Jerry’s Top Ten 30MOM Skits

By Jerry White Jr. | January 26, 2024

What even is a Top Ten? It may seem self-explanatory, but let’s complicate things a little——for fun! Am I looking to present what I believe to be the objectively “best” skits we’ve ever made? No, but kinda. Are these my favorite skits of all time? Yes-ish. Wait, is this just a random list? No, not at all. It’s a mix, it’s alchemy! All of these skits mean something to me besides “entertainment,” but whether that meaning is at all transferable to an audience is a question for the ages.

“And when you leave, just remember: that when you are not with the crowbar, the music from the organ can not be from your ancestrial reporch!”

This is a classic example of a “point the camera at Joe and say go!” skit and he can really shine in these moments. My Organ’s Grandma is apparently a kind of variety show and the live organ music sets the mood. Did Joe mean to say “My Grandma’s Organ?” Maybe, but he didn’t. Joe crafts a hypnotic word salad and dances——it’s bizarre and goofy and fun. There is an x-factor here that keeps my eyes glued on the screen. We shot a ton of skits like this, with no plan, making things up as we went along, but this weird garage world with its zoned-out organ player and Joe’s wide eyes (with lensless glasses) + red shirt combo sticks with me. Bonus points for the cameo by the organ player’s dad and little sister walking through while we were recording. Oh, and yes it’s a tire iron, not a crowbar——don’t worry about it.
Appeared on episode 3.

“Who told you you could fly?”

This came together very organically. Like most skits, it sprung out of whoever was hanging out that day. Becky somehow knew this birdman performance artist out of Chicago——I met him that night and never saw him again. This is what everyone was wearing on the day and the roller skates were in Becky trunk. The skit was an improv that got tweaked along the way as we stumbled toward meaning. I knew I had some cool shots, but didn’t know how I’d put it all together, so the footage sat for well over a year. When I finally edited it, going into a studio that had an A/B unit so I could do dissolves and freeze frames, combined with John Ryan’s music, it came together for me as one of the more interesting vids I’d edited up to that point. It’s experimental and weird and not trying to be funny for the most part. A mysterious world and vibe.
Appeared on episode 12.

“I see you. You’re watching me aren’t you? You’re watching me on tee vee.”

I remember seeing this for the first time and being almost hypnotized. Joe did this completely by himself and, for me, this video is all the evidence needed to show that he’s on a Andy Kaufman kinda level; a true outsider artist/comedian. He did this character before, which appeared throughout episode 1, but when he did this sequel of sorts, running the audio through an amp with delay controls, it became a kind of surreal masterpiece. I sampled parts of it on two different episodes, but the whole thing uncut is fascinating to watch——if you’re into this kind of weirdness that’s both silly and strange and uncomfortable and funny and maybe a little scary at times. He returned to the character a couple more times, but this one will always be my favorite.
Appeared on episodes 2 & 11.

“So, the great Ricky Reeves is a barber now!”

I really want to like this skit more than I do——it almost didn’t make this list. But there’s a lot I like about it! The cast, the location, the sing-a-long with puppets. It’s a superskit that’s trying to accomplish a lot, while still having a decent amount of heart and plenty of weirdness. It may not reach the heights it aspires to, but it’s still pretty frickin’ solid. A lot of people were a part of this and the making of it was important for the documentary…maybe that’s why I don’t love it more——like it’s too complicated or saddled with too much weight and expectation. Or it’s actually fucking great and I just can’t tell anymore. I love the flashback sequence and how it ties into a commercial from earlier in the episode. I also like the hair cut montage, and I like the end song with puppets and how it wraps everything up and leads into the end credits of the show. In the end, I think it deserves a Top Ten spot for its cast and ambition alone.
Appeared on episode 15.

“This can all be resolved…by going to Taco Bell!”

Skits that came from the period we were shooting the documentary (2011-2014) have a different feel for me. It’s been nearly twelve years, but it still feels recent and so there’s less nostalgia. But this skit is all about nostalgia. I like how this pays homage to the first skit I ever made from October 1990 (same location, same cast for the most part) and also evolves to pay homage to the Ford plant my parents worked at and suggests some kind of happy family life for the Lethal Finger character by the end. Iconic shot of Joe standing on top of the Bronco while I drive! We knew we were going to make a Lethal Finger skit that day, but we had no idea what it was going to be about. I wanted to approach it much like we did the first one and so many skits: just see what happens on the day. I think it’s a solid final entry…unless we ever make another one.
Appeared on episode 15.

“When the going gets tough…”

Shot in late 1996 and finished sometime in 2008, this skit was great out of the gate, but needed something more in the edit. Originally there was an intentionally awkward host introducing the premise and following up between song clips, but it wasn’t as funny as it could be. In 1999 I tried filming a new framing device in California with an all new cast, but the shoot was a disaster——the lights melted and the tape was eaten by the playback deck. Eventually I went a more obvious route and turned it into a commercial, which provided a cleaner template for the core concept to shine: Andy’s fantastic, enthusiastic performance. Fun fact: the choice of Billy Ocean wasn’t tongue-in-cheek, ironic, or dated from Andy’s perspective——he had that greatest hits cassette in his car. Yes, a teenager “rocking out” to Billy Ocean in the mid-90s. I, however, did find it ironically hilarious, so it was a great collaboration. The opening of this skit pretty much always gets a laugh. Menko’s facial expressions are gold. Dennis (who was the original announcer) appearing as a lighting guy dancing along is also a highlight for me. It’s a more mainstream approach to comedy while still keeping things hyper-specific and weird enough to be a 30MOM skit.
Appeared on Episode 14.

We’re gonna have so much FUN!

First of all, I George Lucased this skit (and a few others on this list, to be honest). Not by adding CGI garbage, but I did tweak the edit years later. With Uncle Dave, I made it black & white and changed the music (while the iconic music from Psycho does work, it’s an overused gag). Unlike Lucas, I left the original skit untouched on the show, but the vault version is what I prefer now. Anyway, this was one of the earlier skits I shot and edited that felt kind of cinematic. The image of Wade climbing out of the refrigerator is iconic to me. You can barely catch Joe saying “Uncle Dave” in all the chaos, but that line and Joe’s horror suggests that “Uncle Dave” does this kind of shit all the time. It’s silly and we’re left with a lot of questions, but it’s an entertaining and goofy ride. Joe and Wade were two of the funniest people we ever put on camera, so they made a dream team on the screen. When I think of 30MOM, this is a foundational skit.
Appeared on Episode 4.

“Are you gonna be real cool and hang out with us?”

The show version is in black and white——a result of white balance issues with the preceding skit shot on the same day, but I much prefer it in color, which is the only change made for the vault version. This is one of the few skits in the Top Ten that was written before it was shot. Episode 13 tried to make each skit flow into the next, so that necessitated pre-production planning and outlines or scripts. I remember coming up with this premise and punchline while sitting on a toilet——ho knows when or where inspiration will strike! I love that we got all these friends to come out and play as a nineties gang of alternative toughs, led by Jesus who was visiting from Kentucky. Chris played a great nerd and this is one of the rare skits that ends on a punchline that works broadly, then it turns into a kind of public service announcement, which is also a decent gag. Gotta mention the music as well——a John Ryan track that makes the skit more unique and original.
Appeared on Episode 13.

“Maybe you’d like to make some real friends…”

This is one of my favorite things I’ve ever shot, directed, or edited. John and Susan are great, the location is great, the music is great (mostly by John, except for a track by my friend Lucas and the end song which I made). It’s got a little humor, but it’s mostly unsettling——which I find funny, but I’ve talked to many people who say this skit makes them uncomfortable. I love it! There was a script written before the day, but there were still plenty of moments discovered on set and in editing later. I used a wonky S-VHS camera that gives this a grimy feel. The dollar store doll was something I’d had for about a decade, knowing I wanted to use it for some kind of video project someday. John and Susan selected and supplied their own wardrobe. John ate actual baby food, though we realized later we could’ve just used pudding. If I could make a movie that carries this kind of vibe throughout and has this level of performance, I would be so fucking satisfied.
Appeared on Episode 15.

“Now we’re like in some PCP dimension!”

Joe and I have mostly different Top Ten lists, but we arrive at the same pick in the number one spot. PCP Robot is such an original vision——so much visual and aural creativity in this, so much to see here that you won’t see anywhere else. I got to stretch my skills as an editor here and am particularly proud of the PCP Robot spaceship sequence that, like Window 13, required going to an entirely different edit suite in another city which had different tech so I could do dissolves, freeze frames, and color manipulation. And while I’m proud to have contributed to this through editing, sound design, and some voice work, this is very much a Joe Hornacek project. Joe is great at creating worlds, whether as a performer making up a character and bizarre premise on the spot, or in his drawings, or music, or here with sculpture and puppetry. Joe made and shot almost all of this by himself. John Ryan’s music is the other key component and I love the soundscape it creates. Made throughout 1995, Joe and John tapped into something unique and special…it’s kind of like an alt-universe version of something you’d see on 1970s Sesame Street, but ultimately it’s fully its own thing and I’d argue that PCP Robot is an outsider art masterpiece.
Appeared on Episode 12.

I want to show you something.

Okay, I have to talk about this 37-second skit——it’s the only bit of virality that 30MOM has achieved (so far). I like this a lot and am proud of it, though I had no desire to follow it up by dubbing and recontextualizing other bits of pop culture. This had its roots in the same place pretty much all 30MOM skits have: trying to make my friends and myself laugh.
     I came across the footage while working for the Geena Davis Insitute on Gender in Media. I was gathering clips from children’s cartoons and editing them together to show how female characters are, far too often, overtly sexualized, while the same is not true of male characters. While DVRing a show, I captured part of a Mister Roger’s Neighborhood rerun that aired afterward. When I saw him put on the mask, it was so creepy and uncanny out of context, that I knew something funny and bizarre could be made out of it. I wrote the dialog, used some moody music I’d made years prior, added some SFX and VFX and that was that. I uploaded it to the 30MOM YouTube channel, shared with some friends, and posted it an old link-sharing site called Milk & Cookies. was summer of 2008——YouTube was three years old.
     This is becoming a long story for such a short video, but whatever——the video went viral. It was downloaded and re-uploaded to different YouTube accounts and featured on content ripoff sites like Ebaumsworld where it racked up tons more views (now with that hack’s giant URL burned into the video). G4 featured it on Attack of the Show and, thankfully, attributed it correctly. They gave us a great soundbite and shout out, including a referral to 30MOM.COM. It was cool and exciting——people were starting to watch other skits on our channel too!
     Then the Fred Rogers estate flagged the video for copyright infringement, despite this being a totally clear case of fair use parody. Shortly after that, the 30MOM YouTube channel got dinged with another copyright hit: this time by G4 because I’d uploaded the clip of them talking about the skit. Yes, apparently it was fine for G4 to show the skit, but when I showed them showing it, that was infringement. Major fucking bullshit——and here’s the kicker: these were the second and third copyright hits on the channel. The first copyright hit was for uploading a Japanese version of the movie trailer for “A Clockwork Orange.” Apparently the composer Wendy Carlos was aggressively flagging any uploads to YouTube with her music in it.
     The 30MOM YouTube channel was deactivated and ultimately removed by YouTube. I tried to contest it, but that was a kafkaesque nightmare that never led to anything and I could never find a live person to talk to about it. Meanwhile, all the other channels that had re-uploaded the video continued on just fine——and you can still find the video on YouTube to this day, but on other people’s channels. We lost all the views and subscribers and I didn’t create another 30MOM YouTube channel for quite a while. It was pretty heartbreaking. When I did make a new channel, I never put much effort into it because I knew it could be removed without the ability to talk to anyone, short of getting a lawyer and taking on Google.
     So, yeah, that’s the story of this short little video and how it gave 30MOM fifteen seconds of fame and also killed our YouTube ambitions during the early days of YouTube. 30MOM.COM runs primarily on Vimeo, though I may change that someday too. And to anyone who uploaded the video and has it monetized: you fucking suck.
Appeared on Episode 14.