The State
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The State was a hilariously anarchic sketch comedy series produced for MTV, written by and starring the members of the comedy troupe of the same name. The group first formed when the eleven members were students at NYU and the show captures that lo-fi, late-night college energy of a group of friends just trying to make each other laugh.
The show is adored by people of a certain age. However, the lag in the release of a DVD set of the show (due to music rights fees) has made it dim a bit into something of a cult show.
That Mitchell & Webb Look
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David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s That Mitchell and Webb Look is a TV adaptation of the radio sketch comedy program That Mitchell and Webb Sound. That program came after the success of That Mitchell and Webb Situation — which was a follow-up from their other sketch series Bruiser.
Look has a deep bench of instant classic sketches that are immensely rewatchable. The success of this series also allowed for the creation of the brilliant Peep Show sitcom, which of course led to the rise of co-creator and writer Jesse Armstrong — who would go on to create Succession. Funny how that works.
Mr. Show with Bob & David
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Though Mr. Show with Bob & David was never able to grow a massive audience (HBO series were still a niche proposition for the TV audience in the mid-90s) it remains hugely influential in the genre and many of its cast members and writing staff would go on to hugely successful careers.
Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are our hosts. They begin each episode addressing the live studio audience before we are swept away in a stream of consciousness where one sketch often logically leads into the other. The episode is held together by common themes and recurring lines of dialogue.
Key and Peele
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Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele met while cast members on MadTV. It’s funny the way that you can always chart how one sketch show led to or directly influenced another. Like NFL coaching trees, the DNA is easily mapped.
Key & Peele ran for five seasons on Comedy Central from 2010 to 2015 and is one of the channel’s biggest hits of the 2010s, though it continues to gain new fans through its popular YouTube channel where a majority of the show’s sketches have been uploaded. The show also has a very strong, confident visual style for the sketches that call for it — no surprise considering Peele has gone on to be one of our best contemporary filmmakers.
I Think You Should Leave
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Created by Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, it’s obvious now that I Think You Should Leave is the logical evolution of the sketch comedy series as TV moves to streaming, but when that first season dropped on Netflix it hit like a freight train.
It is hard to pin the show’s structure down, and that seems to be by design. Sometimes there are recurring sketches or themes throughout an episode, other times the runtime is dominated almost exclusively by one very specific idea. Untethered from time slots or commercial breaks, ITYSL episodes can be exactly what they need to be — perfectly crafted bites of comedy
Chappelle’s Show
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Chappelle’s Show is interesting to reexamine in 2024 considering how much culture has changed, as well as how creator Dave Chappelle himself has evolved as a polarizing public figure. Still, the show remains one of the funniest, most culturally impactful television shows despite its brief run on Comedy Central. It unflinchingly satirized American culture, specifically racial politics, and wasn’t afraid to get incredibly dark when that’s what the moment called for.
Few shows of the early 2000s have the staying power that Chappelle’s Show does. It completely reshaped the way people think about Rick James, Prince, Charlie Murphy, and, considering the drama around his eventual exit from the show, Dave Chappelle himself.
Saturday Night Live
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The brainchild of Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol, Saturday Night Live first aired in 1975 and for five decades has transformed from a fresh and groundbreaking outlet for edgy sketch comedians into a cultural institution.
SNL has survived for so long by constantly evolving while not changing at all. At this point, the structure has completely calcified, though the humor of the succeeding writers and cast members always manages to find a new audience.
The biggest question going forward is what will the show look like when Lorne Michaels finally steps away. With the 50th season quickly on the horizon one has to imagine that moment is coming sooner rather than later.
The Muppet Show
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Jim Henson was a genius.
The Muppet Show first aired in 1976 and aired for five seasons, ending at the peak of its popularity only because Henson felt it was time for him and his Muppets to move on to something new.
It would have been a unique enough proposition to simply make a variety show starring Muppets as well as numerous celebrity guests, but Henson went a step further. The Muppet Show wasn’t just a variety show, it was also a show about making a variety show. This tension added to the chaotic, absurdist anarchy at the heart of the show that helped it become a beloved series and make The Muppets worldwide household names.
In Living Color
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In Living Color was as important as it was incredibly funny. Keenan Ivory Wayans seems to have created the show directly in response to major criticisms he and others had of Saturday Night Live. Premiering in 1990 on the still young Fox Network, In Living Color would be edgy, more contemporary in its presentation, and, most importantly, feature a cast that was mostly black. The show was also the first time that a major network gave airtime to this flavor of comedy from minority voices.
The show was edgy, and very much of its time. While some sketches have NOT aged well, that’s true of any comedy program that attempts to push the boundaries of mainstream comedy.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
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Though it is not the first sketch comedy show on television or even British television, Monty Python’s Flying Circus serves as a dividing line between every sketch show that came before and every sketch show that’s come since. Though they only produced 45 episodes from 1969 to 1974, the impact of the show is undeniable.
Lorne Michaels himself has noted that he was influenced by the series in the development of Saturday Night Live. You can find the absurdist, stream-of-consciousness DNA of the show’s structure in series all over this list.
Incredibly, despite being well over 50 years old, many of the sketches are just as funny today as they were upon first airing and any would-be sketch comedian should see these as required viewing.
