Forgotten television shows: volume five

Back in the days when MTV still played music, when the Real World didn’t consist entirely of people having sex and getting arrested, when Road Rules was actually interesting and MTV Unplugged wasn’t just a crass marketing gimmick, MTV would occasionally produce something brilliant. Be it the humor of Beavis and Butthead or the cool anime of Aeon Flux or Jon Stewart’s talk show, there was a sense of daring and innovation there. And that was no better home for that than The State. A show that was a good decade ahead of its time.

The fun thing is that though you might not remember The State you’ve seen all the actors. They’ve since appeared on Viva Variety and Reno 911, two of the best shows that Comedy Central has ever done. Michael Ian Black had a long run on Ed and apparently makes a living off of the I Love the (Insert Decade Here) shows. They were all a group of young comedians and the show was simple sketch comedy. Except it wasn’t topical parody like Saturday Night Live is supposed to be. And it wasn’t satire like the Ben Stiller Show. It was…it was…it was just bizarre.

Like you had Louie, the guy with the catchphrase “I want to dip my balls in it.” That was the entire sketch. Everything was set to feed lines to this guy so he could yell “I want to dip my balls in it!” over and over and over again. And it was a completely invented catchphrase, it wasn’t something that became popular. From the first time he took the stage it was, here’s Louie and here is his catchphrase. There was something incredibly postmodern about it.

You also had Barry and Levon and their two hundred and forty dollars worth of pudding. (If you remember this sketch I can guarantee that you are laughing and going “Aww yeah…”) Just two guys, dressed in seventies Studio 54 gear, throwing out some inane pickup lines and discussing how they’ve acquired two hundred and forty dollars worth of pudding. I can remember watching this in my dorm room and laughing hysterically while other people would be going “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”

And you had Doug, the “I’m out of here guy.” This was probably their best sketch idea. Doug was your stereotypical slacker with all of his slacker friends who would argue with his dad and always say “I am out of here.” Which would just be a typical slacker sketch except for the fact that they made his dad the coolest person on the planet. I mean, he ran a record label, hung out with bands, drank with Doug’s friends. I mean sketches would end with Doug taking off and his friends still hanging out with his dad. It just seemed to be a perfect example about needing to rebel but having absolutely nothing to rebel against.

I know I can’t do the show justice by talking about it. If you were watching it ten years ago you know that it was hysterical. If you weren’t watching it, you can pray that one day they will finally allow it to come out on DVD. Because you’ll never see a show like that on MTV again. Though I have to admit, Pimp My Ride is pretty cool.