Laura tells Katz she wants to buy a used car, and Katz says he can help her out by asking the dealer the right questions ("How much is this car? How much is that car?"). Stan suggests that Katz might not be a very good negotiator. Meanwhile, Ben is upset at Katz over an argument they allegedly had that morning, in which Ben wanted to go to the Mall of America, and Katz said no. To further Ben's disappointment, Katz tells him they can't go to the movies the next night because he's going with Laura to buy the car. ("I don't even know who I'm talking to anymore!" says Ben, leading to a discussion on nametags.) Ben calls Laura and says his dad had mentioned the car thing: "I kind of laughed, had a sip of my tea, and thought I should go." So they both go with Laura and help her test-drive a car. Katz can't drive a stick, Ben gets his fat butt stuck in the backseat, and Laura ditches them in a neighborhood they don't know. Turns out Katz had told the dealer about features he wasn't aware of, thus raising the price. Ben brings up the Mall of America again. Also in this episode, Ben and Todd discuss a half-off sale, and Ben says the video store "is like a petri dish" in terms of bacteria and germs. NOTES: Oddly, Ben doesn't appear in this episode until after the first commercial.

• Greg Behrendt: Has a picture of a toaster that can make sandwiches; went to a symphony and saw "the bad boy of cello," a guy who had long hair and bobbed his head like he was in Metallica; sometimes wants to wreck stuff in his house but can't because it belongs to him; Axl Rose once threw a piano through the window and into the pool; the best Greg could do would be to "throw a harmonica in the sink"; thinks that "mints aren't supposed to make you cry"; had ants in his apartment that were self-actualized and didn't conform to regular ant protocol; he was inspired by this until he realized they were just stupid.
• Ian Bagg: Puts on full hockey gear in the office ("I never know when I'm gonna get pulled into a game"); friend's dog mounted his shoulder and wouldn't look at him while he was doing it; wants to marry a woman who already has a kid so that if he asks a question he can't answer, he can say, "Go ask your dad, you little bastard"; went to Mt. Rushmore and found it boring: "No hookers, no gambling"; plucked a nose hair and his eyes watered, knees buckled, fell unconscious.

Review:

Pretty light-weight episode, really. The way the Mall of America keeps coming up is amusing, and different from the never-let-go-of-it manner in which topics of conversation are usually handled on this show. The whole car fiasco fails to live up to its potential; as usual, it's the discussion afterward that is funniest, in which Katz acknowledges that the only one who lost in the deal was Laura. GRADE: C+

Stumble It!