Creator: Amy Schumer, Daniel Powell
Years: 2013–Present
So when I set out to do this list I intended it to be only fictional shows, leaving out stuff like reality shows, variety shows, game shows, and young children’s cartoons. I realized part way through that on my list I had two sketch comedy shows that really stretch the definition of fictional. While the sketches are fictional, there’s often non-fictional bits like the comedian interviewing people or talking on stage. ANYWAY, whatever. Saturday Night Live is not one of them. I wouldn’t even know how to rank that.
Amy Schumer won a season of Last Comic Standing. I find a lot of stand-up comedy awful, but I always liked her a little bit. Early on, though, I felt she spent way too much time slut-shaming herself. It was funny (especially since most of it is made up and she’s doing it ironically), but it was just too much. Her variety show is a step in the right direction. There’s certainly several sketches that revolve around the “Hey, I’m easy!” theme, but there’s some really good stuff in there. Like all sketch shows, there’s a lot of hits and a lot of misses, but I don’t think I’ve seen an episode where I didn’t like at least one skit.
Here’s one of my favorites:
Football Town Nights is an all-time great. A lot of her other stuff is good, but I’m sort of in the middle on most of it. Very hit and miss for me, which is true of a lot of sketch comedy (but if I’m right about the other sketch comedy show that’s on your list, that one’s misses still end up being funny, whereas with Amy, her misses can be downright grating).
I quite like her stand-up, so I can’t wait to get to this. I actually didn’t know it was a sketch show, so I guess I’m willing to take a chance on whatever.