10 Sketch Comedy Skits That'll Inspire You to Be a Comedian

The key to an ideal life is probably the perfect combination of working hard and playing hard. But comedians have the right idea. Why not consider the fun part of hanging out with your friends and joking around as your job? A lot of people probably think that they could stick a camera in front of their rag-tag group and have a hit, but they’re also probably wrong. Comedians spend years honing their craft and trying to get noticed. That’s why it’s awesome that truTV recently picked up Friends of the People, a new sketch comedy show that also mixes in some hilarious man-on-the-street action. It’s about to make cable TV a lot more funny.

We’re not saying that standard late-night comedy shows (cough, SNL) should up their game, but Friends of the People has a killer cast, and they’re not afraid to ask their buddies from other shows to come on to make the sketches even more memorable. Like Michael Che, the newest Weekend Update co-anchor, Pete Davidson, who a lot of people are already comparing to sketch comedy greats, some old friends like Kel Mitchell (Kenan and Kel), and Dustin Diamond (Saved By the Bell).

You’re probably thinking: “Holy crap, being a comedian sounds like something I should be doing.” To help convince you further, here are 10 sketches that should get you to quit your day job and attend some open mic nights.

There’s always going to be naysayers regarding the cast of SNL. It’s a nostalgic thing—you never love any cast more than the one you grew up watching. For a lot of people, Andy Samberg served as the reintroduction to the late night staple. He quickly became the newest Adam Sandler (before he started putting out an awful movie every summer). He saved the ratings and he became your comedy dream.

Here was a dude who got to hang out with a different string of hosts and musical guests every week, and somehow, he became best friends with all of them. Now he shares an especially close friendship with Justin Timberlake.

There’s a reason why kids become “class clowns;” they’re not beautiful or cool enough to be prom king. But they are hilarious and everyone loves them. Samberg’s climb to stardom is sure to inspire a few kids to trade in their math workbooks for a joke book.

Before Bob Odenkirk was Better Call Saul, and before David Cross was Tobias Fünke, they worked together to create one of the best sketch comedy shows ever, Mr. Show with Bob and David.

“The Audition” is a sketch that proves that the comedy gods want us to be happy. It’s hilarious, it’s bizarre, and its writer, Dino Stamatopoulos, has admitted to trying to use this in his own auditions, which brings an extra level of joy.

If you don’t want to be a comedian after watching what funny things people can create in one room with a chair, then get out of here. You’re a disappointment.

Comedy comes from really dark places. If you’ve ever researched your own favorite comedians, you’ve probably noticed that the “sad clown” is a common troupe. Comedians, give or take a few exceptions, are addicts, depressive, or come from weird families.

If you can’t afford therapy, you might as well watch “Drunk Dad Advice,” become a comedian, and laugh through the tears.

Sometimes all you need to make a memorable sketch is a fantastic character. Key and Peele’s substitute teacher started off with a simple premise—an inner city schoolteacher comes out of retirement to sub at an all-white upper-class school. It’s basically just the opposite of white savior movies like Freedom Writers. The rest was mostly improvisation and collaborating with other funny people who make up your writer’s team, which is probably the sweetest job ever.

And if your character is a hit, you might even be working out a movie deal based on him, just like Key and Peele are doing now with Mr. Garvey.

Probably the best reason to become a comedian is getting to hang out with your best friends and making jokes all day, like the UCB four. Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh started off performing improv and sketch comedy together in Chicago, then took it to New York and offered improv classes. Their classes became successful enough for them to open their own theater, and in 1998, they got their own Comedy Central show.

Everyone wants to be remembered, but not everyone is lucky enough to be born into royalty or to find the cure for cancer. Some people have to create their own destiny based on things that they’re actually good at. Monty Python is legendary; anyone above the age of 12 has heard of the series and has seen at least one of the movies. “Argument Clinic” is a perfect example of the troupe’s outlandish comedy that has endured the years.

Friends of the People is the outcome of a great idea—what if you got a bunch of extremely funny performers (people like Kevin Barnett, Jennifer Bartels, Jermaine Fowler, Lil Rel Howery, The Lucas Bros., and Josh Rabinowitz) and let them have their own TV show? They absolutely kill the regular sketch comedy format by bringing a fresh point of view to the table. The show is new, but they’re sure to get away with a lot more than most broadcast television.

When your grandpa first found out that you’re maybe thinking about trying to do standup, or writing a play, or anything in the entertainment field really, he honestly might’ve heard that you just like baseball. He will pull out a dusty old recording of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First.” It’s a right of passage that everyone will get eventually. It’s a classic, and the pure simplicity of the back-and-forth is perfect.

Chris Farley was completely a force to be reckoned with. He stole every scene he was in, but never in a showboat-y way. He was always surprising viewers, and, even during scripted sketches, his cast mates. Like in the classic Matt “Living in a Van Down by the River” Foley speech, he shocked the rest of the cast by using his entire body for the joke, throwing himself around and breaking the set.

Here’s why people get into the game of comedy: They have this urge inside of them, somewhere deep inside, that they can’t even express in ways that go beyond laughing at inappropriate moments and fart jokes. They have this need to hold up a mirror to society and say, “This is really f***ing ridiculous, right?” and have the rest of us laugh at it because, yeah, it is f***ing ridiculous.

Dave Chappelle did the now infamously controversial sketch of Clayton Bigsby, the black white supremacist. It’s the character of a blind black man who has been raised believing that he was white, and thus he becomes a white supremacist.