I'd have thought the Goodies did a fair bit of stuff that nuffies would laugh at but think "where does that come from, I don't quite get it", whereas low-brow is scatology, cringe and catchphrases which derive straight from panto.
Anyone remember this bit from the Goodies and the Beanstalk?
John Cleese, who appears briefly as a genie at the end of the episode, says “And now for something completely different”, a popular Monty Python’s Flying Circus catchphrase. When told to leave, he shouts “Kid’s programme!” and disappears. (This was actually a friendly jibe at the Goodies, as the Goodies and the Pythons are good friends who had collaborated many times.)
There’s also a bit in the Goodies where someone tells Graeme the day and time and he freaks out, saying ‘We’re going to miss it!’
He turns on the tv and catches the closing credits of Python.
The audience cheers, and Graeme says something like, 'That was close. We nearly missed the start of (some rubbish show that no-one cares about).
Still, it’s funny that Cleese jokingly called it a kid’s show. Because a lot of the early episodes contained nudity.
It’s also racist as ■■■■ and not a friend of Dorothy.
Cleese appeared with the guys from The Goodies in a radio show called I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again.
Pun Central
I thought I’d heard a bit of that show, but it turns out it was I’m Sorry, I haven’t A Clue.
It was this bit.
From headlines from Hamlet:
Graeme Garden: “The Guardian: Yesterday’s headline ‘Laughter at Elsinore’ should have read ‘Slaughter at Erinsbrough’”
Famous one from ISIRTA…set oop in t’mill coontry of Yorkshire…
T’mill was oop for sale and was bought by Lady Constance to house her German Shepherds in.
Music plays…the mills are alive with the hounds of Munich.
I've never got Seinfeld. Numan was the only funny one but his best stuff was in third rock.
There doesn't seem to be any funny comedies out in the U.K at the moment. I'm giving toast a run - what's hi de hi like?
I regard Hancock's Half Hour as a forerunner to Seinfeld where the characters sit around with a cheerless heater on a Sunday afternoon at 3 Railways Cuttings, East Cheam, discussing, essentially, nothing.
Yeah, that’s a good point.
The British tradition, for me anyway, starts with the Goons. As a kid I only had one episode - “The Missing Prime Minister”, I think it was called. I listened to it so many times that I can still quote it verbatim. More recently I’ve collected a good deal of the episodes. One of the funniest and brilliant programs ever made, in any medium. The absurdist element runs through much of what follows up to this day.
I've never got Seinfeld. Numan was the only funny one but his best stuff was in third rock.
There doesn't seem to be any funny comedies out in the U.K at the moment. I'm giving toast a run - what's hi de hi like?
I've never got Seinfeld. Numan was the only funny one but his best stuff was in third rock.
There doesn't seem to be any funny comedies out in the U.K at the moment. I'm giving toast a run - what's hi de hi like?
You’ve just lost me. It was nice while it lasted.
?
Only joking mate. I’m a huge Seinfeld fan. About the only U.S. show I like.
I regard Hancock's Half Hour as a forerunner to Seinfeld where the characters sit around with a cheerless heater on a Sunday afternoon at 3 Railways Cuttings, East Cheam, discussing, essentially, nothing.
Yeah, that’s a good point.
The British tradition, for me anyway, starts with the Goons. As a kid I only had one episode - “The Missing Prime Minister”, I think it was called. I listened to it so many times that I can still quote it verbatim. More recently I’ve collected a good deal of the episodes. One of the funniest and brilliant programs ever made, in any medium. The absurdist element runs through much of what follows up to this day.
I know the Goons have legions of devoted fans and are considered by some to be the funniest, most original, most inventive, etc., etc. comedy of all times, but I never really got them or thought they were funny. The scripts were mostly written by Spike Milligan, and they have his slightly insane, free-associating kind of humour, but a lot of the time they were really not much more than a group of stock characters with funny voices.
And I agree about Hancock being a forerunner of Seinfeld. I’d never thought of it that way, but it’s absolutely the same basic premise.
I regard Hancock's Half Hour as a forerunner to Seinfeld where the characters sit around with a cheerless heater on a Sunday afternoon at 3 Railways Cuttings, East Cheam, discussing, essentially, nothing.
Yeah, that’s a good point.
The British tradition, for me anyway, starts with the Goons. As a kid I only had one episode - “The Missing Prime Minister”, I think it was called. I listened to it so many times that I can still quote it verbatim. More recently I’ve collected a good deal of the episodes. One of the funniest and brilliant programs ever made, in any medium. The absurdist element runs through much of what follows up to this day.
I know the Goons have legions of devoted fans and are considered by some to be the funniest, most original, most inventive, etc., etc. comedy of all times, but I never really got them or thought they were funny. The scripts were mostly written by Spike Milligan, and they have his slightly insane, free-associating kind of humour, but a lot of the time they were really not much more than a group of stock characters with funny voices.
And I agree about Hancock being a forerunner of Seinfeld. I’d never thought of it that way, but it’s absolutely the same basic premise.
I was never a massive Goons fan either. Loved Sellers though. His movies and ‘Songs for Swinging Sellers’ were great. Loved him as Fred Kite in “i’m All Right, Jack”.
I was more into what came next, radio, TV and movies. Pete and Dud, Python, Goodies.
I generally don’t gravitate towards shows that have the central characters on good terms. It crowd was one and black books was another. Spaced has that but I still find it likable because it’s just so well thought out and executed.
