Film + TV

9 amazing music moments from classic Mr. Show sketches

by Dan MacRae

Yes, without the need for a hunger strike, intervention or Dr. X telethon, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are back together for a new sketch comedy series for Netflix. A quasi sequel/continuation/son of Mr. Show, W/ Bob & David is a four-part series featuring the bulk of the major players from the ’90s HBO cult hit. For a certain brand of geek, the prospect of a new Bob and David series is akin to Jesus Christ returning on lionback to take everybody out for pizza.

W/ Bob and David starts streaming on November 13, so here are nine of the best music-affiliated moments in Mr. Show history. Crank up some 2001: A New Wave Godyssey and let’s get to it.

Three Times One Minus One

Coming “straight out of Scarsdale,” R&B heroes Three Times One Minus One ranked as one of the titans of the White People Co-Opting Black Culture Network and wouldn’t look a step out of place on tour with Iggy Azaela. Pootie T and Wolfgang Amadeus Thelonius Van Funkenmeister The 19th (and three quarters) are the intriguingly styled embodiment of shameless cultural appropriation and they will attach themselves to your brain with their hit “Eww, Girl, Eww.” The accompanying video for that track? A TOUR-DE-FORCE.

Titannica

Riding an awesome sight gag until the wheels fall off and fly into space, this season three sketch features a metal superfan meeting his idols after diving into a vat of acid. David Cross somehow makes playing an enthusiastic and horribly deformed kid seem like one of the most natural things in the world. The end gag is amazing too.

Wyckyd Sceptre

Horny hair metal dumbasses Wycked Sceptre have a sex tape circulating and they seem pretty stoked about it. Pretty much a nod to the Pam and Tommy sex tape, this “Underground Tape Railroad” find has members of the band engaging in some coked-up sex with one another while being BAFFLED that someone would consider their gay sex as gay. Credentialed Mr. Show fans The Strokes named a 2002 tour the Wyckyd Sceptre tour in the show’s honour.

Monsters Of Megaphone

Hilarious and a motherfucker on the heartstrings, Mr. Show presented the tale of 1920s megaphone stars Dickie Crickets and Kid Jersey. Crooning about the inventions of the day, we’re treated to such ol’ timey hits as “Elevator,” “Penicillin” and “Electric Tie Rack.” Their time in the spotlight would fade, but their goofy songs will live forever.

Rap! The Musical

Rap (you may have heard of it) gets the splashy corny musical theatre tribute it deserves in this season two offering. Bypassing the inclusion of having any sort of hip-hop chunklets in the musical, the genre is celebrated with chimney sweeps and wheelbound moppets singing their hearts out about the subject. (Imagine something your grandma might watch on Vision). Bob Odenkirk does some spectacular dancing as a cheery gold tooth if you need a further nudge to check this out.

Smoosh

An Oasis parody in everything but name, Smoosh’s Shopshire Brothers are essentially just the Gallaghers with more reined in eyebrows and wardrobe. Ian and Clive appear on an music video network to promote their Spring Break on the Moon contest (the winner will be shot in the back of the head execution style as a bonus), but they’re every bit as unrepentantly pricky about their appearance as their Oasis counterpart. Thanks to Liam and Noel not really changing in the past twenty years, this sketch is surprisingly less dated than you’d think.

The Teardrop Award

“Sad songs are nature’s onions.” An award show rivalry between the herpes afflicted Willips Brighton and smug asshole Horace Loeb twists, turns and escalates into something gloriously insane. It’s that beautiful Mr. Show thing where the original gag gets restructured balloon animal style into an even more beautiful form. There’s also a Three Times One Minus One cameo snuck into the proceedings for bonus points.

Marilyn Monster Pizza Parlours

Marilyn Manson stand-in Marilyn Monster walks a new employee through their first day of work in this training video for Marilyn Mozzarella’s Pizzarella Pie Parlours. It’s a hilarious and alarmingly accurate send-up of the godawful “fun” workplace instructional videos that corporations knock out like they’re not batshit ridiculous.

By the way, don’t forget the 16 Ps to success:

Poise
Personality
Professionalism
A Positive mental attitude
(Im)Press the customer
Primp always
Positivity
Please don’t flush sanitary towels down the toilet
Phreeze plenty of ice.
Placate
Posture
Pomp and circumstance
Pterodactyls (good dinosaurs to mention to kids)
Patriotism
Pepper
Professionalism

The Joke: The Musical

Only a monster would withhold a tear to shed for that poor milking machine.