Overrated/Underrated Sitcoms and the science of comedy

[bigallan]

The Friday night show the Glasshouse?
When the commercial channels take over those successful ABC ones, they often flop.

[bigallan]

Much better than nation builder Downer in his fishnet hosiery.

[frosty]

@Saucy

@frosty

Anyway, I have work to do…

Lol. No you don’t.

You won’t answer my question. So fark your question.

Frk your question. I don’t know enough 70s sitcoms well enough, but the comedy of the 70s and 80s and likely before, includes many examples. I take it you find RotN as a worthwhile addition to comedy in general.

[frosty]

@stir_fried_ewok

I thought you were going metro and including Joey in the 2 .
Courtney is attractive I agree, but she was too whiny skinny for me to appreciate it.

On rewatching the show recently, Cox and Perry were the actual comic stars of the show. Cox’s comic timing is fantastic.

[Alan_Noonan_10]

@bobo

The IT Crowd. I’ll always happily throw on an episode of that. Flight of the Conchords. Lots of fun.

Well, turn it off and then turn it back on again.

Katherine Parkinson is in a non-comedy called Significant Other on SBS.

[wimmera1]

“Well you are tremendously old…”
Love Moss. Freakin’ love him.

The episode where they pretend to be soccer fans…and Street Countdown…

[Saucy]

@frosty

I don’t know enough 70s sitcoms well enough, but the comedy of the 70s and 80s and likely before

Name me one.

[Alan_Noonan_10]

Grassby (Al), Grills and Nudge instead of Crosby, Stills and Nash.

[frosty]

@simmo41

following on from my earlier post, here’s something you’ll never not notice now that i’ve pointed it out

there’s almost no visual punchlines in american sitcoms. every joke has to end with a dumb line like “well that just happened”

99.99% of punchlines in american shows are a scripted line read by an actor. because they have teams of writers that pump out a script and fob it off to get filmed before working on the next one, so all jokes have to be on the page

british sitcoms will have most punchlines scripted, but are often only one or two writers who are also actors/directors/producers. so they’re confident enough to have punchline of the scene just be “nigel’s bed is on fire” or “jez pulls a face” or “malcolm tucker runs off down the hallway” or “manuel drops a tray” and let the stage crew, actors, cameras, directors and editors do the rest.

And to bring it back to Perry, that last line of friends was completely unscripted

[frosty]

@Saucy

@frosty

I don’t know enough 70s sitcoms well enough, but the comedy of the 70s and 80s and likely before

Name me one.

I named you a mainstream 80s movie. And there was similar comedy in the cartoon on the front page of the Herald (or was it the Sun?).

Have you come up with one case of good comedy that wasn’t produced due to Cancel Culture?

[Chris_1993]

Four! I mean five! I mean fire!

[OBITV]

@Alan_Noonan_10

Grassby (Al), Grills and Nudge instead of Crosby, Stills and Nash.

I think the quartet was rounded out by (Gwen) Plumb as (Neil) Young.

[up_up]

@Mulvaney

Censorship, I guess you’d call it, has definitely impacted on what clumsy comedians can say. Good comedians - see Ricky Gervais, Louis CK, Norm McDonald - have turned it to their advantage.

Interesting choice of examples

[bigallan]

Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, what was that silent clip with a ladder, another one getting an ice cube for the titled gent.
Then, the two Ronnies
Are you being served, the running gags through the series.

[davethedon]

Here’s something you won’t see today. (Not a sitcom I know).

Gary McDonald (as Norman Gunston) asking Boy George:

So, are you a hom’… uh ….hom’……um, hom’…
.
.
Homeowner?

[Bomb_Doe]

regarding the sciencey bit of comedy, there’s the use of swearing

So I like swearing and in a comedy series it can be an excellent tool that lifts the impact - shows such as The Thick of It and VEEP are excellent examples the former raised swearing to an art form. Armando Iannucci - gifted.

But, in stand up comedy I find that swearing can be a very lazy tool that’s used to either shock or to show how cool they are. When it does neither. A lot of times it’s used without any genuine context. And can actually detract from the routine.

Good quality comedy without swearing stands up by being genuinely clever with its writing.

[Saucy]

In future don’t make a sweeping statement like “some 70s shows had domestic violence as their centrepiece joke.” without having a couple of examples handy.

[bigallan]

What was that Brit comedy series with the COS of some PM like Gordon Brown post Blair, You can FRO and FRO off again and again.
Gordon Brown allegedly was big on the F bomb, saying it in public to Blair.

[davethedon]

In the thick of it?

[OBITV]

@bigallan

what was that silent clip with a ladder

The Plank?

The Plank (1979 TV Version) Full Movie