Take Five: Sketch Comedy Movies

There are a lot of reasons that big-screen comedies released by sketch-comedy troupes don't often work. Audiences tend to want big stars in their movies, not no-name comedians, leading to gimmicky cameos; the cannibalistic nature of TV comedy often eats up all the good jokes, leading the big-screen efforts to repeat the same gags over and over; and a character that can be hilarious over the course of five minutes can be agonizing over the course of two hours. Most of all, what works so often in favor in short-form comedy on TV — the fact that if you don't like a skit, it'll be over before you know it — works against it in a feature, where you come to expect a more consistent narrative and realize that you're stuck with these guys for the long haul. Balls of Fury, from the creators of Reno 911 and The State, opens today and tries to break the dismal record of bad movies by good sketch-comedy groups (Run Ronnie Run, anyone?); here's a few more that brought the funny.MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975)This one is. . . uh, well, it's the Holy Grail of movies by sketch comedy groups. It's not hard to figure out why the Pythons succeeded on the big screen where so many others failed: they were better actors, better writers, and had Terry Gilliam, who, despite his many failings, is a genuinely brilliant director who understands how to make a film work, behind the camera. Given the almost instinctive cringe we display when hearing the phrase "based on the Saturday Night Live character," it serves us well to remember that sketch comedians are responsible for a movie widely considered one of the greatest comedies of all time.THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980)Speaking of SNL. It's telling that you have to go back almost thirty years to find a comedy sprung from the country's longest-running sketch showcase that's actually worth watching more than once. [Um, not. — ed.] The Blues Brothers has a lot to answer for — it ushered in the era of big, dumb comedies that substituted expensive and noisy for witty and clever, and without its massive success, we might never have had to suffer through It's Pat!. But it's still charming for about half of its runtime, with great songs by great performers and acting cameos that are small and effective instead of hammy and obvious.BRAIN CANDY (1996)The only movie offering from Canadian sketch-comedy legends the Kids in the Hall isn't without its problems. Like a lot of movies of the sort, it relies too heavily on characters from the show, it's disjointed at times, and it's not particularly well-directed. What's more, behind-the-scenes conflicts amongst the group led to a few voices dominating the script at the expense of others. That said, when it works, it works like mad, with little bits and moments crammed into a surprisingly topical plot standing out as some of the best work the Kids have ever done. Add to this an interesting visual aesthetic and some great music, and it's worth watching.BEST IN SHOW (2000)Probably the best sketch-comedy films have come from the troupe led by Christopher Guest — unique in the sense that they have no name and were assembled as a sort of supergroup consisting of members of many high-profile comedy troupes. In this, probably the most successful of Guest's projects, you find Groundlings (Michael Hitchcock and Guest himself, among many others), SCTV alums (Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy), Credibility Gap vets (Michael McKean and Harry Shearer), and people like Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard, members of many improv and sketch-comedy groups. It's the experience that makes the cast work.WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER (2001)Another effort from graduates of one-time MTV house sketch group The State, Wet Hot American Summer succeeds so well not so much because it's heart-stoppingly funny (though it has its moments) as because it so precisely captures the look and feel of the 1980s-vintage low-budget summer fun comedies that it emulates. Indeed, so exactly does it recall the Screwballs era that it's become something of a cult phenomenon among hip filmgoers who came of age watching those coming-of-age comedies. All that, and Janeane Garafolo teamed up with David Hyde Pierce in the least believable screen romance of all time!

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