Because you can keep a viewing device on your bookshelf.
In the most recent episode, “The Fresh Princ-ipal,” the “B” story involves the eponymous hero, suddenly being unable to flip hamburgers in his shop after his friend and frequent customer, Teddy, asks about his technique.
Bob’s wife, Linda, asks “What’s going on? Bob, what did you do to those burgers?
Bob: I don’t know. I was fine and then Tedy started asking me those stupid questions and got me…
Teddy: Not stupid…
Bob: …thinking about it and now I can’t flip a burger.
Linda: No, no, no. Teddy, don’t ask Bob questions. His brain’s not built for that. When I met him, he could tie a tie. Then I asked him to show me how and he couldn’t tie a tie for five years.
Later on, after multiple attempts at flipping a burger fail and the pressure builds…
Teddy: Bob, I think I know what this is. You’ve got the yips.
Linda: Yips? What are yips?
Teddy: They’re a mental block that pro athletes get. Like that baseball catcher who got it in his head and couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher. He had to walk it back while everyone booed.
Linda: Flip yips!
Bob: Flipping burgers is literally the only thing I’m good at!
Linda: Teddy, what do those sports guys with their yips do to get better?
Teddy: Oh, there’s all kinds of therapies. They change their grip, do breathing exercises, hypnosis. But mostly they retire in shame because none of that stuff works.
Bob: Oh, crap.
This will bring to mind Major Leaguer II, in which catcher rookie catcher Rube Baker finds himself unable to perform this standard function. He found the cure in reading factoids about Playboy’s Playmate of the Month.
It also reminded me of the NY Mets Mackey Sasser, who suffered from a similar malady, although in his case, it was an unfortunate ritual of tapping the ball in his mitt several times before returning it to the originator, something that led to a lot of stolen bases by the opposition.
Back to Bob’s. At this point, his nemesis, Jimmy Pesto, owner of a more successful pizzeria across the street, pops in for what appears to be a semi-regular razzing. Linda lets slip that Bob is suffering from the yips and Jimmy takes great pleasure in the dilemma: “Bob’s got yips! Like that catcher I used to boo. Hilarious!”
Bob keeps trying, with no success. Until…
Bob: Lin, I figured it out! Come see!
Linda: Oh, thank God.
Teddy: Yay, Bobby!
Bob: It’s just a little bit different. I slide the spatula under the burger, like normal.
Linda: Sure, right.
Bob: Then I bring in the second spatula…
Linda: Second spatula?
Bob: And I kind of push it from one to the other. Then I rest for a sec. Then I turn the handle of both spatulas… Delicate…Ta-da! What do you think?
Linda: It makes me feel sorry for you.
Teddy: It’s kinda the burger man equivalent of walking the ball back to the pitcher, right?
At which point Bob totally loses it.
Bob: You think I don’t know that, Teddy! Something’s wrong with my brain! It’s a very simple task and I’m not even close! I’m broken, and you did this! You did this, Teddy!!
Later in the episode, Teddy comes back to the store to invoke yet another baseball pop culture icon.
Teddy: I think I got it!
Linda: What, Teddy?
Teddy: All Bob can think of is how he’s going to mess up the burger. So he does. He needs something else to fill his brain. Like that baseball movie with Kevin Costner.
Linda: Oh, yeah, Bill Durham.
Bob: Bull.
Teddy: Don’t say that until you hear the idea, Bob.
Bob: No, the mo.. the char.. oh, forget it.
Teddy: So not Bill Durham, the other guy, the pitcher, was crazy wild. So to take his mind off it, that lady gave him her underwear.
Linda: Bob’s not wearing my underwear. I got ’em stretched out just the way I like it.
Teddy: No, no. You don’t have to wear Linda’s underwear.
Bob: Okay.
Teddy: I’m talking about Jimmy Pesto’s (holding up a pair of Italian-flag designed tighty whities).
Bob: Oh, my God. Wait, how did you get those?
Teddy: I bribed his bartender, Trev, to sneak them out of Jimmy’s gym bag. Now I gotta build Trev a pretty intricate dog house.
Bob: Well, I’m not wearing those either.
Linda: Bob, you gotta try. Put that Pesto in your pants. It’s our only hope.
Bob: (sighing resignedly) Are they clean?
Teddy: (Taking a long sniff) They are not.
A bit later, Jimmy Pesto returns to gloat some more.
Jimmy: So, how’s “Banana Hands” doing? Zoom!
Linda: Show’s over, Jimmy. Bob got yip therapy.
Jimmy: Yeah, right.
Bob: No, Jimmy, I’m back (flipping a burger expertly).
Teddy: Square in the middle of the grill!
Linda: That’s my Bobby.
Jimmy: Fluke.
Linda: Fluke you, Jimmy. Bob’s all better.
Bob: Yes, thanks to you, pal.
Jimmy: Thanks to me.
Bob: You helped me in a very intimate way.
Jimmy: Don’t say “intimate.” Come on.
Bob: You eating? It’s on me. The burgers are on me, I’m not talking about something else being on me. But I could.
Jimmy: Now, you’re being weird. If I wanted weird, I’d listen to Trev tell me about some crazy dog house he’s getting.
Bob: I’ve enjoyed our “brief” time, Jimmy.
Linda: Go back to “underwear” you came from.
Jimmy: Stop saying things I don’t get. I’m leaving. Have fun with your stupid words.
Linda: Bye.
Teddy: Hey, Bob, any way I could get a turn in those things? I gotta fix a roof tomorrow. I could use any help I can get.
Bob: Hmmmm.
Linda; Oh, Bob, let Teddy wear them, he’s gonna do a roof.
Bob: All right, but I want them back.
By the way, baseball was the main thing of a previous episode. Here’s the gist of “The Unnatural” via IMDB: “Gene loses his confidence after playing badly during a baseball game so Linda sends him to a baseball coach.” I may do a deeper dive into that one at some point.
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