Parrot Sketch Included: TT's Top 20 Comedy Sketches

[Violentvixen]

Oh wow I didn't consider Simpsons bits at all. Probably for the best as I already had way too long of a list.

This sketch is also a reminder that Jimmy Fallon should never have been allowed to do comedy.​

I'd never noticed until now that he cracks and chews on the drumsticks. I'm kind of surprised this isn't in the top 10, and bummed as I specifically didn't vote for it because I thought enough other people would that it would rank highly whether I did or not. Oh well, glad it's on here at all!

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Oh wow I didn't consider Simpsons bits at all.

I personally wouldn't classify a ton of classic Simpsons scenes as sketches but 22 Short Stories About Springfield is basically the anthology format broken into sketch length bits.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I’m delighted this thread brought Pucnicface to peoples attention because I watched and loved every moment of that show and also completely forgot what it was called

 

[JBear]

Skinner & The Superintendent is an inspired choice and I'm disappointed that I didn't think of it. Divorced from its current place in the culture, it's still funny as hell.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Comedy is so much different than music. Music can be overplayed but it benefits from familiarity while comedy can be hurt by it. And I'm not trying to shit on memification because it's ability to quickly create a touchstone is pretty amazing but it has a habit of being really reductive to it's source, by necessity. Overfamiliarity with comedy can come with a certain detriment and a step back or time away and coming back later can really be a strong reminder of the power of the original.

 

[Adrenaline]

I haven't seen Meet Your Second Wife before but it's quite good. Even the most legendary SNL sketches tend not to have the greatest writing, but that's good stuff.

 

[Issun]

#13
DRIVER'S ED
(I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE)

60 Points, 2 Votes, Highest Vote: Rascally Badger (#1)
​

One notable thing about ITYSL's sketches is how quickly they can go from 0 to ridiculous. Robinson's character here (who is probably the gym teacher at the school who also has to teach driver's ed) knows that the videos he's showing are strange, he knows there's going to be questions and he's just done with it. He's great, and so is the writing, but the real star here (as she is in the other sketches she's appeared in on the show) is Patti Harrison, a huge win for trans representation in comedy, but also incredibly funny regardless. Her account is honestly worth getting on Instagram for, and her standup is wonderfully dark.

I can't know how to hear anymore about tables!

​

 

[Issun]

#12
BABY CRIES
(I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE)

63 Points, 3 Votes, Highest Vote: jpfriction (#9)
​

Where the previous two sketches from this show had another actor either starring or supplementing Tim Robinson's role, in this one, Tim is front and center, so you get to see so many of the idiosyncracies that mark his style. I think this is also a great introductory sketch to see if someone will or will not like the show. Like so many other sketches in ITYSL, this one features Robinson unable to just take the social L and not letting go, only this time he turns out to be right, so it's a little gentler with the discomfort factor, but it also takes a full turn to weirdtown at the end.

Let's slop 'em up!

 

[jpfriction]

I think we can all relate to used to being a slick backed hair sloppy steak eating piece of shit.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I'm worried that the baby thinks people can't change.

 

[Behemoth]

Tables is maybe my favorite ITYSL sketch (but that's like picking my favorite child, assuming I had more than one). I also love the Baby Cries sketch, mostly for the absurdity of the sloppy steaks bit. Speaking of sloppy steaks, they remind me a little of the milk steaks concept from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I haven't watched most of that show, but this scene is my favorite, and almost functions as a sketch by itself:

 

[Kirin]

Nah fuck Chappelle he should just have been disqualified.

Extremely fair. My partner and I threw together a dozen votes in literally a few minutes between getting back in the country and when the list was due, and we’d watched the sketch recently at a Prince-themed party. And it is a good sketch. But yeah, there’s no excusing Chapelle’s recent behavior.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I might write more, but I think Driver's Ed is perfect, even the part where Robinson obviously flubs a line.

 

[Issun]

Extremely fair. My partner and I threw together a dozen votes in literally a few minutes between getting back in the country and when the list was due, and we’d watched the sketch recently at a Prince-themed party. And it is a good sketch. But yeah, there’s no excusing Chapelle’s recent behavior.

I was the other vote for Prince. I thought about it, and as I've said before, whether you are willing to enjoy a problematic artist's work, especially from before they proved to be problematic is a personal choice (for instance, Marilyn Manson's behavior is so execrable and beyond redemption that I can no longer listen to his music). So yeah, madhair, your point is perfectly valid, but I think it is also perfectly fair to watch sketches from his show if one is so inclined, preferably in a way that does not give him money.

I also think that white people flubbed it with Chapelle by going after him directly, instead of elevating black trans voices in hopes that he might listen to them (or at least nullify his argument that trans people are a way for whites to come at him), because white people have to be at the center of everything, but that's a whole other conversation I'd be happy to have in a different thread.

 

[madhair60]

I’m not gonna go on about it because I don’t wanna derail, I just feel like it’s a bad look to praise Chappelle even with caveats, given that he has apparently now dedicated his life to transphobia. That, to me, basically writes him the fuck off, including anything he has done previously. I’m not attacking anyone here or calling anyone transphobic; if I thought that was the case I would just have deleted my account. I understand the reasoning/justification, I just can’t enjoy any of his work for any reason anymore.

Like, I can’t watch Father Ted - a hilarious fucking show! - knowing that one of its creators is sociopathic career transphobe Graham Linehan.

 

[Issun]

I’m not gonna go on about it because I don’t wanna derail, I just feel like it’s a bad look to praise Chappelle even with caveats, given that he has apparently now dedicated his life to transphobia. That, to me, basically writes him the fuck off, including anything he has done previously. I’m not attacking anyone here or calling anyone transphobic; if I thought that was the case I would just have deleted my account. I understand the reasoning/justification, I just can’t enjoy any of his work for any reason anymore.

Like, I can’t watch Father Ted - a hilarious fucking show! - knowing that one of its creators is sociopathic career transphobe Graham Linehan.

Extremely fair. And a good place to end the conversation (in this thread, at least), too. Today's sketches will be up in the usual timeframe.

 

[Issun]

#11
PRE-TAPED CALL-IN SHOW
(MR. SHOW)

64 Points, 2 Votes, Highest Vote: Johnny Unusual (#3)​

Nowadays, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk are household names, but 25 years ago they were scrappy comics doing a sketch show on HBO that would become a cult classic. This sketch mainly features Cross, but they were both fully formed talents at this point, well before Arrested Development and Breaking Bad respectively made them famous. This sketch fits the mold of the show, which is about how dumb people can be, no matter their IQ. From eating broken glass to Ronnie Dobbs, they ran with the concept and still didn't exhaust it. This was TT's choice to represent Mr. Show, though, because watching David Cross get frustrated is evergreen.

I can't help but think it would have gone a little better if somebody had actually called in.

 

[Issun]

#10
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?
(I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE)

64 Points, 2 Votes, Highest Vote: jpfriction (#2)
​

Has this ever happened to you? You bought a house, it was not disclosed to you that there was a termite infestation in the walls and moldings, so you have to take it upon yourself to call your own termite extermination company, but when the guys show up they immediately ask to use your bathroom, then for over two hours they take turns going in and out of there, taking huge mud-pies and over flushing? Then they go in there together, and you hear a bunch of scrounging around, and then you here a bunch of yelling, and then one of them is standing in the bathroom doorway shouting at you that his friend’s foot was stuck in the toilet, and he says, “help him, you gotta help him!” And then you go in there to help him,he just pulls it out easily and laughs because his foot was stuck. It wasn’t stuck at all, he was just faking it. And then they get really serious and say “It’s Turbo Time!” And then they both start running around the house as fast as they can and jumping over the couches. But when you try to jump in they yell at you and they say, “YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE TURBO TEAM! DON’T RUN! YOU DON’T RUN WITH US! WE’RE THE ONES THAT RUN! UNTIL YOU’RE PART OF THIS TURBO TEAM, WALK SLOWLY!” So you go lay down to be by yourself and read your art books, but then the next day you went into the bathroom, and it looked like the hole in your toilet had shrunk. And you said “How can that be? There’s no way they could’ve shrunk the toilet.” But then you saw in the trash, a receipt for Home Depot for a toilet the exact same size as yours, but with a joke hole that’s just for farts! They replaced your real toilet with a fart toilet, and now you can’t take a dump in your house because your toilet can’t suck them down, and you feel sick to your stomach! Has that ever happened to you?!

Call me right now please!

 

[Behemoth]

I don't know why, but the the little detail of "so you go lay down to be by yourself and read your art books" kills me.

 

[jpfriction]

Would it be too spoilerly to ask how the points are tabulated? Scratching my head to understand how two votes adds up to more than 50 points for lists that aren’t more than 25 entries long.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The top entry is 35 points the next 34 points and so on.

 

[Issun]

Would it be too spoilerly to ask how the points are tabulated? Scratching my head to understand how two votes adds up to more than 50 points for lists that aren’t more than 25 entries long.

Submitted lists are scored at 35 points for #1, down to 11 for #25. So two votes can give an entry anywhere between 22 and 70 points.

Edit: Ninjohnnyed!

 

[jpfriction]

Oh yeah, that rings a bell, thanks.

 

[Adrenaline]

Glad to see Mr. Show's best sketch represented.

 

[Violentvixen]

I'd never watched I Think You Should Leave before this list and I'm finding this it just gets my anxiety up. I think it's similar to how Bugs Bunny shorts make me stressed which I talked about in the cartoon characters thread. Someone is always being left out or bullied or the butt of a joke and things just escalate around them no matter what they do.

It's really weird because I know on paper that's like 90% of comedy, but these give me flashbacks to being bullied in elementary/high school. My brain is dumb.

 

[Issun]

I'd never watched I Think You Should Leave before this list and I'm finding this it just gets my anxiety up. I think it's similar to how Bugs Bunny shorts make me stressed which I talked about in the cartoon characters thread. Someone is always being left out or bullied or the butt of a joke and things just escalate around them no matter what they do.

It's really weird because I know on paper that's like 90% of comedy, but these give me flashbacks to being bullied in elementary/high school. My brain is dumb.

Nothing is for everyone. As everyone has probably realized by now, ITYSL is by far the most represented show on this list, which means a lot of people here like it a lot, but that doesn't mean you have to. One of the great things about these lists is that people get introduced to a lot of new stuff. Oftentimes that results in people finding new things to love that they might not otherwise have experienced, but also, like in this case, you were able to realize that it's not for you without having to commit to sitting down and watching a whole episode/season first. That is also a good thing.

The logjam does start to break up a little after this point, so we will get to focus on some other shows as well going forward.

 

[Violentvixen]

Oh yeah, it's a good thing, I'm just baffled and surprised that my brain is doing this especially with such different sketches.

Also I really, really like dissecting why people do or don't enjoy things. I find trying to understand that super interesting, so let me be clear that post was not anything against the show or people who like it. If everyone had the same opinions/tastes the lists would be super boring.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Also I really, really like dissecting why people do or don't enjoy things. I find trying to understand that super interesting, so let me be clear that post was not anything against the show or people who like it. If everyone had the same opinions/tastes the lists would be super boring.

I mean, I Think You Should Leave is often though not exclusively about living in an uncomfortable moment and even more than that, people doubling down on bad ideas when confronted which is a mentality very much of the now. But there are a couple that are surprisingly sweet in a weird way, one of which I voted for and I suspect will be on the list.

Pre-Taped Call-In Show is one of my favourites just because it does what I Think You Should Leave often does, albeit not nearly as discomforting. It's a guy who has an idea that's complicated and is insistent that it isn't and refuses to budge. It's a weird, funny sketch and very clever with the time line. Frankly, I'm curious who wrote that sketch.

 

[Issun]

Frankly, I'm curious who wrote that sketch.

I have no idea, but damned if it wasn't tailor made for David Cross.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I think the only sketch that better summarizes was the whole of Mr. Show than Pre Taped Call In Show is Intervention Intervention