March 11, 2005
-
Sketchers: from left, Lee Mack, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Paul F. Tompkins, Kaitlin Olson and Malcolm Barrett
TV REVIEW | ‘KELSEY GRAMMER PRESENTS: THE SKETCH SHOW’
Quick Gags in a World of Visual One-Liners
ketch comedy must be hilarious to do, since only love of the art could induce comics with decent commercial instincts – Drew Carey recently, and now Kelsey Grammer – to put their names on juvenile sketch shows that no unstoned adult would ever want to watch. Mr. Carey’s trippy series, “Drew Carey’s Green Screen,” which started on WB in October, seems to be enjoying a permanent time-out, while Mr. Grammer’s slightly more professional presentation, “The Sketch Show,” will begin its foray onto thin ice on Fox on Sunday.
To be fair, “Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show” gives the format a serious try, adapting and Americanizing a series that’s already had a two-year trial run on British television, where it was apparently a commercial success. He’s brought on Kaitlin Olson from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Mary Lynn Rajskub from “24,” Malcolm Barrett from “Luis” and Paul F. Tompkins from “Real Time With Bill Maher” to join him – and Lee Mack, a British comedian who was part of the cast of “The Sketch Show” in England.
This group seems promising – especially the women – but not even the best comedians can thrive in nothing but visual one-liners, and that’s what this rapid-fire show is all about. For example, somebody thought two men in armor showing up at a hotel and saying, “We’d like a room for two knights,” would be the height of humor if you could actually see it, and the team at “The Sketch Show” has gone to the trouble of creating a hotel reception desk and some chain mail for the seconds-long occasion.
Similarly, a smiling young tourist is shown posing for a picture with a sober-faced Buckingham Palace guard; the reveal is that the guard, who thanks the girl and retreats to his family – a wife and children all in red uniforms and busbies – has actually stepped up to pose with her. Funny to dream up, funnier with a quick drawing, but why execute it? These shorties seem as if they might inspire other comedians to perform New Yorker cartoons in full dress. What is gained?
Mr. Grammer has some muted fun at his own expense, playing a psychiatric patient named Kelsey who dutifully explains his past troubles with drugs. When his shrink (Ms. Olson) responds by taunting him about his whining, playground-style, he looks sincerely hurt.
The same gag is also brought back, with the therapist sneering at other folks’ problems, at various stages in the show. As if the Buckingham Palace guard weren’t enough, this elementary jab at therapy is a good reminder that – in spite of the accents of the new performers – this is still a British show and a mostly British form. Maybe we Americans can’t do sketch comedy; maybe we don’t appreciate it; or maybe, most of the time, it’s just not funny.
‘Kelsey Grammer Presents’
“The Sketch Show”
Fox, Sunday night at 9:30 Eastern and Pacific times; 8:30 Central time.
Directed by Richard Boden; Kelsey Grammer, Steve Stark, Jon Thoday, executive producers; Dan Patterson, executive producer and writer.
WITH: Kelsey Grammer (as himself), Kaitlin Olson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Lee Mack, Paul F. Tompkins and Malcolm Barrett.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | RSS | Help | Back to Top
