and the colonial eradication of Indigenous tribes in the USA. Not funny! Deeply fucked!

Theres a lot to feel very yikes about number one probably being the very deserved criticism about the stereotypical depictions of the Native American rage-spirit characters, and the lack of voice given to literally any Native Americans throughout the ep. Its a bunch of white people bellyaching about some very white guilt.

For the time, it was actually probably pretty progressive, but that obviously doesnt place it above criticism. Highlighting the inherent problems with a holiday as beloved as Thanksgiving was a bold move for a network show in 2000, and the exploring of ANY nuance on that matter on TV extremely not common.

The thing is, I like my evil like I like my men: evil, says Buffy, as she tries to wrestle with her own culpability in celebrating the holiday. You know, straight up, black hat, tie you to the train track, soon my electro-ray will destroy Metropolis bad. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an Indigenous culture.

While Buffy explores her own ethical struggle, the show however does quite firmly place where their own views lie: for one thing, they put Buffy in a black cowboy hat at the beginning of the very same episode, placing her as both coloniser and culpable.

The other example of this is a speech, which has also been criticised, where Spike preaches the idea of getting over the whole moral quandary of Thanksgiving please remember he is a soulless, evil, British vampire. His views are explicitly, fundamentally, meant to be seen as in the wrong.

So a weird foundation to begin a funny episode upon, but there we go.

Like many Buffy episodes, the second half of this episode is weighted with the most action, in this case when the Chumash spirit rustles up a bunch of demons, and attacks Giles Thanksgiving dinner.

But before we get to this scene, the episode just keeps stacking farcical elements into the mix: a syphilis-ridden Xander, a starving, chip-neutered Spike, and most absurd, a jealous, semi-stealthy Angel.

Angels whole reason for being there is very difficult to understand if you dont watch Angel/ dont remember that theyre aggressively trying to cross-promote the two shows. But for some reason, he decides to keep himself hidden from Buffy, which gives the episode the insanely funny air of a high melodrama. Hes behind you! you basically feel like saying.

Buffy is always fairly self aware too, so by the third secret, not-so-secret encounter, you get this beautiful interaction.

Willow:Angel? I saw him too.Giles:Thats not terribly stealthy of him.Willow:I think hes lost his edge.

You also get one of the most enjoyable recurring gags in the episode, which is where everyone assumes that because hes acting shifty, hes evil again a major plotline of earlier episodes.

Angel:Im not evil again. Why does everyone think that?Willow:Angels here to protect Buffy.Angel:I havent been evil for a long time!

Some of the funniest gags in this episode are simply characters noticing the inherent absurdity of whats happening around them. Consequences are funny.

Now that we have this farcical blend of ingredients, this weird soup of stupid stuff, we get one of the strangest action sequences in the entire Buffyverse a slapstick fight scene.

Its LITERALLY slapstick we have people running in and out of different doors and windows, Angel popping out of nowhere to help, but always remaining out of sight, Spike tied up to a chair, bristling with arrows, making sarcastic quips, STI sick Xander and Anya fighting with pots and pans, and a running commentary on ethics and colonialism.

And above all, a bear. You made a bear, undo it, undo it. A perfect line that corresponds with a big stupid funny farcical moment.

And the brilliant thing is that this isnt a funny glitch, a stupid episode that disappears into nowhere this is the first step on Spikes long road to redemption, that wouldnt have kicked off without this precise set of circumstances, the beginning of the (frankly upsetting) romance between Xander and Anya, that wouldnt have happened without his mind-bending syphilis, even the first intimations that Willows fun new hobby had dark consequences.

You made a bear!

Buffy The Vampire Slayer is currently streaming on Stan.

Patrick Lenton is the Editor of Junkee. He tweets @patricklenton.

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I Genuinely Believe 'Pangs' Is The Funniest Episode Of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' - Junkee

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero