The State: Difference between revisions

* [[Blatant Lies]]: The sketch in which a husband denies he's cheating on his wife, even as his mistress storms in on them. Avoids [[Implausible Deniability]] because his two-faced fast talk actually ''works''.

* [[Bowdlerize]]: "Tenement", an adaptation of a Eugene O'Neill-esque one act play, which replaces all the original profanities with [[Unusual Euphemism|unusual euphemisms]].

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: Inverted by a sketch which actually ''showed'' the fourth wall -- and blocked the audience's view.

* [[Burger Fool]]

* [[Deconstruction]]: ...of the usual sketch-comedy tropes, such as [[Recurring Character]] and [[Catch Phrase]].

* [[Deep South]]: "The Inbred Brothers"

* [[The Ditz]]: The Inbred Brothers

* [[Don't Explain the Joke]]: One sketch consists primarily of David Wain stopping to explaining the premise that "anything that isn't true is funny".

* [[Executive Meddling]]: [[Crosses the Line Twice]] Louie was written at the request of executives for a character with a catch phrase. He was made as ridiculous as possible in the hope that the matter would be dropped. Instead the group ended up liking the character and placed him in future sketches.

** The team explains on commentary that the show was originally launched because MTV wanted their first foray into the "sketch show" genre, so the first season was very much about what the network wanted. They felt since MTV was a '''MUSIC NETWORK''' ([[Network Decay|Hey, imagine that!]]), that the sketches should occasionally have to do with a music theme. This explains the sketch where Slash from Guns n' Roses is in the woman's kitchen. This got less prevalent as the show progressed, by the 3rd and 4th season the gang was pretty much allowed to do whatever.

** [[The Hero]]: Thomas Lennon

** [[The Lancer]]: Michael Ian Black

* [[Ham to Ham Combat]]: The argument in "Hepcat" between Hepcat and his father, in which each line of dialogue is a melodramatic showstopper, despite not following from the previous line.

* [[Home Version Soundtrack Replacement]]: Since ''The State'' was on MTV, they got to use a lot of popular songs during their run. Most of it had to be replaced with sound-alikes when the DVD came out. There was even an insert written by the members of the group about how they worked to make it as close as possible.

{{quote| "Walk it off, Tozog!"}}

* [[Inherently Funny Words]]: "Maybe you should try... pants!"

* [[Must Have Caffeine]]: "Coffee Family"

* [[Naked People Are Funny]]: Everybody in the troupe (yes, ''including'' Kerri) has been naked in at least one sketch. A few sketches in fact had ''everybody'' naked at once.

* [[Nonverbal Miscommunication]]: The International Sign For Choking -> The International Sign For My Friend Is Choking, I Don't Know The Heimlich Maneuver, Can You Call For Help -> The International Airport Sign For I Did Not Understand Your Last Message, I Was Raised In The Mountains Of Japan And Am Not Familiar With All The International Signs -> Japanese Kabuki for My Friend Is Almost Unconscious -> Tibetan Dance for The Waiter Is On Fire -> The International Sign for [[Man On Fire|I Am On Fire]] -> the Pueblo sign for I Hate Accountants -> The Accountant Dance of War -> The International Cry of It's OK, Big Misunderstanding, Everything's Fine, Except For The Guy At Table 4, Who's Unconscious -> signals to the busboy to get a stretcher for Table 4 -> the busboy gets Table 4 a year's supply of radishes -> the customer at Table 4 ''stops choking''

* [[Out of Focus]]:

** Intentionally invoked by Michael Patrick Jann and Todd Holoubek; both preferred standing behind the camera to acting.

* [[Show Within a Show]]: A good 35% of the sketches were ''The State'' pretending to be another show.

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Kerri Kenney. Leads to her being in almost every sketch.

* [[Surreal Theme Tune]]: "BOYS AND GIRLS! [[No Indoor Voice|ACTION! ACTION! ACTION! ACTION!]]"

* [[Take That]]: The New York Times actually gave the show [[Broke the Rating Scale|negative two stars]]...

* [[Team Mom]]: Kerri Kenney, in one sketch.

* [[Tired of Running]]: Played with in a sketch where a prison escapee turns himself in several years after the search for him has been called off. The prison still has the unguarded wide-open gate he walked out through.

** Lampooned in a sketch where the art community rallies around the idle notebook doodles of a bored 15-year-old girl.

** Subverted with a sketch where a panel of snooty experts, asked to ''define'' "art", rapidly conclude that it's "like, paintings and stuff."

* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway]]?: Lampshaded with poor Aquaman.

{{quote| '''Superman''': Aquaman... go talk to some fish! ''[[Butt Monkey|(rest of the Justice League laughs)]]''