Poll: Greatest sketch comedy show of all time?

[Spungo]

MadTV was absolutely terrible from start to finish and SNL seems to get worse every year.

You might have rose tinted glasses with SNL. Reruns of the old ones from the 70s and 80s would regularly play on some comedy channel I had, and they were horrible. There was just nothing funny about them. Was the government crop dusting cities back then and people would just laugh because the audience laughed first? The early 90s seemed the best, when Chris Farley and Phil Hartman were still alive.

Mad TV was pretty bad. Bobby Lee and Bryan Callen both seem to have negative descriptions of how things were done around there. It was a gong show with not much direction. IIRC, Bobby Lee said on Joe Rogan's podcast that he really hated working there but it's one of those good paying jobs you can't leave on a whim because it's still the best paying job in town. Guys like Michael McDonald and Nicole Sullivan really carried the show.

 

[Krazy4Real]

chappelle show

 

[Juddog]

Chappelle show, hands down, had some of the funniest scenes of all time. It's too bad he didn't make more seasons.

 

[CountZero]

I don't think it is fair to say Chapelle Show even if it was an excellent couple seasons. I thought the 'lost episodes' were pretty meh and indicated that the writing team was already losing steam and I don't think any show can be the greatest of all time if they can't keep writing for more than a couple seasons. Plus the episodes were pretty sparse with some having just a couple skits.

In that vein I think The State's first two season were excellent but they also completely lost it come season three which was utter crap.

For me Kids in the Hall at their best and Monty Python at their best are #1. Chappelle, In Living Color and The State at their best tied for the round up. SNL gets honorable mention due to its longevity. I'm surprised at the love for MadTV, I think it is one of the worst executed sketch shows I've seen. They take a joke and run with it far too long.

I haven't seen much of it but what I've seen of whitest kids you know has also been excellent.

 

[OGOC]

I'd have to watch them all again to pick an ultimate winner.
I can see Chappelle's Show.
One thing about Chappelle Show is there weren't that many sketches due to the monologuing and musical act.

Maybe In Living Color, but I'm thinking that wasn't consistent.
No one else said it, so I'll mention The Ben Stiller Show.

If Whose Line Is It Anyway (U.S. version) counts, then that's the winner, and it's not close.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP3X0dSV9kI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C4TGGtPzBU

all-time favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITLXo19248g

 

[Platypus]

No, Mr. Show?

That'd be my vote.

 

[Kadarin]

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

 

[stlcardinals]

Upright Citizens Brigade

Little Donny, Poo Stick

Hands down my favorite

 

[BurnItDwn]

Little Donny, Poo Stick

Hands down my favorite

I love Python, SCTV, Whose line, Ali G show, Chapelle, Whitest Kids, Kids in the Hall, and from the olden days, Saturday Night Live. But, for me, the 3 short seasons of UCB are the funniest sketches I have ever seen.

Spaghetti Jesus, Thunderball, Cake Walk, Mini Movie, Unibomber hanging out with girl scout, bucket of thruth, hot chicks room, free chocolate, Santa Liqueur, Stop reading my diary, Supercool, Bong Boy, Astronauts... Everything the most bizarre and all connected..... It is super concentrate of insanity mixed with a heavy dose of genius.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Op is either an idiot or a troll.

Monty Python > *

Yup.
Absolute truth there.

 

[Iron Woode]

Benny Hill > *

For Canadians: Bizarre > SCTV > KITH.

Super Dave Osborne was hilarious in Bizarre.

 

[KeithTalent]

Man, I used to love Bizarre as a kid.

KT

 

[Theb]

Whitest Kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Uf9rsBbhc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1SKf9YU4QQ&oq

 

[Iron Woode]

Whitest Kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Uf9rsBbhc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1SKf9YU4QQ&oq

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rurBHWxYaR0

 

[Craig234]

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

You mean the show that murdered Star Trek.

 

[Craig234]

No vote for little britain?

 

[zinfamous]

Yeah, No Kids in the Hall, Monty Python, Benny Hill?

grrrr.

Got to go to Monty Python....then fuck it, I'm gonna say SNL. Why? Because it had so many epically brilliant seasons and casts. The original cast, then the early 80s with Murphy, Guest, Short, Piscopo, and Kazurinski, the 80s-90s with Hartman, Carvey, Meyers, and all those other clowns, the the Will Farrel years.

try to vote some other way to be cool, I guess....but SNL has few piers.



BUT--I also loved shows like Tracey Ullman, In Living Color, Kids in the Hall. Hell, anyone remember the short-lived, but epic, Ben Stiller Show?

 

[zinfamous]

No, Mr. Show?

That'd be my vote.

ooo yeah. also UCB. all good stuff.

I used to love The Kids in the Hall--watched it in reruns after reruns. I recently tried to watch some on Netflix...couldn't quite...get into it. It just seemed really, I don't know...strange?

 

[Craig234]

I liked a show that had a young guy who would do a 'theme' show and draw pictures for it and have skits, but I forget the name. Think it was a few years ago and didn't last.

 

[zinfamous]

Agreed. SNL, then Monty Python's Flying Circus, then a huge gap, then maybe Chapelle's show. Granted, SNL has sucked for the most part of the last 2 decades, but that still leaves 17 seasons that were every bit as good as the 3 seasons of Chapelle's Show.

To add to your list of actors who got their big start on SNL:
John Belushi
Jim Belushi
Dana Carvey
Jane Curtin
Joan Cusack
Chris Elliott (though he was previously on Late Night with David Letterman, did half a dozen "man under the bleachers" and other stupid things, iirc)
Al Franken
Tina Fey
Chris Farley
Gilbert Gottfried
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Jon Lovitz
Norm Macdonald
Tim Meadows
Dennis Miller
Tracy Morgan
Gilda Radner
Adam Sandler
Paul Shaffer
Martin Short
Sarah Silverman
David Spade


Many many others
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live_cast_members

Chris Elliot was actually even "bigger" than that before he made it on SNL. He had already had" Get a Life" which was hilarious, and I think "Cabin Boy," which was awful. I think he had a lot more work before SNL--which was really a bit of an odd placement for him. I always thought of him as too well-known to suddenly be a cast member on that show.

Also: Conan O'Brien.

 

[zinfamous]

I liked a show that had a young guy who would do a 'theme' show and draw pictures for it and have skits, but I forget the name. Think it was a few years ago and didn't last.

Demitri Martin?

um, "Important Things" with Demitri Martin, or something like that?

This reminds me--I just went through the only 2? seasons of John Benjamin Has a Van--Holy crap that show is/was hilarious.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

yeah, the ben stiller show was pretty good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5IrRe2F7qY

 

[BrokenVisage]

I liked a show that had a young guy who would do a 'theme' show and draw pictures for it and have skits, but I forget the name. Think it was a few years ago and didn't last.

Simon?

 

[Iron Woode]

does The Hilarious House of Frightenstein count?