2015 felt like the year where everybody kept trying to one up each other. Whether it was pushing into animation, having a thematic through-line that connected the show into one thing, or just doing a bare bones great classic sketch, I saw so many things that pushed the boundaries of what we can do comedically and I know pushed me and others to want to write better, perform better, and just overall be better. I can’t imagine what that means for 2016.
I saw this during Cartoon Monsoon as part of Five Dollar Comedy Week, and just fell in love with it. It feels so unique in its voice and yet like an homage to the great word play gag comedians like Mel Brooks or the Zucker Brothers. The animation definitely helps it zip along too, I really love the pacing of this one. And that pumpkin, what a scene stealer!
Another animated one. Is that allowed? Because I don’t know if there are much funnier brains than Dan Corkery’s. Dan gets tone right better than almost anyone I know. The stakes of this kid getting perfect attendance are so low, but it is just infused with this sense of dark danger that absolutely make sense. This kid feels absurd and real at the same time. But it is really the little details that make me laugh at this, like the READ poster in the back, or the way he is just bobbing around at the beginning. Even the name Tyler Horner feels like the pitch perfect right choice. The details will kill you, but Dan is always paying attention.
The whole thing as a piece was just so damn strong. It bobbed and weaved and was just one organic thing where it made it seem like every single sketch reinforced every other single sketch as one whole unit. I’ve never seen anything like all the characters breaking from what they were doing and yelling Karen every time Kate Banford came through on her rollerblades, or the chanting of lines together and over each other which Caitlin Weigel has just seemed to master this year in her writing. I really think it set a big bar in people’s heads of what they wanted to try differently with sketch and comedy. Very cool.
This one just makes me feel good. It has so much heart, and makes me laugh, and like a lot of stuff Shawna Stoltzfoos writes, has this weird vibe of feeling important somehow. This sketch really earnestly respects its characters and their hopes and wants and fears, and gives them a depth that we just don’t see a lot of in comedy. I hopped in a car and went to Indianapolis to see Barbara Bush put on the show that this was in, and boy am I glad that I did. They have such a unique, truthful writing and acting style that feeds into and off of each other’s work. You can’t teach that.