Episode Summary: According To Jim; Season II, Episode 15, “The Smell of Success”
“The Smell of Success” opens with the titular character, Jim, in the living room of his home, accompanied by his portly brother-in-law Andy, watching a VHS tape of the Chicago Bears’ 1986 Super Bowl victory. Jim’s wife Cheryl, a pretty blonde, enters the room and chastises her husband and brother for their choice of pastimes, prompting Andy to ignore her and suggest they move on to the next tape in their queue, the Chicago Bulls’ victory over the Phoenix Suns in the 1992-1993 NBA finals. Cheryl rolls her eyes and the studio audience responds with laughter.
Cheryl’s sister Dana enters the room carrying Jim and Cheryl’s infant son, Jonathan. The adults engage in conversation about Jim’s upcoming commitment to speak at a “Career Day” event at he and Cheryl’s daughter Gracie’s school, which is then interrupted by flatulence, courtesy of Jonathan. Jim and Andy are delighted by this development, with Jim displaying a great deal of pride in his young son, remarking that in his experience, most children are not capable of producing such robust flatus until at least the age of six. Despite Jim and Andy’s enthusiasm, Cheryl and Dana are underwhelmed. Jonathan then releases another fart and Jim and Andy erupt in joyous laughter all over again, although this time around Jim has been struck with inspiration, suggesting that he and Andy produced a farting doll. Andy immediately aggrees and the scene ends with the two men deciding to produce a prototype.
The next scene opens on what is presumably the following morning, where we find Cheryl preparing breakfast for Gracie, who expresses a lack of interest in Jim’s career as a general contractor and tells Cheryl that she does not want her father speaking at career day, fearing that her classmates will be rendered bored by her father’s presentation. Cheryl halfheartedly assures Gracie that such will not be the case and Gracie leaves the room, presumably headed for school. Jim and Andy then enter the kitchen looking pleased with themselves and Andy begins a wordy presentation comparing himself and Jim to Thomas Edison before Jim cuts him off and presents Cheryl with a prototype of their farting doll, a roughly foot-tall Caucasian construction worker named “Gassy Gus.” When its stomach is depressed Gassy Gus utters a recording of Jim’s voice making a flatulence related double entendre (for example, “Is there a gas leak in the building?”) and emitting a loud fart sound. He and Andy are equally delighted as they had been the previous afternoon, while Cheryl remains unimpressed, referring to her husband and brother as “goofballs.” Dana then enters the kitchen and expresses interest in Gassy Gus, going so far as to offer to present the toy to “a group of investors” that she knows “who invest in new ideas and products.” Jim and Andy are overjoyed by the prospect of becoming rich and the scene concludes with Cheryl rolling her eyes at what she believes to be her family’s foolhardiness.
We next see Dana, clad in a professional-looking pants suit, presenting Gassy Gus to a boardroom full of investors sitting around a conference table. Her presentation includes several charts and graphs and the investors listen intently. We then see Jim and Andy sitting in chairs in the corner of the boardroom, looking bored and expressing confusion over Dana’s presentation. The two decide that they will intervene and Andy stands up and begins delivering the same schpiel about Thomas Edison that he attempted to deliver to Cheryl earlier in the episode, only to again be interrupted by Jim, who explains to the investors that what Gassy Gus boils down to is the fundamental principal that “farting is funny” and that Gassy Gus will make them all very rich. Dana is horrified by Jim’s brusque language, but the studio audience loves it, rewarding him with raucous laughter.
After two or three seconds of heavy Chicago blues buffer music and an establishing shot of Jim’s house, we see Cheryl having a tea party with Gracie and Gracie’s older sister, Ruth. Jim and Andy enter the room and exchange sarcastic comments with Cheryl about the investors’ impressions of Gassy Gus. Jim remarks that they are awaiting word about the outcome of the meeting, however, Dana then bursts into the room and informs them that the investors were ecstatic about Gassy Gus and were going to begin producing the toy immediately. Jim, Andy and Dana are thrilled by this development and celebrate with a champagne toast. Cheryl then attempts to join in on the celebration, offering homemade mini pizzas, but is greeted coldly by the other three, who refuse to look past Cheryl’s initial naysaying. Dejected, Cheryl exits the room as Jim, Andy and Dana bask in the glory of their achievement and discuss their plans for what they expect to be a huge payday.
Cut to the following day, where Jim, Andy and Cheryl are at Career Day at Gracie’s elementary school, standing in the back of the classroom listening to a firefighter regale the children with his tales of heroism, specifically mentioning one fire emergency in which he rescued a kitten. Jim and Andy are clearly jealous of the firefighter’s grasp on the children’s attention and compensate by berating him, however, the firefighter then pulls a live kitten out of his jacket and Andy is placated, requesting to “play with the kitty.” Gracie’s teacher announces that it is Jim’s turn to speak and he approaches the front of the room. He begins describing his job as a general contractor but notices he is struggling to captivate his young audience. Cheryl suggests that he show the children blueprints for a building and Jim obliges, however, when he reaches into his bag to grab said blueprints, the Gassy Gus prototype falls out and emits its idiosyncratic fart sound, much to the delight of Gracie and her classmates. Capitalizing on his newfound position of the center of attention, Jim regales the children with the origins of his new career as an inventor and allows them to take turns playing with Gus. However, Jim’s glory proves fleeting as a young man enters the room and serves Jim and Andy with subpoenas informing them that they are being sued for copyright infringement on a similar farting doll that was already patented by a different company.
Dejected, Jim, Andy and Dana reconvene in Jim and Cheryl’s living room, where Cheryl passive-aggressively issues her kin a “told-you-so.” To make matters worse, Jim reveals that he had cancelled their relationship with the investors and had funded Gassy Gus’ production with funds culled from all he and Cheryl, Andy and Dana’s personal bank accounts in order to avoid having to pay the investors’ their share of the potential profits. Cheryl is furious that Jim had spent thousands of the family’s dollars without consulting her, while Andy and Dana are dismayed to learn that Jim had additionally embezzled much of their money and spent it on tickets to a Chicago Bulls game. Jim and Cheryl adjourn to the garage where, among boxes containing hundreds of Gassy Gus dolls, Jim accuses Cheryl of not supporting him, ultimately leaving the garage in a huff. The scene concludes with Cheryl accidentally knocking over a box of Gus dolls, inciting a barrage of fart sounds.
Cut to later that evening, when Jim returns to his home to find Dana and Cheryl quite drunk and Cheryl sitting in the kitchen injecting doughnuts with various spirits. When Jim inquires about her doings, she mentions that Jim has previously suggested liquor-filled doughnuts as a prospective invention and she wanted to demonstrate her support for his ideas. The couple reconciles and Cheryl runs out of the room to vomit.
~FIN
