Dead Parrot(s) Sketch(es)

The Rhetorical Sale of the Century

It’s easy to forget that Eric Bana started out as a comedic actor mainly because Eric Bana doesn’t particularly scream comedy. He might scream “guy who would host a reality show about sports cars on the Discovery Channel” or “supporting lead in a Lifetime movie” but never comedy. But here he is on the Australian sketch comedy show Full Frontal being genuinely amusing in a moderately clever game show parody. Who would have ever thought!

Hey, You Know What Would Be New? A Silence of the Lambs Parody: Part 2

Until recently when comedy writers discovered they could make fun of the Buffalo Bill character, Silence of the Lambs parodies typically made fun of one scene and one scene alone and that’s the scene where Clarice Starling meets Hannibal Lecter for the first time.

It’s not surprising why this scene has been mocked so many times. It’s instantly iconic yet affected and weird. This is the kind of scene that practically begs to be made fun of. What is surprising is that this is the only scene that comedy writers seem to go after. Sure some don’t reference the quid-pro-quo line and some might not mock the fava beans line or the licking thing that Hopkins pulls after the fava beans line but all of them do make fun of that moment where Lecter smells and recognizes Starling’s perfume (or whatever it was).

Below you’ll find the Silence parody from National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1. I’m not sure if this was the first but it’s definitely one of the earliest examples. Parts of it are actually kind of amusing and I should mention that Loaded Weapon 1 actually pulls off a sort-of hack trifecta by referencing the quid-pro-quo line, the fava-bean-tongue thing and the part where he smells her. Congratulations movie (actual Silence parody starts at the 2:58 mark).

Hey, You Know What Would Be New? A Silence of the Lambs Parody: Part 1

Why is it that practically every Silence of the Lambs parody either contains a reference to eating fava beans or a scene in which somebody is wheeled out in a face mask and strait-jacket? I mean there were other scenes in the movie why just focus on those two?

Here’s a Skippy(Australia’s Lassie)/Silence of the Lambs pastiche that aired on an episode of Fast Forward. Thankfully it foregoes the fava beans thing but settles on the facemask thing.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting similar clips for reasons I’m still not entirely sure. (self-loathing?)

The Edge Pilot Episode

If The Edge is remembered at all it’s probably remembered as the sketch comedy show Jennifer Anniston appeared on before Friends made her a mega-star. But there’s a little more to The Edge than that. To start with it launched the careers of Wayne Knight, Tom Kenney, Jill Talley and, incredibly, Charlie Kaufman. Yet in spite of this pedigree, The Edge wasn’t that good. A lot of the sketches are cheap and easy (probably due to Julie Brown’s heavy involvement with the series) and, like the current version of Saturday Night Live, it wasn’t afraid to force reoccurring characters down the throats of its audience (like The Armed Family which, luckily doesn’t appear in the episode below). Still this show isn’t unwatchable, plus it deserves bonus points for exposing Bill Plympton’s animation to a wider audience.

Two nerdy sidenotes: The Ben Stiller Show premiered around the same time as this. Also, Carol Rosenthal went on to appear in the final pathetic season of In Living Color.

The Benny Hill Street Blues

This is easily one of my all-time favorite SCTV sketches. There’s been a lot of Benny Hill parodies but this is one of the very few that have been able to capture the feel of the original show. I love Dave Thomas’ grotesque, slightly crazed take on Britain’s habitual head-slapper.

A Courtroom Sketch Sketch

I don’t want to ruin this sketch by discussing it but I will say that it aired on an episode of Alexei Sayle’s Stuff and has a damn near brilliant payoff. The British truly are masters at comic absurdity.