Top 10 Greatest and Funniest In Living Color Sketches.
Last week I treated you all to the great In Living Color book: Homey Don’t Play That! The Story of In Living Color and The Black Comedy Revolution. Now, it’s time to continue our In Living Color deep dive with personal favorite sketches of mine (and I’m sure yours) that repped the funniest and greatest material this classic show had to offer.
10. Dracula meets Ugly Wanda.
In this hilarious sketch, The all powerful Dracula arrives one dark and stormy night to feast on his prey and that prey turns out to be ugly Wanda. Jim Carrey and Jamie Foxx make a good comic team.
9. Russell Simmons’ Def Strawberry Jam.
Season 5 was the end of In Living Color and without the Wayans family the quality of the show definitely declined, but this hilarious sketch from the first episode of the season was one of the really strong ones from the season. It’s just wildly hilarious.
8. All Up In The Family.
The classic trilogy of a black All In The Family parodies were all good, but the final sketch with Jamie Foxx as a Gay man visiting the Black Bunker home is perhaps the funniest and strongest of them all.
7. Introducing Homey The Clown.
The iconic introduction of the legendary character Homey The Clown was the beginning of something special. Homey was based off of edgy, angry comic Paul Mooney who used to stop by In Living Color’s writers’ room to help out but would get pissed whenever he felt slighted and would shout out : “Oh no, Homey! I don’t play that!”
6. Hollywood Homeboy Shopping Network.
One of the many hilarious Homeboy Shopping Network sketches, with plenty of hilarious little moments that show us the impeccable chemistry that Damon and Keenan had together. Shout out to the “key to the city” aka a crow bar.
5. Fire Marshall Bill Superbowl Special.
One of the most recognizable and iconic characters in television history, Jim Carrey gave us his best Fire Marshall Bill sketch in that classic In Living Color Superbowl Special. “LEMME TELL YOU SUMTHIN!”
4. Hour of Power.
A hilarious parody of the Jimmy Swaggert\Reverend Ike type televangelists. Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey were an impeccable comedy team in this classic sketch. Warning: Dangerous levels of laughter will perhaps cause some serious abdominal pain.
3. Wanda The Masseuse.
This specific sketch got some of the hardest, biggest laughs the show ever had. The chemistry between Jamie and Tommy became as classic as Harvey Korman and Tim Conway of Carol Burnett fame. The infamous blooper was the icing on the cake.
2. Men on Football.
Speaking of masterful chemistry… Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier should be considered one of the greatest comedy duos of all time. The Men On sketches were always drop dead funny but this iconic one from that famous superbowl special may just be the all time best of Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather. This one got them a little bit of heat, but it’s all for the sake of real comedy, baby.
- Wanda on The Dating Game.
Out of all the In Living Color sketches, this gem is no doubt in my mind the funniest and strongest of them all. The chemistry between Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, Shawn Wayans and David Alan Grier was stuff of magic. It’s so obvious how much fun the actors were having with their very genuine reactions.
The 90s produced many classic shows and movies and In Living Color is one of its greatest products. Thanks to this hilarious and groundbreaking show television got so much funnier and blacker too.