‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass’ Is An Affable, Off-Color Comedy From the Wet Hot Crew

Any resemblance to The Wizard of Oz, including Gail’s wardrobe of snazzy red shoes, is purely un-coincidental. Gail Daughtry was directed and cowritten by David Wain, a veteran of the comedy troupe The State and also the director of the 2001 cult hit Wet Hot American Summer; Marino, another State and Wet Hot alumnus, is his cowriter. The gags here are loose-limbed and knock-kneed, and there are lots of them: if one doesn’t quite land, you needn’t worry—another will be coming along soon. Some jokes, including a riff on the history of the Wright Brothers, feel vaguely Dada, as if Marino and Wain had spent a long, happy stretch of aimless days drinking coffee and free-associating. And there’s lots of mild raunchiness here, including an over-the-top sex scene rendered in dreamy-silly soft-focus. (Here’s where Hamm and his bathrobe come in.) The whole enterprise glows with friendly, pleasing daffiness.