First of all, thanks to everybody who submitted weekend discussion thread ideas. I will get to most of them, but this weekend is a natural offshoot of Thursday’s Episode Guide discussion of “Manos.”
For those of you who didn’t read it, with the exception a few deeply disturbed fans, it was the general consensus that “Manos” is not, as one commenter put it, a “bunny slope” episode. Not for newbies, in other words.

Which begs the question: What IS a good episode to use to introduce people to the show?
Before anybody says it, let’s just agree that the winning answer is: “pick almost any short.” The reason: The two-hour length of the show (or 90ish minutes if you’re cutting out or fast-forewarding through the commercials) is one of the things people have to get used to.
My experience is that newbies have a great time with the show for about 45 minutes, their patience starts to wear thin at about 60 and they start to get really antsy at about 70.
To get over that, the movie needs to be visually interesting and yet stupid, the host segments, for the most part, need to be sufficiently wacky and the riffing needs to be strong.

So, let’s not only hear what your favorite introductory short(s) is/are, let’s also hear the full episode you have had the most success with.

As for shorts: I find “Home Economics” and good ol’ Mr. B do well for the Joel era. In the Mike era, I’ve had success with “A Date with Your Family,” and “Last Clear Chance.”
As for full episodes, I noted recently, for a while, it was “Day the Earth Froze.” After the Joel era ended, I had a good deal of success with “Outlaw.” “Girls Town” also has worked well.
As for the Sci-Fi era, I’ve found “Werewolf” and “Puma Man” both do the trick nicely.

What about you?