Party Down Season 3's Most Hilarious Moments, Ranked
Are we having fun yet? If you've started watching the newest season of the cult hit comedy series "Party Down" then the answer is probably yes. Fans of the original series know that "Party Down" is a hilarious and underrated gem of a show created by John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd that ran for two seasons from 2009 to 2010. This series starred some huge names in comedy including Jane Lynch, Adam Scott, and Lizzy Caplan to name a few. Interestingly, many of these actors would go on from "Party Down" to do the things that they're now famous for, such as "Parks and Recreation" and "Glee."
"Party Down" is centered around the lives of struggling actors, writers, and entrepreneurs in Los Angeles who make a living in the catering business. Each episode of the series takes place during a different catering event where the core cast of characters serve people who are usually just as ridiculous as they are. In the first two seasons, the story mainly follows the escapades of Henry Pollard (Adam Scott) as he plays the straight man opposite the wackier characters like Ron Donald (Ken Marino), Kyle Bradway (Ryan Hansen), Roman DeBeers (Martin Starr), and Constance Carmell (Jane Lynch).
Despite becoming a cult comedy, the original run of "Party Down" didn't get very good ratings and was canceled after losing its two biggest stars to competing shows (via Slashfilm). But the fandom lived on, hoping that someday they'd see these beloved characters return to their small screens. Luckily, this loyalty was finally rewarded since the show is back for a third season, bringing back almost everyone from the original cast. With the gang reunited after nearly a decade, we're happy to report that the show lives up to its gut-busting reputation by being funnier than ever before. Read on to learn about "Party Down" Season 3's most hilarious moments, ranked.
10. The COVID ending [Ep.1]
For most people, the COVID pandemic is something we'd all rather forget about if we can help it. While it's still far from being completely over, the whole experience is something that has mostly been avoided by contemporary entertainment due to its association with uncomfortable memories of lockdown and sickness. Yet, one of the absolute funniest jokes in the entire 3rd season of "Party Down" relies completely on a reference to that period of time.
The first episode of Season 3 is called "Kyle Bradway is Nitromancer" which picks up where the previous season left off nearly 10 years ago. Party Down catering is tasked with throwing a celebration for former employee Kyle Bradway as he's about to play a superhero called Nitromancer. The episode touches on what everyone's been up to in the interim but hints at big things to come for characters like Ron, who now owns Party Down and hopes to continue growing the business. Every single character interaction and comedic tension explodes in the final moments before the episode ends as Henry glances over towards a television reporting on the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic. It perfectly sets up the rest of Season 3 by showing just how unlucky these characters are, and how much their ambitions will be foiled by the global pandemic that uproots everyone's lives.
9. Ron's broken finger [Ep.1]
"Kyle Bradway Is Nitromancer" comes right out of the gate with some of the funniest moments in the entire season. It's important for a show like this to assure audiences that they'll be getting more of what they loved about the older seasons while bringing in new, exciting changes to keep them engaged. One of the best examples of this is the entire plotline involving Ron's broken finger throughout Episode 1.
Midway through the episode, it becomes clear that Ron messed up bigtime in his bid to buy Party Down from its current management. He is down roughly $10,000 and, as a result, becomes enraged enough to smash his own head against a table. Later, during a prolonged conversation with Henry and new addition Evie Adler (Jennifer Garner), Ron realizes that he's apparently broken his finger. When Ron holds up his hilariously broken pinky to the camera where it's literally bent at an insanely painful-looking angle, he only responds with an "oh" and reassures his horrified friends that this happens pretty often. "Party Down" takes this joke to the extreme by later having Ron blow the chance to get a rich celebrity to give him money by forgetting about his finger during a handshake and, unsurprisingly, reeling in intense pain before hitting the floor. It's hard to deny just how important Ken Marino's performance as Ron is to "Party Down" since his clueless, pathetic, and overbearing antics make him still one of the funniest characters on the show.
8. Sting-based sting operation [Ep.4]
"KSGY-95 Prizewinner's Luau" is the 4th episode of "Party Down" Season 3, and it takes the caterers to a seemingly normal event attended by men who think they've won a contest to see multi-Grammy-winning adult contemporary singer Sting. Things get more complicated when almost the entire Party Down staff decides to trip on magic mushrooms while working since this seems like a pretty low-stakes gig compared to their usual clientele. Yet, Roman has a particularly paranoid trip ... or does he? He's the first one to realize something strange really is happening at this luau.
After being grabbed by some of the patrons and staff, Roman is taken into a secret tent that houses a police operation going on behind the scenes of the event. The cops tell Roman that this entire event is actually a sting operation designed to lure in deadbeat dads with outstanding child support warrants. This genuinely laugh-out-loud reveal is punctuated by how much one of the officers is proud of his double entendre. He hammers this home by saying, "They're not going to a Sting concert. They're going to a sting! Get it?" before laughing hysterically. Here we have yet another absurd moment of humor where shrooms inspire Roman to question his reality while these goofy cops orchestrate an overly elaborate sting.
7. Constance's criminal history [Ep.2]
Picking up months after the end of Episode 1, the 2nd episode of "Party Down" Season 3 follows our favorite band of caterers as they re-acclimate to the end of COVID quarantine and return to work. All of the characters have returned to work at Party Down out of desperation, a need for cash, and the pandemic destroying their personal lives. Henry, Kyle, and Constance have all been dragged back into the fold in one way or another. (The only original cast member absent from this reunion is Lizzy Caplan's character of Casey Klein, who is only mentioned).
One of the new additions to the "Party Down" team is Tyrel Jackson Williams as Sackson, an air-headed content creator who is constantly trying to earn online fame by posting while working. Few of the other characters understand or respect his style of achieving fame, but he nonetheless outdoes his old-school co-workers with viral success. During one particularly hilarious scene in Episode 2, titled "Jack Botty's Delayed Post-Pandemic Surprise Party," Sackson asks Constance for advice regarding doing things that are generally seen as "against the rules." In response, Constance goes into detail regarding some crimes she committed at one point in a misguided attempt to get a film role. She says, "On the day of the shoot Nells, my drug dealer, and I dressed up as cops and arrested Deb [an actor competing for the same role] for possession of one kilo of cocaine that Nells had planted in her car. Then we handcuffed her to a radiator at a warehouse downtown while I took her I.D. and sashayed right onto the set!" This monologue feels like it totally could've been ad-libbed by Jane Lynch because it's so unexpected and out of pocket.
6. Kyle gets canceled [Ep.1]
"Party Down" has never been afraid to touch on contemporary issues with tongue-in-cheek humor, so it's no surprise that they come right out of the gate with jokes about celebrities getting canceled for their uncool behavior. In Episode 1, the entire party is centered around former caterer Kyle finally getting his big break as a superhero in this world's version of the MCU as a character called Nitromancer. Unfortunately for him, something he did in the past catches up with right around the same time as his big celebration.
While everyone is catching up during this reunion, Kyle is informed that an old video has surfaced of him singing a song called "My Struggle" with his band from years ago. Unfortunately, nobody explained to him the negative connotations with that phrase being associated with infamous fascist dictator Adolf Hitler and his evil autobiography of the same name. As a result, Kyle quickly gets canceled by social media, dropped by his agent, and loses his role as Nitromancer by the episode's end. It is hilarious to see how quickly everything falls apart for Kyle, who's even more arrogant than usual throughout this episode. This moment is made even funnier when it's revealed who leaked this video online — Kyle's old bandmate Miles, played by "Cabin in the Woods" star Fran Kranz, devilishly posted the clip in order to punish his former friend for leaving the band in the first place.
5. Nick Offerman's Hitler speech [Ep.3]
Having recently received well-deserved praise for his touching, complex, and heartbreaking role as Bill in HBO's "The Last of Us," Nick Offerman is equally known as a powerhouse comedic performer. He's become deeply associated with the iconic role of Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" where he played a gruff libertarian who deeply despises the government to his core. Perhaps because of this, the creators of "Party Down" brought him in for the perfect role to satirize that kind of right-wing person in today's world.
The 3rd episode of "Party Down" Season 3 is titled "First Annual PI2A Symposium" and is centered around the catering of an alt-right group's gathering, accurately described by Roman as a cluster of Nazis. One of the funniest moments in the episode comes from Nick Offerman's character, named Dermott, a wealthy and influential figure in conservatism who is introduced making an incendiary speech about how Hitler's Germany "doesn't sound so bad." Offerman's character is in hysterical bad taste throughout the episode by insisting on talking about Hitler during his speech at a supposedly "reasonable" right-wing event. His performance as this fascist character is a pinpoint-accurate parody of conservative talking heads who say outrageous things for clout.
4. Roman's stolen Hyundai [Ep.4]
Part of the plot in "KSGY-95 Prizewinner's Luau" is that a man named Jeff Daniels ("no relation," as they say in the episode) is a wanted man due to his substantial amount of unpaid child support. Since he's part of the reason Roman finally gets over his writer's block, he decides to give Jeff a tip to help him avoid jail time. The payoff to this storyline is incredibly funny because of the way it backfires on Roman for doing something he thinks is nice.
Early on in Episode 4, the show sets up that Roman is finally able to afford a new car and incessantly brags about his cool Hyundai Sonata. Later on, when he helps Jeff escape, it turns out that Jeff stole that same Hyundai and completely totaled it in his attempt to flee from the law. This leads to a laugh-out-loud moment where Roman returns to the handicapped spot where parked his car and begs the officers to tell him if the stolen car was a Hyundai Sonata (which he incorrectly pronounces as "Heeundai" rather than "Hyundai"). When the car is finally returned to him during a mid-credits' scene, it's completely ruined, which causes Roman to laugh like a madman at his misfortune.
3. Ron's food poisoning [Ep.5]
Out of all the characters in "Party Down," Ron Donald is the only one trying to keep things together by being an overbearing but well-meaning leader. In Season 3, Ron is co-owner of Party Down alongside Constance, and runs the day-to-day operations at each venue. However, since he is such a total moron, Ron routinely gets himself into ridiculous situations and jeopardizes the company.
In Season 3, Episode 5, titled "Once Upon a Time 'Proms Away' Prom-otional Event," Ron gets food poisoning from eating urchins that've been sitting in a hot car for way too long thanks to the carelessness of a new addition to the cast, Chef Lucy (played by Zoë Chao). The remainder of the episode follows Ron as he struggles to suppress his worsening sickness while keeping the party going. This culminates into an outrageous moment of comedic Zen when Ron is forced to release his bowels in a kitchen pot in full view of everyone, forcing Constance to take over operations for the night.
2. Henry's fake crying [Ep.3]
"Party Down" isn't just all poop jokes and social satire — it also has an actual story about people struggling to feel as though they're where they want to be in life. By Season 3, all the main characters of the show are even bigger losers than they were 10 years ago, and the show isn't afraid to point that out. Henry Pollard is the prime example of this since he is forced to return to catering when teaching high school English isn't enough to pay the bills anymore.
Towards the end of "First Annual PI2A Symposium," Henry's dissatisfaction with life seemingly comes to a head when the leader of the alt-right group who hired Party Down is unwilling to pay the bill for their services in front of Henry's students and new love interest, Evie. This causes Henry to break down into hard, bitter tears as he explains how screwed up his life has become and how much he needs that money. As he says, "You're looking a common man right in the eyes, right now, and you're f****** him over!" it becomes clear that this could be a moment of actual emotional weight from a character down on his luck. This whole thing is subverted at the last second when Henry reveals he was acting the whole time in order to show his students how useful playing pretend can be. It's an impressive bait and switch.
1. A former child star's drunken speech [Ep 2]
When it comes to the culture of Hollywood, there's an assumed belief that child stars grow up to have complicated personal lives filled with trouble. This has been propagated by real-life examples of performers like Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes who began their careers as child actors but developed heartbreaking mental, emotional, and even substance abuse problems in their adulthoods. Since "Party Down" is a show poking fun at relevant aspects of popular culture, one of the funniest moments in Season 3 relates to a former child actor coming to terms with her trauma.
In Episode 2, "Jack Botty's Delayed Post-Pandemic Surprise Party," one of the characters introduced is the mistress of superhero actor Jack Botty (James Marsden) named Tandy (played by Marisol Sacramento). Tandy is a former child actor with issues, and most of her appearance in the episode is spent talking to Lydia Dunfree (Megan Mullally) who is concerned about her own former child star of a daughter. This leads to a hilarious moment where Tandy, clearly drunk, makes a very public apology to Jack's wife for her part in her husband's infidelity and completely ruins the party as a result. Her blunt cluelessness in saying, "Evie, I'm sorry I didn't consider your feelings when I was hooking up with Jack," makes it a standout moment of comedy.