The Sketch Show - Famous Sketches

Famous Sketches

Episodes traditionally ended with a sketch featuring the entire cast, and many of these have become famous among fans of the show. Some examples include:

• The Surfer Sketch - in which Mack is instructing the rest of the cast in surf safety (in a very broad Australian accent), a conversation which moves into a discussion of circus theatre. The sketch also features Mack's question of "Whaddaya do if a shark attacks ya?", to which Tavare holds up an arm with no hand and responds, "I know what not to do, ey?"

• California Dreamin' - in which Ancona is attempting to record a cover of the Mamas & the Papas' song of the same name, featuring the rest of the cast on backing vocals. The backing vocalists consistently sing the wrong lyrics (or with the wrong emphasis on the words), which eventually results in Ancona storming from the room. As a result of this sketch, many fans of the show deliberately sing along with the original song incorrectly. This sketch was repeated on the American versions of the show with Kelsey Grammer.

• The Phobias Sketch - All five actors are in a phobias workshop, phobias include a fear of the word "Aagh!", a fear of apologies, a fear of repetition, and awkward silences. Vine enters, with a problem where he barks at other people's phobias. The different phobias cause long chains of screaming (Such as apologies, Aagh, Repetition, Barking). For example: The one with the phobia of awkward silence will scream, the man next to her has a phobia of the word "Aagh!" so he screams, since two "Aaghs!" has been screamed (thus a repetition), so the one with the phobia of repetition screams, the one with the problem of barking at other peoples phobia barks next to the ear of the person with the phobia of apologies, scaring him and then he says sorry which makes him scream, and the chain continues.

• The Imaginary Friend Sketch - Ronni, as a therapist, counsels three of the other cast members, each of whom have an imaginary friend: one claims that he was looking for Alcoholic's Anonymous for his friend, one claims to have a boyfriend with the same name as her (presumably real) ex-boyfriend, and one who claims to be the imaginary friend of someone else. By the end of the sketch, it is revealed that the entire room which Ronni believes to be filled with her 'patients' is actually empty- she is the one with the hallucinations of imaginary friends.

• The English Course Sketch - in which the cast is taking an English course and each one has a particular problem with an aspect of the language, which comes out in their cafeteria conversation. Tavare has a problem with his grammar ("I sometimes have trouble with grammar, isn't it?"), Mack can't spell ("I can't spill to save me loaf, have to rely on the spillchock on me compluter"), Vine can't put emphasis on words correctly ("I have problems with my emPHARsis at different parts of my senTENces") - which causes him problems as a "speech theRAHpist", Taylor places exclamation marks randomly at the end of sentences and shouts the final word ("Sorry, I sometimes put an exclamtion mark at the end by MISTAKE!") and Ancona has a very small vocabulary ("It's alright for you lot, I've got a very small vocabulary").

• The Therapist - Karen plays a therapist in three sketches who after the victim tells her what happens she replies saying, "Ooooooooh I'm crying, my mum left me and I'm stuck on the moon boooo-hoooooooo" in which she makes fun of them. This sketch made a reappearance as a recurring gag in Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor.

• The Scrabble Sketch - This sketch revolves around the often tried method of cheating in Scrabble by claiming to the other player(s) that your seemingly useless collection of letters forms a real word and they are simply unaware of its existence. Mack and Vine are playing Scrabble and Mack begins a conversation by announcing that he went on a date the previous night. When asked by Vine how the date went, Mack replies "Nice girl, bit quazoosl". He then goes on to explain "you know, quazoosl - when someone is so good looking they become intimidating". He then gives an example stating that Liz Hurley would qualify as quazoosl. When the conversation finishes Mack asks whose turn it is and when Vine tells him it is his, he knowingly replies "Is it really?" and unsurprisingly all his letters spell "quazoosl". Later in the same show, Mack asks Vine if he fancies a glass of "saxisquith", to which Vine replies "Don't even think about it..."

• The Sign Language Sketch - Ronni is presenting a feature about the opening of a new building, stood in front of the camera with Lee to her right performing sign language. Lee's unusual and over-expressive actions infuriate Ronni and she regularly has to stop her speech to question what he is doing. Actions include flapping his arms like a chicken to indicate 50% (100% would be flapping his legs as well, and 25% is just a pecking motion) and hitting Ronni in the face with his arm as she says "far left of centre" in her speech. Ronni finally stumps him by using the words "25% off half of the chicken."

• Card Salesman Sketch - Mack tries to sell stupidly specific cards to a shopkeeper, but she refuses. Mack ends up sending one of his cards to her.