The Greatest Comedy Sketches of All-Time

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

In no order, this thread shall be used for noting and detailing the greatest comedy sketches of all time. As determined by ME, your friendly neighborhood system operator. OK? All right? We ready? I will do one a day until I forget, and then one a day again.

Let's start. Again. This is not in order.

Up first. "Save Cornbob" by I Think You Should Leave

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Why the living fuck isn't the Youtube expander working. CHRIST

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Day's sketch. The Story of Everest by Mr. Show with Bob & David

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So you're doing the curating here. Can we submit our favorites for possible inclusion? You know the one I want on here, but I assume you'll get to it eventually.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This is going to sound weird and I don't mean it to. A text description of a sketch if I have not heard of it would be great. And then I can try to find a good copy of it on Youtube and so forth. It is my desire to start having something to say about the sketches when presented eventually!! Yes, the one you are thinking of would be here shortly. It seems that one has a stable video link and the Everest one does not (that appears to be a .flv file someone uploaded, the other version is on Vimeo as part of the entire episode I think) so I wanted to ensure everyone had a chance to s--

CRASH

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I trust you are a fan of all of my favorites. I will leave you to it, and if I'm angry about anything once the feature is done, I will offer suggestions.

Thank you for your time.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Today's entry is Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days' by Monty Python's Flying Circus.



I want to say some words about this after you all spend the minute and enjoy it.


The central "effect" of the sketch is one that I have since seen many times over the ... god, what, 4, 5 decades since Monty Python did this one. I can't say if they did the effect first, but they sure were the first ones to ever do it where I saw it.

Monty Python and Dave Allen At Large were two shows that appeared on PBS at like 10PM and 10:30PM on Saturday nights when I was growing up. My father loved Dave Allen, and therefore Mike and I loved him to. Where I think a lot of people were getting exposure to George Carlin, I really didn't until his stuff was all over the internet. Dave Allen was a personal hero in my first 12 or 13 or years or whatever. Here was a guy that was just sitting on a chair with a glass of whiskey telling jokes that maybe we didn't entirely get. Monty Python, in comparison, well there was a lot going on with their sketches. I don't think I appreciated them to the same extent.

That is! Until I saw the sketch linked above, Salad Days.

It is, in 2023, a silly little thing, cute and forgettable, but ohh did I howl when I saw it, I had simply never seen anything like it. The Kids in the Hall had many sketches where the "effect" comes into play and it will never not crack me up, but the sheer carnage they managed to squeeze into one minute is pretty great.

I can't find a version of the entire sketch, which arguably includes Eric Idle talking about the Sam Peckinpah part. This video does show Eric coming back in afterwards with one of those quotes that, now that I am reminded of it ("Pretty strong meat there from (sniff) Sam Peckinpah") I shall re-add to my list of things to say when I don't know what I should say.



I wanted the first one from them on this list to have all six of them, but what are ya gonna do, Gilliam almost never appeared in a sketch. I am sure we will see the Pythons in this thread again.

[AArdvark]

Monty Python, now we're talking! I remember Salad Days during a rerun on PBS when I was a kid. I scratched my head wondering how a piano lid could do that. (We had a piano) It wasn't funny until I got into my teens. Now it's hysterical!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Is it safe to say that Python is one of your favorite television experiences, Vark?

[AArdvark]

I used to love all television when I was younger. It's like those individually wrapped slices of cheese, they taste great when you're a kid but after a few years you get way, way over them.

Monty Python is one of the greatest sketch comedy troupes of all time! Funny, cause I started with their vinyl albums before I saw them on tv. Actually seeing the Dead Parrot sketch after hearing it a bunch of times was awesome

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Today's sketch is Simon and Hecubus from episode 2 of Season 2 of The Kids in the Hall.



As with Python, I would have loved to have had a sketch where all five of them are in it, but I am desperately trying to not lose Aardvark and Pinback on this journey. Look, maybe Mr. Show has three or ten sketches better than the best MadTV one. That's just life, nobody is being a jerk here. But I would be aghast if I didn't have a KitH one here pretty quickly. I am also trying to avoid sketches that are memes. "These are the Daves I Know" or the I'm Crushing Your Head guy are, in some circles, memes. You don't come here for that.

In this sketch we have Kevin McDonald as the lead. Where I believe that the Kids in the Hall simply wouldn't be "themselves" without Bruce McCulloch - he is the one member of this troupe with nothing remotely approaching an analog in any other; you couldn't see Bruce on another similar show without making it uniquely his - I have always believed the best and funniest member of the team was McDonald. His portrayal of MC Simon Milligan in this initial sketch offers Kevin at his best.

His voice is one that only works for sketch comedy.

LISTEN to him. You couldn't talk like that in any other medium. If you played a video game with someone talking like that you'd refund it, unless you were Ben in which case you would have already refunded it. He doesn't talk like that in the movie they did or when he was on Friends or whatever. The thing I like about what he did here and all of his other shows is that he uses the platform of sketch comedy to talk in a way that wouldn't work anywhere else, and he has a similar way of speaking in most of his other sketches. He is a hero to men with bad voices.

Something that I do that my wife keeps laughing at is to talk in a very high pitched voice intentionally when we are discussing something and it is obvious that I have not thought it through. That is because this man taught me how funny it is. The guy also did a Cameo recording with schtick for my brother after our dad died. I love him. The Kids in the Hall could have their own thread, I don't know if any of the rest of you have watched their stuff, but they were inescapable if you were stuck watching cable television in the 90s. The Canadian 90s scene and what that was like will come later.

Also, Hecubus spoiling the twist of a movie that was IN THEATERS when they performed the sketch was a subconscious inspiration when I spoiled the big reveal of my game Pantomime at the PAX talk I did a decade ago. You're a good man, Dave Foley.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Pawn Shop by Key and Peele

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

"More Cowbell" by Saturday Night Live

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You're signing your name to that one, eh?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Yes. A show that has had like 50 seasons, you can't just pick one but I'll stand behind that one.

I will talk more about Key and Peele and SNL shortly. It has been a long day.

[AArdvark]

I've been watching Key and Peele clips for a while now (but not listening to them). They seem pretty funny. I did listen to the Harry Potter clip and the Identifying Aliens one. Can you post the Niggars clip by Chappelle?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I don't know what that is. I can post this one though.

[AArdvark]

Video removed

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Winner: AARDVARK