Mr. Show
Mr. Show with Bob and David was a
sketch comedy series featuring former
Saturday Night Live writer
Bob Odenkirk and
stand-up comedian and
actor David Cross. It appeared on
HBO from
1995 to
1998. Reruns can currently be seen on
Comedy Central and
TBS in an edited form.
Each episode of
Mr. Show essentially consists of a series of skits, each one transitioning into the next by way of some sort of tangential association, called a link; for example, sometimes a minor character in one skit is followed as the major character in the next. Often common storylines or themes are returned to at different times throughout a given episode. The show is highly unpredictable and often quite absurd. It is regarded by sketch comedy aficionados as containing some of the best work of its era, though as a pay cable show its audience was limited. The DVDs, however, have sold well, and have opened the show up to a new audience.
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Bob and David during the opening of one of the first episodes |
Cast members on the show included
Bob Odenkirk,
David Cross,
John Ennis,
Bill Odenkirk,
Brett Paesel,
Brian Posehn,
Dino Stamatopoulos,
Jay Johnston,
Jerry Minor,
Jill Talley,
Karen Kilgariff,
Mary Lynn Rajskub,
Paul F. Tompkins,
Sarah Silverman,
Jack Black,
Scott Adsit,
Scott Aukerman,
B.J. Porter, and
Tom Kenny.
The show also included some notable guest appearances including
Sarah Silverman,
Jack Black,
Ben Stiller,
Brian Doyle-Murray,
Dave Foley,
Patton Oswalt,
Janeane Garofalo,
Jon Cryer,
Jon Stewart,
Jonathan Katz,
Jeff Goldblum,
Julia Sweeney,
Kato Kaelin,
Laura Kightlinger,
Maynard James Keenan,
Adam Jones,
Michael McKean, and
Vince Vaughn.
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John Ennis, Paul F. Tompkins, Jay Johnston and Jack Black |
Mr. Show also spawned a
spinoff movie,
Run Ronnie Run, that went
straight-to-DVD.
The format of
Mr. Show is heavily influenced by the British sketch comedy show
Monty Python's Flying Circus, particularly in the linking of one skit to the next, a strong point for both shows, as it negates the tendency to expect each sketch to end on a punch line or similar high note (a common feature of more traditional sketch comedy shows such as
Saturday Night Live). The interweaving of taped bits and stage-performed skits found in
Flying Circus is prevalent in
Mr. Show. Both shows depend greatly on absurdist humor and both avoid satirizing current events that would have quickly dated the comedy.
The show contains a strong, confident contrarian viewpoint that at times mocks or satirizes
organized religion, global
capitalism, and America.
Cynicism plays a heavy role in the show and there is little respect for
traditionalism. Hence, the show, particularly its later seasons, tends to polarize people between those who love or hate the show.
Every episode begins with an individual introducing the hosts, Bob and David. During the first and second seasons,
Mary Lynn Rajskub did this, while in the last two seasons Bob and David would be introduced by a character from a sketch in that given episode. In the opening
dialogue, Bob is almost always dressed in a suit, while David is dressed down.
Every episode's title is taken from a line of dialogue heard during the episode, with three exceptions. The title of the first episode in season one, "The Cry of a Hungry Baby," does not appear anywhere in the episode but in fact came from a skit that was eventually cut from the debut episode. The title of the eighth episode in season three, "Bush Is A Pussy," comes from a t-shirt worn by one of the characters. And the title of the sixth episode in season four, "Eat Rotten Fruit from a Shitty Tree," is a lyric from a song that only appears in instrumental form.
Certain lines of dialogue are often repeated by different characters during the course of a single show (e.g., "I was on the eighteenth hole!" in "The Biggest Failure in Broadway History" and "Who let you in?" in the episode of the same name).
*
List of characters from Mr. Show*
Bob and David's official site*
Resources from unoriginal.com, skit list and transcripts
