Pop Culture

Grimaldi: Sketch comedy shows deserve more recognition

The sketch comedy format was once fearing for its life.

For a while in the 2000s, Saturday Night Live was one of the only successful sketch shows on the air. But now, sketch shows of all varieties are having their moment.

 As the “mock-umentary” style of comedy, seen in shows like “The Office,” “Modern Family,” and “Parks and Recreation” begins to die, sketch shows like “Portlandia,” “Key and Peele,” as well as sketches from larger shows, such as the “Tonight Show,” are increasing in number.

Social media and YouTube have the capacity to make sketches go viral and have done so time and time again, from Jimmy Fallon’s “History of Hip-Hop” to the substitute teacher series on “Key & Peele.” Perhaps the famous short attention spans often attributed to Generation Y is the reason sketch shows have become so popular.

Millennial hypotheses aside, these shows don’t have widespread popularity but instead, they’re developing separate cult followings. They’re pretty niche. In fact, most sketch shows have esoteric and ironic senses of humor. In an interview with the comedy blog Splitsider, Fred Armisen, co-creator of “Portlandia,” said, “I think in 10 or 20 years from now, we’ll all look back at these sketch comedy shows that are coming out now, and we’ll notice that they all had a look and a sound and rhythm. We’ll go like, ‘Remember that style from 2013-2014 that was like this?’ You’ll even be able to make fun of it.”



Splitsider called “Portlandia” a turning point in the sketch format. Its development of a loyal following probably encouraged other networks to get sketch shows on the air. Armisen attributes the sketch boom, as well as some “Portlandia” inspirations to truly bizarre and avant-garde shows such as Adult Swim’s “Tim and Eric” and viral comedy websites like Funny or Die and College Humor. Other more mainstream media avenues saw how profitable and well-produced sketches could be outside of the former monopoly that SNL had.

So they jumped on it. Most notably, Comedy Central did. Since 2012, the network has added “Kroll Show,” “Key and Peele,” and “Inside: Amy Schumer,” to its line-up in order to get in on the viable market of time-shifters, binge watchers and highly distractible viewers found in the 18–49 demographic these days. It’s working.

“Inside Amy Schumer,” a show run by a female stand-up who often tackles sex, feminism and misogyny, attracted a bigger audience of males from 18–34 than any other show the night of its premiere this April, even beating “Tosh.0.”

Sketches aren’t just fluff to fill in the gaps where network sitcoms are suffering right now. “Key and Peele” won a Peabody Award in 2013. Among the year’s other winners were the documentary “The Invisible War” and WBZ Boston’s coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombings. Sketch shows, especially “Key & Peele” are examples of important storytelling in American pop culture right now and should be seen as such.

A lot of entertainment news is currently devoted to tracking the late night talk show circuit. But let’s not forget from whence these guys came. Current hosts Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers were all performing cast members on SNL and their staffs are full of names with sketch backgrounds.

So before you write off sketch comedy as niche, weird or not for you, remember it is at the crux of the origins of comedy — just look at Vaudeville. And also take a look at the rich television history studded with sketch comedy. Drawing on that, modern day sketches are having a well-deserved, sophisticated moment in the sun.

Cassie-lee Grimaldi is a senior television, radio and film major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and reached on Twitter @cassiegrimaldi.

 





Top Stories