When W/ Bob and David, the reboot of Bob Odenkirk and David Cross’s sketch comedy show, launched on Netflix on Friday, it seemed like just another reboot; a TV corpse pulled out from the grave, resurrected, and then sent to totter along for a few more episodes. They did it for Arrested Development and Full House, so why not reboot Mr Show?
These days, every development executive wants to get in on the web-inflamed craze for 90s nostalgia – but with W/ Bob and David there are different forces at play. Much as Mr Show did the first time around, W/ Bob and David is riding a wave of popularity in sketch comedy, prompted by changes in TV itself.
In the early 90s, as it is now, television was going through an expansion. On its launch in 1986, Fox had pumped a ton of money into becoming the fourth broadcast network and was investing in edgy, inexpensive fare that would attract as many viewers as possible – often due to its sheer audacity. Fox was bent on breaking the rules of what a network show was supposed to be, resulting in shows like Married... with Children, The Simpsons and Martin.
Fox soon cottoned on to the fact that sketch comedy is cheap to produce and allows actors and writers to experiment from week to week. Soon the network was home to In Living Color, which first aired in 1990 and launched the careers of Jim Carey, Damon Wayans and, unlikeliest of all, Jennifer Lopez. The pioneering Ben Stiller Show followed in 1992. Though few watched it, leading to its cancellation, its writing went on to win an Emmy. It also co-starred Odenkirk, the future creator of Mr Show.
Meanwhile cable was starting to experiment with original programming. MTV launched their cult sketch show The State in 1993; the following year Nickelodeon made All That, a sketch show suitable for a younger audience. In 1996, Fox tried to take on Saturday Night Live’s dominance of the sketch medium with Mad TV, which ran for 14 wonderful years.
Mr Show came on the air in 1995, just as HBO was really starting to ramp up its production of original series. What better way to build some buzz with a cheap, quirky and groundbreaking show featuring two little known comedians? It wasn’t until four years later that HBO launched The Sopranos and turned itself into the home of prestige TV. Fox, meanwhile, turned into the American Idol factory while cable got increasingly savvy and started producing slick original comedies and dramas. The need for sketch shows lessened.
These days we’re back in the throes of another television expansion, thanks to the rise of streaming services. As it gets harder to launch new shows in such a crowded market, cable networks – especially Comedy Central and IFC – are turning to sketch comedy as a way to experiment with new stars and formats, and to try to get something to stick. The same thing is happening at Netflix (and Amazon and Hulu and Yahoo, the home of the SNL back catalogue).
That’s why we’re seeing so many shows like Inside Amy Schumer, Key & Peele, Why? With Hannibal Burress, Comedy Bang Bang, Portlandia, Robot Chicken and The Kroll Show, whose final season ended in March. There are currently so many sketch comedy shows that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences finally gave them their own category at this year’s Emmys, with the trophy deservedly going to Schumer, Hollywood’s current it-girl.
That’s why bringing Mr Show back makes sense for Netflix. They get all the goodwill it generates from comedy’s cognoscenti, and they also get a buzzy, experimental comedy from two guys whose careers have improved significantly since their little show aired on HBO.
There is also another reason for the sketch show’s renaissance: YouTube, essentially a storehouse for comedy sketches of all sorts. More people watch a viral clip of Key & Peele than watch any episode when it airs on television. The same thing is true for Amy Schumer and even mainstay SNL.
Sketch comedy shows can be divided up perfectly into three- to five-minute bursts, perfect for sharing on social media. These shares are not only great at marketing the show; if the network can monetise them, they represent a form of easy secondary revenue. It’s harder to wring that kind of income out of a sitcom like New Girl.
We’re seeing the internet’s love of sketches not only in shows like High Maintenance and Broad City, which went from internet shorts to full-blown episodes (on HBO and Comedy Central, respectively) but also with Vine comedy stars like Josh Peck, whose videos are essentially six-second sketches. We haven’t seen a Viner turn his mini opuses into a magnum-sized TV show yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
Right now, it doesn’t seem as though sketch comedy is going to slow down as the internet and TV continue their relationship, spawning freaky hybrids of all shapes and sizes. Just look at Jon Stewart’s new deal with HBO, which will have him making short videos only for their streaming services HBO Go and HBO Now; he’s essentially writing one-off sketches that will hopefully go viral. Put five of those together, and you’ve got a TV show. The days of packaging sketches together aren’t even close to being over, but short-form comedy seems like it has a much crazier and more diverse future than sitcoms. Welcome back, Mr Show – it’s like you never left.
