I remember when “Mad TV” first started … by the third or fourth episode, they were ALREADY REPEATING SKETCHES! I mean, isn’t that a LITTLE early for a “best-of” show? And so many of the recurring characters were just pungent in their unfunniness: the Vancome Lady, the hyperactive delivery guy, Dixie Wentworth. I did not become a fan.
But I have checked out the show in the past couple of years, and have been very impressed. Sketch for sketch, it’s better than “SNL,” I’d say. I guess all that “Mad TV” had to do to become funny is take all of the members of its original cast, put them in a room, and kill them.
As people have already said, that sketch show was The State, which used to be shown on MTV. There is talk of releasing a DVD set of the episodes. Most of the cast still work together in a variety of projects: the tribute to '80s summer camp movies Wet Hot American Summer and the current Comedy Central COPS spoof Reno 911 all feature several State alumni.
Hee hee, that was good stuff. The character who said “I wanna dip my balls in it!” was named Louie, which is what my friends call me. I got a lot of mileage out of that catch phrase back in 9th grade! Anyone remember Barry and Levon, and their “$240 worth of pudding”? AWWWW YEAAAHHHH!