From left: Billy Barty, Patty Maloney and Jimmy Briscoe
There's politics, and sports galore, Movie stars, and furthermore,
People who do, and people who don't
And people who say, "Who, me? I won't!"
—Excerpt from the theme song
Short Ribbs was a 13-episode Sketch Comedy series broadcast in Southern California in 1989. Billy Barty developed the series and acted in most of the sketches, along with Patty Maloney and other dwarf actors. Most of the sketches spoofed well-known movies, TV shows and commercial campaigns.
Two of the episodes were viewable on YouTube in 2013, but were removed from the channel shortly afterward. One of them was re-uploaded by a different user in 2014, along with two half-episodes. In April 2022, producer William Winckler uploaded three
collections of assorted sketches to the Internet Archive.
This series provides examples of:
- Black Comedy Cannibalism: Spoofed in the "Bartygan's Island" sketch in episode 1.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune/Title Theme Tune: Sung by Barty, Maloney and Briscoe over a montage of clips from various sketches.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- In the "Patita Childsize" talk show sketch, Maloney's "guests" are spoof versions of Michael Keaton and Adam West.
- The "Host Busters" sketch has an expy of Geraldo Rivera.
- Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Maloney does it during her song in episode 1.
- The Smurfette Principle: Maloney was the only female dwarf in the regular cast.
