Five of the Best: Kings of Comedy

Before the days of second channels and daily vlogs, several of our favourite YouTubers made their names through the creation of comedy skits and videos.

Much more complex than your typical unboxing or tag video, these sketches bring about the funny in a way that no other video can – and a lot of work goes into them too. If you take look at each video’s credits, you’ll see a whole host of creative minds working together to make these videos as gut-wrenchingly funny as they are: sound designer, director of photography, second camera director, writer… If there’s an award for it at the Oscars, odds are you’ll find it on YouTube too.

So enjoy a lighthearted moment as we present to you our Five of the Best: Kings of Comedy!

Sniper Pug | TomSka

We couldn’t have put together a comedy Five of the Best without including the King of Comedy himself, Tom Ridgewell. We had a difficult time narrowing down our choices to just one, but we found it hard to leave out a video that mixes a strong production values with a sniper-trained pug.

Sniper Pug could very well be a spin-off to Kingsman: The Secret Service, with its fighting and blood splatter. The “strong maverick” Sergeant Pugsley might be an alcoholic, but he’s certainly a good boy who (nearly) saves the lives of his fellow soldiers.

Anyone else want to head to the nearest rescue centre to re-home a fellow maverick pug?

Strangers in a Bed – Full Film | charlieissocoollike

Written and directed by Charlie McDonnell, and starring Jack Howard and John Christian Bateman, Strangers in a Bed encompasses the essentials: drama and comedy.

With a cancelled flight, an overbooked motel, and an attempt at sleeping in the bathtub under a dripping tap (so annoying), Strangers in a Bed has all the ingredients you need to balance humour with real heart-clenching moments, enough to keep you from reducing to a puddle of tears. Not only is this film funny, but the acting is superb and entirely realistic when you see the clash of British and American cultures. Despite being released in 2014, it hasn’t dated at all, and its themes are still entirely relevant.

If you want even more from Jack and Charlie, you can check out the film with director’s commentary.

The Shredder | Jack & Dean

We’ve all gotten a little excited when given the chance to use a paper-shredder, so of course Jack Howard and Dean Dobbs would create a sketch completely dedicated to it – one with a YouTuber- and star-studded cast that includes the Fratocrats, Hazel Hayes, Daniel J. Layton, David Elms, and Rosie Armstrong.

Birth certificates, search warrants, CVs – no matter what it is, Jacob Trueman will file it away in that extra-special filing cabinet under the table that just so happens to make a consistent whirring noise. There are many funny moments throughout the sketch, but our favourite has to be the scene with Susan’s goodbye card. If you’ve been working at a place long enough, you’ll know by now that somebody is always leaving! And if they aren’t leaving, then it’s always (somehow) a co-worker’s birthday.

To be honest, we’re confused as to how Jacob managed to survive as long as he did at the office, but the sketch definitely gave us hope… Well, until the end, that is.

The Expert (Short Comedy Sketch) | Lauris Beinerts

A large number of comedy sketches seem to be based in an office, and from the looks of it, those of us thinking of heading into the office life have a fulfilling yet challenging time ahead – at least, if we go by what’s seen in Lauris Beinerts‘s The Expert, that is.

So what exactly does this expert have to do? Well, he has the difficult (and unenviable) task of trying to convince the corporate world that geometry is the reason why blue ink cannot draw red lines and why transparent ink cannot draw blue ones. There’s even a request for a line to be drawn in the form of a kitten, not a cat, and it even put us on edge.

If you’ve ever been put into a team with people whose ability to survive on Earth has been questioned, this is the sketch for you! A very unproductive, yet productive meeting and endless complications leave the expert claiming he can do anything. Whether or not he actually can is another story.

The Bothering (feat. ThatJennyBee) | slomozovo

Closing out our list are Chris Bingham and sister Jenny Bingham, who have produced a sketch that… umm… is quite unique, to say the least. The tagline? “You can’t spell studious without D! Which is the first letter of DEAD!”

The Bothering is great for lovers of classical literature who can see the comedy in the perilous situations most literary characters (and Jenny) find themselves in: horseshoes, unruly children, bobbing for apples – we’re not sure how they managed to cope! Be careful not to start spluttering “What the bitch!” each time someone annoys you, or “You are ugly and I wish to burn you in the sun” when you end up being given a surprise assignment by your least favourite teacher. We don’t think either would go down very well.

Honestly, is it any surprise this is Chris’s most viewed video?

So there you have it…

Five of the Best: Kings of Comedy! There were many more we wish we could have included, but we were sadly limited to just five. As we all know, British comedy is known worldwide for being the best, and if you find yourself disagreeing, just wait until you read our Five of the Best: Queens of Comedy, coming soon to a computer screen near you. If it doesn’t work to convince you, then we don’t know what will!

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