*One season 6 spoiler that is evidently also a spoiler from the spinoff Human Resources.*
Big Mouth is good at taking a simple, relatable premise and mining all kinds of great material from it. This is that sort of episode.
Stuck waiting for the final two players to finish an endless game of dodgeball in gym class, the kids get turned onto the Rice Purity Test, an online quiz that asks what “dirty” things they have or haven’t done. As everyone takes the test, virtually everyone is insecure about their score, each for a different reason.
Again, this is a premise that’s so simple it’s nearly a bottle episode, and the show finds lots of different angles to explore the idea of giving a number to a kid’s “sluttiness” or “prudishness.” After Devin declares her score the perfect and only acceptable result, that leaves Jessi, who only scored a few numbers lower, defending herself against accusations that she’s a slut. Nick, who isn’t very experienced, is embarrassed to share his high “purity” score.
Andrew’s proud of his score, shrugging off other kids’ protests that it puts him in pervert territory. But when he finds out that his girlfriend Bernie has the exact same score, he freaks. This is a pitch-perfect, terrible line: “Oh, no judgment! I just prefer to think of you as a meadow of fresh-fallen snow and not […] dirty street slush.” Meanwhile, Missy isn’t sure what to do when she realizes Elijah’s score is much higher than hers, not wanting him to think she’s a slut.
Some awesome lines in this one. I love Connie reminding Jessi that she has masturbated with an inanimate object (an electric toothbrush.) She exclaims, “See? You love putting stuff down there. Watch out, stuff! Jessi’s coming for you!” And we learn that, rather than a Hormone Monster, Elijah has Jesus weighing in on his dilemmas. When Elijah asks Him about dancing “without leaving room for Jesus,” He responds, “I didn’t even make that rule up! These white people made it up ‘cause they couldn’t dance and they wanted everybody to suffer.”
Even though Matthew is present for this main plotline, he’s not really a part of it. We see him and Jay both taking the quiz, and everyone is grossed out when Jay has a seemingly impossibly-high score for a middle schooler, but we don’t hear anything about Matthew’s or see his reaction to anybody else’s.
Instead, he’s given a subplot with Maury, who’s heavily pregnant and wants Matthew to plan his baby shower (he started the season pregnant—evidently, it’s a storyline from Human Resources, which I haven’t watched.) Despite his best efforts to decline, Matthew is roped in, leading to him actively shooing away Jay’s attempt to draw him back into the main plotline. “Babe, I’m on the phone with a real twat at Marie Callender’s,” he says. “Can this wait?” (Side note: Andrew Rannells’s delivery of this ridiculous line is stupendous.)
One thing I do like about this side plot is that Matthew is forced to team up with Rick to plan the shower, and even though Rick is easily my least favorite Hormone Monster, I enjoy Matthew’s horrified reaction to him and increasing exasperation. Also, there’s a cute bit where Maury is dishing with the two of them about his baby mama, and Matthew exclaims, “Oh shit, drama!”, to which Rick adds, “Obama!” That one got a laugh out of me.
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