20
by gmilner_Archive
Mr. Show is miles and miles away from the crap-osphere. At its worst, the show was funnier and smarter than just about anything I've ever seen on TV. It was also formally inventive, it got all the details right, and it was never content to merely put sketches on one after another. The show affected me the way my favorite music has--it articulated a sensibility that I could say I completely identified with.
Some favorite moments, off the top of my head:
"The Underground Tape Railroad" ("Dick Clark Lights Fart," "Famous Model Fistfuck," etc.)
"Wyked Scepter" (probably their most flat-out funny moment)
"Recruiters" (about increasingly desperate college basketball recruiters--it was funny and sad, a rare trick)
The "Superstar Machine" montage (showing in 15 seconds the dumb things that happen to a hit song)
"The Joke: The Musical"
Globo-Chem Ads ("'Fuck, this little motherfucker's tasty!' 'Told your fuckin' ass!'")
"Indomitable Spirit" ("I'm Fran, and I'm a *woman*!, "Yes, you're handicap is that you're a shitty drummer!")
"Young People and Their Companions"
Swoosh, the Brit-pop band
"Culture Hunt" (the MTV reality show where people search for a hidden beanbag in places like Anne Frank's house)
"The Story of the Story of the Story of Everest"
"The Sad Song of the Year Award" (their meanest funny moment--making fun of Eric Clapton for writing a song about his dead kid)
"The Fad Three"
Okay, enough fan-boy behavior for now...