Posts Tagged 'mtv'

Since I couldn’t find the Barry Toink sketch, here’s another of my favorite The State moments:

Last week I picked up a copy of the long-awaited DVD set of MTV’s The State, and all I want to do is watch it.  I was obsessed with this show when I was 15, and now it’s 15 years later, and I finally get to see it all again.  Obviously, since I loved it as a kid, it’s hard to judge impartially, but I think most of it has aged really well.  The first season (of four) is the most dated, because it has a lot of pop music/MTV references shoehorned in, which the commentary reveals were forced on them by the network.  Starting with the second season, the performers seem to gain more creative control, and the show benefits from it.

One thing that’s especially clear to me now is that no matter how MTV wanted to market them, these are not the cool kids.  Grunge couture and Nation of Ulysses samples aside, the members of the State are obviously huge theatre nerds (which makes sense, since they met in the theatre program at NYU).  They’re bringing in mime training, dance, Tadashi Suzuki, Beckett- all kinds of stuff it takes talent to do, and they pull it off.  More importantly, it’s ridiculously funny.

So why Barry Toink for the spotlight?  Well, I wanted to stay away from the recurring characters, because mostly they’re not all that funny.  Doug coined some generation-defining catch phrases, but there’s not much to him as a character.  Louie, of course, is nothing but a catch phrase (but it Louie’s defense, it’s a really good catch phrase).  Barry and Levon, honestly, I can’t figure out why we thought they were funny at the time.  Captain Monterey Jack I still find incredibly funny, but you probably have to remember what youth-oriented TV was like in 1993 to fully appreciate him.

Barry Toink only had the lead in one sketch, but he might have been the most memorable one-off character in the entire series.  He does come back as a supporting character (alongside Louie, Barry and Levon, and Doug) in the State’s adaptation of The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, but he wears Kabuki makeup and all the dialogue is in Japanese, so the flavor’s a little different.

In his original appearance, Barry (Joe Lo Truglio) goes on a quest to find a certain word that he just can’t think of.  Along the way, he spouts absurdly highfalutin dialogue and affects a straight-backed walk that is, all on its own, hilarious.  Everyone else in the sketch is fantastic as well, from Ken Marino as neckless Drew, to Tom Lennon as the kid who has to wear special underwear, culminating in Michael Showalter as the fantastically mustachioed Guidance Counselor Noonan.  And then the greatest line in television history: “You!  What do you call you?”

As a side note, the letterman jacket that Barry wears looks exactly like the jackets at my high school.  I never had one (you couldn’t letter in drama or German, so I was pretty much out of luck), but every football player (and band geek) certainly did.

Sadly, the Barry Toink sketch isn’t online that I can find, so you’ll just have to get your hands on the DVD (or come over to my place and we’ll watch it).