You've got to honor your relationship with your audience - that they sit down because they want to be entertained. And that doesn't mean you can't provoke them and antagonize them and challenge them in the course of the entertainment as long as you keep the entertainment part of the equation alive.
Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.
Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan you just hope for it.