Knowing that ‘Super Troopers II’ is in production, I’m happily revisiting Broken Lizard’s catalogue, including the woefully underrated, wickedly on-point satire of slasher flicks, ‘Club Dread.’ (It’s worth the rental just to hear Jay Chandrasekhar’s British accent, though the real treat is seeing Kevin Heffernan’s turn as a gentle yogini, a 180 degree difference from Rod Farva.) As one who grew up on the wares of Comedy Central, it’s hard not to rank them in my mind against other groups of funny folk, such as the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players or Exit 57. (Funnier than one, not quite as funny as the other, but I’m not tellin’ which.) I will say that it’s difficult to rank them against The State, just given how many different members (and thus, how many different approaches to their sketch comedy work) that group has, leading us today’s improvisational query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is now imagining a steel cage, Survivor Series match between Monty Python and The Kids In The Hall (both groups in their prime, and also, for reasons of funny, in drag), asking: What is the best comic troupe of all time, in your estimation?
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Kids in the Hall hands down. So great, so consistently funny, and the chemistry combinations among the various personalities made for some of the best sketches ever. Nobody did drag as well as the Kids.
It was Citizen Kane, it was Citizen Kane, it was Citizen Kaaaaaane!
Never put salt in your eyes…
Pertti “Spede” Pasanen, Simo Salminen and Vesa-Matti Loiri. they wrote, acted and produced countless comedy shows and films. Of ones you know about, Monty Python.
I would have gone with Monty Python, but as I typed my reponse my mind’s eye suddenly saw a picture of Carol Burnett descending a long staircase wearing a green curtain complete with rod, telling someone, “Thank you. I saw it in a window and I just couldn’t resist it.” So I’ll cast my vote for the gang of Carol Burnett and Friends (or should that really be the duo of Korman & Conway?)
But I’ll agree with you that, despite my love for Newsradio, it’s almost ..unnatural.. to see Dave Foley not wearing a dress.
Vicki Lawrence deserves her props too, as she could hold her own in ham-to-ham combat with Harvey and Tim, and occasionally sent them both spiraling off into endless corpsing. It was her joke that put Dick Van Dyke flat on the floor during a particularly funny ‘Eunice and Mama’ sketch…
That would be the one with Tim’s ‘Siamese elephants’ story?