CliqueClack Flashback – The State

In December of 1993, I was getting ready to turn 13 and in the interminable hell known as middle school. After bouncing around between groups of friends, trying to find my identity, I ended up with a great group of girls with whom I am still close to this day. There were a lot of events and experiences that brought us together and ended up cementing our friendship, but oddly enough, one of the most enduring ones was a short-lived sketch comedy show on MTV called The State.

We watched this show obsessively and memorized and referenced every single skit on a daily basis. It became our shorthand, and even though we thought we were super cool, in hindsight, we had to be terribly annoying.  We all know that guy who speaks entirely in Kevin Smith movie references or whatever, and how he sucks. In our case, it was a group of thirteen-year-old girls saying that they wanted to dip their balls in various substances.

The State was irreverent, brilliant, and quite simply one of the funniest shows that has ever aired on television. It aired for three seasons on MTV, and took us from middle to high school. After that, they tried to make a move to the big show: network television. The idea was that The State would air a special on CBS, “The State‘s 43rd Annual All-Star Halloween Special,” and if the ratings warranted it, it would be a recurring series that would air opposite Saturday Night Live.

Unfortunately, CBS decided that ultimately it didn’t want to go for the younger audience after all, and The State‘s Halloween special received nearly no promotion. After its big network airing, The State died a quiet, whimpering death. Due to MTV being run by evil soulless robot overlords, and some music clearance issues, The State has still not been released on DVD.

Because of this, It has been about 13 years since I’ve seen this show. iTunes, however, has season one available , so I recently downloaded it to see how it stands up after a dozen or so years. The short answer? It is still awesome.

In rewatching the first season, I was pleasantly surprised to find both the skits that I remembered and loved, but also a few things I had forgotten about. For instance, I had forgotten that a lot of the skits are linked together; a character or line from one sketch will make an appearance in the next.

I had also forgotten that Louie, the guy whose catchphrase became what many people remembered about The State, was billed as “the guy who repeats his catchphrase over and over again!” This sketch? I want to dip my balls in it.

The best thing about The State is the absurdist humor. With a show like SNL, the comedy is based in the every day. The sketches on The State, however, are based on … copious drug use? I’m not exactly sure, but it would definitely explain “Mudwrestler,” the sketch that ends with a family mudwrestling with their son’s new girlfriend in the pit they keep under the dining room table, because where would that idea come from? Similarly, why would a man wrestle a chair? Or people with tape on their faces lead a freshman orientation? Who knows? All that matters is it’s hilarious.

The State catches you by surprise, but it’s smart enough that it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. It keeps its sketches short and sweet. You get the setup, you get the joke, and you get out of there.

Best of all, The State can help you with your life. I don’t know about you, but I can’t count on both hands how many times I was sitting around my house on a Saturday night with $240 worth of pudding and just scratching my head and wondering what in the hell I was going to do with that. Luckily, The State has a few tips:

You’re welcome.

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on Jan 29, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT