30. "Whatever Happened to Baby Dawn?" French & Saunders
The cult classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is so campy and over-the-top that it would seem to defy parody. Yet master satirists Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders manage to one-up the film with this ten-minute homage. Every detail from the original film is dead-on, from the comediennes' uncanny impersonations of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford to the grotesque hair and makeup. But French and Saunders ratchet up the absurdity, turning the story of two faded movie-star sisters (one completely mad, the other crippled and living at her mercy) into one about their own comedic partnership. Instead of Joan Crawford watching her old Hollywood films, we see Jennifer Saunders watching two-year-old comedy sketches, sighing "Gosh, I was funny!" with wistful sincerity. But Dawn French gets all the good gags, showing off her functional legs to her crippled sister by doing a can-can. (The funny part is, you can imagine Bette Davis doing the same thing as soon as the cameras stopped rolling.) Since this sketch aired, French and Saunders have taken separate turns in the spotlight — Saunders in Absolutely Fabulous, French in The Vicar of Dibley — but they continue to reunite for new, parody-rife BBC specials. Like the two crazed sisters in this sketch, they'll never entirely be apart. — GW
29. "Argument to Beethoven's Fifth," Caesar's Hour, 1954
Here, on live TV, without benefit of editing or retakes, Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray silently mime a domestic dispute whose crescendos and valleys perfectly correspond to classical music. It's brilliant, and there's not much more to say. — MM
promotion
28. "Wayne's World Crime Re-Enactment," Saturday Night Live
For whatever asinine reason, NBC has yet to issue the collected Wayne's World sketches. Maybe they're sparing their energies for The Best of Chris Kattan, Volume 3. A couple are available on The Best of Mike Myers, but sadly not this one, which showcases Myers's gift for physical comedy. Dana Carvey thought they were just aping the dim-bulbed Bill and Ted, but I always felt like Wayne was in on the joke. — PS
27. "Head Crusher vs. Face Pincher," Kids in the Hall, 1989
"I am crushing your head," is a phrase synonymous with Kids in the Hall, not just because of the regularity of the bit but because it's two seconds of pure idiocy that personifies the show. It shouldn't be funny. Mark McKinney sitting in a park pressing his thumb and forefinger together while making a funny voice shouldn't make you laugh out loud. But it does. — JC
26. "Great White North," SCTV, 1981
Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas play two ignorant hick Canadians (if this were airing today, they'd probably be playing the same characters as Americans) who discuss things on their homemade talk show such as how to get a mouse into a Molson bottle so the company will give you a free case of beer as an apology. The trick? Get it in there when it's still a baby, then feed it for a month. Aye? — WD
25. "The Clock," Your Show of Shows, 1953
With ninety minutes of live comedy every Saturday night in the mid-'50s, Your Show of Shows set the mold for SNL and all sketch shows thereafter. Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca played an wide array of characters — frustrated spouses, showbiz types, inanimate objects — supported by a writing team that included Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Neil Simon. In this classic bit of physical comedy, Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris are characters on a German cuckoo clock who go haywire and proceed to beat the crap out of each other. — MM
24. "Sweeps Week/The Days of the Week," SCTV, 1983
Rendering future soap-opera parodies unnecessary, SCTV's "Days of the Week" stretched through two seasons in the early '80s, incorporating the entire cast of comic geniuses, often in dual roles: Catherine O'Hara as prim matriarch Violet McKay, Rick Moranis as terminally ill playboy Clay Collins, Andrea Martin as semi-autistic maid/punching bag Mojo. This clip is from the climactic wedding episode, and it includes a promo for SCTV's Sweeps Week, which touts programs like "Jumping for Dollars." — MM
23. "Lord and Lady Douchebag", Saturday Night Live, 1980
The last sketch featuring SNL's original cast, it's one of the era's LOLest. The setting is an eighteenth-century society party attended exclusively by inventors: the Earl of Sandwich, Lord Salisbury, the Duke of Worcestershire and . . . you've probably guessed it by now. Party conversation is a double-entendrefest involving Lord Douchebag's plans for political office and Lady Douchebag's choice of salad dressing. Sadly, NBC has yet to upload the video to Hulu, but the transcript (linked above) is nearly as entertaining. — MM
22. "Went With the Wind," The Carol Burnett Show, 1976
Carol Burnett and her cast (including Tim Conway, Harvey Korman and Vicki Lawrence) had comic genius to spare, but many of the variety show's laughs were generated solely by Bob Mackie's over-the-top costumes. The team's best visual gag came during this Gone With the Wind parody: a broke Scarlett O'Hara (Burnett) tears the curtains off Tara's windows to create a dress, but instead of emerging in the film's iconic green velvet grown, she descends the stairs wearing the curtains intact — complete with a curtain rod thrown over her shoulders. When Rhett (Korman) compliments her attire, Burnett deadpans a classic kicker: "Thank you. I saw it in a window and I just couldn't resist it." The sketch is said to have generated the longest continuous studio audience laugh in the show's eleven-year history. — GW
21. "The French Chef," Saturday Night Live, 1979
A classic bit of shock humor, in which TV chef Julia Child (Dan Akyroyd) knicks her finger with a knife and bleeds to death on camera. This tone never quite worked on the show again (especially not in the next year's "Vomitorium" sketch), but the sketch staked a flag for celebrity morbidity that was later carried by South Park. — MM
