History Series / MrShow

* FoodFight: At the end of "It's a No-Brainer," featuring a catholic and satanist engaging in a {{Nickelodeon}}-style food fight.

** One to DrDemento in the "Monster Party" sketch.

* AnachronismStew: The Founding Fathers sketch about the origins of the American Flag's pattern, where they invent a design in order to make sure [[ItMakesSenseInContext no one ever defecates on it]]. It features Lincoln talking with a Brooklyn accent, also claiming to have slept with [[{{Playboy}} Playmates]]. [[SophisticatedAsHell They also swear a lot]].

* IncrediblyObviousBug: In a sketch, an undercover police officer uses a variety of very poorly disguised cameras and microphones in an attempt to bust a criminal.

* MissingEpisode: Invoked and parodied. Bob and David bill the beginning of one of their episodes as their "Lost Episode," so they can trot it out years later to much fanfare. At the end of the episode, they have all the cast members say "goodbye" to the tape of the episode, then give it to their security guard so he can lose it. He tosses the tape into outer space in a ''[[ASpaceOdyssey 2001]]'' parody.

* CrossOverPunchline: A stereotypical 80's comedian introduced in an episode is shown on an episode of ''DrKatzProfessionalTherapist'' doing the show's typical shtick of having a comedian deliver some of his punchlines at a psychiatry session.

** "Got a Good Thing Going'" for [[TheBeatles A Hard Day's Night]] song.

* GlobalIgnorance: In the pilot episode, David reveals that Bob believes that there are only five U.S. states, and one of them is called "Chim-Cham." In another episode, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7dwkpxUpG0 a group of kids on an MTV show]] claim to have traveled all over the world, showing a crayon map of the places they have gone. The "world" is in the shape of the continental United States, divided up into countries such as "Germany" and "Europe."

* GoryDeadlyOverkillTitleOfFatalDeath: The Return of the Curse of the Creature's Ghost!

* TheKlutz: Thomas in "The Story of Everest" keeps tripping backwards and knocking over the thimbles.

* LieDetector: The subject of a season 3 sketch. A job applicant is subjected to a lie detector test during an interview. At first he's asked standard questions ("Have you ever drank alcohol to excess?" "Have you ever taken an illegal drug?"), but then he's asked even more outlandish and improbable questions. The applicant, who always answers "Yes" to every single question, begins confessing to stealing "space plans" from NASA, killing a man with his mind, and eating a train piece by piece after derailing it with his penis. All the while, the machine's silence indicates that he's telling the truth. At the end of the test, the interviewers, revealed to be employees of a shoe store, hire him. The applicant says he loves shoes. BZZT.

* NoodleIncident: Pretty much the whole point of the Weeklong Romance sketch in the finale. Some events are described in more detail but a few details of Odenkirk's life during the weeklong break-up are left to our imaginations.

* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: During the Josh Fenderman sketch, a director is referred to as being "the best thing to come out of Hollywood since sliced bread, not to mention its sequel "Sliced Bread II: Electric Boogaloo."

* LieDetector: The subject of a season 3 sketch. Odenkirk plays a character subject to one of these. At first he's asked standard questions ("Have you ever drank alcohol to excess?" "Have you ever taken an illegal drug?"), but then he's asked even more outlandish and improbable questions ("Have you ever killed a man . . . with your mind?"). He always answers "Yes" to every question, with the machine's silence indicating he's telling the truth.

* TheKlutz: Thomas in "The Story of Everest" sketch.

* OverlyLongGag: The Everest sketch involves a character repeatedly falling into some shelves and knocking over his mother's thimble collection, again and again and again. In the commentary, the cast recalls how agonizing it was to reset the stage each time.

* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YraqJ7KDm7c Van Hammersly]], billiard champion, with a series of videos that educate through the use of billiards. His tapes cover such things as Hollywood's Golden Age, the 1974 Kentucky Derby, Mass Transportation, your G.E.D.[[note]]simply viewing this tape qualifies you for a high school diploma[[/note]], Renaissance Paintings, oceanography, corn futures, belly dancing, December 7th 1941, billiards, rock lyrics, and many more. They are described by the announcer as "simply the best teaching-by-billiards tapes you can purchase", which is why they've earned the TBB Gold Seal of Approval.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: In one sketch, NASA plans to blow up the moon. As ridiculous as that sounds, there was an actual plan to do that in 1958. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119 Not even joking.]]

* CrunchTastic: "When you see the new UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, you'll say 'San Fran-tastic.'"

* GlobalIgnorance: In the pilot episode, David reveals that Bob believes that there are only five U.S. states, and one of them is called "Chim-Cham." In another episode, a group of kids on an MTV show claim to have traveled all over the world, showing a crayon map of the places they have gone. The "world" is in the shape of the continental United States, divided up into countries such as "Germany" and "Europe."

''Mr. Show'' was a highly influential sketch comedy show starring and written by Creator/BobOdenkirk and Creator/DavidCross. The show aired on HBO for four seasons in the mid-to-late 90's. It is noted for its edgy, cynical, and oftentimes cruel sense of humor as well as the way the sketches would transition into each other, much like an episode of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''. The show filled its ranks with performers and writers from the alternative comedy scene, and served as a career springboard for many up-and-coming comedians. The show never obtained a great deal of popularity, and was eventually dumped into a poor time slot before getting canceled. However, the show earned a loyal cult following and has proved to be one of the more influential comedy shows in recent decades.

* MegaCorp: The recurring Globochem.

** In one ad war, a mom-and-pop grocery store is repeatedly slandered by a massive corporate chain, which insinuates that rats infest the produce and your children will get kidnapped by white slavers.
** Another ad campaign for Mayostard, a bottled mayo-and-mustard combo, goes to absurd lengths to suggest that getting sandwich spreads from two different bottles is an unbearable waste of time and effort. Then a competing product, Mustardayonnaise, enters the picture. Then the post-credits gag introduces [[SerialEscalation Mustmayostardayonnaise]], because having to apply Mayostard and Mustardayonnaise is such an enormous time sink, it will cause you to miss your daughter growing up, graduating college, and then [[MindScrew growing older than you and dying.]]

* BlackComedyRape: It now costs $800,000 a year to jail just one criminal. That's enough to send a family of five to college, or send that same lucky family on a 79 day rafting expedition. But at Pendleton State Prison, a new money-saving program allows criminals to be productive members of society while serving out their terms. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKE9W0O8bX8 Like Larry Kleist, rapist]]. But you wouldn't know he was a rapist if not for the friendly reminders that Larry is required by law to provide, but aside from that, he lives his life like any other non-raping person. This includes signs on his front lawn, taking out an ad in the newspaper when he moved in, and being shadowed at all times by a licensed public warning engineer, by wearing sandwich boards saying "I'M WITH A RAPIST" whenever he's on foot, or, when Larry is driving, following him in a van blaring out warnings on loudspeakers.

* BlackComedyRape: It now costs $800,000 a year to jail just one criminal. That's enough to send a family of five to college, or send that same lucky family on a 79 day rafting expedition. But at Pendleton State Prison, a new money-saving program allows criminals to be productive members of society while serving out their terms. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKE9W0O8bX8 Like Larry Kleist, rapist]]. But you wouldn't know he was a rapist if not for the friendly reminders that Larry is required by law to provide, but aside from that, he lives his life like any other non-raping person. This includes signs on his front lawn, taking out an ad in the newspaper when he moved in, and being shadowed at all times by a licensed public engineer, by wearing sandwich boards saying "I'M WITH A RAPIST" whenever he's on foot, or, when Larry is driving, following him in a van blaring out warnings on loudspeakers.

* AsbestosFreeCereal: What's the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4yX2rkpBc Fairsley Difference]]? The homespun grocery chain, Gibbons, is driven to bankruptcy by competitor Fairsley Foods' slick ads boasting about horrible conditions the competitor's stores did not suffer from, such as homeless people defecating in the aisles, or [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial customers' children being abducted into homoerotic slavery in Pakistani whorehouses]]. They never say these things '''are''' true of Gibbons, so [[MetaphoricallyTrue they aren't actually lying]].

* OscarBait: Parodied with The Dewey Awards, which are specifically given to actors who play mentally challenged characters. Terry's movie in the first episode might have also been this.

* AsbestosFreeCereal: The "Fairsley Difference" sketch showed a homespun grocery chain, Gibbons, driven to bankruptcy by a competitor's slick ads boasting about horrible conditions the competitor's stores did not suffer from, such as homeless people defecating in the aisles, or [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial customers' children being abducted into homoerotic slavery in Pakistani whorehouses]]. They never say these things '''are''' true of Gibbons, so [[MetaphoricallyTrue they aren't actually lying]].