This week’s Muromi-san episode felt a lot like a deliberate homage, taking themes from a number of older, well-established comedies and building them into a fun episode about irrational specism.

First of all, I got serious Polar Bear Cafe vibes from the scene before Muromi showed up, when the dolphins were high-fiving and chilling out after the seaworld show. Though dolphins sharing some post-work chatter not quite on the level of a panda getting paid part-time to be a panda, it was a fun tidbit of *ahem* water cooler conversation.

Did you catch the Bills game last night, Steve?

The references to workplace-based surreal comedies didn’t even end there, as the lazy boyfriend from 200 million years in the past was cast as none other than Astro Fighter Sunred’s Antkiller, the chain-smoking kaijin responsible for the funniest non-Vamp skit in said show. He fit the role of deadbeat ex-boyfriend uncannily well, so much so that my gut got busted harder than Muromi busted those dolphin spines.

Seriously, though: *ow*

Beyond the clever referencing, this episode continued the trend of the last two weeks with a good mix of high-energy humor from Muromi and low-key chill humor from the rest of the cast, with just the right amount of weirded-out straight man from Takuro. I seriously cracked up when she went for the spine the second time. Sometimes, slapstick is all you need to make a plotline work.