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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
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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
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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
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24. "Sweeps Week/The Days of the Week," SCTV, 1983
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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
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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 |
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