The Sketch Show
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- This article is about the specific television series. For information about sketch comedy television in general, see Sketch comedy.
The Sketch Show is a British television sketch comedy program, featuring many leading British comedians. A short-lived spinoff of the same title was produced in the United States.
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[edit] Original Lineup
The original lineup of the cast was Lee Mack, Jim Tavare, Tim Vine, Karen Taylor and Ronni Ancona. The gender balance of this lineup enabled considerable variation in the dramatic setups for the sketches, in that all three men could be paired with either of the two women. Additionally, as all the performers traditionally used their own names in sketches, humour was able to be drawn from the attractive female Ronni being referred to with what is a stereotypically male name (Ronni being short for Veronica).
[edit] Second Lineup
The second cast lineup consisted of Mack, Tavare, Vine, Taylor and Kitty Flanagan - replacing Ancona. Ancona left to concentrate on BBC Ones Alistair McGowan's Big Impression (which was shortened to simply Big Impression to reflect Ancona playing as many parts as McGowan himself), however Flanagan bears a superficial resemblance to her and thus the general appearance of the cast is not fundamentally altered. Again, sketches featured performers using their own names.
Importantly, with the exception of some child actors in certain sketches, there were no guest stars at any point during the program.
[edit] DVD
A DVD of the complete first season was released by Visual Entertainment in Australia on 12 September 2005. It is a region-free DVD and the only extra on the disc is a short photo gallery. All 8 episodes on the single-disc release is combined into a 3 hour feature. The opening and closing credits have been removed for all episodes, and a number of sketches have been edited out to fit the series onto a single disc.
[edit] Famous Sketches
Episodes traditionally ended with a sketch featuring the entire cast, and many of these have become famous among fans of the show. Some examples include:
- The Surfer Sketch - in which Mack is instructing the rest of the cast in surf safety (in a very broad Australian accent), a conversation which moves into a discussion of circus theatre. The sketch also features Mack's question of "Whaddaya do if a shark attacks ya?", to which Tavare holds up an arm with no hand and responds, "I know what ya don't do, ey?"
- California Dreamin' - in which Ancona is attempting to record a cover of the Mamas and the Papas' song of the same name, featuring the rest of the cast on backing vocals. The backing vocalists consistently sing the wrong lyrics (or with the wrong emphasis on the words), which eventually results in Ancona storming from the room. As a result of this sketch, many fans of the show deliberately sing along with the original song incorrectly. This sketch was repeated on the American versions of the show with Kelsey Grammer.
- The Phobias Sketch - All five actors are in a phobias workshop, phobias include a fear of the word "Aagh!", a fear of apologies, a fear of repetition, and awkward silences. Vine enters, with a problem where he barks at other people's phobias. The different phobias cause long chains of screaming (Such as apologies, Aagh, Repetition, Barking).
- The Imaginary Friend Sketch - Ronni, as a therapist, counsels the other four cast members, each of whom have an imaginary friend (one of which is an alcoholic). By the end of the sketch, it is revealed that the entire room which Ronni believes to be filled with her 'patients' is actually empty- she is the one with the hallucinations of imaginary friends.
- The English Course Sketch - in which the cast is taking an English course and each one has a particular problem with an aspect of the language, which comes out in their cafeteria conversation. Tavare has a problem with his grammar ("I have a problem with my grammar, aren't they?"), Mack can't spell ("I can't spill to save me loaf, I have to use the spillchock on me compluter"), Vine can't put emphasis on words correctly ("I have problems with my emPHARsis at different parts of my senTENces") - which causes him problems as a "speech theRAHpist", Taylor cannot punctuate ("Good IDEA!") and Ancona has a very small vocabulary ("It's alright for you lot, I've got a very small vocabulary").
- The Therapist - Karen plays a therapist in 3 sketches who after the victim tells her what happens she replies saying, "Ooooooooh I'm crying, my mum left me and I'm stuck on the moon boooo-hoooooooo" in which she makes fun of them.
- The Scrabble Sketch - This sketch revolves around the often tried method of cheating in Scrabble by claiming to the other player(s) that your seemingly useless collection of letters forms a real word and they are simply unaware of its existence. Mack and Vine are playing Scrabble and Mack begins a conversation by announcing that he went on a date the previous night. When asked by Vine how the date went, Mack replies "Nice girl, bit quazoosl". He then goes on to explain "you know, quazoosl - when someone is so good looking they become intimidating". He then gives an example stating that Liz Hurley would qualify as quazoosl. When the conversation finishes Mack asks who's turn it is and when Vine tells him it is his, he knowingly replies "Is it really?" and unsurprisingly all his letters spell "quazoosl". Later in the same show, Mack asks Vine if he fancies a glass of "saxisquith", to which Vine replies "Don't even think about it..."
[edit] American version
An American version of the show, produced by Kelsey Grammer, aired during 2005 on FOX. The main cast consisted of Malcolm Barrett, Kaitlin Olson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Paul F. Tompkins, as well as Lee Mack from the British version of the show. Grammer only appeared in short opening and closing segments in each episode.
Many of the sketches from the British version were recreated, such as the California Dreamin' and English Course.
A famous sketch on the American version had Grammer waking up from a nightmare, which he describes as: "I dreamt that Frasier was over, and I was on this Sketch Show!" The sketch is a spoof of the Newhart series finale, in which Bob Newhart woke up and realized that the whole series was all a dream.
Only six episodes of the show were made, and it was cancelled after only four of them had been shown.
The series was filmed in London, England at Teddington Studios, with a British audience.
[edit] French Canadian Version
A French Canadian version is currently running. Most sketches in this version are translations or adaptations of British sketches with few original material. The humor style remains faithful to the original.
