printerati

Watching Raising Arizona tonight reminded me of a recurring skit on an old Comedy Central show I used to watch in high school, somewhere around 1991 or 1992. It featured a martial arts guy who would get into fights with a bald white guy, and there was a "foot cam" shot from the martial arts guy's perspective, with his airborne feet at the bottom of the shot as he went to kick someone. I remember one in particular where they got into a fight on the tennis court.

From what I can gather, the show was most likely Short Attention Span Theater, which compiled skits from various comedy shows and acts. Does anyone know where this particular skit comes from? And is it available on DVD?

story

Yo. Short Attention Span Theater, hosted by Marc Maron, showed clips of stand-up, tv, and movies. The clip in question is from Almost Live, a Seattle-based, mid-80s sketch comedy show. Re-runs were shown on Comedy Central in the early-90s. Anyway, it's from a recurring sketch called "Be Like Billy," a spoof of how-to films for children combined with old-school kung-fu movie style. It was pretty funny.

Glad to hear someone else remembered.

Jay G.

The proper name of the sketches were "Mind Your Manners with Billy Quan," with "be like Billy," being the catchphrase spoken in them. Apparently the sketches sometimes also appeared on the Bill Nye the Science Guy TV show, which originated on Almost Live! as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_Live!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149413/plotsummary

Youtube has a few clips up.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...58CE7A68FDDDCC

printerati

Thanks for the YouTube links. I remembered the "8-Ball" one as soon as I saw the title. Guess I shouldn't hope for any DVD release, though.

Adam Tyner

...although the series went through a bunch of hosts, including Jon Stewart. I really liked the comic who hosted when I was introduced to the show (early '93?), who I think immediately preceded Marc Maron. Marc's stint had a studio apartment or something as the set. Didn't really care for his run, at least at the time.

kvrdave

Brian Regan was also a host, iirc. That was on while I was at college, and it is something they should bring back. Greatest show they had if you like watching standup. It seems like that was also when the network was still called HA!

That was where I first saw a lot of different standup acts. Seems like Ellen DeGeneres hosted The A List for awhile.

Jay G.

Actually, it was on the Comedy Channel, not Ha!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_A...n_Span_Theater

In addition to stand-up, I remember the show showing clips from Mr. Bean, the Larry Sanders Show, and some films like When Harry Met Sally.

IMDB lists her as being on the show:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0817314/