Sorry, the show is just terrible.
I remember The State in the early 90's and used to watch it on MTV. I remember finding a few of the sketches mildly amusing, but for the most part I didn't get it.
I started watching this on Netflix the other night to see if it was really as great as some people have said (one of my friends thinks it's the funniest show ever). I got through about 15 minutes of the first episode without cracking a smile once. Now I'm not comparing this against any other sketch shows, or arguing whether or not those particular shows are worth watching. I understood the 90's references, and I understood the 'jokes' if you can even call them that.
What I realized is The State was idiotic, juvenile, unoriginal, crap. It embodies all the stupid parts of the early 90's. This was a sketch show for those older teen/young 20's who just discovered grunge and coffee houses. This show was that awkward stage of the 90's, that stage where people didn't understand that balloon pants and yellow neon hats weren't cool. That stage in between where 80's rock had died off, but gangsta rap hadn't hit the main stream yet.
It's the failed couple of years in the 90's, where everyone was trying to find the next thing to identify with, but all we really had was catchy bands like The Spin Doctors. That period of time where nothing had an edge. It was the most forgettable period of time in the last 30 years.
That's The State. It's only memorable, because it existed in some of the emptiest few years known to man.