I love Cougar Town.  Please hear me out.  I know, the title sucks.  No one is arguing that.  But other than the shit title, what do you really know about the show?  You might say, “Well, its about cougars.”  This is the point where steam comes out of my ears, I slap you in the face with a fish and yell, “NO ITS NOT YOU STUPID FACE. YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING.” Then I apologize and get you the alcoholic beverage of your choice.

Now, a visual aid:

Really, this show is not in any way about cougars- the cat kind or the lady kind.  It is about the same thing most good comedies are about- funny people hanging out and drinking beverages.  I mean, the whole point of this website is about drinking beer on a porch.  Just replace beer with red wine and porch with a kitchen counter and you have Cougar Town.  

And they play this game called Penny Can that is the most fun and economical of games.  All you need is a coffee can and some pennies (quarters are for rich people) and you are good to go.  All you have to do it toss pennies at the can.  If you make it in, everyone says, “PENNY CAN!”  Who knew it was so easy to have fun?  The best part: You only need one hand to play so your other hand if free to hold your beer. Or, as we can see around the :43 mark, your other hand is also free to hold a toaster.

What really makes a comedy is not its premise, its the characters.  What would Community be without Troy and Abed?  Or Parks and Recreation without Ron Swanson?  Laurie, played by Busy Philips, is basically Kim Kelley from Freaks and Geeks grown up and living in Florida with a new affinity for neon and large plastic jewlery.  Christa Miller’s Ellie is just as mean as Jordan was on Scrubs and just as entertaining.  Honestly, Courtney Cox’s character Jules is more of a Joey than a Monica, but you can’t win them all.  But seriously, give this show a chance.  It is not at all what you think it is.  Unless you think its a hilarious show about some friends who like wine, in which case it is exactly what you think it is.  So please get over your title prejudice and give the show a chance.  Watch it Tuesdays at 10pm on TBS.  If you watch it and don’t like it, at least you now have an informed opinion you can actually support with evidence instead of “The title is dumb.”

I shall leave you with a slightly altered selection from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
So Cougar Town would, were it not Cougar Town call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which it owes
Without that title.”