Fun

88 Reasons We Love Psych

 For years, my friend Dawnn would talk endlessly about the show Psych. She would quote it, laugh by herself thinking about it, and shoot me one of her famous "You're dead to me" looks whenever I questioned her love-verging-on-obsession.  But one of the most underrated traits in a friend is the ability to be an enabler, and so in order to understand my darling friend's lunacy, I started to watch the show. One episode in, and I was hooked. I started to quote the show, started laughing to myself when I thought of certain scenes, and became pretty excited about the prospect of stalking seeing  James Roday at this summer's Comic-Con.  And so, on this Valentine's Day, here is our love letter (or love list, if you want to get technical) to Psych, written over yummy food and hours of inappropriately loud laughter. Shawn and Gus would be so proud.

1. Like Your High School Reunion But Infinitely Less Painful - For a certain generation, the show is full of 80's and 90's nostalgia. Episodes have revolved around "Twin Peaks," The Lost Boys, the entire John Hughes oeuvre, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Karate Kid, Friday the 13th, Tears for Fears, Michael Jackson . . . the list goes on and on. Watching the show makes you feel like you're back in 9th grade, having deep conversations with your friends about why Keith was so in love with Amanda Jones when Watts was right in front of him the whole time.

2. Isn't That What's Her/His Name? - Part of the nostalgia comes from the casting. Guest stars recreate the personas that made them so famous the first time around. Case in point: Sherilyn Fenn (as an oversexed librarian in the episode "Dual Spires," the Twin Peaks parody), Carey Elwes (as a dapper art thief that brings to mind Wesley from The Princess Bride), and Ralph Macchio (as a wimpy police officer). I could go on and on... but I won't.

3. Clever, Clever, Clever - Here's the thing. Even the titles make me laugh. Out loud. When Dawn and I were going through the list, we couldn't decide which ones to include. But in the end, the ones that made the cut were the ones that kind of hinted at the story itself, the ones that were so pop-culture fantastic, or the ones that were flat out ridiculous: "There Might Be Blood,""Shawn and Gus of the Dead," "Shawn Interrupted," Indiana Shawn and the Temple of the Kinda Crappy, Rusty Old Dagger," "Spellingg Bee," "Lights, Camera . . . Homicidio." I literally giggled while typing this list.

4. Awesome Aliases - Shawn calls his best friend everything but his name. This is ridiculous and maybe only funny to the people who watch it, but it's our list and so it makes it.

5. Wait For Iiiiiiiiiit!  - Again, I realize this may only make Dawnn and I laugh (and people who watch the show), but we find ourselves quoting lines from the show ALL THE TIME. One of our favorites is Shawn's excuse for mispronouncing things: "I've heard it both ways." My favorite might be the best pick up line of all time: "Heard about Pluto? That's messed up, right?" There are more. Trust me.

6. Don't Be a . . . - Feel free to use these with the naysayers in your life.

7. Malarkey, Tomfoolery, and Shenanigans - Any show that uses these words in pretty regular rotation is just... perfect.

8. Foodies- Shawn and Gus think about food constantly. They talk about food constantly. They bond over food. And, just like me and my friends, I can see them planning what they are having for dinner while they are eating lunch. Some of the food mentionables include Pollo Loco, Panda Express, Del Taco, japadogs, churros, and the Psych original recipe fries quatro queso dos fritos.

9. Awesome Stuff You Never Knew Existed - This Christmas, I wanted to add to Dawnn's growing collection of Psych merchandise (friend = enabler, remember?) I found a pineapple pillow, a Psych pen, and customized pencils from Etsy that have some of Gus's more memorable aliases. Um, check out the awesome bobbleheads, magic eight ball in the show's signature color, and the pineapple stress ball. She might have a problem.

10. And those pineapples- Every show has hidden pineapples. It's silly, but sometimes looking for these pineapples happens in the most inappropriate settings. While watching The Descendants, Dawnn and I both giggled and pointed at a ceramic pineapple. Never mind that this was happening during the scene when George Clooney was finally telling people the news that his wife was never going to wake up from her coma. Yay pineapples!

11. James Roday- Finally, what's a love letter without admitting a bit of a crush? 

New episodes (#89) start February 29. 

~m~ and ~d~