The Sketch Show
Encyclopedia
The Sketch Show is a British television
sketch comedy
programme, featuring many leading British comedians. It aired on ITV
between 2001 and 2003.
A short-lived spinoff of the same title was produced in the United States
.
, Jim Tavare
, Tim Vine
, Karen Taylor
and Ronni Ancona
. The gender
balance of this line-up enabled considerable variation in the dramatic setups for the sketches, in that all three men could be paired with either of the two women.
- replacing Ancona, who left to concentrate on BBC One
's Alistair McGowan's Big Impression
(which was shortened to simply Big Impression to reflect Ancona playing as many parts as McGowan himself). Again, sketches featured performers using their own names.
With the exception of some child actor
s in certain sketches, there were no guest stars at any point during the programme.
, Matthew Hardy
, Stephen Colledge and Daniel Maier
were also responsible for the show's humour, though as mentioned earlier, were not featured in the show.
in Australia on 12 September 2005. It is a region-free DVD and the only extra on the disc is a short photo gallery. All 8 episodes on the single-disc release are combined into a 3 hour feature. The opening and closing credits have been removed for all episodes, and a number of sketches have been edited out to fit the series onto a single disc.
version of the show, produced by Kelsey Grammer
, aired during 2005 on Fox
. The main cast consisted of Malcolm Barrett
, Kaitlin Olson
, Mary Lynn Rajskub
, and Paul F. Tompkins
, as well as Lee Mack
from the British version of the show. Grammer only appeared in short opening and closing segments in each episode.
Many of the sketches from the British version were recreated, such as the California Dreamin', English Course and the Sign Language sketch.
A famous sketch on the American version had Grammer waking up from a nightmare, which he describes as: "I dreamt that Frasier
was over, and I was on this Sketch Show!" The sketch is a spoof of the Newhart
series finale, in which Bob Newhart
woke up and realised that the whole series was all a dream.
Only six episodes of the show were made, and it was cancelled after only four of them had been shown.
The series was filmed in London, England at Teddington Studios
, with a British audience.
version is currently running. Most sketches in this version are translations or adaptations of British sketches with little original material. The humour style remains faithful to the original.
version called "Die Sketch Show" has been on the air since 2003. It was produced by Brainpool
for the TV channel ProSieben.
It was wildly popular with young demographics and produced 30 episodes and a Christmas special. It was produced by TFG Lt. for ANT1
.
i version called Ktsarim
has been on the air since 2004.
n version called "Sketsa" is also currently on the air. TransTV is airing the sketch comedy show. Most sketches in this version are translations or adaptations of British sketches with little original material. The humour style remains faithful to the original. They only change the names and locations to Indonesian version.
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
programme, featuring many leading British comedians. It aired on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
between 2001 and 2003.
A short-lived spinoff of the same title was produced in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Original line-up
The original line-up of the cast was Lee MackLee Mack
Lee Gordon McKillop is an English stand-up comedian and actor, known by the stage name Lee Mack. He is well known in the United Kingdom for writing and starring in the sitcom Not Going Out, for being a team captain on Would I Lie to You? and for hosting Lee Mack's All Star Cast.-Personal life:Mack...
, Jim Tavare
Jim Tavare
Jim Tavaré is an English stand-up comedian, actor and musician. He is best known for his work on The Sketch Show on ITV which won a BAFTA award and also plays the role of Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.-Life and career:Tavaré was born in Essex,...
, Tim Vine
Tim Vine
Timothy "Tim" Mark Vine is an English actor, writer and comedian. He has released a number of DVDs of his stand-up comedy, as well as starring in the successful series Not Going Out with Lee Mack on the BBC...
, Karen Taylor
Karen Taylor (comedian)
Karen Taylor is an English actress and comedian. She is a former finalist in the prestigious Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award and has fronted her own sketch show on BBC Three, entitled Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor.Taylor studied Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick 1994-1998, where she got to...
and Ronni Ancona
Ronni Ancona
Ronni Ancona is a Scottish actress, impressionist and author. Ancona won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.- Career :...
. The gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
balance of this line-up enabled considerable variation in the dramatic setups for the sketches, in that all three men could be paired with either of the two women.
Second line-up
The second cast line-up consisted of Mack, Tavare, Vine, Taylor and Kitty FlanaganKitty Flanagan
Kitty Flanagan is an Australian comedian.She is best known in Australia for her work on the television series Full Frontal and in the United Kingdom for her work on The Sketch Show. Before getting a job at Full Frontal, Kitty spent 5 years masquerading as a copywriter before moving into stand-ups...
- replacing Ancona, who left to concentrate on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
's Alistair McGowan's Big Impression
Big Impression
The Big Impression, known as Alistair McGowan's Big Impression for the first three series, is a British comedy sketch show. It features Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona impersonating personalities from entertainment and sport...
(which was shortened to simply Big Impression to reflect Ancona playing as many parts as McGowan himself). Again, sketches featured performers using their own names.
With the exception of some child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
s in certain sketches, there were no guest stars at any point during the programme.
Writers
All of the cast contributed to the writing of the show as well. Other comedic writers/actors, such as Ricky GervaisRicky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
, Matthew Hardy
Matthew Hardy
Matthew Hardy is a Melbourne-based comedian and comedy writer who was the first Australian to cement himself full-time on the UK live circuit, spending eight years there in the 1990s, including regular appearances at Jongleurs and The Comedy Store in Leicester Square.A regular at many international...
, Stephen Colledge and Daniel Maier
Daniel Maier
Daniel Maier is a comedy writer and performer for television, radio, print and the stage.Since 2002 he has been part of the writing team for ITV1's Bafta Award-winning Harry Hill's TV Burp...
were also responsible for the show's humour, though as mentioned earlier, were not featured in the show.
DVD
A DVD of the first season was released by Visual EntertainmentVisual Entertainment
Visual Entertainment Inc. is a home video/television distribution company that is based in Toronto, Ontario Canada. It is an independent label but has managed to release quite a few well-known TV series on DVD.-Children:* The Big Adventure Series...
in Australia on 12 September 2005. It is a region-free DVD and the only extra on the disc is a short photo gallery. All 8 episodes on the single-disc release are combined into a 3 hour feature. The opening and closing credits have been removed for all episodes, and a number of sketches have been edited out to fit the series onto a single disc.
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 circusCircusA circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
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 not to do, ey?"
- California Dreamin' - in which Ancona is attempting to record a cover of the Mamas & the PapasThe Mamas & the PapasThe Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
' 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 Ancona storming from the room. As a result of this sketch, many fans of the show deliberately sing along with the original song incorrectly. This sketch was repeated on the American versions of the show with Kelsey Grammer.
- The Phobias Sketch - All five actors are in a phobias workshop, phobias include a fear of the word "Aagh!", a fear of apologies, a fear of repetition, and awkward silences. Vine enters, with a problem where he barks at other people's phobias. The different phobias cause long chains of screaming (Such as apologies, Aagh, Repetition, Barking). For example: The one with the phobia of awkward silence will scream, the man next to her has a phobia of the word "Aagh!" so he screams, since two "Aagh!s" has been screamed (thus a repetition), so the one with the phobia of repetition screams, the one with the problem of barking at other peoples phobia barks next to the ear of the person with the phobia of apologies, scaring him and then he says sorry which makes him scream, and the chain continues.
- The Imaginary Friend Sketch - Ronni, as a therapist, counsels three of the other cast members, each of whom have an imaginary friend: one claims that he was looking for Alcoholic's Anonymous for his friend, one claims to have a boyfriend with the same name as her (presumably real) ex-boyfriend, and one who claims to be the imaginary friend of someone else. By the end of the sketch, it is revealed that the entire room which Ronni believes to be filled with her 'patients' is actually empty- she is the one with the hallucinations of imaginary friends.
- 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 grammarGrammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
("I sometimes have trouble with grammar, isn't it?"), Mack can't spell ("I can't spill to save me loaf, have to rely on the spillchock on me compluter"), Vine can't put emphasis on words correctly ("I have problems with my emPHARsis at different parts of my senTENces") - which causes him problems as a "speech theRAHpist", Taylor places exclamation marks randomly at the end of sentences and shouts the final word ("Sorry, I sometimes put an exclamtion mark at the end by MISTAKE!") and Ancona has a very small vocabulary ("It's alright for you lot, I've got a very small vocabulary").
- The Therapist - Karen plays a therapist in three sketches who after the victim tells her what happens she replies saying, "Ooooooooh I'm crying, my mum left me and I'm stuck on the moon boooo-hoooooooo" in which she makes fun of them. This sketch made a reappearance as a recurring gag in Touch Me, I'm Karen TaylorTouch Me, I'm Karen TaylorTouch Me, I'm Karen Taylor is a British television sketch comedy show written and performed by BAFTA Award-winning comedian Karen Taylor and produced by Avalon Productions. The genre of the show focuses largely on sex and contains much innuendo. The title animation was created by Joanna Davidovich...
.
- The ScrabbleScrabbleScrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
Sketch - This sketch revolves around the often tried method of cheating in Scrabble by claiming to the other player(s) that your seemingly useless collection of letters forms a real word and they are simply unaware of its existence. Mack and Vine are playing Scrabble and Mack begins a conversation by announcing that he went on a date the previous night. When asked by Vine how the date went, Mack replies "Nice girl, bit quazoosl". He then goes on to explain "you know, quazoosl - when someone is so good looking they become intimidating". He then gives an example stating that Liz Hurley would qualify as quazoosl. When the conversation finishes Mack asks whose turn it is and when Vine tells him it is his, he knowingly replies "Is it really?" and unsurprisingly all his letters spell "quazoosl". Later in the same show, Mack asks Vine if he fancies a glass of "saxisquith", to which Vine replies "Don't even think about it..."
- The Sign Language Sketch - Ronni is presenting a feature about the opening of a new building, stood in front of the camera with Lee to her right performing sign languageSign languageA sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
. Lee's unusual and over-expressive actions infuriate Ronni and she regularly has to stop her speech to question what he is doing. Actions include flapping his arms like a chicken to indicate 50% (100% would be flapping his legs as well, and 25% is just a pecking motion) and hitting Ronni in the face with his arm as she says "far left of centre" in her speech. Ronni finally stumps him by using the words "25% off half of the chicken."
- Card Salesman Sketch - Mack tries to sell stupidly specific cards to a shopkeeper, but she refuses. Mack ends up sending one of his cards to her.
United States
An AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
version of the show, produced by Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier...
, aired during 2005 on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. The main cast consisted of Malcolm Barrett
Malcolm Barrett (actor)
Malcolm Barrett is an American actor.He was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. He has appeared as a series regular on Fox's The Sketch Show and Luis....
, Kaitlin Olson
Kaitlin Olson
Kaitlin Olson is an American Bald Eagle best known for playing Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.-Early life and career:...
, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Mary Lynn Rajskub is an American actress and comedian, best known for her leading role as Chloe O'Brian on the Fox action-thriller 24.-Early life:...
, and Paul F. Tompkins
Paul F. Tompkins
Paul Francis Tompkins , best known as Paul F. Tompkins, is an American actor and comedian.-Life and career:Tompkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a receptionist mother and railway worker father. He started out in stand-up comedy in 1986 at The Comedy Works, Philadelphia, PA, where he...
, as well as Lee Mack
Lee Mack
Lee Gordon McKillop is an English stand-up comedian and actor, known by the stage name Lee Mack. He is well known in the United Kingdom for writing and starring in the sitcom Not Going Out, for being a team captain on Would I Lie to You? and for hosting Lee Mack's All Star Cast.-Personal life:Mack...
from the British version of the show. Grammer only appeared in short opening and closing segments in each episode.
Many of the sketches from the British version were recreated, such as the California Dreamin', English Course and the Sign Language sketch.
A famous sketch on the American version had Grammer waking up from a nightmare, which he describes as: "I dreamt that Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
was over, and I was on this Sketch Show!" The sketch is a spoof of the Newhart
Newhart
Newhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990...
series finale, in which Bob Newhart
Bob Newhart
George Robert Newhart , known professionally as Bob Newhart, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide...
woke up and realised that the whole series was all a dream.
Only six episodes of the show were made, and it was cancelled after only four of them had been shown.
The series was filmed in London, England at Teddington Studios
Teddington Studios
Teddington Studios is a large British television studio complex located in Teddington, South-West London, providing studio facilities for programmes airing on BBC television, ITV, and Channel 4 along with others...
, with a British audience.
Canada
A QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
version is currently running. Most sketches in this version are translations or adaptations of British sketches with little original material. The humour style remains faithful to the original.
Germany
A GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
version called "Die Sketch Show" has been on the air since 2003. It was produced by Brainpool
Brainpool (company)
Brainpool TV GmbH is a German television production company located in Cologne. In 2001 it had become a subsidiary of VIVA Medien AG, until a Management-Buy-outs in January 2007.-Productions:*Die Harald Schmidt Show...
for the TV channel ProSieben.
Greece
A sketch show called "Skertsakia" was broadcast during the 2006-2007 season, incorporated scripts from both seasons of the "Sketch Show" along with sketches from the Spanish comedy show "Splunge!".It was wildly popular with young demographics and produced 30 episodes and a Christmas special. It was produced by TFG Lt. for ANT1
ANT1
Antenna, better known as ANT1, is a television network airing in Greece and Cyprus. The alternate spelling is play on words in Greek; ena is the Greek number 1, thus ANT1 is pronounced the same as Antenna . It launched on 31 December 1989, the same year as rival Mega Channel, and is owned by...
.
Israel
An IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i version called Ktsarim
Ktsarim
Ktsarim is an Israeli sketch comedy series, broadcast on Channel 2, and based on the British comedy show The Sketch Show. The show is a series of sketches, often with a punch line at the end.It features:* Moni Moshonov...
has been on the air since 2004.
Indonesia
An IndonesiaIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n version called "Sketsa" is also currently on the air. TransTV is airing the sketch comedy show. Most sketches in this version are translations or adaptations of British sketches with little original material. The humour style remains faithful to the original. They only change the names and locations to Indonesian version.