Hello!
I wondered over in the British Crime Show Appreciation thread if anyone would be interested in a similar thread about UK comedy shows. I hope people are interested because this is the start of that thread!
Hopefully it’ll be a part go-to guide for new things, part shoot-the-breeze about British comedy in general. I’m thinking it’s a thread best suited for slightly less well known shows or shows that aren’t seen too often outside of the UK for whatever reason. Whether it’s a cultural thing or - better still - unshowable grounds of good taste and decency. Some of my favourite shows have been banned!
Also, everyone likes to chat about the minutiae of the classics too – I know I do - so if it’s a UK comedy show it’s all good. First person to mention Benny Hill gets a sock to the jaw, though!
UK comedy, then. Cor!
Everyone here knows Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Spaced and The Office. They’re great, eh? Some are less great than others (I've always felt Blackadder Goes Forth is a waste ), but they’ve certainly all got their moments.
There’s other great stuff too, though. And I’ll hopefully write a bit about each of them with relevant YouTubes and such but I’m doing this on my lunch break in a YouTube-less office, so I’ll give the short version for now. Hopefully the initial choices are slightly obscure to some and not completely patronising to everyone.
Shows you should see that I’ll hopefully write about but here’s the abridged version:
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976-1979) – in which Leonard Rossiter gives one of the great comedy performances of all time as a middle-management commuter driven slowly to despair and eventually to fake his suicide by the monotony of his 9-5. It’s a comedy, folks! Second series sees him become a millionaire selling crap that no-one would need. Pre-dates QVC by 9 years.
The Adam & Joe Show (1996 – 2001) – Adam Buxton (out of Hot Fuzz and Son of Rambow) and his mate Joe Cornish sit in a South London flat and spout nonsense. Silly sketches and actual, good movie parodies involving stuffed toys ensue. Star Wars figures used in a comedic way 10 years before Robot Chicken. Bossa Nova song about Robert de Niro.
See also: their always excellent BBC 6Music radio show every Saturday morning here in the UK. You can listen to at any point through the week using the BBC’s website. There's also an associated Podcast.
On The Hour (1991-2)/ The Day Today (1994) – Chris Morris, Steve Coogan,, producer Armando Iannucci and a cast including the now Playwright, Patrick Marber produce a sketch show disguised as a lampoon of first radio (OTH), then televisual (TDT) news. It is transcendently good. World peace doesn’t break out, but should.
Brass Eye – Morris teams up with funny Welshman Peter Baynham (who will later co-write the Borat movie with Sacha Baron-Cohen) use the same premise as the Day Today to satirise current affairs shows and celebrities willingness to jump on any bandwagon without checking their fact including: Cake: “A made-up drug from Czechoslovakia. It’s made up in pots”; The difference between Good AIDS (from blood transfusions) and Bad AIDS (from gay sex); and Paedophilia (in which Simon Pegg does not fancy Chris Morris’s children, much to the presenter’s disappointment).
Huge media controversy ensues. Morris becomes most vilified man in Britain. All the media hoo-ha misses (and also proves) his point.
Bonus point #1: Amidst all the controversy, the fact often gets missed that it’s a very fucking funny show made by silly men who were having fun.
Bonus Point #2. Invents the career of Ricky Gervais and Sacha Baron-Cohen.
Further listening/viewing in descending order of awesome but ascending order of availability: The Chris Morris Radio Show, Blue Jam (radio), Jam TV version, available on DVD with a bonus "remix" disk of the show.
The Armando Iannucci Shows (2001): The Day Today producer breaks out with his own sketch show. It is funny. Very very funny.
Sadly, it is scheduled to air on dates around the 11th September 2001. Furthermore, It has a sketch about plane crashes. It gets moved around the schedule. A lot. The episodes are shown out of order. Barely anyone gets to see it. It is a shame. The DVD arrives and everyone feels happy. If anyone sees this show thanks to this thread I will be overjoyed.
Peep Show (2003 – present): Glorious sitcom about men in late 20s/early 30s ennui written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. Mark is prematurely middle-aged. Jeremy is a selfish man-child. They share a flat… with hilarious results! Filmed entirely from each character’s POV, give or take a couple of cheats (one long shot is supposedly from the POV of a cow). Stars Robert Mitchell and David Webb are incredible in this despite their own self-written sketch series (that Mitchell and Webb Look) being completely mediocre. Now on series 5 what must surely be a record for a good UK sitcom. Why, that’s practically 30 episodes! Who knew numbers went that high!?
Crikey, this is going on for fucking ages, so I’ll stop here and wait to see if this catches on before I add any more. Anyone else who wants to jump in, please do!
I wondered over in the British Crime Show Appreciation thread if anyone would be interested in a similar thread about UK comedy shows. I hope people are interested because this is the start of that thread!
Hopefully it’ll be a part go-to guide for new things, part shoot-the-breeze about British comedy in general. I’m thinking it’s a thread best suited for slightly less well known shows or shows that aren’t seen too often outside of the UK for whatever reason. Whether it’s a cultural thing or - better still - unshowable grounds of good taste and decency. Some of my favourite shows have been banned!
Also, everyone likes to chat about the minutiae of the classics too – I know I do - so if it’s a UK comedy show it’s all good. First person to mention Benny Hill gets a sock to the jaw, though!
UK comedy, then. Cor!
Everyone here knows Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Spaced and The Office. They’re great, eh? Some are less great than others (I've always felt Blackadder Goes Forth is a waste ), but they’ve certainly all got their moments.
There’s other great stuff too, though. And I’ll hopefully write a bit about each of them with relevant YouTubes and such but I’m doing this on my lunch break in a YouTube-less office, so I’ll give the short version for now. Hopefully the initial choices are slightly obscure to some and not completely patronising to everyone.
Shows you should see that I’ll hopefully write about but here’s the abridged version:
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976-1979) – in which Leonard Rossiter gives one of the great comedy performances of all time as a middle-management commuter driven slowly to despair and eventually to fake his suicide by the monotony of his 9-5. It’s a comedy, folks! Second series sees him become a millionaire selling crap that no-one would need. Pre-dates QVC by 9 years.
The Adam & Joe Show (1996 – 2001) – Adam Buxton (out of Hot Fuzz and Son of Rambow) and his mate Joe Cornish sit in a South London flat and spout nonsense. Silly sketches and actual, good movie parodies involving stuffed toys ensue. Star Wars figures used in a comedic way 10 years before Robot Chicken. Bossa Nova song about Robert de Niro.
See also: their always excellent BBC 6Music radio show every Saturday morning here in the UK. You can listen to at any point through the week using the BBC’s website. There's also an associated Podcast.
On The Hour (1991-2)/ The Day Today (1994) – Chris Morris, Steve Coogan,, producer Armando Iannucci and a cast including the now Playwright, Patrick Marber produce a sketch show disguised as a lampoon of first radio (OTH), then televisual (TDT) news. It is transcendently good. World peace doesn’t break out, but should.
Brass Eye – Morris teams up with funny Welshman Peter Baynham (who will later co-write the Borat movie with Sacha Baron-Cohen) use the same premise as the Day Today to satirise current affairs shows and celebrities willingness to jump on any bandwagon without checking their fact including: Cake: “A made-up drug from Czechoslovakia. It’s made up in pots”; The difference between Good AIDS (from blood transfusions) and Bad AIDS (from gay sex); and Paedophilia (in which Simon Pegg does not fancy Chris Morris’s children, much to the presenter’s disappointment).
Huge media controversy ensues. Morris becomes most vilified man in Britain. All the media hoo-ha misses (and also proves) his point.
Bonus point #1: Amidst all the controversy, the fact often gets missed that it’s a very fucking funny show made by silly men who were having fun.
Bonus Point #2. Invents the career of Ricky Gervais and Sacha Baron-Cohen.
Further listening/viewing in descending order of awesome but ascending order of availability: The Chris Morris Radio Show, Blue Jam (radio), Jam TV version, available on DVD with a bonus "remix" disk of the show.
The Armando Iannucci Shows (2001): The Day Today producer breaks out with his own sketch show. It is funny. Very very funny.
Sadly, it is scheduled to air on dates around the 11th September 2001. Furthermore, It has a sketch about plane crashes. It gets moved around the schedule. A lot. The episodes are shown out of order. Barely anyone gets to see it. It is a shame. The DVD arrives and everyone feels happy. If anyone sees this show thanks to this thread I will be overjoyed.
Peep Show (2003 – present): Glorious sitcom about men in late 20s/early 30s ennui written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. Mark is prematurely middle-aged. Jeremy is a selfish man-child. They share a flat… with hilarious results! Filmed entirely from each character’s POV, give or take a couple of cheats (one long shot is supposedly from the POV of a cow). Stars Robert Mitchell and David Webb are incredible in this despite their own self-written sketch series (that Mitchell and Webb Look) being completely mediocre. Now on series 5 what must surely be a record for a good UK sitcom. Why, that’s practically 30 episodes! Who knew numbers went that high!?
Crikey, this is going on for fucking ages, so I’ll stop here and wait to see if this catches on before I add any more. Anyone else who wants to jump in, please do!
.
