a clip from the first episode of 'mr. show with bob and david,' in which david cross presents a selection from his one-man musical, 'hitler sings.'
Mr. Show with Bob and David is an American sketch comedy series starring and hosted by Saturday Night Live writer/actor Bob Odenkirk and stand up comedian/actor David Cross. It aired on HBO from November 3, 1995, to December 28, 1998.
Cross and Odenkirk introduced most episodes as versions of themselves, before transitioning to a mixture of live sketches and pre-taped segments. The show featured a number of alternative comedians as both cast members and writers, including Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Brian Posehn, Jerry Minor, Scott Aukerman, and Dino Stamatopoulos.
It was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as a Golden Satellite Award.
-from wikipedia.
lie detector.
the word 'irreverent' gets tossed around a lot w/r/t sketch comedy shows, but mr. show was definitely one of the most deserving of the term. in their four season run, they made sketches about the KKK, nazis, reality tv shows, satanists, catholics, NAMBLA and tons of other topics. instead of doing the 'SNL' approach, and making sketches based on current events, celebrities and headlines, they went for a more broad approach, avoiding current event-topicality, and instead focusing on subjects that were more universal, which is probably one of the reasons the show is still so funny 16 years after it finished airing.
the new KKK/NAMBLA - 'we're not killers.'
the 'hail satan' network.
the mr. show cracker barrel, in which they attempt to solicit hate mail from viewers.
operation 'hell on earth.'
they didn't always focus on pushing audiences' buttons, though. some of the best mr. show moments were just genuinely funny.
the 'todd linder-floman show.'
drunk cops.
'eww, girl. ewww.' the hit single by three times one minus one.
the highest number.
titannica.
wyckyd sceptre.
mr. show made a lot of sketches with music. this one's great, and involves one of their few recurring charcters, ronnie dobbs:
fuzz the musical.
unlike many sketch comedy shows, mr. show didn't rely on recurrent characters to ensure viewers. the above seen ronnie dobbs was one of the few (he also shows up in the mr. show movie, 'run, ronnie, run). three times one minus one also made several appearances on the show. otherwise, every episode featured different characters and sketches.
'peanut butter, eggs and dice: the bob lamonta story.'
due both to its being broadcast on HBO and HBO's constant changing of the timeslot in which the show aired, mr. show failed to find a mainstream audience while it was on air, though it was critically acclaimed and remains a fan favorite to this day.
thrilling miracles!
globo-chem/pit-pat, the pansexual!
america is going to blow up the moon.
as mentioned at the beginning of the post, many current luminaries of the current comedy scene had their televised debuts on mr. show, including sarah silverman, brian posehn, and jay johnston, all of whom wrote and starred on the sarah silverman program. tom kenny and jill talley are both more well known for their voiceover work: kenny did the voice of spongebob squarepants for the entirety of the series run, while talley has done voices for, among other series, the boondocks (in fact, series creator aaron mcgruder said of talley that she was great because she could voice any side characters and make them great). co-writer dino stamatopolous created the [adult swim] stop-motion series moral orel.
series star david cross played the part of brother-in-law/analrapist (that means he's both and analyst and a therapist) tobias f¸nke on short-lived fox sitcom arrested development, which also saw guest appearances by bob odenkirk (as a marriage counselor) and johnston and 4th season costar jerry minor (as gay cops for whom juklia louis-dreyfuss is serving as surrogate mother).
odenkirk, cross and longtime costar john ennis also appeared in the video for yo la tengo's 1997 single 'sugar cube:'
yo la tengo - sugarcube.
indomitable spirit, featuring john ennis, jay johnston, sarah silverman and jill talley.
this is only a brief introduction to the series, but i hope it inspires everyone to go seek out the whole series. it's available in a six-disc box set (here is a link to buy it on amazon), and i believe HBOgo is streaming it, for readers in the US who pay for a subscription. there is also a newish book out, called 'hollywood said no!' which collects scripts and sketches that were written but never filmed for the show, and a now out-of-print book, 'mr. show: what happened?!' which collects cast and writer anecdotes and a complete episode guide, both of which can also be found on amazon.
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p.s. Hey. The honorable d.l., writer, and musician (not in that order, of course) Rewritedept is back in the frame to, in this case, focus us in on that nugget of a TV show 'Mr. Show'. Are you already fans? Is this a discovery? Is it ... something else? All bases should be covered, and I hope you will respond to the show and/or to its evidence and to its host accordingly, thank you. And thanks galore to the guy in charge. ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul! Cool of you to spread some of that sweet stuff back at your congratulators and admirers. ** David Ehrenstein, Sir! Paper plate on his cock ... hold on. Oh, ha ha, he wishes. Yeah, your friend's thing that he likes does seem up my alley. I'll go look at the trailer and so on and so forth in a bit. Thanks! Everyone, David Ehrenstein's friend David Cairnes alerted the readers of his wordpress to a forthcoming horror-type film called 'Let Us Prey', and Mr. E thought I and you guys would be interested to check it out. I am, and I have this feeling that at least some of you would be into said film in theory too. Why not find out?'Quite enjoyed it' sounds kind of qualified? Am I right? ** Kier, Hi, K! Yeah, keep at the drawing. That's how it unlocks. It's really about chiseling away the fog and the external weight and stuff. Great, great, so glad that's working! Bottle feeding the lambs. aw. Any chance for a Kier/lamb selfie? The drawings you made for Jheorgge's/George's memorial are beautiful, my pal! Hugs. Everyone, you remember that the blog recently paid tribute to Jheorgge aka George Michael Taylor, an amazing and very much loved d.l. who passed away from cancer. For Jheorgge's memorial service, the great Kier made two beautiful drawings, and you can see them here. ** Bill, Hi. German slant? I never notice, but I always assume there's some kind of German slant because it does seem that, for reasons I don't understand, German escorts often have the best texts, proportional speaking. No clue as to why. Where are you going to be in Germany again? Shall I point you in some fellas' direction? Ha ha, that was a tight flash fiction thing. I think I might also nominate the Guyotat-ish stylings of CrazyHairDresser. ** Aaron Mirkin, I will, yeah, if I find those notes. I wrote an essay thing on pro-wrestling back in the, hm, mid-80s, and it's in my 'Smothered in Hugs' book, but it's not so interesting or great, I don't think. One of the guys who I'm pretty sure is going to be in Zac's and my film is a Death Metal bass player/singer who is really into pro-wrestling, and we've shot the shit about it. Ooh, stills. Nice! Everyone, d.l. Aaron Mirkin is also a super-excellent filmmaker, if you don't know. And he recently shot the upcoming new Xiu Xiu video clip, and, if you want a preview, here are two stills to gander at: one, two. ** Schoolboyerrors, Hi, D! Yeah, I think chilling is right, speaking for me, but it's a chill intersected by and in battle with other tones, some creating deflections. It's impossible to speak about the escorts in general, or it is for me, because there's no way to know how much theater, truth, lying, confession, manipulation, artful or playful usage of the form and categories is going on, especially given that the ones I seem to particularly like and use in the posts a lot involve guys trying to write clearly in a non-native language or even tossing what they actually wrote into some translation service and serving up whatever it scrambles into English. And with the escorts, it's a job, and the texts are their come-ons and resumes, so, I don't know, I always see it as a different thing than on a hook-up or dating site, but that distinction might be a convenience that I'm constructing to support my interest in the idea that the escort ads are studies and experiments in depersonalization, in part. Or something. I'm too uncoffeed right now to try to be a bright guy. Anyway, that's so interesting. I mean, well, everything you said, but also that resemblance to the house searching thing. And books are getting that treatment too? Wow, that's ... I don't know what I think about that. I'll go read what's at the end of that link. Neoliberalism, ha ha, yes, innit, indeed. Cool. Love to you too, my man. ** Kyler, That play does sound fun. Grand Guignol-ish. It so often does suck that critics come on opening night. We've had that mess with Gisele's work too. ** Steevee, Hi. That racist tattoo guy seems to have been the eye-mind-crotch-catcher of the bunch. He kind of lit up my FB feed and threatened to become a meme but didn't quite get there. ** Misanthrope, Oh, right, you've haven't seen me since I started wearing a headband everywhere I go. I have never seen a pack of Camel Blue Wides on sale over here anywhere, but if I do, oh boy, I'll be so happy. Even happier than I am having a Chipotle in Paris.
Great that LPS is coming! Who's doing what at that Raw? I have a feeling that I won't know most of the names, though, I'm so out of it. Oh, yeah, about that Roth. Never read it. Trying him again seems like a perfectly reasonable idea. Hm. ** Zach, Yeah, right? Re: the end. Congrats on getting that behind you. Well, physically behind you. You are now officially a man or something, apparently. Yeah, what was xPop44's thing? It sounded to me like he was looking for a sex-starved, control freak roommate or something. Huh, that blog you've been looking at does seem very curious. Sweet and, I don't know, something that tweaks my investigative impulse. Thank you. I'll go scroll down/through/back. Maybe others would be curious. Everyone, here's d.l. Zach tipping me and you, if you like, to a blog. I'll let him tell you: 'I have also been looking at this blog a lot lately. It's a 20 and 53 year old in a couple who get asked a lot of questions and do a weird balance of endearing and kind of sad or lonely feeling and ultimately heartwarming: http://mikeandbob.tumblr.com/. They said they were going to delete it and focus on their relationship but then they kept it up!' Thanks, man. ** Sypha, Ha ha, that makes sense about MisterEyeCandy. He's two of your favorite rolled into one. Okay, that's some progress on your health issues. That's good, tentative as it is. How's the new therapist? Yeah, I loved 'GBH' too. He's really, really good. ** les mots dans le nom, That's interesting about the impression BEE makes. I don't know him very well at all, but melancholic makes sense. I'm not sure about greedy. I didn't get that, but I had his whole body and voice and stuff to work with. Fatigue, I know that one. I won't forget you, don't worry, and I've got work galore for the next while too, so my goal is not to forget myself, ha ha. ** Rerwritedept, Hi, man! Thank you again for gracing this hood with your great post! Nice musical scores there. There aren't any good used record stores in Paris that I've found. In fact, there's only one really good record store here that I've found, period, and it's tiny and only really stocks fringe, experimental things, which, of course, works for me. I think my Wednesday will be pretty good. All signs point in the good direction. Fingers crossed, for yours too. ** Right. Have a 'Mr. Show' kind of day today, you guys. See you tomorrow.