Thursday, June 18, 2009

Sad Songs are the Keys that Get Our Tears Out of Eye Jail

Tomorrow evening, I will be witnessing the Bob Odenkirk and David Cross reunion show, and my inner nerd-o-meter will be peaking at alarming heights.

For no reason other than my own nostalgia, these are my five favorite Mr. Show sketches:

GloboChem
The highlight of the first season, and the first Mr. Show sketch I remember seeing. Rarely has repeated swearing been used better on television.


McHutchence vs Greeley
I still think of this whenever I see any political ads. Every election cycle, we hear artificial buzz about various SNL political bits, but nothing they've never come close to nailing the entire ridiculous nature of these productions. Every posed shot and cheesy effect is pitch perfect.


Teardrop Awards Show
I find Brian Wilson's output to be vastly overrated. Of course Pet Sounds was great, but he wrote a lot of songs that are pure garbage. (Listen to "Busy Doin' Nothing" and marvel at the supposed genius of a man giving directions to his house, then dialing a telephone!) So the concept of a song about mouth sores seems right up his alley. The overly joyous Clapton-clone is tremendous, as is just about every line the presenters deliver.



Pre-taped Call in Show
Bob seemed to play the angrier characters most of the time, but David is great, simmering in his rage for 3 minutes, and then revealing the finest-timed ending to any of the sketches (with bonus points to the chronology of David's hair growth).



The Audition
Best written sketch in the show's run. David once revealed that an unknown Charlie Kaufman applied to write for Mr. Show but didn't get the job. This seems like the kind of thing Kaufman would have written.

2 comments:

Ross McLochness said...

Tsk, tsk. Where are the recruiting adventures of LaFonte and Indiana Basin Silt College?

Have some homemade potato soup.

TC said...

I nearly switched to 10 clips so I could put that one in, along with Titannica.