Growing Old With The State

And finally. . . it happened. The State made it onto DVD. . . with a few changes. Gone were the iconic indie and alternative rock tracks due to copyright issues, but the important things: the skits, the humor, David Wain with slightly more hair. . . they were finally available for (properly formatted) viewing! But would the show that helped form my sense of humor as a kid still make me laugh? Would the legend hold up to reality?

Just one episode in, it was evident that the show I’d grown up loving was still one that could make me laugh while also feeling nostalgic for the time represented in many of the skits. Some of the topical humor escaped me, such as a spoof of an early ’90s MTV PSA campaign called “Free Your Mind,” but the physical comedy and ridiculousness of the premise (a clown and pirate making derogatory marks towards each other’s kind and then coming to blows) still made me chuckle.

“I wanna dip my balls in it!”

The simple brilliance of other sketches, such as a talk show where the audience, hosts, and guests went about their usual roles while jogging (with disastrous results) made me lament Saturday Night Live‘s inability to come up with anything close to this level of brilliance. The more sadistic humor of sketches such as the PSA for “swimming and eating” reminded me that my love of the dark and funny did not just come from a genetic disposition.

As an adult who has now watched more than her share of skits that ran far past their due date, I appreciated the fast-paced nature of the episodes as well as the timing of the skits, few running longer than about two or three minutes. The way characters would weave in and out of skits, tying them together and providing hilariously silly conclusions (such as the Secret Service tackling any cast members or character that dare spoke of assassinating the president, “even in jest”), showed the intelligent writing chops of the crew. I had forgotten that this was one my favorite aspects of the show, a quality I would later admire in another brilliant sketch show: Mr. Show with Bob and David.

The filler music in many sketches, a complaint many fans have voiced about the DVD set, did not seem to impede my viewing experience, though it does appear that some sketches may have made a little more sense, or been a bit funnier, with their original soundtrack. At the same time, such absences never took away from the humor. After all, the memorable (and at times annoying) theme song that started each episode and played through the bumpers was the only tune I had remembered at all after such a long time.

As I continue to watch the series, I do wonder how much of my continued love for The State is due to nostalgic ties and not a true love of the actual comedy. Like any show, The State had sketches that fell flat and the topical nature of some of the humor may be lost on younger viewers that watch, or people that simply don’t recall the reference being parodied. Nonetheless, the great writing and attention to timing and structure by the cast is what makes the show great.

For those who love the silly and the irreverent, The State can be an entertaining 22 minutes. For someone who grew up worshiping the show, the DVD set is a reminder of both one of the sources of my twisted sense of humor and a realization that my childhood memories are not as cloudy as I once thought.

Pages: 1 2