Australia's Flimsiest TV

I can tolerate America's Funniest Videos mainly because it presents slapstick in its purest, most uncontrived form. But I always hated its moderately popular spin-off America's Funniest People which,like America's Funniest Home Videos, was adapted for television all over the world. This parody that ran on the Australian sketch comedy series Full Frontal aptly illustrates everything wrong about this insufferable and long cancelled program.

Ugh.

Here's Exhibit A in why ZAZ styled humor should only be crafted by the ZAZ team.



(Although, the screwdriver gag at least pays off in a moderately clever way.)

Apparently Nielsen made a ton of these Red Rock Cider ads back in the early to mid 90s. They aired in the UK only.

Joe Piscopo's Jerry Lewis's Thriller

I don’t want to be yet another person that takes a shot at a criminally easy target like Joe Piscopo, so I will say that this is surprisingly not horrible. Although it is way too overlong and the idea of an army of undead Jerry Lewises is more terrifying than funny.




Also, at one point in the 80s Joe Piscopo was going to play the son of Julius Kelp in The Nutty Professor 2.

50 Psalms by 50 Stars

At one time K-Tel parodies were ubiquitous fixtures on the comedy landscape. Leave it to SCTV to come up with one of the funniest (which unfortunately isn’t complete)…



Believe it or not, Martin Short’s impression of Jerry Lewis used to creep me out as a kid. I remember being incredibly unnerved by this fake ad. As a side note Jerry’s son Gary performed It Ain’t Me, Babe when they hosted an episode of Hullabaloo.




Speaking of Jerry Lewis, here’s footage of him being an asshole to some teenager.

The Closing Theme to Linus The Lion-Hearted

I've never seen an episode of Linus the Lion-Hearted but if it's half as funny as its closing theme then it has to be one of the most unjustly forgotten cartoons of the 60s. I just love the subtle sarcasm and mock solemnity of it. It's surprisingly smart. Particularly the dig at Emmett Kelly at the end.

The New Show

The New Show was the very short-lived (5 episodes) sketch comedy show that Lorne Michaels produced during his self-imposed exile from Saturday Night Live. As in most sketch comedy programs, The New Show was very hit or miss but it did contain an amazing assortment of writers and performers (John Candy, Jeff Goldblum, Dave Thomas, Buck Henry and Catherine O’Hara were some of the regular performers while George Meyer, Jack Handey and (supposedly) John Swartzwelder were just three of the writers). The New Show was very reminiscent of SCTV and should’ve been a success.


This sketch seems like it was wholly improvised by Candy and it’s incredible just how many laughs he can get out of mentioning a bag of flour.



I want to say that Handey wrote this but it’s almost not weird enough.




These two play like lost SCTV sketches. The Twilight Zonettes feels like it was written by Meyer.






If this sketch ever aired on SNL it would be considered a classic. Unfortunately it didn’t. I could’ve sworn I read something about Swartzwelder writing this sketch but Swartzwelder isn’t credited as a writer on IMDB for this show. Maybe Handey? *Update* It was actually written by Meyer (Thanks Sam).





Special Bonus: Here's the opening credits sequence for The Dave Thomas Comedy Show a summer replacement sketch comedy series from 1990. I've never seen this but from the looks of the opening credits sequence I don't think I missed much.

Norbert Smith: A Life

Harry Enfield is yet another great British comedian who is unfortunately unrecognized in the US. Norbert Smith: A Life is probably the one project he’ll be remembered for. Examining the rise and fall of a fictional actor, Norbert Smith: A Life was a mockumentary made in the days when the mockumentary was still a fresh and funny concept. The film has the right mixture of dryness, gentle absurdity and the period details are sometimes astounding. The film even goes the extra mile by recruiting some of the original Carry-On members to appear in the Carry-On parody.