Goodbye Everybody

Eh. I'm officially killing this blog. I want to thank all two of my followers for their support over the past two or so years. Thank you and I mean it sincerely. That's it. Roll credits...

Thunderbirds Are Spoofed

Even though it inspired Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s politically naïve spoof Team America: World Police, Gerry Andersen’s Thunderbirds still remains an obscurity in the U.S. However, in the rest of the world, Thunderbirds is considered a beloved institution as evidenced by these sketches below…

This is probably the first ever parody of Thunderbirds (as well as Andersen’s other programs: Super Car and Stingray). It’s clearly not the best sketch to appear on Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s proto-Monty Python sketch show, “Not Only But Also” but it does have it’s amusing moments (particularly Moore’s vapid portrayal of Johnny) and, like all of the Thunderbirds spoofs you’ll find here, it’s creepy.




This ran on an episode of Australia’s sketch comedy series The D-Generation. The selling point here is the eerie physicality of the cast and their amazing ability to mock that palsied way that marionettes walk.




Les Dennis is probably best known to most Americans for his appearance on a first season episode of Extras. Les Dennis is probably best known in the U.K. for his sketch comedy series The Les Dennis Laughter Show and multiple, nasty public meltdowns. Here’s a Thunderbirds sketch from an episode of Laughter Show..




I’ve saved the weirdest and scariest for last. I have no idea where this sketch comes from, what’s going on in the sketch, why they look like they’re embalmed, why their lower lips are so elongated and puffy or why that one character starts breakdancing. It’s all in Japanese but I implore you to stick around until the scene where a floating Thunderbird eerily lip-synchs to a Japanese pop song.

Saturday Night Live '80

I’m obsessed by the 1980-81 season of Saturday Night Live not only because it’s one of the absolute worst seasons of the show but because it’s one of the years that has been forcibly swept under the carpet in hopes that people will just forget or never rediscover it. It’s similar to Disney’s efforts to wipe away people’s memories of Song of the South or George Lucas’s attempts to pretend that The Star Wars Holiday Special never happened. It might fool some of the people but the nerds will always remember. The nerds will always remember.

Eddie Murphy was a featured player at this point and wasn’t included in the early promos. I’m still shocked Gilbert Gottfried was an SNL member. He’s so ill-fitting for that show.




I’m convinced that Ann Risley was the worst cast member to ever appear on Saturday Night Live. She was a lousy actress with very little background in comedy and according to various books on SNL was an unbearable diva. Her current obscurity speaks for itself.




Some sketches weren’t entirely cringe-inducing. This one repeatedly brought me to the cusp of laughter several times.




Gail Matthius’ Valley Girl character was one of the few re-occurring characters created during the 80-81 season. Much like the characters created on the recent version of SNL, this character seems to be created out of spite against the audience.






I really wish I could get the infamous Jack the Stripper sketch that aired on the Malcolm MacDowell episode but it’s still unavailable on youtube. Until then, here’s a pair of bland, mediocre and obvious bits.







Not from the 80-81 season but I’m hoping to eventually track down the Mad Magazine Theater sketch from one of the Ebersol seasons.

Quincy: Cartoon Coroner

I haven't seen this SCTV sketch since I was a kid and it's not nearly as funny as I remember it. Although I loved this line: "Another drug overdose. When will these ducks ever learn."

Yogi Bear: The Original Ending

Usually, I try to avoid posting things that "go viral" but this was really too good to resist. Everything about this is well-executed and smart plus I love the inappropriately upbeat music that plays over the closing credits.





Also, I always wondered was Boo Boo a bear cub or just a really short adult bear? And if Boo Boo was a bear cub was he Yogi's son?

Lost Dennis Potter Parody

Here's an odd rarity. It's a sketch spoofing the works of Dennis Potter (most notably The Singing Detective) that was supposed to air on an episode of Spitting Image but was cut for whatever reason.



It's not particularly funny but it's so aggressively jaunty I can't help but love it.

Mystos!

There have been roughly over 4 million parodies of those once ubiquitous Mentos commercials and only about three of the parodies have actually been funny. This sketch from an episode of MST3K is one of the three.




Two notable things:

(1) The smug face Mike Nelson pulls at the end

(2) This is also one of the three MST3K sketches that was actually funny.