You Can't Out-Finkle the Finklemyre

"You Can't Out-Finkle the Finklemyre"
Episode no.	Season 11 Episode 20
Directed by	Ava Zinn
Written by	Melvin Runecraft
Production code	1120
Original air date	January 27, 2023
Guest actors
Kathy Finklemyre as herself Bob Donaldson as himself
Episode chronology
<span /> ← Previous "Back Home Again in Ohio" Next → "Retired and Reeled In"

"You Can't Out-Finkle the Finklemyre" is the twentieth episode of Queen of the Willis' eleventh season. It originally aired on first-run syndication in the United States on January 27, 2023 and the 275th episode of Queen of the Willis and was written by Melvin Runecraft. The episode guest starred Kathy Finklemyre as herself and Bob Donaldson as the himself.

Plot

Driving home after a trip to the dentist, Angie takes the Willis family to an ice cream parlor, where she buys the store's billionth ice cream cone. This results in Angie's appearing on Kathy Finklemyre's TV news talk show The Kathy Finklemyre Show. Kathy is disgusted that she is forced to do a fluff piece instead of an in-depth, intellectually stimulating discussion of the conflict in Russia. During the interview, Angie accidentally knocks Kathy's cup of coffee into her lap, making her swear in pain.

After the commercial break, Kathy apologizes, but is relieved to find that nobody saw her on-air faux pas. However while screening the show at the Fox 11/CBS 40/29 studios, Kendra Kendall and Stephanie Rose sees Kathy's infamous newscast after their shift anchoring CBS 40/29's 11:00 pm newscast, and they get their Fox 11 counterparts Diane Willis, Angela Stroup, Julian Teekerman, and Fanchon Stinger e-mail the Federal Communications Commission about the incident. The next day, while taping for the next broadcast, Kathy finds out that she is under scrutiny for her indiscretion and that Craven Enterprises has been fined a whopping $10 million. Later, Tina Craven calls Kathy, assuring her that her job is safe, but fires her after she finds "meth" in her coffee cup (actually Extra, but Craven does not care because it is the best excuse and best interest to fire her for cause).

The next day, at the Willis' home, Angie finds Kathy Finklemyre sleeping in her car outside the house, after Pamhouser, took her in amid fears that she might kill himself. While watching TV, Ava, Brynn, Tabby, Shushu, and Heather wonders why NoSirGifts Venues can be so conservative while NoSirGifts stations broadcasts sexualized content. Kathy replies that NoSirGifts deliberately airs programs with morally reprehensible content so that they will be fined by the FCC, with the fines being funneled to the Democratic Party. According to Finklemyre, everyone in the entertainment business knows this, but no one is brave enough to report the scam. Pamhouser goads her into blowing the whistle on the scam, using her web camera and uploading the revelation onto YouTube in Ava's garage with Bob Donaldson present. Kathy's subsequent webcast is so successful that Quillsville's Democratic Party members are less than thrilled about Kathy threatening their ill-gotten gains, so Craven, Bill Clinton, Alisan and Karly hatch a plan to stop Kathy.

The next day, Bob and Kathy are confronted by the party members, who offer Kathy her old talk show back with a 50% raise, which Kathy declines, before apologizing to Bob and deciding to retire and move to Detropolis. At home, Brynn complains to Angie that today's media figures have no bravery or integrity. Angie consoles Brynn by telling a horrifying secret that Bob and Kathy told her about NoSirGifts, only for all references to the secret to be reduced with an announcer praising CBS programming. Before the closing credits, Angie tries again to tell NoSirGifts' horrible secret, only to be cut off by the CBS Teleivsion Distribution logo.

Production

This episode, formerly known as "Kathy Gets Kancelled" in 2007, was renamed after being discovered to be a lost episode from 2009 but had no content until the show was rebooted in 2018. The episode was intended to spoof increased fines by the Federal Communications Commission in the wake of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. However, 16 years before the episode aired, Don Imus (who died in 2019) was suspended and subsequently fired for remarks he made on the air about the then American Athletic Conference (now Big Ten Conference as of 2014) Rutgers Univerity women's basketball team, through events closely paralleling the events of this episode.