Film

The Groove Tube

A 1974 sketch-comedy assault on television itself. Ken Shapiro's film is a series of crude, anarchic parodies of ads, game shows, talk shows and news broadcasts—the kind of thing that made people either howl or walk out. It's deliberately sloppy, proudly offensive, and feels like watching someone's brain with no filter. For fans of truly unhinged comedy.

TMDb rating2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you find a crude, anarchic sketch parody of TV's own habits funny, and enjoy seeing a 1970s medium's clichés skewered with a cheap, rough-edged shrug.

Skip it if you need a through-line or polished jokes, since this is a loose run of uneven, deliberately tacky sketches where many bits fall flat and the mood can feel scrappy.

What it asks of you: A brisk seventy-five minutes of unconnected sketches, with no story to follow, so attention moves from each bit to the next as it arrives and passes.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Kentucky Fried Movie1977

Another sketch-comedy demolition of media and advertising, equally chaotic and offensive. Same anarchic energy, same willingness to bomb for the sake of a bit. Peak absurdist comedy from before it got respectable.

But Very hit-and-miss format means dead air between laughs. Humor hasn't aged uniformly—some bits land, others feel dated or just tedious now.

The Kentucky Fried Movie poster

Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975

Sketch-based comedy with the same gleeful disregard for structure and taste. Python proved you could build a feature around recurring gags, non-sequiturs and pure silliness. Smarter but equally committed to the bit.

But Python's reputation precedes it and can feel overexposed. The reverence around it sometimes obscures how weird it actually is.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail poster

Melvin Goes to Dinner2003

Mike Judge's improvisational comedy about four people at a restaurant, built on awkwardness and oversharing. Similar anti-establishment energy and willingness to let scenes get uncomfortable. Defiantly indie and oddly moving.

But No plot at all—just conversation. If you need things to happen, this will feel interminable. Painfully awkward by design.

Melvin Goes to Dinner poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Groove Tube

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Committee1968

Both are films built on the principle that sketch comedy and improv can sustain feature length. Both believe the bit is more important than laughs.

An improv-based sketch film that predates Groove Tube and points the way forward. Paul Bartel was in it; it has the same insurgent energy and same willingness to let scenes just... happen. Raw and unpolished in ways that feel alive.

But Almost no narrative structure. Feels experimental because it is—some bits go nowhere and aren't saved by being funny. Genuinely hard to sit through in stretches.

The Committee poster
More like this (4)

Eating Raoul1982

A comedic hit job on middle-class values wrapped in a murder plot. Paul Bartel's sensibility is equally punk, equally gleeful about offending. Low-budget weirdness that subverts everything it touches.

But The premise involves dead bodies and sex work. Bleak tone might feel like it's laughing at harm rather than with you. Not actually as funny as it thinks it is.

Eating Raoul poster

The State1994

A sketch show from MTV that channels the same anarchic TV-parody impulse. Built by a collective of young comedians, it's looser and weirder than SNL, with bits that just spiral into the absurd. Pure ensemble madness.

But Episodic format means uneven quality. Some sketches are brilliant, others die mid-scene. MTV's edit choices sometimes work against the bits.

The State poster

Lemmings1973

The actual show that preceded SNL. More raw, more focused on satire and impression, with a sharper political edge than what came after. Early Chevy Chase before he became a star. Genuinely loose and dangerous feeling.

But Uneven even by sketch standards. Some bits go nowhere. The satire of the early seventies doesn't all translate now.

Lemmings poster

Reno 911!: Miami2007

Both trust that unpolished sketch comedy in a feature format can work if the ensemble believes in it. Both are proudly low-budget and unpretentious about what they are.

Sketch comedy expanded to feature length about incompetent cops. Improvised, stupid, genuinely funny, and maintains the low-budget grimy energy of early '70s comedy films. Proves the form still works if you commit to the bit.

But Plot is nonexistent—it's a connecting thread through sketches. Humor is dumb and relies on character repetition. No intellectual content whatsoever.

Reno 911!: Miami poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

The Kentucky Fried Movie, Amazon Women on the Moon, Lemmings, And Now for Something Completely Different, Starhops