I was debating this post as a "Skit Happens" entry or the newest category, "Hollywood'a-Could'a-Should'a," because it's about a sketch I wrote after I finished college. I was every into mash-up sketches, taking two different titles and coming up with a sketch. I did "Laverne & Sherlock," "Cagney & Lucy," and all of my Shakespeare sketches. I picked the Hollywood'a because I kind of lost my mind a bit when it came to this bit.
M*A*S*H's Hawkeye Pierce was very much in the Groucho vein of comedy (to the point he impersonated Groucho in one episode, "Yankee-Doodle Doctor.") I was a major Marx Brothers nerd. And at some point the title M*A*R*X just popped into my head. I took pencil to paper (actual pencil, actual paper) and started to go to town on this. I fell in love with this sketch. Then I decided to write a song parody to go with it. "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" was one of Groucho's best known songs. And it just flowed better than his other songs. The song "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" became Groucho's theme song but a parody of it would have been a mess. And the word "medicine" just scanned perfectly with "Lydia."
I went into this parody hard. I remember it as being easy, that pieces just fell into play. I so enjoyed working on it. I had the song on tape and kept playing it to get the song patterns right. And when it was done, I was just so proud of myself. I thought I got the Marx Brothers' rhythms perfect. I blended in a MASH type of plotline that lent itself to the jokes and felt like an actual episode. But it got to the point I was kind of obnoxious about it. I just remember sending it to my former colleagues at the college humor magazine, The Plague. And their reactions were basically, "Yeah, nice."
I was so disappointed that they didn't rave about it. I was crest fallen. I was kinda nagging them for better feedback (i.e. "praise"). However, I held on to the belief that it was one of the best things I had written. It was just that nobody else cared. I included it some packets I sent out. There weren't many stage troupes to submit to back then. It just never went anywhere. I took that song and a lot of the sketch and reworked it into a PHC submission, Dr. Hackenbush. I didn't go over there, either. Not that it was a topical sketch, but eventually, MASH went off the air and despite how beloved it is, no one wants to see a parody of it today...or do they?
No, they don't. I'm left with a sketch about two, now 'old-timey' pieces of comedy and, unless you put a shocking POV on, no one is going to attempt it. So, we'll just park it here, to demonstrate that at one point, such a thing existed.
I went into this parody hard. I remember it as being easy, that pieces just fell into play. I so enjoyed working on it. I had the song on tape and kept playing it to get the song patterns right. And when it was done, I was just so proud of myself. I thought I got the Marx Brothers' rhythms perfect. I blended in a MASH type of plotline that lent itself to the jokes and felt like an actual episode. But it got to the point I was kind of obnoxious about it. I just remember sending it to my former colleagues at the college humor magazine, The Plague. And their reactions were basically, "Yeah, nice."
I was so disappointed that they didn't rave about it. I was crest fallen. I was kinda nagging them for better feedback (i.e. "praise"). However, I held on to the belief that it was one of the best things I had written. It was just that nobody else cared. I included it some packets I sent out. There weren't many stage troupes to submit to back then. It just never went anywhere. I took that song and a lot of the sketch and reworked it into a PHC submission, Dr. Hackenbush. I didn't go over there, either. Not that it was a topical sketch, but eventually, MASH went off the air and despite how beloved it is, no one wants to see a parody of it today...or do they?
No, they don't. I'm left with a sketch about two, now 'old-timey' pieces of comedy and, unless you put a shocking POV on, no one is going to attempt it. So, we'll just park it here, to demonstrate that at one point, such a thing existed.
