My Inspirations!

I can't remember the time of my life before I was introduced to SNL. My parents made sure to show me any remotely family-friendly sketch they could find. Some of the first sketches and Update segments I saw were Gilly, Stefon,  Garth and Kat, and "What Up With That." That rhymed a little bit! It definitely opened my eyes to the world of short form comedy, which, in my opinion as someone with a short attention span, is one of the best ways to consume comedy. You can definitely tell a lot about a person based on what SNL sketches they love. 

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Wayne's World is not just my favorite comedy, but my favorite film of all time. I'm a little embarrassed to talk to my film classmates about favorite films because this is what I bring to the table.

I spent a majority of my years in high school not having the answer to the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I had absolutely no idea of where to begin or how to find out what I liked so much that I would be willing to pursue it full-time. The Office Ladies truly opened my eyes to what goes into writing and acting for a sitcom, and I was so hooked. Angela's improv background especially inspired me, and she was one of the main reasons I joined improv in college! 

My favorite show about nothing. "The Strike" was the first episode I ever watched, and I've been observing Festivus ever since. This is the show I constantly have in the background while doing homework, and it is by FAR the best show to fall asleep to. Seinfeld has really taught me a lot about structures of television scripts. I'm always in awe of how the writers were able to connect three or four seemingly unrelated storylines. 

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P.S. Go to my Instagram @emilystofka to see my George Costanza costume from Halloween 2025.

What a delightfully strange group of Canadians. This one's a more recent discovery for me; I first heard about the Kids in the Hall from a tiny little display they had at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, NY. There was a screen playing some of their hits, like the Headcrusher and "30 Helens Agree," but it was Bruce McCulloch's "Daves I Know" that really stuck with me. It was so silly and seemed so ahead-of-its-time but it was exactly my sense of humor. Fast forward to last spring, when I find all five seasons of their show available to stream on Peacock. I've been obsessed ever since. It's a huge inspiration to me knowing that something so surreal, goofy, and pretty dark at times can have such commercial success.

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I could write a whole section about Bruce McCulloch alone and his album, Shame-Based Man, but who's got the time? 

Undoubtedly my favorite show of all time. And it's too bad they made only three seasons. This show isn't necessarily an inspiration, but moreso a marker to say "See this writing? You can't do better than this." It keeps me humble. It keeps me very grounded. It's a masterclass of television writing. The jokes run through seasons, and every time I rewatch it, I notice something I hadn't seen before. It makes me think about how I can create projects layered with jokes that take multiple viewings to fully appreciate.

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P.S. Go to my Instagram again (still @emilystofka) to see my Tobias Funke costume from 2024! 

Who better to end with than Baby J himself, John Mulaney. Boy, oh, boy, did this guy and his material make me a real treat to be around in high school. Something about his storytelling and ability to embellish the smallest things into something so specific and funny really inspired me. It inspired me so hard (?) that I memorized his Kid Gorgeous at Radio City almost completely and would recite it to my friend at study hall. Legitimately all the time. It got to the point that she gave me an actual ultimatum between her or John Mulaney, but that's neither here nor there. He's my inspiration for making the most out of any seemingly dull part of my life and riffing on it to the point where I'm basically lying.