Mad TV is an awful television show. It might be one of the worst shows ever. With poor actors, poor writing, and poor production value I’m not really sure what they ever intended to entertain an audience with. If you like Mad TV, keep reading, and hopefully by the end of this I will have convinced you otherwise.
Admittedly I will be judging Mad TV against the path that SNL has blazed in the world of sketch comedy, but SNL has earned that right. Even at it’s worst it has at least been watchable, and continues to produce talent that moves on to better careers. Mad TV is utter garbage. Can you name one cast member from Mad TV that has gone on to do anything remotely succesful? Can you name one cast member from Mad TV at all? I can, but that’s because I’m a glutton for punishment. Daytime television consists of either watching the same episode of Sportscenter over and over again or watching the seven episodes of Mad TV that someone conned Comedy Central into airing. I stare at the television and ponder how such a show could continue for 13 horrid seasons. If you really need some cast members listed here, I’ll give you Will Sasso AKA Chris Farley without talent, and Aries “The Black Guy From Mad TV” Spears. You may recognize Sasso from the James Lipton sketch that they completely, and quite atrociously, ripped off SNL and Will Ferrell. These two hacks have been cornerstones, or dead weights, for Mad TV over the years. Both have retired from the show, however, to move on to…something?
The writing on the show is uninspiring and unoriginal. Just because Ms. Swan is now in a hair salon instead of a grocery store doesn’t mean you have a new sketch. The first one wasn’t funny in the first place. Also, just because a cast member is the same race as the person they are impersonating DOES NOT mean they are suddenly the spitting image. It generally feels like the Mad TV writers start out with a lot of enthusiam for their sketch but half way through writing it decide that it was a bit more work than they were wanting to do that day, so they just let it peeter out with a soft whimper, like an arrogant gloater who just realized mid-sentence that nobody was impressed by the horse mag coming out of his mouth.
Mad TV is the bottom rung of sketch comedy. SNL blows it out of the water like a battleship attacking some driftwood. If you’re old enough to remember SCTV (which I’m technically not, details), I don’t need to explain any of this to you. In Living Color was both cheaper to produce and much funnier. I’ll even go out on a limb and claim that Nickelodeon’s All That was a better show. What I don’t understand is how Fox can continue to support such a travesty of a television show and yet cancel any and every quality programming they ever had. Mad TV’s only saving grace was that they once had the Wu Tang Clan on as a musical guest.
In closing, do yourself a favor and don’t ever watch Mad TV. Then do ME a favor, and petition Fox to cancel Mad TV. Instead, spend your time watching this show:
-bear arms
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