The wife has been binging "Grey's Anatomy" (again) and with everything that goes on in that hospital, it's surprising that anyone got cured at all.  So many times, a scene with the family goes "We did what we could for her" and "she died peacefully."  You hear that enough times and you start to wonder, what if they didn't?  What if she didn't? What if those things were unexplainable.  It turned into on of those "snowball" sketches, where you set the premise and just watch things got downhill and get worse.  It's a Pythonseque bit of nonsense, but I enjoyed writing it.  I actually wrote it over a series of days, jotting down a few lines, then coming back to it when thing slowed down and then finally put it all in order.  

This sketch came to me in bits and pieces over time.  I remember getting the idea for a "bad stuntman" using a noose.  I emailed myself a note saying just that.  And it sat there.  Slowly, things came up to fill it out during the pandemic.  Just turned into a series of bad ideas, topped off with the original noose gag.  There was no rush to complete it for anyone, so I would pull it up, turn the names into a running gag and just make it goofy.  Weirdly, SNL did a COVID episode with a pair of bad stuntwomen showing off their meager skills and what they were doing to stay sharp during the lockdown.  The two don't really have much in common, but it was just weird seeing a stuntman sketch as I was wrapping mine up.  Oh, well.  At least they had somewhere to send it...

I kinda forgot where this idea popped up from.  SNL has been doing some "Voice work on video games" sketches.  There was a lot of news about the new Jurassic Park movie coming out.  Then during the pandemic, the news reported how Japanese theme parks were asking their visitors NOT to scream on the rides to prevent spreading droplets.  It all just came together as this thing.  It's a two-hander, so I'm not sure the comedy troupe would have leapt to do it.  And it does depend on a growing absurdity that is tricky to maintain.  It's cute, it's goofy and maybe it would have made the cut...

​Early on when I started posting under the Category "Skit Happens" (aka: From the Slushpile) I was posting stuff that that been submitted somewhere but didn't get chosen.  Post-pandemic (if we are, in fact, post-it) I've been writing sketches and have had few, if any, places to submit them to.  I don't know why I'm still writing them.  It's like the idea pops into my head and I get such a rush from the act of creating, I want to get it down on paper, I need to.  
In the mean time, these things are burning holes in my hard drive and I have to put them out there somewhere and I have a blog, so...

I'm not saying I was trying to write a sequel to my Homonym game show sketch,  but it sure seems that's the way it came out.  It's another game show for idiots and it got constructed from the end forward.  The idea that all the fairy tales have a character named Jack just kind of hovered around for a long time.  Then the phrase (and I believe an early game show) called You don't know Jack" worked it's way in.  After that I had to decide what kind of contestants to have and during our COVID downtime, I got to pull the various threads together.  And quicker than you can say jack-rabbit, I got...

Continuing with my musical comedy phase, I started this sketch with the gang from TMI: Hollywood in mind.  I listed all the characters at the top (which they requested on submissions).  It's a sketch where the characters get both too literal and too obtuse as Maria tries to teach them about music.  I really let loose with it.  It would have been a good sketch for a big cast (even though they never much cared for my song parodies).  But, like I've been saying, the group couldn't over come the lockdown.  I wound up sending the sketch to the producer because SNL did a parody of the same song this season, with West Side Story star Ariana DeBose screwing up the same song in a different way.  They had her being obtuse and not the kids.  Sure, mine's better, but they have an actual TV program to put it on.

As I posted else where, thanks to cable and streaming, topical pop-culture is no longer limited to recent entertainment.  SNL has gotten deep into the habit of doing parodies of classic movies.  In fact, they've done a number of  "Sound of Music" bits in the last few years (I think it kicked off with NBC doing Sound of Music: Live).  Add to that the fact that while working at home, I have on a music station (which I can't play at the office).  One of the channels is for stage and screen songs.  A lot of Sound of Music numbers get played, and that certainly triggered the idea for this sketch.  What if the song "My Favorite Things" was, as one of the kids says, a bit on the nose?

I recently went through a musical comedy phase, writing parodies of a couple of musicals.  The Rain in Spain idea I actually jotted down a while ago, and with the pandemic and working from home, got to flesh it out a bit.  And I mean a little bit.  It's just about two pages.  It's practically a black-out.  Without feeling like I was going to send it to TMI: Hollywood, I didn't push myself to expand it out much.  I wrote for the three main characters, got to the twist and bailed.  It's still cute, though.

Early on when I started posting under the Category "Skit Happens" I was posting stuff that that been submitted somewhere but didn't get chosen.  Post-pandemic (if we are, in fact, post-it) I've been writing sketches and have had few, if any, places to submit them to.  I don't know why I'm still writing them.  It's like the idea pops into my head and I get such a rush from the act of creating, I want to get it down on paper, I need to.  There are a lot of "short play festivals" out there these days that accept "plays" that are under 10 minutes, so it seems like I might have an outlet for the sketches, but sometimes I get very insecure about my material.  Are they really plays?  They're comedy skits.  I feel like I'm setting myself up for rejection, you know?  But it's something I have to try.  It's not like I haven't submitted to festivals like that before.

In the mean time, these things are burning holes in my thumb drive and I have to put them out there somewhere and I have a blog.  So, we'll be playing around on here, I suppose.

I noticed something in the last few years on SNL; topical isn't always topical.  Yes, they have the political cold openings and Weekend Update, but when SNL started, they would do movie parodies of then newly-released movies and then a lot of Boomer-related things (and guests) from early TV.  The latest generation of writers, thanks to cable TV and streaming, have a much broader and deeper field to harvest.  I think I first realized it with Bill Hader and his various Vincent Price holiday shows.  I can't believe for a minute that the audience would know who Vincent Price, Liberace, James Mason and others were, but maybe they did, thanks to Nick-at-Night or TVland.  They do parodies now of decades-old Disney cartoons.  They set up movie send-ups from the 1940s and 1950s.  They can do a sketch about anything (as long as it is funny).  

The Wizarding World movies (formerly know as "Harry Potter movies") are still in the public mind thanks to the books, movie prequels, Broadway shows, cable TV showings and theme-park rides.  And if in the presence of any of these things, a sketch idea can pop up still.  We still watch the movies whenever they play on TV (usually once a month on one cable station or another) and, if I'm paying attention, something new will appear to me: An odd piece of logic, a plot gap, a continuity issue or a background character I hadn't noticed.  Or the various characters names.  How did no one figure out Professor Lupin was a a werewolf?  How do you name your kid Malfoy and not know he'll be evil?  Or why would any kid WANT to be placed in a school called "Slytherin?" Well, this seems like something the Sorting Hat would have a hand in...

Yeah, I've been distracted lately from the blog.  Fortunately it was do to writing.  I managed to finish a screenplay!  And get some material out into the world.  

Now,  back to the topic at hand, my days at PHC: As the 2002-2003 season began, it was noted that Keillor had turned 60 that year.  It felt like a valid topic to address on the show,  so I attempted a song medley.  I took all the songs I knew that were about 16-year olds and changed them to 60-year olds, then just adjusted the lyrics to fit all the typical old age jokes I could squeeze in.  It wasn't selected, which made it seem like the new season was going to be like the old season.

I always liked it.  I always wanted to perform it at friends birthdays but never had the nerve.

PHC was winding down for the 2001-02 season with their big Season Finale.  I always would try to put something together that was bigger and broader to make a year-end splash.  The show announced it would begin live-streaming the show on the internet and that triggered this idea, a sketch about radio sight gags.

It's something I've alluded to before, with things like "radio magicians" and such but the idea of online video made this a skit that had to be submitted.  I checked my journals from this time and I was pretty distraught, trying to finish up a screenplay, trying to get a paying gig as I watched Cracked magazine start to implode.  The day job was a nightmare and the family kept me busy.  I noted in my notebook how I had an idea, then forgot it, then remembered it as I was writing I forgot it.  I was upbeat about the idea and thought it was funny and how I had to add a mime to the end to punch it up.  Again, a brief bit of silliness and sound effects that I would have bet PHC would love!  I would have lost that bet.  The show aired for the last time that season without me.  And again, a very specific sketch that couldn't be submitted elsewhere