Five Of The Funniest And Gooiest Horror Comedy Sketches
Horror comedy is a sub-genre that takes the best of two biggie genres and mashes them together. Some horror comedies have more horror than comedy and some have more comedy than horror; it’s a wonderful mix. They’re two genres that are generally overlooked by the Academy and have been for years, though horror is starting to be recognized. (TITANE won the Palme d'Or, baby.)
Perhaps someday a comedy will win an Oscar again, and not an ‘elevated’ comedy either, or a drama-comedy, but a comedy-comedy. Yes, the Academy does the same thing to comedy as they do to horror, they overlook it. So, it’s no surprise that comedy and horror are bedfellows, they belong together like donuts and weed. (Do donuts and weed go together? I don’t smoke.) Horror comedy is hot right now, too; we’re in a surge of horror-comedy, though I’m worried it’s the feast before famine. Hopefully, famine won’t come for another five or ten years, and who knows which sub-genre will rise then to reign supreme? But horror-comedy will always rule because people love to laugh, they need to laugh (to stay sane), to have fun, and to be scared, horrified, or disturbed—sometimes all of these things all at once.
Here are five of the funniest horror-comedy sketches of all time, the gooiest, the creepiest, the ickiest, the silliest, and the most hilarious. Five horror-comedy sketches that will blow out your brains and lick them off the floor and take some home for later. In no particular order, beginning with…
1. The Kids In The Hall, “Axe To Grind”
In this sketch, Dave Foley plays an axe-murder who gets his axe polished in the middle of murdering a couple. He takes a break while killing them because, you know, murder is exhausting. It’s surreal that there’s an old guy in the middle of the street who just happens to polish axes, but that’s what makes the sketch so great and weird. Not too weird, either. Dave Foley’s axe murderer is grounded and real, and his performance is what makes the sketch so funny: he’s just a normal dude…who kills people.
The Kids in the Hall did a whole series of sketches with axe-murderers, with Dave Foley almost always playing the murderer. He reads as a gentle boy-next-door who would probably help an old lady across the street and yet he’s quite accomplished at viciously dismembering people via axe. The cinematography in “Axes to Grind” captures the atmosphere of the still neighborhood and the blood splattering on the curtains in the background. It’s gruesome, but Foley seems so nice, like creepy-ass Joe in You. His goofy smile is adorable, but he’s holding a bloody axe!
Now that we’re overwhelmed with true-crime series we almost expect serial killers to be mild-mannered ‘nice guys.’ Also, he literally says “I’m an axe murderer!” and it’s disregarded because he’s a nice white guy in a suit, even though it’s splattered with blood. A white guy can literally get away with murder. “Axe to Grind” is hilarious, and will always be hilarious and socially relevant.
Some other The Kids In The Hall sketches to watch as a companion piece are “Substitute Axe” (Foley’s character is splattered with blood again and he’s wearing another suit), and Dave Foley’s ‘nice guy’ in “Mass Murderer.” Bonus: Foley makes a clear reference to THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE in that sketch.
2. The Ben Stiller Show, “Kreepee Board”
The Ben Stiller Show was a ‘90s sketch program with some majorly talented people in comedy writing and performing before they blew up. “Kreepee Board” is a commercial parody—it’s a ouija board…for kids! The show aired from 1992-1995, but Satanic Panic hysteria was still very much looming over American culture. (Well, Satanic Panic still exists in the States somewhat; just ask Lil Nas X about his canceled Satan shoes.)
The kids play with the ouija board and the next thing you know they’re worshipping the devil complete with black robes like it’s Satan’s Fun Time Murder Christmas Special. It’s absurd to think that kids could summon the devil from a dumb board. It’s absurd to think that the devil exists and that he’s painted red. Or that he has horns. And plays the sax. And pays attention to human beings. Really, the meta-universe is that boring? Simulate another universe, then.
3. Saturday Night Live, “THE EXORCIST 2”
“THE EXORCIST 2” is a classic. Starring Laraine Newman as Regan, Thalmus Rusalala as Father Merrin, and Richard Pryor as Father Karras, it’s the same set-up as the film but this time the demon makes the mistake of insulting Richard Pryor’s mother when the two priests show up for the exorcism. When the demon insults Pryor’s character’s mother, it feels very personal like she is insulting Richard Pryor’s mother—that’s how good Pryor is in the scene.
Unfortunately, the insults in the sketch are really tame (because it was 1975 on mainstream television) compared to what Regan really said in the film and book. If you remember the real insult, you know why Pryor gets so mad. In the sketch, Regan says, “Your mother sews socks that smell.” But in the film, she actually told the priest, “your mother sucks cocks in hell.”
WTF? Who the hell says something like that??? (Megan Amram has a great joke about it on Twitter too.) It’s funny how angry Pryor gets when Regan insults him by insulting his mother, but he’s still funny, angry-funny, not angry-angry. Pryor made anger comically funny; he knew the line between drama and comedy and how far to go with anger...so that it’s still funny.
Michael O’Donoghue is listed as the writer of “THE EXORCIST 2” sketch, but I always thought that Paul Mooney wrote it. I remember hearing that on The Howard Stern Show when Mooney talked about his time at SNL. I checked the internet but I haven’t found a link to the video yet, so until I find it, officially, Michael O’Donoghue wrote it. Paul Mooney was Pryor’s co-writer and Pryor convinced Lorne Micheals to let him write on SNL the week he hosted in 1975, even though they didn’t accept outside writers. (Pryor didn’t trust the new writers to write for him, and he wanted more Black people hired.) But for Mooney to write for SNL, he had to go through a horrific interview at NBC, which he ridiculed when he wrote “Word Association,” one of the funniest sketches ever written about racism in corporate America.
4. Saturday Night Live, “JAWS II”
What can be said about the greatness of this classic sketch? Oddly enough, everyone calls this sketch “Landshark” instead of “JAWS II.” It was so successful it became a recurring bit, and they wrote another sketch sequel, elegantly titled “JAWS III.” The bit was brought back over the years, too—including 26 years later during Tina Fey’s reign, when the landshark attacked her during Weekend Update.
I thought that “JAWS II” was a Dan Aykroyd sketch since it’s a horror film parody, but it’s actually a Chevy Chase sketch—and one of his original characters. He plays the landshark and says ‘candygram.’ The way he says it is so funny, it’s hard to explain why it’s funny. Maybe it’s because Chase says it really fast, like he’s trying to pull a fast one. Perhaps it’s because it’s a shark trying to play it cool.
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi played versions of Sheriff Brady and Matt Hooper. They don’t do much; but then they don’t have to do much to be funny, just sitting there, they’re funny. Plus, I’m a sucker for JAWS.
5. The Kids In The Hall, “Bobby Vs. Satan”
Yes, Tenacious D rules—but Kids in the Hall’s “Bobby vs. Satan” is one of the funniest sketches about the Prince of Darkness. Bobby (Bruce McCulloch) is challenged to a guitar duel by Satan (Mark McKinney). Bobby is hilarious as the sulky, rebellious teen, and McKinney is goddamn excellent as The Devil. The way he plays the guitar is all macho and competitive, thrusting his hips; everything he does is hilarious; specifically, the way he snorts, grinds, shreds, and then sneers at Bobby. Every performer should play Satan at least once; Satan gets the best jokes! McKinney’s performance is very ‘80s heavy metal that ridicules the silliness of Satanic heavy metal, but the writer/actor is also enjoying the fun of heavy metal, so he’s honoring it as well.
Also, the song that Satan plays rocks.
When the duel starts, Satan snorts and says, “So, let it be written. Snarf! Arf! Awell!” or something like that; it’s so weird and funny. Then later, when Bobby attempts playing, Satan vomits a nasty blob of green goo on Bobby’s guitar before manifesting an extra pair of hands to play his guitar (cheating, the Devil’s go-to move). One of my favorite parts is towards the end, when Satan materializes as the hot girl from Bobby’s poster and says to him, “Bobby, I want TO KILL, I mean, kiss you.”
Does this sketch count as horror comedy? Well, it’s about Satan, and it includes a green puke vomit scene that references THE EXORCIST, so yes, it counts as horror comedy.
That wraps it up…for now. I didn’t get to list all of my favorites either yet. I didn’t get to write about Key & Peele’s “GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH Brainstorm” or “Sexy Vampire”; or Mr. Show’s “Monster Parties; Fact or Fiction,” or Vampira’s sketch comedy from the ‘50s, or SCTV’s “Monster Chiller Horror Theatre: The House of Cats.” But have no fear, there’s more to come. October is the perfect month for horror comedy. This is the time to chill out at home, bake cookies, and watch horror comedy all night long.
Candygram!
