“Inside Amy Schumer” (9:30 p.m. Tuesdays on Comedy Central) is only in its third season, but in my opinion Schumer has already secured her spot as the funniest female comedian working today. As with all sketch shows, the success rate isn’t 100 percent, but each episode yields a remarkably high percentage of laughs as Amy and her writers and actors parody everything from vintage movies to “Seinfeld”-ian minutiae to the ridiculous way men and women behave toward each other.
As such, I don’t think it’s too early for a top-10 list. Here are my favorite sketches from the series so far, all of which can be found on Comedy Central’s YouTube site:
1. “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer” — Expanding on the premise of an older sketch called “Focus Group,” the only full-episode sketch finds a group of 12 jurors debating not the innocence or guilt of a suspect, but rather whether Schumer is hot enough to be on TV. The bit is completely on-point throughout, from the black-and-white cinematography to the broken fan to the award-winning actors playing it straight. The pinnacle comes when Paul Giamatti declares that Schumer “has a Cabbage Patch face, she’s built like a lineman, and her ass makes me furious!”
2. “Football Town Nights” — “Friday Night Lights” ended in 2011, but because it strikes a balance between being rewatchable and cliched, this parody doesn’t feel dated. The gag reimagines the tagline as “Clear eyes, full hearts, no raping” while also striking more subtle jabs such as implying – through Schumer’s increasingly large glasses of wine — that drinking helps Tammy Taylor get through the weekly bouts of small-town drama.
3. “Celebrity Interview” — This was apparently inspired by a Blake Lively interview on David Letterman’s show, but it works as a parody of any late-night talk show interview where the super-hot celebrity pretends to be a normal girl. Bill Hader does a spot-on Letterman (it helps that they look similar), and the two fanboys masturbating in the crowd provide the perfect over-the-top element.
4. “Girl, You Don’t Need Makeup” — The song by the boy band is great, but the visuals really sell the joke, as the contrast between the glamorously made-up Amy and the plain-faced Amy is hilarious.
5. “Horror Movie” — This is a straightforward “Scream” parody mixed with an endless fart joke: Amy farts when she gets scared, and the sound of the farts allows the killer to find where she’s hiding. Your mileage will vary depending on how funny you find farts.
6. “Last F**kable Day” — Similar to the “12 Angry Men” sketch, but this time with actresses, this works due to the devotion of Julia-Louis Dreyfuss, Tina Fey and Patricia Arquette playing it straight. The premise is that actresses reach a precise date on which Hollywood declares them to no longer be sex objects, so they immediately are cast as moms of the same actors for which they were the love interest yesterday. But these women accept it and cut loose with belching, farting and cigar smoking.
7. “Chicks Who Can Hang” — This is a nice example of exaggerating a common conversation topic until it becomes hilarious. Four guys see a plaid-shirted Amy from across the bar and admire her non-girly qualities, then cross the line and keep going until their version of a perfect girl is basically a dude.
8. “The Universe” — This sketch skewers the notion that the universe is sending messages to 20-something white girls. Getting Bill Nye the Science Guy to play himself on a set reminiscent of last year’s “Cosmos” clinches the joke.
9. “Rounds” — This sad/true/funny mix finds Amy being ignored by her “friends” at the bar until she hits on a solution: If she buys a round of drinks for everybody, they like her (or at least remember she is there for a moment). Unfortunately, Amy gets addicted to using this easy way out and requires an intervention.
10. “Chrissy Teigen, Couples Counselor” — Sometimes a joke is right there in the title and doesn’t grow beyond that, yet it still works. You can probably predict all the beats when Amy and her husband have a counseling session with swimsuit supermodel Chrissy Teigen, but they’re nonetheless funny.
What are your favorite “Inside Amy Schumer” sketches? Share your list below.