La hora pico (lit. "Peak Hour") was a Mexican TV show for Televisa, produced by Carla Estrada and Reynaldo López, which was part of the comedy bar of the 10:00 p.m. from Canal De las Estrellas. It has 4 seasons and a total of 307 chapters. It aired on September 2000 and ended on September 2007.
Starring Consuelo Duval, Miguel Galván†, Adrián Uribe, and Lorena de la Garza, with the star performances of Gustavo Munguía, Reynaldo Rossano, Javier Carranza "El Costeño", Ariel Manzano, and Ricardo Hill, as well as the starring of Andrés García and Jaime Camil as the hosts. In later seasons, it tooks a SNL formula where the host was also participating in one or more sketches with the rest of the cast, it also lead to have different hosts, regularly famous actors that would or not be comedians like telenovela star Diana Bracho or TV host Chabelo.
Originally it aired at Canal de las Estrellas on Thursdays, replacing the show Picardía mexicana as part of the comedy bar of Televisa. During the time it aired, it suffered several schedule changes: At first, it aired at 10:00 p.m., then at 11:00 p.m. On 2002, when the unitaries bar titled "Nos vemos a las 10" debuted, the schedule shifted back to 10:00 p.m. being the only program that remained in that bar from 2002 to 2006. That same year it started to air on Saturdays around 7:00 p.m. Finally on 2007, it airs on Friday night at 8:00 p.m.
La hora pico contains examples of the following tropes:
- Camp Gay : Carmelo and Paul Yester (pun for polyester) sketches normally center on the effeminate ways they try to impress the guest star to disastrous consequences.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Celestina Domínguez (Lorena de la Garza) from La Celostina, who gets so jealous she transforms into the title character (played by Adrián Uribe), a mannish, aggresive woman.
- Comically Cross-Eyed: Sisi from "Sisi".
- Dirty Cop: Poncho Aurelio and Oficial Llantana, the traffic police officers from the sketch "ATM: A Toda Mordida" (lit. "FBA: Full Bite Ahead")note . Their main gimmick is to scam people after accepting a bribe from a driver.
- Hulking Out: Celestina when she transforms into Celostina.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: In Crónicas Policíacas, Comandante Pérez and Comandante Godínez engage in this when interrogating the people they arrest. In a show like this, it's played for laughs.
- Male Gaze: The other main premise of the show, regularly in the cut to commercials three women scantily dressed danced to the cameras.
- Nun Too Holy: The main premise of the sketch Las madres, starring Madre Sotanote (Miguel Galván) and Madre Hadanote (Adrián Uribe).
- Main/Parody: The show generally have sketches parodying real people like Newscasters Joaquin Lopez Doriga and Adela Micha (indeed one of the most popular characters was Consuelo Duval parody on Micha, called "Dame Lamicha" lit. "Give me half", that appeared in another comedy shows like Otro Rollo, football players like Pele (parodying his Pfizer commercials at the time) or fantasy characters like Shrek.
- Police Brutality: Played for Laughs in Crónicas Policíacas with the main characters.
- Rabid Cop: The sketch "Crónicas Policíacas" stars Comandante Pérez (Adrián Uribe) and Comandante Godínez (Miguel Galván), two police commanders who abuse their power to beat up anyone they arrest, even when interrogating them.
- Self-Harm: Celestina engages in this behavior when transformed into Celostina.
- Shout-Out: The title of the "ATM: A Toda Mordida" sketch is a shout-out of classic Mexican film starring Pedro Infante, ATM: A Toda Maquina.
- Spin-Off: The game show "Cien Mexicanos Dijieron" (lit. A Hundred Mexican Said, notice Dijieron is a low class way to say Dijeron), a Mexican version of Family Feud, was a spinoff of the original "Cien Mexicanos Dijeron" using "Vitor", a character from La Hora Pico performed by Adrian Uribe (a bus driver that was part of Las Nacas sketch) as the host that used celebrities as contestants and the prizes goes to charity.
- Verbal Tic: Sisi (Consuelo Duval) from the sketch Sisi, always punctuates her phrases with a "Sí".
- Vulgar Humor: The main premise of the show.
