If you want to be a comedy sketch writer, here are the people you need to watch:
Nichols and May - Best sketch comedy duo ever. Period. The two were known for building hilarious sketches with the audience giving them only the first and last lines of the scene. They released three albums of their work, and a number of sketches are popping up on Youtube lately. They are the gold standard.
Monty Python - After SNL, probably the most famous sketch show ever featuring an incredibly talented ensemble. Versatile, clever, unpredictable, the Pythons pushed the bounds fo sketch comedy further than it had ever been pushed before. If you want an extra treat, look up At Last the 1948 Show, a sketch show with John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and Marty Feldman that preceded Monty Python.
Saturday Night Live - The current cast seems to have hit a groove and realyl connected with an audience. That said, you need to check out the original cast (75-79) and the second golden age cast (87-93) that include Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, and Chris Farley. I'd also recommend looking up the 84-85 season when Martin Short, Christopher Guest, and Billy Crystal came in for a year. Lorne doesn't play a lot of that stuff because he wasn't the boss then, but they made some of the funniest sketches ever including my all time favorite, the male synchronized swimmers.
The Kentucky Fried Movie - The first feature film from the guys who went on to make Airplane and the Naked Gun movies was a sketch compilation featuring some hilariously over the top stuff. The 80's film Amazon Women on the Moon is sort of a follow up to this one. It's not as funny but still has some memorable bits, including the funeral roast and David Alan Grier as a man born without Soul. Both films are rated R for a reason. Not for the easily offended.
Piper's Pit - Rowdy Roddy Piper set the standard for every other wrestler hosted chat/sketch show that followed. No one is his equal. Roddy's stuff was usually unscripted. He knew how to provoke a guest and an audience. Very effective at working a crowd. The Rock was probably the one other man who could move a crowd in the same way. He never had a "show" like Piper, and most of his bits were solo, but many of his promos are legendary and worth a look.
In Living Color - This show was really the anti-SNL. It featured an African American cast with two token white cast members - one of which happened to be Jim Carrey. It was also taped, and unlike SNL, upstaging and improvisation were encouraged. Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey became overnight stars when the show premiered, but In Living Color really peaked in season three with the arrival of Jamie Foxx and the show's funnest character, Ugly Girl. Word up!
The State - The show that influenced me the most in my early years of writing. Shades of the Pythons and SNL can be seen in their work, which is loud, over the top, self-deprecating, and shameless. Cast members went on to produce Reno 911, Viva Variety, and Wet Hot American Summer, and Thomas Lennon and Ben Garrant are two of the hottest screenwriters going today.
Mr. Show - The crudest of the shows listed here by far, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross put together a show that took sketch writing to a new level as an art form. Other cast members included Sarah Silverman, and Brian Posehn, and the voice of Spongebob, Tom Kenney. Their sketches flow together much like the Python sketches did, and repeated viewings give you a much broader picture of what each episode is really about. These guys also took profanity to new levels, so again, not for the easily offended.
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