Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

I pretty much grew up watching this show and my friends and I still reference it all the time in our conversations. However, I havent heard a non-my friend person mention this show in over 5 years.

Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver, who acted on the state, are all characters on Reno 911!

Most of the cast was in Wet Hot American Summer and they also did the shortly lived comedy central show "Viva Variety".

The show was a sketch comedy but way more off the wall than SNL or anything like that as you can see from a few excerpts below. Anyone else have any awesome memories of the state?

Louie, played by Ken Marino, was one of the more ironic characters on the show, parodying sketch comedy characters who rely on stupid catchphrases for cheap laughs. Louie was a genial fellow with a strong desire to dip his "balls" (actual golf balls, not testicles, although the innuendo was certainly intentional) in various things. His catchphrase, naturally, is a very enthusiastic "I wanna dip my balls in it!"

* Capt. Monterey Jack, a nonsense-spewing motivational speaker (a parody of similar anti-drug or alcohol abuse spots aired on MTV at the time) played by Michael Ian Black. "And remember, bbbbring, bbbring... Hello, cheese? NO! Cheese can't dial a phone."


* James Dixon, a conniving, hard-driving ex-Hollywood agent who lands himself very unlikely careers (high school guidance counselor, Catholic priest, Jedi talent agent) and applies his showbiz tactics to his new positions (Thomas Lennon). "You can't bargain with God. But you can bargain with me, and I can bargain with God."


Monkey Torture (aka "The Barry Lutz Show"), in which scientist Thomas Lennon describes his experiments involving the (mostly psychological) torture of monkeys to interviewer Michael Ian Black, saying that he has proven that "They hate it." youtube of Monkey Torture Sketch

Barry and Levon, suave swingers of ambiguous sexual orientation, played by Thomas Lennon and Michael Ian Black, respectively. Their most notable moment was a skit in which they had purchased and prepared $240 worth of pudding, which sat in a pile that they proceeded to sweet-talk and dance with. $240 Dollars worth of Pudding

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

I used to watch that show all the time. According to their Myspace page, the series is coming out on DVD soon.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

Welcome back, horseboy...

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

Yeah, I've been meaning to watch these for a while. I love a lot of what these guys have done, but was unaware of the shows existence when it was around. Aren't most of them in a movie that's coming out soon? The Ten I think. OK, I'll just Google it.

Looks like it's out there. Maybe I'll go see it this weekend. imdb link

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

Season 1 is available at the iTunes store. Be warned though that some of the music used in sketches is different than the original run.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
Season 1 is available at the iTunes store. Be warned though that some of the music used in sketches is different than the original run.

[/ QUOTE ]

Blasphemy imo.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
Welcome back, horseboy...

[/ QUOTE ]
I was wondering what he got banned for, and this is a, uh, provocative insight into it

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

OMG DVDS.

The State rules so hard.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Season 1 is available at the iTunes store. Be warned though that some of the music used in sketches is different than the original run.

[/ QUOTE ]

Blasphemy imo.

[/ QUOTE ]
yeah, the "Pants" sketch isn't the same without "Last Splash".

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
yeah, the "Pants" sketch isn't the same without "Cannonball".

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

I bought the first 5 episodes on itunes. It is odd to hear the different music. Apparently, the music you get on itunes was actually the original music, but MTV wanted to promote its own music, so it edited in the stuff we saw.

Other awesome skits:

Chip's party
Inbred brothers
Bologna feet
Staring contest

I just looked at the episode guide online - too many to name.

I love this show. I can't wait for the DVDs.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Welcome back, horseboy...

[/ QUOTE ]
I was wondering what he got banned for, and this is a, uh, provocative insight into it

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not LionelHutz

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

me and my friends still bust out a:


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEAH...Im barry...this is levon...and this si twoooo hundred and fortydolllars worth of puuuuuudang!

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

Also, don't forget the Comedy Central series "Stella", which was pretty funny in a State-ish way.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
yeah, the "Pants" sketch isn't the same without "Cannonball".

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[/ QUOTE ]
[censored], I'm an idiot

also love "Mind Match" and "Old Fashioned" guy from first season... and Michael Ian Black's "On-Air Personality", and "Forever", the MTV Unplugged song...

I could go for a while. Anyone still have a link to Taco Mail? Couldn't find it on Youtube.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

I LOVED this show when it was on.

Favorite lines:

"Your hands, they are so soft, like baby hands."

"Bookworm Drew."

"Wisdom thrown down from the mountain, Mount Noonan"

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

Best sketch comedy ever, by a large margin. At the Balls of Fury (which was a horrible movie btw, don't see it) panel at ComicCon, Thomas Lennon said the State DVD is coming out on October 20th.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

YOU CAN EVEN PUT IT ON YOUR FORE-ARAM.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

I'm losing my hair like an animal in springtime...

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Welcome back, horseboy...

[/ QUOTE ]
I was wondering what he got banned for, and this is a, uh, provocative insight into it

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not LionelHutz


[/ QUOTE ]
Uhhhhh, then why would you know why you were banned? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

I know why LionelHutz was banned because of Gildwulf's BBV4L thread and me looking up who LionelHutz the user was since that was the name I originally wanted and made me use this one instead.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

My favorite sketch ever was the father/son race. I loved that bit.

-d

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

Mine was Barry and Levon and the pile of pudding.

Also "I WANT TO DIP MY BALLS IN IT" was a bit that made me laugh.

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

My favorite show of that era ... I love Reno 911, too, great to see Thomas Lennon get to the big screen now, too

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

[ QUOTE ]
My favorite sketch ever was the father/son race. I loved that bit.

-d

[/ QUOTE ]
"All's fair in love and war, Timmy!"
"Which one is this, Dad?"
[beat]
"Both."

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

Porcupine porcupine porcupine racetrack porcupine porcupine porcupine racetrack

Re: Tribute to the Greatest Television Show Ever: The State
 

I was definitely a fan of The State, and mainly remember Doug. "I'm Doug, man... I'm out of here."

This inspired me to figure out what the hell "Sluggy" and "Mind your Manners with Billy Quan" came from, since for some reason I thought they came from The State. They did not. That show was good as well.