How About That Thing?

I’ll be honest, I’ve been banging my head against the wall on this one. Mostly because I’m not sure anybody can relate to this concept anymore, what with YouTube taking all the guess work out of finding your favorite sketch from a sketch comedy series… But also because having to write this article meant having to go back and watch reruns of Sifl & Olly.

For the uninitiated, Sifl and Olly was a sketch comedy series that started in 1997, and lasted… Honestly, way longer than it had any right to. Basically, it revolved around these two guys.

These two are the titular Sifl and Olly. Not going to lie, until someone said the other’s name, I couldn’t even remember which one was which. Turns out Sifl is on the left, and Olly is on the right. And occasionally, you get this guy.

This is Chester. He… exists. I’m not really sure what he’s supposed to do, but I confess, it’s been ages since I watched this show, and outside of one particular sketch, I really had no desire to watch more than I have to.

Personally, I neither liked, nor hated Sifl and Olly. For me, it was just one of those shows that happened to be on during a block of shows I actually WANTED to see, and if I wanted to watch that week’s Celebrity Deathmatch, or Daria, or Tom Green show, or whatever, it meant having to sit through this show. Because we didn’t have things like DVR, and the ability to just pick the show we wanted to watch whenever we wanted like we do now. If you wanted to watch that, you literally had to sift through shows that were mid, or even outright crap, in order to get to the good shit.

Sifl and Olly, in my opinion, was definitely mid. And I think the only reason I didn’t declare it to be forgettable, or even outright crap, was because of one recurring sketch. If that sketch didn’t end up being as hilarious as it was, I probably would’ve changed the channel outright the moment the extremely obnoxious theme song started playing. And that sketch, ladies and gentlemen, was The Precious Roy Home Shopping Network.

During the home shopping network, Sifl and Olly would try to sell you on a product. And it was always something weird and impractical, like the electric cigarette, or miracle dirt, or something along those lines.

After a couple minutes of trying to sell you on that week’s asinine product, they’d take calls from customers. Naturally, the customers were just as idiotic as the products themselves. IE, a customer who bought the electric cigarette admitted that it helped him quit smoking, only for him to wind up addicted to the electric cigarette instead.

And then, we got to talk to the man himself.

This right here is the fabled Precious Roy. He speaks in cryptic nonsense. IE, “I’m Precious Roy, and if the cops ask, you didn’t see a thing!” On top of weird introductions, he often forgot the name of the product he was shilling. IE, when talking about The Precious Roy pet powerplant, he was quoted saying: “By my potato-powered pants today! SUCKERS!”

This was pretty much how every sketch went, and I found just about every single one of them to be absolutely hilarious. And yet, upon retrospect, I ask why? Other than the obvious possibility that I had an idiotic sense of humor when I was thirteen, but I’m not sure how well that excuse would hold up, because I have an idiotic sense of humor right now. Also, I loved Precious Roy, but even back then, I found I had very little, if any patience for the rest of this dumbass show. But somehow, Precious Roy and his home shopping network managed to be the one memorable thing from an otherwise mid show. Go figure, I guess.

While Sifl and Olly itself disappeared into the obscurity it most likely deserves, the phenomenon of liking one sketch on a sketch comedy that most likely sucked isn’t as alien a concept as I thought. I’ve heard people say they hate Saturday Night Live’s current incarnation, but they love Weekend Update with Collin and Michael, for example. I’ve heard people say they hated MAD on Cartoon Network, but loved the Spy Vs Spy segment, for another example.

Bottom line: it’s not as uncommon as I thought.

Of course, NOW the question is why Precious Roy? What was it about this sketch that stood out to me? It was just as improvised and tacky as everything else about the show, and yet, I still chuckle at some of the ideas presented.

Of course, maybe it’s best this remain a mystery. Partly because of the old saying: “if you have to explain a joke, it isn’t funny.” But more importantly, it means having to examine thirteen-year-old me, and how thirteen-year-old me ticked. I won’t bore you with my autobiography, but suffice to say, thirteen, and perhaps the entirety of middle school as a whole, wasn’t a great time to be me.

I guess in the end, if it’s funny, laugh. Don’t ask why, just enjoy what you enjoy.