MADtv (Seasons 1–15)

MADtv (1995–2009) is the Fox sketch-comedy series you can watch online on iFILM. It borrowed its name from Mad magazine and its time slot from a fight — Saturday night, head to head with SNL.

Forget a plot. The show runs on short, loud parody: politics, ad spoofs, movie send-ups, celebrity impressions stacked three deep. Recurring characters come back week after week, and the cast swaps wigs and accents a dozen times an hour. The comedy plays rougher and meaner than its rivals did, and that was the whole idea.

Plenty of big names cut their teeth on this stage. Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key sharpened the partnership that became Key & Peele; Bobby Lee, Ike Barinholtz and Alex Borstein all passed through. To trace where a big slice of 2000s American sketch comedy got started, this is the place. Stream MADtv (1995) online on iFILM.