Videos: The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time

The Funny Site of the Day -- The inherent condescension and missteps in a list of "50 Greatest" anythings gets the flesh up on my back. There is no way in Hell or basic cable that anyone on this planet has ever or will ever see all of the possible contenders to the finest skits in television history. For anyone to decree such an undefendable list as definitive is an insult to our intelligence and comedic chops.

To its credit, Nerve says of their selection process:

"Any list is bound by the limitations set on it -- consciously and unconsciously -- by its creators: we kept our 50 selections to stuff that's appeared on television by choice, and to what's appeared in English out of necessity. One must also bear in mind the availability of material; who knows what comedic treasures are lost to us because they simply don't exist anymore?"

That said, any list that does not include such obvious touchstones as these (and this is a sampling) is suspect and flaccid.

• Tim Conway and Harvey Korman in The Dentist Sketch and almost any of the Eunice and Mama and The Family howlers of The Carol Burnett Show
• Mel Blanc and Benny's "Si" sketches (The Jack Benny Program)
• The Lumberjack Song (Monty Python)
• Johnny Carson as Art Fern and Carnac the Magnificent (The Tonight Show)
• Jackie Gleason in The Honeymooners
• Lucille Ball's sketches incorporated into I Love Lucy (Vitavegamin, The Candy Factory)
• The unrelentlessly funny This Is Your Story (Your Show of Shows)

Another quibble is the inclusion of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's Who's on First? It simply is not a child of television. Bud and Lou performed a version as early as 1936 in burlesque and toured it during 1937, reaching a national audience on network radio in 1938, where the routine became a sensation, a full decade before entertainment TV.

The routine catapulted the boys to immense fame and popular movie careers, necessitating the sketch be cobbled into two films, One Night in the Tropics (1940) and The Naughty Nineties (1945). The Who's on First? appearances on numerous TV stages were resurrections of a legend, not an original of the medium.

If I'm wrong on that point, then why isn't the greatest comedy sketch in history number one on this list? Hmmm?

"The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time" does, however, describe and present the videos of immensely entertaining comedy, from More Cowbell through offerings of SNL, SCTV, Kids in the Hall, Chappelle's Show, French & Saunders, Mr. Show, among others. There is a surprisingly heavy rapture for The Slate, but no Steve Allen, no Steve Martin, no Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, no Mr. Bean, no Muppets.

I'm enjoying the clips, but bemoan the chafing.

Watch: The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time
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_{Pictured: Sketch performers Dave Chappelle (I Know Black People), David Cross (The Pre-Taped Call-in Show); Credit: Frank Micelotta / Getty Images.}