We’re Not Worthy: From in Living Color to Mr. Show, How ’90s Sketch TV Changed the Face of Comedy

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In the ’70s and ’80s Saturday Night Live, SCTV, and Monty Python ruled the television airwaves with sketch comedy. But then came the 1990s-and alongside grunge music and oversized denim, sketch comedy was turned up to 11. With the promise of low budgets, big laughs, more diverse cast members, and fresh content, an ever-expanding number of television stations each wanted their very own hit sketch show. Saturday Night Live was ’dead’ anyway, right?

We’re Not Worthy is the definitive account of ’90s sketch comedy, the decade that forever changed what we laugh at. Author and comedian Jason Klamm goes behind the scenes of more than 50 sketch shows that ruled the ’90s, including groundbreaking staples such as In Living Color, MTV’s The State, Mr. Show, Kids in the Hall, The Ben Stiller Show, and Mad TV, along with several swiftly canceled gigs (The Dana Carvey Show, anyone?). Each show seemed to launch at least one big name into the stratosphere: The Wayans family, Ben Stiller, Jennifer Coolidge, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow, Janeane Garofalo . . . the list goes on and on.

Klamm brings readers back to the ’90s comedy landscape like never before, through over 150 new and candid interviews with trailblazers such as Mike Myers, Bob Odenkirk, Carol Burnett, Tommy Davidson, Adam McKay, Dave Thomas, Patton Oswalt, Reno 911!’s Kerri Kenney-Silver, and a litany of additional favorites. Plus the producers, writers, directors, and other insiders that pulled it all together.

Steeped with hilarious stories, on-the-set antics, and head-turning television politics, We’re Not Worthy is a revealing trip back to the decade that placed comedy on the razor’s edge.

Jason Klamm is an author, voice actor, half of the sketch comedy troupe Dan and Jay’s Comedy Hour, and host of the Comedy on Vinyl podcast. He grew up obsessed with MTV’s The State and In Living Color, and at age 12 memorized the movie Wayne’s World from a ＄5.99 McDonald’s promotional VHS.