B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping sketch comedy shows into the ol’ VCR. 

It’s hard for me to gauge how obvious this is, but I’m a huge fan of comedy 

We’ve talked about some of my favorite comedy specials, and we all know I wrote the compendium on Inside, but I LOVE comedy, especially comedy writing. 

That’s why I’m a huge fan of sketch comedy shows. 

I briefly did a stint with standup (and I do miss it), but part of me has always wanted to be a comedy writer; that’s why 30 Rock is one of my favorite shows of all time. 

Because, when it’s done well, comedic writing just hits different. 

That’s why I have such a soft spot for sketch comedy; the amount of talent it takes to not only write but perform a sketch is next level. 

It’s the same reason why I love horror and why so many comedians make excellent horror content. 

You only have a brief amount of time to evoke a particular emotion from your audience, with it being laughter in comedy’s case. 

I want to give you a list of some of my favorite sketch comedy shows, but we’re going to have to do a hell of a lot of disclaimers first. 

First and foremost, I absolutely do NOT condone any actions of Dan Schneider or any of the pieces of shit from Nickelodeon that (allegedly) let all of these (alleged) things happen, and that’s why, sadly, I can’t include a couple of sketch shows from that era on this list. I think The Amanda Show has some INCREDIBLE writing on it, as did All That, but it just doesn’t feel right to include them. 

Secondly, I loved The Chappelle Show in high school, but I can’t, in good conscience, put his show on my list either. The Prince sketch is one of my favorite things of all time, but his rhetoric towards the trans community is completely unacceptable. 

Thirdly, I haven’t watched A Black Lady Sketch Show, and that’s totally on me for having not seen it. 

And finally, some of these shows have sketches that clearly didn’t age well for one reason or another. Some of these are years, if not, decades, old at this point, so proceed with caution. 

Okay, I think that’ll do us for introductions and disclaimers. 

Without further ado, here are eight of my favorite sketch comedy shows: 

• The State
• Mr. Show with Bob and David
• Portlandia 
• Kroll Show
• Key and Peele 
• The Birthday Boys 
• I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
• The Whitest Kids U’Know (WKUK)