The fever for great sketch comedy

This seems highly appropriate considering the recent "Kids in the Hall" announcement and March Madness-style rank-a-thon we just had of our own at Channel Surfing.

Nerve and the Independent Film Channel have picked the "50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All-Time," complete with YouTube clips when available.

As you'd expect, old "Saturday Night Live" and "Monty Python" sketches dominate, and its hard to dispute the overwhelming inclusion of two ground breaking shows. There's also a smattering of "Kids," "Mr. Show," "Chappelle's Show," "SCTV" and awesomely enough, MTV's "The State." (Three cheers for "Monkey Torture!") Amy Poheler's pre-"SNL" project -- the grossly underappreciated "Upright Citizens Brigade" -- also makes the cut, but sadly, Ben Stiller's old Fox show does not.

The clips are awesome, and even if say, Will Ferrell's Neil Diamond "Storytellers" sketch would be my personal choice over "More Cowbell," it's hard to argue with the latter getting the 50 spot. Sketch comedy lovers could argue for days about what should be here -- and generational bias most certainly would play a role in my putting too many "Kids" and "Mr. Show" sketches to count -- but hey, kudos to the list makers for taking a stab in the first place.

Speaking of stabs, here's a favorite of mine that made the list.

(Yes, "Kids in the Hall" will be taking over the blog from now until June 1. Also, as if knowing this is what I'd be craving this morning, here's a fresh "Kids" interview from the A.V. Club. As a buddy of mine said today, these guys could just sit and talk on stage for 90 minutes and it'd be phenomenal.)


-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com