‘MADtv’ arrives just in time to make us laugh at the election.
Summer getting you down? Had enough presidential campaign politics to last a lifetime? Don’t get even: Get “MADtv.”
The off-the-wall sketch comedy show is back, just in time to save us all.
The original series, inspired by the joyfully juvenile MAD Magazine, aired on Fox for 14 seasons before exiting the stage in 2009. Now it’s returned, with a brand-new cast as well as visits from original cast members Nicole Sullivan, Bobby Lee and Will Sasso. The eight-episode reboot premieres Tuesday on The CW.
On the basis of the first episode, you’re likely to come to the same conclusion I did: Eight is not enough.
For one thing, it’s just not fair for the first season of the new “MADtv” to wind up before the election. For that matter, it’s not fair for the show to wind up at all until the end of the first Trump or Clinton term.
Naturally, the premiere takes aim at the presidential candidates, first in a spoof of the old “The Newlywed Game,” retitled “The Trulywed Game,” with the Trumps on one side and the Clintons on the other. The sketch almost writes itself, as they say. Michelle Ortiz and Piotr Michael play the Trumps, while Sasso and Sullivan play the Clintons.
But wait, there’s more candidate capers, including a sendup of Hillary Clinton’s joint appearance with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Carlie Craig), and a memorable sketch recasting the GOP nominee in a popular HBO show. The title of the episode is “Make Westeros Great Again.”
One of the real highlights of the premiere episode is a second “Thrones”-related sketch mocking how absurdly complicated the show’s story and characters are. Keep your eye out for a nice nod to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” routine.
Although both are sketch comedy shows, “MADtv” was never exactly like “Saturday Night Live.” The Fox show was loopier, it took more comedic chances and it was more than happy to be unsophisticated. It was never about getting the imitation of a public figure or celebrity exactly right— it was about making it funny and pushing the envelope as far as necessary to do just that.
Sometimes that meant a joke or a sketch would misfire. We see that in “The Trulywed Game” which trots out the usual tired stuff about the Clintons. That’s going to be a big challenge as the show laughs its way through at least part of the presidential season. We’ve heard it all about one candidate, while the other one ought to get writer’s credit for all the self-generated fodder he provides.
A joke may fall flat here and there but the timing couldn’t be better for the return of “MADtv,” and by that, I mean comic timing.