Skits that became Movies
 

Saturday Night Live will certainly rule in this area as probably the top producer of skits / sketches that became movies.

But I'll kick it off with The Honeymooners - it began as one skit of several on The Cavalcade of Stars hosted by Jackie Gleason, and later on the The Jackie Gleason Show before it became its own half-hour long sitcom on TV in 1955.

https://cdn.britannica.com/64/126964...adows-1955.jpg

Although the show had many homages and reunions on TV, it was not made into a movie until 2005 when the title hit the big screen with black actors filling the lead roles.

https://tvguide1.cbsistatic.com/feed/1/416/11581416.jpg

SCTV's Great White North skit to Strange Brew (1983).

This is the only skit I can recall from the Second City Television comedy sketch program that was launched into a movie.

https://images.thestar.com/zX06Cbvlm...b-and-doug.jpg

With Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as Bob & Doug McKenzie - the Canadian sketch reached cult status to the point where they turned it into the movie Strange Brew: The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie.

https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/...0498321_so.jpg

From Saturday Night Live - the first skit to become a movie was The Blues Brothers.

It started as a musical act / spoof with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd as Jake & Elwood Blues and grew in cult status with subsequent appearances by the characters... until the movie was made in 1980!

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/14...g?v=1576546265

A sequel was made in 1998 called The Blues Brothers 2000.

Re: Skits that became Movies
 

Pretty sure Wayne's World was one?
Might be wrong on that.

Also, Napoleon Dynamite I think was also originally a small time character in a skit or short film who then became a cult movie.

Wayne's World is most definitely one! (1 of 9 SNL skits that got turned into 11 movies - 2 were sequels).

Not sure about Napolean Dynamite also - I'll have to look into that.

This one may come as a surprise for this list...

America's longest running TV show started out as a short which aired as part of the sketch-comedy TV series: The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987!

You guessed it - since it was one "skit" (albeit an animated one) of many on a sketch show - we're counting The Simpsons!

Which got made into a feature length movie in 2007!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/ed...02e4ea8ab0.jpg

A couple more that gave birth at SNL:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ads_Poster.jpg



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ovieposter.jpg


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...he_roxbury.jpg

Pee-Wee Herman began as a stand-up comedy act created by Paul Ruebens. Since the character was a complete fabrication, I'm going to classify that act as a "skit."

Pee-Wee went from the small stage to a slightly larger one with his own stage show, then onto an HBO special for the stage show.
The character's first movie was Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....CsnrL._AC_.jpg

The movie would lead to the children's TV series Pee-Wee's Playhouse and a movie sequel called Big Top Pee-Wee (1998).

While watching a bit of this film last night - it spawned the idea for this thread!
(So this thread owes its existence to A Night at the Roxbury.)

The movie is totally stupid, but I have to add it to my list of guilty pleasures as I kind of enjoyed it's total stupidness. :D

I've seen snippets of Night at the Roxbury, but have never watched it from beginning to end. When they would do the skit on SNL, it would crack me up.

Do you mean America's longest running TV show perhaps? At least last time I checked America was still not the world. Coronation Street in the UK, for one, has been running far longer than Homer & Co.

GET'M, CHYPPERS!!!
I want some Skittles now.
=/

Then I stand corrected, Chyp.
On one Google search I made, one result called The Simpsons the "world's" longest running TV show.
If it is a mistake, then mia culpa & apologies for repeating it.

The movie is kind of like an extended skit - but with background added to the two characters. The humor is as stupid as the skit itself and I laughed out loud a few times at the movie (which is rare for me.)

Re: Skits that became Movies
 

- Office Christmas Party was originally an SNL skit (one of the few SNL films not produced by Lorne Michaels or Broadway Video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOPHkWcbSho
- The CKY films started off with a sketch on the film Jump Off A Building (1998) by Toy Machine as the first segment of the film (some of the scenes in CKY are included such as running over the sign or How To Rob A House).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsMegEdGJX4
- Evil Dead started off as a short film called Within The Woods (1978).

The Last Polka (1985)

Thanks, Cobra!

I never knew about this. I loved the Schmenge brothers sketches way back when!

If we're going to include short films, that would expand the list a lot.

I did look up Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and it was based on an amateur short film shot by Jared Hess called Peluca (2002).

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....1L._SY606_.jpg

Sling Blade (1996) was a movie based on a short film.
"The film was adapted by Billy Bob Thornton from his previous one-man show entitled Swine Before Pearls, from which he developed a screenplay for the 1994 short film Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade."

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....ACW6L._AC_.jpg

No mention of:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...0OTY@._V1_.jpg

Run Ronnie Run
Expanded from bits on "Mr. Show with Bob & David"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2GWWpHKAIo