Chip Baskets is TVs weirdest rodeo clown

The episodic descriptions for “Baskets” are as quirky as FX’s low-key comedy series.

“Christine tries a Denver omelette in Denver,” read an episode description from last season. And there’s this from the show’s Jan. 23 Season 3 opener: “Chip learns how to transfer a call.”

But series co-creator/executive producer Jonathan Krisel says that “Baskets,” starring Zach Galifianakis — as both French-trained rodeo clown Chip Baskets and his smarmy, identical-twin brother, Dale — does indeed follow a narrative arc. And, Krisel says, that arc is mostly pegged to Chip and Dale’s good-natured (and long-suffering) mother, Christine Baskets (Emmy winner Louie Anderson).

“Last season was sort of the awakening of Christine … and this season she bought a business to rescue the family, and I think a lot of families do things like that,” he says. “This season it’s all about how this business [a rodeo] is going to save the family. When money is involved people act crazy and families disintegrate.

“This season is also an exploration of Christine in such a cowboy man’s world,” he says. “This is her first attempt, in her 60s, to take on being the owner of a business. It’s a treacherous world for her out there and it’s fun to see her navigate that and [to] be a mom.

“As we went on through Season 1 and into Season 2, we started to realize that [Christine] is the most relatable character,” Krisel says. “Even when she’s doing things that are, kind of, well, not mean, her intentions are always good. She’s always chastising her kids: ‘You love clown school? I paid for it.’ I love watching her be good, bad and make mistakes. She’s so vulnerable.”

Season 3 also finds the recalcitrant Chip frustrated with the state of his clowning career as he’s stuck performing menial office tasks for his boss, Dale. “It’s something we explore midway through this season, and a lot of it is Christine saying to Chip, ‘Are you trying that hard? Are you doing the bare minimum?’ Because a lot of his clowning is just going through the motions,” says Krisel. “But if you’re really going to be an artist … it’s not like you just step into it and you’re good at it. You have to practice. So this season is Christine saying, ‘If you’re going to go for it, let’s go for it.’ It’s only when some of his peers say the same thing that he’s able to hear it.”

One “Baskets” mystery that apparently won’t be solved this season is why Chip’s monotone-voiced friend Martha (Martha Kelly) still wears the green cast she’s sported since the show’s first episode (it’s never been explained). “There’s a little reference to it this season and we’ll get to it, eventually,” Krisel says. “To me, when I thought of this character of Martha, I worked with this woman who was always having carpal tunnel problems and always had a cast on. It’s not like Martha was snowboarding. It’s something that went into making Martha Martha. Do we want to explain it? Then it’s so concrete. Maybe it’s a spiritual part of her.”

“Baskets” 10 p.m. Tuesday on FX

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