The Sketch Show

This article is about the specific television series. For information about sketch comedy television in general, see Sketch comedy.

The Sketch Show is a British television sketch comedy program, featuring many leading British comedians and - in more recent series - Australian stand-up comedian Kitty Flanagan. A spinoff of the same title is being produced in the United States.

Original Lineup

The original lineup of the cast was Lee Mack, Jim Tavare, Tim Vine, Karen Taylor and Ronni Ancona. The gender balance of this lineup enabled considerable variation in the dramatic setups for the sketches, in that all three men could be paired with either of the two women. Additionally, as all the performers traditionally used their own names in sketches, humour was able to be drawn from the attractive female Ronni being referred to with what is a stereotypically male name (Ronni here is short for Veronica).

Second Lineup

The second cast lineup consisted of Mack, Tavare, Vine, Taylor and Kitty Flanagan - replacing Ancona. Ancona's reasons for leaving the show are unclear, however Flanagan bears a superficial resemblance to her and thus the general appearance of the cast is not fundamentally altered. Again, sketches featured performers using their own names.

Importantly, with the exception of some child actors in certain sketches, there were no guest stars at any point during the program.

Humour

The Sketch Show derived much of its humour from the speed of the sketches and also from a reliance on surreal situations. While most sketches were set in everyday surroundings - a house, a doctor's surgery and so on - observational humour was sacrificed in favour of sight gags, wordplay and Pythonesque eccentricity.

The abilities of the cast members to deliver their lines in a completely deadpan manner, particularly visible in Mack and Tavare, was also responsible for much of the humour of the series.

Famous Sketches

Episodes traditionally ended with a sketch featuring the entire cast, and many of these have become famous among fans of the show. Some examples include:

The Surfer Sketch - in which Mack is instructing the rest of the cast in surf safety (in a very broad Australian accent), a conversation which moves into a discussion of circus theatre. The sketch also features Mack's question of "Whaddaya do if a shark attacks ya?", to which Tavare holds up an arm with no hand and responds, "I know what ya don't do, ey?"
California Dreamin' - in which Anconda is attempting to record a cover of the Mamas and the Papas' song of the same name, featuring the rest of the cast on backing vocals. The backing vocalists consistently sing the wrong lyrics (or with the wrong emphasis on the words), which eventually results in Anconda storming from the room. As a result of this sketch, many fans of the show deliberately sing along with the original song incorrectly.
The English Course Sketch - in which the cast is taking an English course and each one has a particular problem with an aspect of the language, which comes out in their cafeteria conversation. Tavare has a problem with his grammar ("I have a problem with my grammar, aren't they?"), Mack can't spell ("I can't spill to save me loaf, I have to use the spillchucker on me compluter"), Vine can't put emphasis on words correctly ("I have problems with my emphasis at different parts of my sentences") - which causes him problems as a "speech therapist", Taylor cannot punctuate ("Good IDEA!") and Anconda has a very small vocabulary ("It's alright for you lot, I've got a very small vocabulary").
American version

There is also an American version, produced by Kelsey Grammer. Lee Mack also appears in this version, and many of the sketches from the British version have been recreated.

Cast:

Kelsey Grammer

Malcolm Barrett

Kaitlin Olson

Lee Mack

Mary Lynn Rajskub

Paul F. Tompkins

A famous sketch on the American version has Grammer waking up from a nightmare. He describes the nightmare this way: "I dreamt that Frasier was over, and I was on this Sketch Show." The sketch is a spoof of Bob Newhart, who woke up on the Newhart series finale and realized that the whole series was all a dream.

The California Dreamin' and English Course Sketch described above were also produced for the American show.

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