MTV - The State - Skits and Stickers [VHS]

Way back in 1988, New York University sophomore Todd Holoubek had a dream: to form a new group of comedians called the New Group. He would be joined by schoolmates Michael Showalter and Joe Lo Truglio. The trio performed sketch comedy on and off campus, shot some videos, and even opened for Dennis Miller. Soon Michael Ian Black and David Wain were recruiting the group to work for MTV and, with the addition of other New York University students Kevin Allison, Ben Garant, Michael Patrick Jann, Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon, and Ken Marino, they became the flop called the State, which would run for two years on MTV, mount one CBS special, record an unreleased album, publish a book, and dissolve, as Holoubek left the group and the State's fate was uncertain.

Fortunately, the State never took itself seriously, and would regularly poke fun at its own lowbrow appeal as well as at its network. MTV: The State: Skits and Stickers (stickers not included) has one such moment, as the cast members pause and gather to allow Ian Black a "Personal State" of embarrassing confessions. The video collects 30 other zany skits, such as "The Jew, the Italian, and the Redhead Gay," a parody of stereotyping sitcoms; "Monkey Torture," a parody of late-night talk shows; and "Tenement," a parody of gritty but bowdlerized Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. Other low points include "Service with a Smile," where the abusiveness typical of New York delis turns in on itself; "The Inbred Brothers," who fall down and light themselves on fire; and "The Bearded Men of Space Station 11," which takes a species of childish argument to absurd limits.

The video also features three skits that were never shown on TV: "Krispy Pops," in which a man on the street is invited to breakfast by a voiceover; "Carter's Lineage," in which a bridegroom-to-be is rejected by his fiancée's father, who wants to protect the plantation from the poor sap's mixed blood; and "Super VIII," a low-budget slasher pic starring the killer camera of the title. Although this videotape must omit the bulk of the material the State filmed, it serves as a good introduction to the group's smart comedy, and provides initiates with a collector's item--even if the stickers aren't included. --Robert Burns Neveldine