- Title: Bones – The But In The Joke
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Bones (David Boreanaz) and her team are faced with a unique challenge when a notorious street artist (Jay Paulson) accidentally falls and glues himself to remains of a murder victim while working on his latest billboard. While Booth and Bones start interview suspects including his girlfriend (Stephanie Lemelin) and the man’s boss (Jeff Witzke), Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) and Fisher (Joel David Moore) work on trying to separate the remains of the victim from the artist’s body using a simple jar of peanut butter.
While interviewing the girlfriend, Sweets (John Francis Daley) discovers the victim’s second life as a comedian and practical joker which helps explain both the woman and her brother’s (Adam Cagley) odd reaction to news of the man’s death. The circumstances of the man’s second job reveal three new suspects in a heckling bartender (Joe O’Connor) a pair of fellow comics (Marcus Folmar, Eva Fisher), and the discovery of Fisher’s life as an “underground sensation” at comedy clubs as well.
Sweets and Fisher write a comedy routine and enlist Booth’s help to go undercover at a local open mike night to help draw out the killer. Although their attempt comes up empty, together Angela and Hodgins are able to identify the blunt object used to kill the victim as a ceramic toilet which leads the Jeffersonian team full circle to finally nab their killer. Meanwhile, Angela’s recent traffic ticket and her time spent alone with the street artist forces her to take a hard look at her career choices and helps her reconnect with her artistic soul, although the her impromptu kiss she gives the man does get under her husband’s skin.
Although some of the situations are a little awkward, the scenes with the street artist, Fisher’s dark humor, Angela freeing her artistic spirit, and Booth delivering some awful, awful jokes on stage (which Bones finds hilarious) all work well. It’s an interesting contrast that the reveal of the method of murder and confession of the murderer are in such stark contrast to the lighter feel of much of the episode.