Eating Lobster With My Bitches: A Look Back at the Sifl and Olly Show
In a time before YouTube, a time before Adult Swim, when MTV still mostly played videos, and Snooki was just a 10-year-old with access to a tanning booth, there came a show that would change the face of television forever.
OK, well, that’s probably overstating it, but it was REALLY awesome if you happened to have marijuana on hand. Or mushrooms. Preferably mushrooms.
That show was Sifl and Olly and, ladies and gentlemen, they are BACK!
And the people did rejoice and clean out their bongs!
Sifl and Olly debuted in 1997 on MTV and lasted two seasons before being unceremoniously canceled. It was a sock puppet sketch show created by Liam Lynch and Matt Crocco, and was aggressively bizarre, charmingly low budget, and perfect for the A.D.D. crowd in an era before viral anything.
It was a cult thing, and if you’ve never heard of it I’m not terribly surprised; it is for you that I present this primer. It was also a nice excuse for me to comb through YouTube for a couple of hours to rediscover what I only remember through a hazy cloud of smoke…I mean…time. Time smoke. I was probably smoking at the time. Shutup.
Lots of shows appeal to viewers who enjoy mind altering substances, but very few of them wear it on their sleeve like Sifl and Olly. Take Chester, for instance. If you’ve gone to a liberal arts college in, say, the past 30 years, chances are you’ve had this exact conversation with one of your roommates.
These guys knew their audience.
They were also ahead of their time. Two years after Sifl and Olly was canceled, Cartoon Network completely re-purposed their night-time schedule and filled it with shows that had that same “What the fuck did I just see?” vibe.
Each show would end with a musical number. This has always been one of my favorites.
I could post clip after clip, there are dozens more on YouTube that I passed over. But in my opinion, the only way to really enjoy the show is to sit down for an extended period and just let it wash over you. It’s like a fever dream without the chills and the fever and the throwing up. Unfortunately, the show has never been released on DVD, but thankfully someone has kindly uploaded 4.5 straight hours of it. Clear out your Saturday and enjoy.
About the Author
Fred Betzner Fred Betzner spends his days silently staring out of windows in his castle, Le Château de Kangourou, and cursing his ill fate in severely broken French. He is considering changing his name to Molly.
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