Episode Title: 'Chung'
Writer: Sean Gray & Will Smith
Director: Armando Iannucci
Vice President, Selina Meyer's (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) foot-in-mouth press tour continues and this time around the offended party is a Chinese American governor and war hero with oval office aspirations.
While things are looking good for the Veep's "Clean Jobs Task Force," the spurned Senator Doyle tells Amy (Anna Chlumsky) and Dan (Reid Scott) he's "withdrawing" when the three meet up at Governor Chung's book signing. What that means they're not really sure, but all is made clear when Dan later learns that Doyle is pulling his support of Filibuster reform.
But the news of Doyle's departure is just a minor headache compared to Selina's comments about Governor Chung during a visit to "Meet the Press." The on-camera portion of Selina's appearance went off without a hitch. But while the cameras may have stopped rolling, Selina's mic was still on, recording her comments about the "half-Chinese" Chung not being an American. Ooof!
While Chung flashes his purple heart at a press conference, Selina's latest slip-up is momentarily brushed aside, thanks to a happy accident involving a crane crashing onto a ship. Selina tries to remain somber as Jonah (Timothy Simons) informs the Veep and her team that their presence is needed at the hospital. But if there was ever a time Selina could use two fatalities and twenty-four injuries, it's now.
The Veep makes her way through the halls of the hospital, stopping to touch the victims as if she has healing powers and praising the hospital's staff along the way. The guffaws don't stop there however, as Selina refers to the visit as a "sad privilege" when meeting the hospital administrator and brings up the "unseasonably warm" weather to a mother awaiting word on her son's condition.
After making an impassioned statement about bringing the full wrath of the White House down on the party responsible for the accident, a news report about the Chung fiasco comes over the waiting room TV, turning a positive PR moment into an impromptu anti-immigration rally, as one man points out "it's the white house, not the yella house!"
While Selina tries to smooth things over with Chung, Dan suggests she forget Doyle and go after the support of an Arizona Senator with a strong anti-immigration stance. The pair meet with Senator O'Brien (Hey, it's Buddy Garrity from "Friday Nigh Lights," Brad Leland!) and Amy easily wins him over by cracking jokes about Cuban cigars, to Dan's horror.
As another disastrous day at the office comes to a close, Selina engages in a little phone sex with her boyfriend, giving Mike a much unwanted earful. Dan and Amy return with the good news about O'Brien, but the Veep's already checked out for the day after "getting f***ed every which way," according to Sue.
There's not much I can say about "Veep" because I can't stop laughing and "Chung" took the comedy to a hilariously new low, with Selina's glee over a horrific crane accident. Just when I think this show can't get any funnier, Selina makes another potentially career-ending comic faux pas and her team scrambles to clean up the mess, stumbling over each other in the process. If only our own real life politicians were this funny. Oh wait…
