The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches Of All Time

[HFWR]

The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time - Nerve.com

[bbbamI]

Great thread, HFWR!

I love Kids in The Hall, but I have to admit the Chicken Lady always creeped me out.

[Midpack]

I always liked this one (at the end of the clip)...

YouTube - TV's Funniest Moments - Taxi's Christopher Lloyd - Hilarious

[mickeyd]

It's a tie....

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's most famous live radio bit, the ultimate paean to comic misunderstanding, was showcased in a couple of their films, many of their radio and TV appearances, and in a command performance for FDR. A simple request for the names of the St. Louis ballplayers creates more confusion the more information is provided, as Costello, a peanut vendor, fails to understand that Abbott, the manager of the team, is providing the players' names even though it sounds like he's randomly repeating back-question words. Though the joke's concept isn't original (the format was common to burlesque and the premise is about as profound as a greeting-card pun), the impeccable delivery and crafting make every "Third base!" seem divinely inspired. Pretty much every sketch group, comedy show and comedian since then has studied the sketch; many have reprised it, including Johnny Carson, South Park, The Simpsons and Kids in the Hall. And it's one of those jokes that's universally funny: who hasn't experienced the kind of escalating bafflement that makes you threaten someone with a broken arm or hit yourself in the head with a baseball bat? — Ada Calhoun

The premise: a man (John Cleese) attempts to return his brand-new parrot to the pet shop, having realized that the bird is quite obviously dead. The pet-shop owner (Michael Palin) refuses to believe that the parrot is dead, and therefore refuses to let him return it. That's it. While many high-concept sketches have won a deserving place on this list, the Dead Parrot Sketch is something rarer: a simple conceptexecuted with pure comedic brilliance. Cleese and Palin are perfect foils, and much of the joke stems from the rational man growing increasingly hysterical, while the irrational one remains perfectly calm, offering one ridiculous explanation after another ("You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up! Norwegian Blues stun easily.") Just as each new generation keeps discovering the Beatles, hundreds of thirteen-year-olds are right now watching this sketch on YouTube for the first time, and incorporating the phrase "pining for the fjords" into their vocabularies. Unlike that unfortunate parrot, this is one joke that will never die. — GW

"He's not dead. He's pinin for the fjords"

[Purron]

Great!! Many of these are my all time favorites. The "Parrot Sketch" is a good choice for #1. As many of you know, I volunteer at the animal shelter. It's hard not to quote Monty Python when I work with the parrots. I have been know to often say "beautiful plumage" when seeing a shelter parrot for the first time.

[retire@40]

These are OK, but by no means the top funniest.

I like...

SNL: Living In A Van Down By The River

Down By The River

Carson: Copper Clappers
carson clapper - Google Video

Carol Burnett Show: Tim Conway's Elephant Story

YouTube - Carol Burnett Show outtakes - Tim Conway's Elephant Story

SNL: The Tony Bennett Show
Hulu - Tony Bennett: Saturday Night Live