It’s been thought of as a classic in some collections of people (myself included) and as a outrage in other collections of people (myself, also included)- but at the end of the day there is no mocking the fact that a decade old sketch is still in the media spotlight after all this time. I refer to of course- SKITTLES (v1) by my longest running sketch group THE CHARMING HOOLIGANS.

So heres what happened- I had a feeling I needed to google my name the other day and a link to TAMPA BAY FILM came up highlighting the video…..in which if you’ve never seen the first addition of SKITTLES then watch, then read what TBF had to say, then read my response…

now heres what the review read from the site Tampa Bay Film

MUSIC VIDEO : Skittles
PRODUCTION: The Charming Hooligans: Joe Davison, Jason Kraynek, Chris Gorges, and Marty Hoffman
GENRE: Comedy
CONTENT WARNING: Guidance Suggested.
TOTAL RUNNING TIME (TRT): 04:10
TAMPA BAY FILM OPINION: What in the …..?!?!?! A very, very strange video parody on the Skittles candy starring Joe Davison as a sailor. We’re guessing that they are going for the Village People theme because, in this video, Skittles is laced with an acid-type aphrodisiac drug and makes manly men happy and skip’n GAY. Alrighty, now, we get it. Skittles.. Rainbow colors… Village people. This needed to be more creative and original. Very poorly shot and executed, and disturbing on so many levels - what is up with mixing Enya and Britney Spears? We found this very funny, too, especially after seeing Joe Davison, who would go on to co-create the excellent 100 Tears. Tampa indie filmmaking has come a long way since 1999, and Joe Davison (the Sailor) proves that, once again, he is an over-rated actor (and is better as a writer, which isn’t saying much).
REVIEWS: Discuss this film on the MESSAGE BOARD!
SCORE RANKING (1-100): See our SHOWCASE competition channel for score.
LANGUAGES: English without subtitles, closed caption, or running commentary.
SYNOPSIS: A colorful candy corrupts men and makes them gay- Really, flamboyant, flaming gay.

now heres the defensive on my part….

First off- HA, THIS VIDEO STILL GETS REVIEWS!!!!
Ok, this sketch was a colab effort between the members of the Charming Hooligans era 1999 and was shot on a really really old school VHS camcorder by the member of the group not in the scene, directed by me, and then edited by myself with no editing programs AT ALL. It was pure- vhs tape to vcr, hit play, hit record, rewind, in hit record, foward, hit record, etc. Then I transfered over to my stereo where I patched in a audio input jack to the camcorder and dubbed over the sound with music. Yes the music was Britney and Enya- but I worked at a Blockbuster music at the time and got promo cd’s weekly….and IT IS BRITNEY- how funny could it have been.
(side note- this was the actual ep pre-release of her first single so it wasn’t OHHH BRITNEY…it was…BRITNEY WHO)

That was just the editing of the video, we still have yet shown anyone the footage. That’s where our live shows at Mother’s Milk (a coffee house in Clearwater, FL) came into play- the result was history in the making and many hate letters to come. Taking sort of full the many hit of critics since I was the one bringing this to life in my “gayness” on the screen was very much how I liked it. I’ve always enjoyed writing sketches that push whats safe and whats said to people when others aren’t around. I’ve never seen a reason for a division there and have always wrote my work with that in mind.
So with everything in mind and the public seeming to love the sketch we thought to push it to a limit that some members of the group thought we should have not done= show it to 8,000+ kids at the USF campus while opening for Dave Chappelle……the result….well pretty much getting banned from the campus….well that and a sketch called “Head Smart” which I also take the “credit” for.

In the end, I’ve found a new following of the sketch thanks to Youtube and my channel, and now Tampa seems to still want to hold onto some credit as well. So be it, I know that Tampa can’t ever let go of things so it doesn’t surprise me too too much. I also wanted to give a shout out and pat on the back for my partner in crime for the 10 years of work through 95-05, Joe Davidson (who gets a good ribbing in this writeup only because he has moved onto becoming a indie movie star and I think that Tampa is also jealous of that). Poor Tampa.

Tags: britney spears, charming hooligans, dave chapelle, skittles, tampa bay film, USF, youtube