There have been many, many sketch comedy shows throughout the years, but there have been precious few of them on this blog. Today we add one more. The Carol Burnett show ran for over ten years and starred, unsurprisingly, Carol Burnett in a variety of sketches.1 Our subject is one particular sketch that, as far I have been able to find out, was aired in the later half of the show’s run.
Two players are seated at a chessboard while a handful of people are looking on, all from the same side of the board. One of them comes equipped with a giant bag of what I think are dorito chips.
While the players are contemplating their position, so was I. This is the result of my contemplation: 2
It’s not a very impressive result, I must admit. Except for the possible presence of king’s side pawns, I’m reasonably sure about the black pieces, but the white ones are almost wholly conjectural.
Black reaches for his queen, but before he can make a move, the man with the chips takes one and loudly eats it. The black player is very annoyed by this and unaccountably gets up and eats one even more loudly. Dorito man then eats one so loudly that black stumbles and falls through the wall.3 Without thinking twice, dorito man takes his place behind the black pieces.
This is what passed for comedy in the seventies.
Realism: 3/5 White has misplaced his queen and should have resigned. On the other hand,
Probable winner: Black, for sure. He’s up a queen for two knights only. That’ should be enough. It’s possible, however, that dorito man is so much worse that he’ll still lose.
1. [Not as model, to be clear.] ↩
2. [Contemplate the greatest diagram editor!] ↩
3. [Apparently, ] ↩