New York hooligans tarnish Internet with ‘The Oval Show’

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By David Bates

Founded in 2000 A.D., the Sam Park Revue is a Brooklyn comedy troupe that makes short videos. They are a bit like “Saturday Night Live,” only with more laugh potential. The group has recently disbanded, but their archive of humor is still around.

Ritik Dholakia, a former member of the troup, maintains a blog at www.thequietquiet.com. “Strange, charming, funny, occasionally artful and usually delightful, I have no problem asserting that SPR was genius before its time.” Dholakia wrote.

The shorts are indeed genius. From the chronicles of one bear’s journey through Wall Street to an unfortunate mishap with arsenic laced milk, the Sam Park revue showcases the kind of depressive humor found in the movie “Clerks.” Many of the shorts are filmed in black and white, which adds to the similarity. It should be noted however, that the Sam Park Revue uses far fewer cock jokes.

Squirreled away on a separate page is a collection of humorous essays written by the Sam Park Revue. Consider one essayist’s take on babies:

“Here is the problem i have when someone presents me with a baby: what to do with it? i mean, here is this thing. it is small. it is ugly. it smells.”

The Sam park review grew out of a Stanford University comedy crew called “The Oval Show.” “The Oval Show” has its own archive of shorts on a separate Web page. These shorts cover topics such as what to do when your friend calls “shotgun” too often, and the world of snail wrangling.

The group’s videos are available on YouTube as well, though there is no difference in content. You can check out the group’s comedic stylings at ovalshow.com.

Originally Published: Issue 607 - May 6, 2008

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