Strangers with Candy
Tags: comedy, satire

Plot synopsis:
The series' main character, Geraldine Antonia "Jerri" Blank (played by Amy Sedaris), was a "junkie whore"/runaway returning to high school as a freshman at age 46 at the fictional Flatpoint High School (home of the Concrete Donkeys) in the town of Flatpoint.
Created and written by Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert, and Mitch Rouse, the show was a spoof of the after school specials of the 1970s and 1980s and was also inspired, at least in part, by a 1970 public service film, The Trip Back, that featured a reformed drug addict named Florrie Fisher (see "Origin" below). Sedaris, Colbert, Dinello, and Rouse were cast members of the short-lived Comedy Central series Exit 57; they, along with Greg Hollimon and many other stars of the series, were also alumni of Chicago's Second City comedy troupe.
According to the show's animated introduction, Jerri ran away from home and became "a boozer, a user, and a loser" after dropping out of high school as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she, in her words, "stole the TV."
Every episode featured a theme or moral lesson, although the lessons were often amoral or warped; in an episode about eating disorders, Jerri learns that it is acceptable to become bulimic because it will get people to pay attention to you. When Jerri's father passes away in the episode "The Goodbye Guy," Jerri learns the valuable lesson, "You never really 'lose' your parents. Unless of course they die. Then they're gone forever. And nothing will bring them back." In another episode, "Bully", Jerri learned that "violence really isn't the only way to resolve a conflict, but it's the only way to win it."
Each episode ends with the cast and other featured actors from the episode dancing.

Review: You need to see it to believe it and even then you'll be scratching your head in disbelief (while laughing your ass off of course).The premise is that of a sick and twisted after school special from hell where all of the wrong lessons are learned.
With so much garbage on television these days, it's refreshing to see a show so original and well-written as Strangers With Candy.
The writing is some of the best I've ever seen on television, every sentence uttered by every character is funny.
In one episode, she and a classmate become secret lovers, but he's so ashamed of being with her that she hides in dumpsters, air ducts, etc.; it's a howlingly funny sight gag to see her head poking up out of the garbage as she waits for her lover.
Having been a fan of the show since its debut, I knew from the start it would be a love or hate series for many people.It's a great show not for its intellectual qualities (or on the surface, lack thereof), but its originality.
Amy Sederis is brilliant as Jerri Blank amid a cast of other excellent comic writer/actors, including Paul Dinello and "The Daily Show's" Stephen Colbert.
It had me consistently on the floor with it's inventiveness, audacity and vicious wit (i.e., the prayer at the Families of Alcoholics meeting: "Dear God, please give me the strength to blame those who did this to me, to accuse those who didn't, and the wisdom to know the difference.") It's long since disappeared from Comedy Central, but DVDs of Seasons One and Two are out, and a movie version by the same team is on its way for 2005.
In some respects it was like a very warped after school special but mixed in were themes of older adults trying to attend 'school', to compete against youngsters, and re-live a hey-day they never had in the first place.Jeri is a character that is trying to get her life back ontrack, and at her age, she went right back to the beginning, the high school she dropped out of.
This series was funny, bittersweet, and yes, more like a warped after school special but the question "Strangers With Candy" asked that we all should be asking is: "Do I set my work aspirations higher or do I chose to work at the plastic flower plant plant like everyone else?".
"Hobo camp," a term 46-year-old Jerri Blank uses after spelling V-I-C-T-O-R-Y during a cheerleader try-out, revealing her lifelong illiteracy and causing Coach Wolf to postpone the rest of the try-outs until "we can all recover  from Jerri's shame."It took me about three months to actually muster the energy to watch Strangers With Candy in late 1999, and I did it only because it was advertised so heavily on Comedy Central, right alongside the Upright Citizens' Brigade.
It took only one episode.I got friends into the show, and we'd throw out the oddest of lines to each other just on the off-chance that we'd all "get it." We'd say things with no relevance like "massage each other's ...
No one was spared the branding iron here.From David Sedaris' sometimes crazy little sister Amy and a cast of Second City alums emerged a truly unique and gut-busting but, at the same time, subtly humorous opus to the After-School Special.
It was hard not to pay attention to every minute of this show.Of course it's a shame that Comedy Central canceled the show after only two seasons, but at least the show went out with a bang (literally  Flatpoint High was blown up).What made the show most memorable for me was that, no matter how well-written and acted each of the offbeat characters was, none could add up to the unbelievably insane Jerri Blank.
In this case, Sedaris held her own with a kind of aplomb that only a seasoned professional can do.Whether she was being threatened by her brother Derick ("dick lick"), overlooked by her step-mother (the brilliant Deborah Rush), pleaded with for restraint by her hapless pal Orlando, happily ignored by her art teacher Mr. Jellineck (longtime co-conspirator Paul Dinello), forced into community service by the Hitlerish Principal Onyx Blackman, or harassed unnecessarily by the ultimately selfish and tight-fisted Mr. Noblet (writing the word "me" on the board when instructing his students to "tell me..."), Jerri somehow survived countless challenges and came out learning the absolute wrong thing.My favorite lesson: "The poor are a filthy, thieving people." You have to see the episode to understand it..
Amy Sedaris is outrageously funny as Jerry Blank, a 47 year old reprehensible ex-convict trying to graduate Flashpoint High "right where she left off." Her catatonic senior citizen father and alcoholic and abusive step-mother are both superb!Jerry always struggles to do the right thing.
many people fail to see the brilliance in strangers with candy.it is an extremely funny show.there are also a lot of subtle jokes or references that may go above the viewers head but if gotten, are hilarious.there could'nt be a better cast for SWC.
they are all talented,funny individuals who also come up with some of the script and often improvise certain lines that turn out as if planned.the show requires an open sense of humor.
all in all, i believe strangers with candy is one of the best shows thats been aired..
Amy Sedaris is incredible as the strange (and really ugly) Jerri Blank.
I watched a few episodes of this show when it originally aired and now Comedy Central has it in reruns.
It had no laugh track and an uber-ridiculous concept that provokes a ton of laughs because the main character, Geri, is so old, nasty looking (thanks to great makeup on an otherwise cute-as-hell Amy Sedaris) and more experienced than her other schoolmates.
What makes it even funnier than seeing Geri go through the motions in high school as an old woman is the parody of the cheesy afterschool specials that each episode takes the form of.This show is just damn great, and I think that it would be killer if they renewed the series and put it on before Reno 911.
I was originally annoyed, being a fan of British and subversive humor, but the first time I actually sat an watched an episode all the way through I was hooked.
stars: Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank, Stephen Colbert as Mr. Chuck Nobblets, Paul Dinello as Mr. Goffrey Jellynacks, Gregory Holliman as Principal Onix Blackman.Reccurring stars-Orlando Pintaban as Orlando, Maria Thayer as Tamilla.Hilarious!
I watched these episodes when they first aired on Comedy Central, and I thought they were hilarious.
I never saw Strangers With Candy, when it was on Comedy Central.
So I thought I'd check this one out.Amy Sedaris (David Sedaris' sister), stars as Gerri Blank, a 46-year-old high school student.
"Strangers With Candy" is the clever show from the comedy team of "Exit 57." Jeri Blank is 46 and just got out of prison.
The show is filled with one liners, characters are hilariously funny, situations are turned upside down, and each end credits segment has a unique dance sequence!
No laugh track is necessary, as you'll surely know where the giggles come in.I watched this show with extreme caution at my first viewing.
The story lines while containing some very adult humor, were non the less quite cognitive.The characters of-course where more or less caricatures of people we find in after school specials.
But, these guys were funny, and really played well together in providing much hilarity.It is hard to understand why Comedy Central canceled Strangers With Candy.
Although Comedy Central shows it currently at 3am during the week I know it will be off the air soon.
"Scary Jerri So Hairy Down Therey" One of the most original lines in strangers with candy.
What more could one ask for, except maybe a fantasy sequence where Jeri turns into the incredibly cute Amy Sedaris while she's making love to a classmate, male or female or both at once.
The only recent show that has made me laugh this much was the first 2 episodes of "Action," a Fox show about a scummy Hollywood exec with Ileanna Douglas and Jay Mohr, but that show tanked early, then got canned.SWC was so funny that Comedy Central cancelled it after just 2 seasons.
I don't dislike John Waters, but nothing he has ever done has made me laugh as hard as Strangers with Candy..
I think it's brilliant- the detail is amazing, and the show is full of little secrets if you watch it closely (watch stephen colbert's hands while he "adds up her grades" in the first few minutes of the first episode).
If you like things like the Mr. Show, John Waters and disturbing dark humor, watch a few episodes.
I can see a lot of david sedaris' humor in his sister amy's writing- maybe all those stories were a little more real than I had imagined-.
Of course, it's done in such an absurd way, that the only people who would be offended by this are probably people who didn't stay up late enough to actually watch the show.This is the show that has lines like, "Having a girlfriend is so...
This was one of Comedy Central's best original series, better than Crank Yankers and better than South Park.
it was written to be funny and shocking, and in that the writers were very successful.they broke every rule they could find, offended as many people as possible, and made it as obvious as they could so they couldn't be accused of being "supremists".if nothing else, laugh at how many ways they can come up with to offend people in one episode.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?"The show only lasted 30 episodes and I had half on tape before Comedy Central decided to cut it short again in reruns at 3:30 AM a year ago, so I gave up.
And it's just a good thing they're not the usual $40 like some other shows with short seasons are.
What can I say about "Strangers with Candy" other than this is quite possibly the greatest television comedy ever.
Well, maybe The Simpsons in it heyday or possibly a show like Family Guy might win out, but SWC is definately one of my favorite TV shows of all time.
Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert are freaking brilliant!
It's like an old ABC "After-school Special", only on PCP, acid, and crack.SWC is absolutely chock full of incredibly funny one-liners, like "I like the hole and the pole", or "I'm sure you think that I hate you but I want you to know that I hate you" or "How many of you wanna wake up in a public bathroom, lying in a pool of what you HOPE is your own filth?" or even "I'm handling this the same way I dealt with my own drug and alcohol problem...
The premise was so great and they could've done so much more with it (they barely scratched the surface with themes).Some of my favorite episodes include "Who Wants Cake" where the teachers and principal use a trip to "Good Time Island" as blackmail to get her to admit that her lockermate is "retarded""The Trip Back" where Jerri gets back in with a crowd of stoners which is killing her (amazing for her) D- average that she needs to pass freshman yearOther great episodes include the episode with the n-word on the wall (Tim Meadows with a hilarious guest role) and the episode where Jerri reclaims her virginity.This show never ran out of steam and ended with a bang, the last episode was a classic and finished the show out properly, although i'd love to see it come back, the humor and running gags were excellent and the show was just so original and ahead of it's time (well, time will tell on that one, but trust me, there will be imitators in the years ahead)Luckily most of the episodes are readily available on Kazaa but i'd still love a DVD set with the entire series (I think there's only about 30 episodes, how hard would that be Comedy Central?).
Definitely unique and does not cater to people that find the "humor" in Friends and 'Everybody Loves Raymond' funny.
This is a twisted, very funny satire on After-School Specials brought to you by a bunch of Second City vets:  Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Mitch Rouse, Paul Dinello, and Greg Hollimon.
Sedaris, Colbert, Dinello, and Rouse (along w/ Jodi Lennon) had previously created the short-lived, underrated, Cable Ace Award winning "Exit 57" for Comedy Central, which was equally brilliant.
This is the best half hour comedy to come to television in a long, long time.
As Jerri Blank, the lead character, Amy Sedaris is absolutely brilliant.
The first time I saw this show (the first episode) I didn't like it...
The humor can be gross, but it's often obscure, causing a delayed reaction when the meaning sinks in.Strangers with Candy is so weird that I think you have to watch at least two episodes just to understand what's going on.
The first time I saw it (after cleaning up the vomit from looking at Jerri Blank for 2 seconds) I turned the tv.
While the amount of viewers was microscopic, and even though most people never heard of the show, Amy Sedaris & Paul Dinello's take on the bland "After School Special" genre is one of the funniest and most original shows on TV today.
The show was very original and Amy Sedaris was great as Jeri Blank.
I would buy the entire series if it were released on video but Comedy Central has no intention to release it on VHS or DVD.
One of the best, funniest TV shows of all time, this premiered alongside the equally brilliant Upright Citizen's Brigade on Comedy Central and both shows shared the same brief life span, cancelled in favor of hideously unfunny dreck like Strip Mall.
I absolutely love(d) this show -- the extraordinarily inappropriate, I-can't-believe-they-just-said humor, the running gags, the way illogical actions by the characters worked in the logic of the world's skewed universe, the sheer hilariousnoscity and repulsiveness of Sedaris' Jerri Blank.
Did Comedy Central take this completely original and extraordinarily entertaining show off the air?
I don't know about that Comedy Central, just when you think they are the best channel ever they have to go and make a stupid move like that..
This show is definitely not for those that have no sense of humor;  and like watching those mundain sitcoms on the "big three" channels that prompt you into laughing at things that are not funny with there stupid laugh tracks.
I have relied on comedy central since then for SNL reruns and Southpark, or renting something funny just so I can get my daily dose of humor.
Then comedy central brings this new show to us that just blows you away with its off the wall humor, cracks, jokes that some people may not catch if they are not quick enough.
I think I like it so much because I live this kind of humor, no matter what I am doing I often throw a warped view on things that makes people laugh.
If you haven't watched this show, hopefully the reruns will air on Comedy Central when it's gone.This show is truly one of the comedy classics of all time.
Strangers With Candy is a very funny original show on Comedy Central.
It stars Amy Sedaris as "Jerri Blank," a 46 year old  dropout returning to high school to finally graduate.
So if you haven't watched this yet and like to laugh, then check it out..
Amy Sedaris (sister of author David) is hilarious as Jerri Blank a 46 year old back in High School to start over.
Take a break and watch Strangers With Candy: if anything, it's not heartwarming.
One can't help pitying poor unloved Jerri, but it's somehow devilishly delightful knowing that she never will find happiness.This show has a goofy, original, premise that's a laugh-fest in itself, with hilarious off-the-wall writing, reminiscent of British comedy.
This is the kind of show that would never last on network television in the U.S.A.; thankfully, Comedy Central has given it a good home.
It's a real tribute, both to the show and to the times, that this show has succeeded in a territory where such big names as David Lynch ("On The Air"), Buck Henry ("Quark"), and the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team ("Police Squad") have failed: Creating a bizarre sitcom with its own logic and no laugh track, and managing to sneak it by the network suits for more than a season (the afforementioned shows only lasted about 6 or 7 episodes each).
I can watch the episodes over and over and see things I have never seen before.
Amy Sedaris's comic creation, Jerri Blank, is comic genius.
Strangers with candy is, well, THE BEST COMEDY EVER.
Jerri Blank is hilarious as the 46 year old freshman.
i like strangers with candy i think it is very funny ,and somewhat raunchy but besides that i think its pretty halarious!unique and original concept ,simalar to billy madison but not anyways i think its great check it out..
Strangers With Candy is funny beyond belief.
it's a shame that comedy central chooses to rerun crap like 'sportsnite' and the same 5 episodes of 'the critic' rather than the handful of excellent shows they could be showing..
"Strangers With Candy" is by far the most original program on television at this time.
Everyone (in Flatpoint, but in real life as well) seems to have their own quirks and foibles.I've recorded the episodes and watch them over and over, laughing just as hard (or harder) each time.
Now comes Comedy Central, polluting the airwaves once again with a butt-ugly 46 year-old high school freshman.
But watch one episode of the show and you'll see what I mean.