You’ve heard it all before! You haven’t? Good, because I’m Dave, the guys who comes in and writes a review every week. Speaking of week, how week of a reference was that? Sue me, my girlfriend’s brother’s Netflix account is the only reason I have seen this show along with David Wain filling my MySpace account back in the day with messages when the DVD came out. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, and are still reading, I am talking about the sketch show that aired on MTV, The State! If you’ve never heard of it, likely you’ve heard of what these people have done afterwards. The cast of the State went on to make movies like Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models, Run Fat Boy Run, Night at the Museum, Balls of Fury, and many more. They’re also acted in a ton of stuff; I’ll just go ahead and point out Joe Lo Truglio in Pineapple Express because for some reason I love that little man. A lot of the people involved went onto make television shows Reno 911. So let’s conclude in saying, barring a few, you’ve probably heard of them.
This review is not about the future, well the past now, but back then yesterday would have been tomorrow and ….it’s about The State. This sketch comedy show was on the airwaves of MTV from 1993 to 1995. I’ve heard people say that it is a little dated, and that’s pretty true. They do sketches about very 90 cereal commercials and featured music from the day (that you will never hear unless you got the shows on a VHS). For those of you under 15, those are things mommies and daddies made naughty tapes on. MTV dropped the show, and they tried to go to a network, but alas, it was not to be. The cast maintains the fact that they were never cancelled, but, you know, it’s kind of what happened. I’ll maintain that stance until someone gives me proof.
GET THE MAN PROOF CARL!
Every time the State comes on, I am plagued with the theme song being stuck in my head. Doing extensive research as I always do, I found that the song was “Boys and Girls – Action” by Craig Wedren and Eli Janney. Craig Wedren has since done all the music for everything any of these actors has ever done. It’s a tight group. Now that I have that song stuck in my head for at least 3 hours, once the opening is done, you are barraged with off the wall comedy. The sketches are normally reminiscent of what I would imagine happens inside mentally unstable monkey minds. It’s a lot of weird noises, disjointed speech and pure insanity. What I’m trying to get it, is that it’s great.
People from the State, namely David Wain, who I mentioned, and Thomas Lennon (the doctor or random guy from every B-comedy in the last 2 years,) have stated that they did not want to create recurring characters. They wanted to be fresh every week. Sadly for them, they were under the thumb of MTV. If that station can somehow ruin music, they sure as hell can ruin comedy. Somehow only Mike Judge is immune, and I’m kicking myself for not reviewing his show before it came back. Anyways, even though they did not want to make these characters, they are some of the most iconic of all their sketches, so maybe their instinct was wrong.
First off is the recurring character that I reference at the start of this mess. His name is Louie, and…
He probably wants to dip his balls in it.
That’s really all he did. Hilarious, but weird. I’ve dipped golf balls in to stuff ever since I saw this man, played by the good looking Italian stud Ken Marino. There was also the duo of Barry and Levon, who rubbed their butts on pudding and generally annoyed me. Captain Monterey Jack gave bad advice in a dark gym, and the Old Fashioned Guy explained just how Old Fashioned he was.
He thinks fire is magic. It scares him a lot.
Then last, was Doug. He was my favorite character, played by Michael Showalter, and was a suburban high school kids with a penchant for causing very slight trouble. He wanted to rebel, but had nothing to really rebel about. He had some pretty cool adults around him, including good old Uncle Robert. Even though they did not want to make these sketches, they ended up helping the show’s longevity and helped get a DVD release over 10 years after it stopped airing.
One aspect that was interesting about this group is that they only had one woman. Later that would be topped by 5 white kids that had none, but either way, it was always interesting to note when Miss Kerri Kenney would show up. There were sketches where she would be the only girl, or one in a group surrounded by her very hairy girlfriends. She even played a boy in one sketch and the boys played girls. It was fun to see her play punks, housewives, boys and whatever else they could come up with. Honestly, I think Ben Garant, Todd Holoubek, and Kevin Allison made pretty enough girls.
I want to quote Jeff King from “Not Our Class, Dear” because he sums up what the show was better than I’ve ever seen: “The State wasn’t on for very long because it didn’t seem to really care what anybody thought of it. There were so many cast members that the show was basically a bunch of friends trying to make each other laugh for thirty minutes. And I’m okay with that. The last thing I want is art trying to pander to my needs. Real art is supposed to spit in my face and tell me to go fuck myself, not hold my hand and ask me what I want for breakfast.”
The State gave a nice breath of fresh air into the world of sketch comedy. They have even gone on to be the air filing the lungs of comedy today. Clunky analogy aside, I think you get my point. It’s kind of like how Freaks and Geeks was great, but it getting cancelled was the best thing that could have happened. I could write 5 entries on this show’s sketches alone, but I’ll end on saying it was very innovative, and even though the DVD is a little watered down since copyright issues forced some changes, the show is worth checking out. Dated or not, funny is funny. Just like Doug, I’m outta hheeeeeere.
This is Michael Patrick Jann. He's the only one I didn't mention. He mainly wrote and directed and still does. So here is his face. Then/Now