Television series
Tracey Ullman's Show
- Parody
- Light-hearted
- Dip in and out
Tracey Ullman's sketch comedy show where she morphs into dozens of characters—celebrities, politicians, ordinary people—in rapid-fire vignettes. It's loose, anarchic, and powered entirely by her gift for physical comedy and vocal mimicry. For anyone who loves character work and doesn't need a plot to follow.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love sketch comedy built on physical transformation and sharp impressions, where a single performer's chameleon range is the whole pleasure and the jokes land on the observation rather than the set-up.
Skip it if you want a continuing story or characters who develop across episodes, since each sketch resets and the hit rate varies from one piece to the next.
What it asks of you: Each episode runs about half an hour and moves briskly from one bit to the next, so you can dip in and out without losing the thread.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Saturday Night Live1975
Live sketch comedy with rotating casts of impressionists and character actors. The best sketches match Ullman's anarchic energy; the format's unpredictability keeps you on your toes.
But Many sketches fall flat, and you'll sit through dead air. Finding the gems requires patience and tolerance for inconsistency.
Inside Amy Schumer2013
Sharp character sketches and impressions anchored by a single sensibility. Schumer's comedic voice gives each piece momentum, even the experimental ones.
But The comedy is often meaner and more pointed than Ullman's. If you prefer gentler observation, this will feel aggressive.
I Love Lucy1951
Lucille Ball's physical comedy and character work across 180 episodes. The foundation of everything Ullman does—slapstick, reinvention, committed absurdity.
But The pacing is slow by modern standards and the domestic sitcom formula can feel dated. Some jokes don't survive their era.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Tracey Ullman's Show
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Mrs. Doubtfire1993
Both are comedians whose deepest power comes from becoming someone else entirely—not just the impression, but finding the emotional truth inside a character.
Robin Williams playing a woman disguised as a Scottish nanny—a feature-length character piece powered by the same gift for reinvention and physical transformation that Ullman has. Williams holds a entire emotional story through the mask.
But It's genuinely sentimental and plays the stakes straight. If you want purity of comedy, the heart gets in the way.
More like this (6)
SCTV1976
Canadian sketch show with a troupe (Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, John Candy) doing characters and parodies. Longer sketches than SNL, more developed worlds, sharper writing.
But Very Canadian in sensibility; some references are region-specific. Sketch comedy still means you'll encounter clunkers.
The Carol Burnett Show1967
Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, and ensemble doing sketches and musical numbers. A direct ancestor of Ullman's approach—character work, impressions, sketch discipline across decades.
But Deeply of its time. The variety-show format means the pacing and production values feel ancient to modern eyes.
Monty Python's Flying Circus1969
Absurdist British sketch comedy with surreal logic and fearless commitment to bit. Python's willingness to take jokes into genuinely weird territory influenced everyone after.
But The humour is often inaccessible and deliberately obscure. If you need the joke explained, you won't enjoy this.
Portlandia2011
Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein playing recurring characters in Portland sketches. Character-driven, sometimes musical, very specific in its targets but warm underneath.
But Heavily reliant on Portland culture and indie sensibilities. If the references don't land, the sketches don't land.
Key & Peele2012
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele doing character sketches with strong voices and surreal, confident premises. They commit fully to absurd ideas and execute them cleanly.
But Some sketches stretch too long and lose momentum. The impressions are less sophisticated than Ullman's vocal work.
The Tin Drum1979
Both use character performance and physical transformation to comment on society and power, but Volker Schlöndorff uses that tool to examine atrocity where Ullman uses it for joy—a reminder of what sketch comedy could say if it were willing to go much darker.
German New Cinema masterpiece where Oskar Matzerath, a boy who stops growing, narrates mid-century German chaos from an oblique angle. Darkly comic, deeply strange, using grotesque characters and physical performance to make historical horror visible.
But It's bleak, sexually explicit, and uses grotesque imagery without apology. The politics are demanding and the tone is never light.
People
Cast
Tracey UllmanVarious
Production
- Ben FarrellExecutive Producer
- Myfanwy MooreExecutive Producer
- Tracey UllmanExecutive Producer
- Caroline NorrisProducer