PopSmart

Nerve.com and IFC have presented one of the most entertaining, time-wasting lists in the recent history of the list-happy Internet: “The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time.” Putting aside the question of why a site best known for erotica is putting a showcase on comedy, it’s a pretty good list, with Youtube clips of most of the sketches in question. Many “Saturday Night Live” clips are apparently not available, which diminishes the SNL-centric list. It deserves props for including lesser-known pieces from the likes of “The State” and the Upright Citizens Brigade amid the more familiar cowbells, dead parrots and Rick James impersonations. Plus, at a time when anything before Star Wars is considered ancient pop culture history, this list includes such vintage bits of tomfoolery as “Who’s on first?” by Abbott & Costello, scenes from “Your Show of Shows” and “SCTV” and the surreal brilliance of “The Nairobi Trio” from “The Ernie Kovacs Show.”

Of course, any list that purports to be definitive invariably receives aggrieved questions like “Hey, why doesn’t this include MY favorite?” So I say, “Hey, why doesn’t this include ‘Girl-Drink Drunk?’ by The Kids in the Hall?” The Kids in the Hall and “Mr. Show” get the short end of the stick here, and possibly The Kids in the Hall’s most pitch-perfect sketch is “Girl-Drink Drunk,” an inspired parody of lurid substance-abuse dramas:

Hmm, I could go for a Tahitian Tee-Hee right about now, too.

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