Mr. Show is the most overrated sketch comedy ever... and I do mean ever

It's not that funny. Kids In The Hall and The State were both at least
ten times better.

RichA...

Americans weaned on the dreck that is SNL cannot appreciate truly good
comedy.

tomcervo...

It's the literacy quotient. When they do the explorers sketch and and
Cleese mentions "Great Expedition", there's a three-second cut to a
picture of the Crystal Palace and a Strauss waltz. Then back to Cleese,
exasperated, who says "Great EXPEDITION".
If you don't get it, it's not funny.

moviePig...

(Pssst... you're talking about 'Monty Python', not 'Mr. Show'...)

With regard to that joke, I'm indeed illiterate. So, even at the
acknowledged cost of all trace of humor, would you please explain...

Bill Anderson...

Oooh! Oooh! Mr. Kotter!

moviePig...

Aha. Well, at least I feel merely Brit-illiterate...

Hunter Rose...

I assume the cut to the palace and waltz was a "great
exposition", and the character is complaining about the
"misunderstanding".

Squad...

I pity you for the dark and joyless world in which you live.

Quiet Desperation...

Wow. Where do you live? I live on this thing called Earth. How strict is
your immigration policy?

Squad, figures that world includes 24-7 showings of Full House

Baba Yaga...

I fixed your subject header.

Squad...

praised=20

Mr. Show IS overrated. The vast majority of the sketches were simply
unfunny. However, Mr. Show is not anywhere close being as unjustly praised
as "Monty Python's Flying Circus" is.

I just got the Monty Python box set, and watched it. There were some
amusing moments, but nothing as laugh-out-loud funny as some of the
sketches I've seen on Mad TV and SNL.

Jason Todd WITH LAYLA...

I will not assault you, like some MP freaks might.

I will simply admit that their absurdist approach to humor does require
a bit of knowledge of the United Kingdom, European History, whereas
appreciation of Mad TV and SNL requires a bit of knowledge of human
bowel functions.

Jason "Lemon Curry!??!" Todd

natch...

madtv is better than Monty Python? wow, cant believe someone thinks that

RSF Group...

i used to think python was funny as hell. i still appreciate its
originality when it first came out. but, i can't enjoy it anymore.
i find most of it just annoying and one-dimensional.

in a way, it's a one-joke comedy. it pokes fun at british stiff upper
lip. joke after joke, it's about pulling the rug from the british
sense of form and propriety.
maybe in the 70s, there was still some stiffery to upset.
today, britons are as easygoing as the rest and the monty python jokes
just fall flat.
they can only be appreciated within the context of social change in the
70s.

and, i almost never found SNL funny. at least python had ideas. SNL
only had runny skits which 99% of time misfired badly.

Rerics...

I don't care how exrementally runny they were.

Stick Waver...

The fault is in our stars.

lab~rat >:-)...

I agree. Not a big fan of limey humor at all...

jombithedjinn...

No, I'm afraid you're very wrong. This is funnier than anything Mad TV
has ever done, and most of what SNL has ever done:

Squad...

You also I pity for the dark and joyless world in which you live.

George Peatty...

That's true of everything and everyone who ever tried to be funny, including the
people we here revere as greats. To turn a phrase, you can entertain some of
the people some of the time, but no one is funny enough to make everyone laugh
all the time. There is a lot of chaff in the wheat, and that includes Monty
Python, which would have us believe on occasion that yelling is funny. What
were they thinking? (Maybe better, what were they smoking?)

That said, I'll take bad Monty Python over good SNL or MadTV any day, and I
confess to having a weak spot for British comedy, classic bits like the Two
Ronnies and No, Honestly, and best of all, the Goon Show.