It's Men's Cooking Week on Tool Time, and while Tim prefers the kind of meal you get out of a can, Al is a self-proclaimed classically trained chef who has some pretty good ideas of how to combine foods and make a tasty dish. Not wanting to be outdone, Tim swears he can do the same, so they'll cap off the week with Tim and Al entering their own manly concoctions into a Tool Time cook-off. At home, Wilson is preparing to go on stage before an entire coffeehouse full of talented artists at Wayne State University. He plans to tell his life story and act out all the misadventures he's had all over the world. He should fit right in, because that place was full of eccentric people, however, as Wilson is a bit of a kooky eccentric, these people are borderline psychotic. Tim, Jill and the boys take their seats as the first act begins, promising to be some life-affirming poetry, but it's just some emo bitch saying "die!" over and over. Next, Ramblin' Andy serenades the crowd with a ditty he'd wrote about harvesting time around the country. Then, a bunch of students perform pantomime underneath a cloth to symbolize trying to get out of the womb. Yeah, this is quite an insightful art show...if you're high. Finally, it's Wilson's turn at bat. He tells his life's story, through many changes of costume and props. As odd as his performance was, it was still better than the acts before him, and anybody with half a brain would realize that.
Turns out a critic at the campus newspaper has only three quarters of a brain, because he loved the bag dancers and the "die" poem, but he despised Wilson's performance. The critic goes on to say that he thinks Wilson is completely out of touch with reality and that he should get off his "mountain top" and live life like the rest of us. Well obviously this so-called "critic" has zero taste, so I doubt Wilson would take such a frivolous review seriously. Quite the opposite, he took the review's words to heart and decided he should stop living the eccentric primitive intellectual lifestyle, and be more like Tim. He gives himself a complete makeover: buying bulk bags of pork rinds and toilet paper, as opposed to making his own, and he's even bought a big-screen TV. So while that's going on, it's time for the Fool Time cook-off...and I strongly urge you not to eat during this scene. They've got an impartial judge to determine who the superior cook is, Al or Tim, and who better than the man who will eat anything, as long as it's free, Benny Baroni. Al may be the superior cook when it comes to food, but Tim's got a special smoothie planned: Lima bean. He adds a little baking soda to the mix and... yeah, it explodes. I'm shaking my head in dismay. Back at Wilson's, he's invited Tim, Harry and Benny over to watch the big game, but for some reason he feels compelled to block the TV and ramble on about the snacks he's serving while the guys are trying to watch the game. Finally tiring of his anecdotes, Harry and Benny bail. Wilson sinks into a funk about how he'll never be one of the guys. See, it wasn't enough for that critic to slam Wilson's performance, he also slammed Wilson himself. Tim gives him a few words of wisdom, telling him how he has run across some pretty scathing reviews for his performances on Tool Time (can't imagine why), but he gets through it by remembering what Sammy Davis Jr. said, "I gotta be me." So Wilson decides to go back to the way he used to be, ridding his house of all those modern gadgets he bought, except for some strange device he'd never seen before or has any idea how it functions: an answering machine.
Not only does this episode show discrepancies in continuity, since prior to this Wilson not only knew what a phone was, but he once remarked about crushing cans against his head, but here in Wilson's World, he acts like someone who became frozen in a primeval world only to get thawed out in the '90s. The jokes aren't very funny, and as we've seen from past Wilson based episodes, it's hard to do things with him because he keeps hiding his face. I think this would've been a good opportunity to break away from that gag for one episode. He's trying to change, right? Be like a whole new guy? Let's see what he looks like, and then when he changes back, he can go back to hiding his face. The makers of this show had a real face-hiding fetish. This script feels like it would've been more appropriate as an episode of The Simpsons. Replace Wilson with Ned Flanders and see him try to act like Homer and the guys. It would've been much funnier. Bottom line, Wilson's World is dull, unfunny, misconceived, and a groaner from beginning to end, but I'll still give props to Earl Hindman for the fine acting job he pulled off.
Turns out a critic at the campus newspaper has only three quarters of a brain, because he loved the bag dancers and the "die" poem, but he despised Wilson's performance. The critic goes on to say that he thinks Wilson is completely out of touch with reality and that he should get off his "mountain top" and live life like the rest of us. Well obviously this so-called "critic" has zero taste, so I doubt Wilson would take such a frivolous review seriously. Quite the opposite, he took the review's words to heart and decided he should stop living the eccentric primitive intellectual lifestyle, and be more like Tim. He gives himself a complete makeover: buying bulk bags of pork rinds and toilet paper, as opposed to making his own, and he's even bought a big-screen TV. So while that's going on, it's time for the Fool Time cook-off...and I strongly urge you not to eat during this scene. They've got an impartial judge to determine who the superior cook is, Al or Tim, and who better than the man who will eat anything, as long as it's free, Benny Baroni. Al may be the superior cook when it comes to food, but Tim's got a special smoothie planned: Lima bean. He adds a little baking soda to the mix and... yeah, it explodes. I'm shaking my head in dismay. Back at Wilson's, he's invited Tim, Harry and Benny over to watch the big game, but for some reason he feels compelled to block the TV and ramble on about the snacks he's serving while the guys are trying to watch the game. Finally tiring of his anecdotes, Harry and Benny bail. Wilson sinks into a funk about how he'll never be one of the guys. See, it wasn't enough for that critic to slam Wilson's performance, he also slammed Wilson himself. Tim gives him a few words of wisdom, telling him how he has run across some pretty scathing reviews for his performances on Tool Time (can't imagine why), but he gets through it by remembering what Sammy Davis Jr. said, "I gotta be me." So Wilson decides to go back to the way he used to be, ridding his house of all those modern gadgets he bought, except for some strange device he'd never seen before or has any idea how it functions: an answering machine.
Not only does this episode show discrepancies in continuity, since prior to this Wilson not only knew what a phone was, but he once remarked about crushing cans against his head, but here in Wilson's World, he acts like someone who became frozen in a primeval world only to get thawed out in the '90s. The jokes aren't very funny, and as we've seen from past Wilson based episodes, it's hard to do things with him because he keeps hiding his face. I think this would've been a good opportunity to break away from that gag for one episode. He's trying to change, right? Be like a whole new guy? Let's see what he looks like, and then when he changes back, he can go back to hiding his face. The makers of this show had a real face-hiding fetish. This script feels like it would've been more appropriate as an episode of The Simpsons. Replace Wilson with Ned Flanders and see him try to act like Homer and the guys. It would've been much funnier. Bottom line, Wilson's World is dull, unfunny, misconceived, and a groaner from beginning to end, but I'll still give props to Earl Hindman for the fine acting job he pulled off.
