The State

"The State" was a brilliantly funny sketch comedy show that ran on MTV in the mid-90's. By far the best and smartest show that has ever graced MTV. Each cast member was extremely talented (especially Thomas Lennon) and every skit was about a million times funnier then anything that has been on "Saturday Night Live" in the past 10 years. There is a VHS tape that is available with about an hour and a half of "The State" skits on it. But this tape does not even come close to representing the best of what ran on the show. I hope that one of these days MTV will get their act together and either re-run all of "The State" episodes or put them out on tape. Or, an even better scenario would be for "The State" to get back together and have a TV show again. By far one of the best shows EVER on TV.

despite glaring pythonisms, the state was the best Post-python era sketch comedy show ever. Founded back in the "golden" age of MTV when Jon Stewart and 'alternative' music reigned the airwaves, the state came out of nowhere as a smart, funny, innovative, and inventive masterwork. At times delightfully dirty, the show was mistaken by many for being low-brow. But like all great things comedic, the base humor came from somewhere sincerely genius. Witness the brilliance of a man delivering tacos rather than mail, or the incredibly popular gay student, or 20 year old pet sea monkeys. This often overlooked gem in television history could really benefit from some sort of re-release by MTV, who has to date released one short compilation video. Their lovely art spoke wonders to many of us growing up in the 90's in a way that no other television show has. It gave us a reason to watch television, which is scarce in this day and age.

This show was so hilarious. "I wanna dip my balls in it"! Come on! Or "Two hundred and forty dollars worth of puddin'." One of the funniest skits was where a lady and her husband were meeting someone at a restaurant and the lady had PMS and kept changing into all of these different moods, but the funny part was that all of the cast played her. It was too funny. Or the one where the guy had bologna sandwich feet and his soccer coach said, "They call him Bologna For Feet or Sandwich Feet or...Penis Face." Or the one where a guy was getting made fun of for eating his Grandma's potato chowder and then he admits to having sex with her. ("But when you eat the soup, do you stick your whole face in the bowl?") I could go on forever. Those of you who watched the show as much as I did will know what I am talking about. MTV needs to put this show back on the air for sure. It got me through my freshman year of high school.

one episode they redid this running gag skit of theirs only they did it as japanese kabuki theatre, complete with giant wooden shoes stomping around, kabuki mannerisms, painted faces, and japanese kabuki music. they did it well too. that's the kind of show this was. totally cool. another time they had people send in postcards their names, then they did a whole skit using their names. amazing.

Not only is The State the most amazing show ever, but it featured some of my longest laughs ever, such as "Love and War" where Timmy and his father race home. The skits are so weird that they're perfect. A skit about origami suddenly ends on 8 members of the cast running in their underwear. If only it was back on TV, and it's so sad that shows like Saturday Night Live are even aired when there should be a show like this. My favorites are "Staring Contest" "Love and War" "Taco Man" "Prom Photos" and "Tammy Wilkins: Notebook Artist". Check em out.