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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: No fun please we're British
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L'organist
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# 17338
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Posted
I awoke this morning all ready for spontaneous fun (notwithstanding being kept awake by a thunderstorm for 4 hours) - until I looked out of the window.
Spontaneous fun can be quite hard to achieve/ get when you need to plan on the weather changing from bright, warm sunshine to freezing downpour in the space of 10 minutes.
Its not that we Brits don't want fun, just that we have to be prepared for whatever the sky hurls at us...
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Most of the panel games I've seen recorded are very loosely scripted, if at all. And that includes Mock the Week, HIGNFY and Never Mind the Buzzcocks on TV, none of which had scripts on show, but could have been using the autocue, but I doubt it - the sheer horror on the competitor's face as they panic without an answer is usually edited out, as is quite a bit of the extra stuff being flannelled as answers are sought, and the uneven answering patterns of the panellists are edited into something that looks more evenly balanced.
The similar, and often original, radio panel games have no script other than for the panel chair, and no autocue either. (Dilemma, News Quiz, Quote Unquote, The Museum of Curiosity, The Write Stuff, the Manuscript). The one that is almost certainly heavily scripted is ISIHAC, but I've never seen that one recorded.
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Stetson
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# 9597
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Posted
Paul wrote:
quote:
But when I hear people lump Benny Hill together with Monty Python I can't help thinking that there's something more going on - a liking of accents? a mild exoticism of the very slightly foreign? Because any common thread those two have must be shared by a fair proportion of non-British humour too.
Yes, I've long been suspicious of people who go on about how much they love British comedy, and then talk about vatious shows as if they were interchangable.
Benny Hill(funny as it is) was basically just vaudevillian slapstick, with a bit of postcard TNA thrown in for the dirty old men. It's very "World War II Generation", imho, and would have gone down well with people who liked The Dean Martin Comedy Hour in the early 70s.
Python was clearly aimed at a boomer(or whatever you call them in the UK) audience, more openly anti-establishment and iconoclastic. And even then, it couldn't escape the tendency of youth-culture products to devolve into tacky pandering to shock-driven vulgarity.
I've mentioned this before, but Meaning Of Life was some pretty blatant pandering to the North American "Animal House" demographic. Even the purported social satire was mostly just flogging a few dead horses. Mad Magazine(very "World War II" in its general outlook) had been doing "Those Catholics have a lot of kids" jokes years before Python exhumed the theme.
[ 10. November 2014, 22:57: Message edited by: Stetson ]
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
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Posted
Panel shows are definitely loosely scripted - if you go to a recording (tickets for HIGNFY are free by the way, but they understandably sell out quickly!) you'll see that the actual show goes on for much longer and is quite heavily edited down for TV, just due to all the tangents the panel go down. Seeing it live is really interesting btw, I would highly recommend it. When I went, when the host was filming the idents for BBC1 etc Paul Merton was telling knock-knock jokes ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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ExclamationMark
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# 14715
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Laurelin:
My favourite US comedy, bar none, is the incomparable 'Frasier'. ![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif) A fabulous mixture of farce and ... well, complete and utter fabulousness. And I love the characters so much.
I have to confess that 'Friends' would make me laugh a lot, despite most of the characters being pretty annoying. ![[Biased]](wink.gif) Chandler and Joey were the best, and Rachel could be very funny too.
EM's first law of comedy: the more characters wave their arms and/or look sideways for laughs, the less funny it is. Sadly for me (EM), Frasier and Friends come into that definition - as does almost 100% of American produced comedy. Blurghhhh.
Blackadder on the other hand (not the first series) and Father Ted - that's another matter entirely. Father Jack is my role model and I love my breeze block (an original thinker me).
I should mention that I hated Rev - for me it reinforced all the stereotypical outsiders views of the church. (Perhaps that's how it is and I should get out more). It did nothing for me other than make me mad apart from Olivia Coleman as "Vivian" in the grocery shop - that's disturbing in other ways!
[ 11. November 2014, 06:08: Message edited by: ExclamationMark ]
Posts: 3845 | From: A new Jerusalem | Registered: Apr 2009
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
quote:
The one that is almost certainly heavily scripted is ISIHAC, but I've never seen that one recorded.
Interestingly, I have seen it recorded, and it isn't really. However, that is almost certainly because virtually everyone on it has been going for so long that they're pulling out of the back of their mind flights of fancy that they *did* script in 1957.... So,yes, it is scripted, but they don't have scripts. Barry Cryer et al can do it in their sleep.
I would urge anyone with even a passing interest in ISIHAC to go and see it while they're still alive. It was an absolute riot. They started at 1900 and were still going near midnight, but with no retakes, do it agains or anything. They just had a go at pretty well every round you ever hear on the radio, then chose the best bits for broadcast - so you get what you'd never get together in any one episode, eg Swanny Kazoo *and* One song to the tune of another.
The evening ended with Barry Cryer conducting the audience (we were all given a kazoo on the way in) in a rousing chorus of We'll Meet Again....
Now *that's* British humour.
What was more surprising was that, in my early thirties, I was about the average age of the very full theatre - I had been a bit worried I'd be the youngest by a margin...
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[ 11. November 2014, 08:17: Message edited by: Eutychus ]
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Eirenist
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# 13343
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Posted
What about Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister - the 'Winner' as Loser?
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:
Paul wrote:
quote:
But when I hear people lump Benny Hill together with Monty Python I can't help thinking that there's something more going on - a liking of accents? a mild exoticism of the very slightly foreign? Because any common thread those two have must be shared by a fair proportion of non-British humour too.
Yes, I've long been suspicious of people who go on about how much they love British comedy, and then talk about vatious shows as if they were interchangable.
Benny Hill(funny as it is) was basically just vaudevillian slapstick, with a bit of postcard TNA thrown in for the dirty old men. It's very "World War II Generation", imho, and would have gone down well with people who liked The Dean Martin Comedy Hour in the early 70s.
Python was clearly aimed at a boomer(or whatever you call them in the UK) audience, more openly anti-establishment and iconoclastic. And even then, it couldn't escape the tendency of youth-culture products to devolve into tacky pandering to shock-driven vulgarity.
I've mentioned this before, but Meaning Of Life was some pretty blatant pandering to the North American "Animal House" demographic. Even the purported social satire was mostly just flogging a few dead horses. Mad Magazine(very "World War II" in its general outlook) had been doing "Those Catholics have a lot of kids" jokes years before Python exhumed the theme.
I don't think that was quite the joke. I think the joke was the brilliant song: "There are Jews in the world; there are Buddhists..." and the wonderful superior commentary by the Protestant eating his breakfast.
"In fact, today I think I'll have a French Tickler, for I am a Protestant!"
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Laurelin
Shipmate
# 17211
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ExclamationMark:
EM's first law of comedy: the more characters wave their arms and/or look sideways for laughs, the less funny it is. Sadly for me (EM), Frasier and Friends come into that definition - as does almost 100% of American produced comedy. Blurghhhh.
'Frasier' was much better than 'Friends'. ![[Smile]](smile.gif) Very clever, very witty, great characters, and HILARIOUS.
I also really like Blackadder and Father Ted.
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Friends was meant to be a comedy? Well roger me with a prize winning marrow! I was never sure what it was meant to be, but seeing as it was about as funny as a particularly poor episode of Terry and June after a pre-frontal lobotomy, I assumed it couldn't be intended to be a comedy.
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
Karl wrote:
quote:
I don't think that was quite the joke. I think the joke was the brilliant song: "There are Jews in the world; there are Buddhists..." and the wonderful superior commentary by the Protestant eating his breakfast.
"In fact, today I think I'll have a French Tickler, for I am a Protestant!"
Do you mean the song Every Sperm Is Sacred? Because that song IS about Catholics having a lot of kids. Though I suppose they weren't so much portraying Catholics in general, as Catholics at that particular time and place(Yorkshire, late Victorian era, I think).
And I do agree that the send-up of the proudly pro-contraception but otherwise sexually repressed protestant was pretty good. Though very few people seem to recall that scene, probably because overly fecund Catholics are the more recognizable comic trope.
[ 11. November 2014, 13:07: Message edited by: Stetson ]
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Clint Boggis
Shipmate
# 633
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by betjemaniac:
quote:
The one that is almost certainly heavily scripted is ISIHAC, but I've never seen that one recorded.
Interestingly, I have seen it recorded, and it isn't really. However, that is almost certainly because virtually everyone on it has been going for so long that they're pulling out of the back of their mind flights of fancy that they *did* script in 1957.... So,yes, it is scripted, but they don't have scripts. Barry Cryer et al can do it in their sleep.
So have I though about 15 years ago.
I'm sure it's [mostly] not scripted. I heard a recent-ish programme about the show and I believe it was created to be cheap by avoiding having to pay writers. They thought that picking people who are quick-thinking and naturally funny and "give them silly things to do" something good will result. It certainly worked!
The chairman's words and intro are of course written in advance and I'm sure the team get advance notice of the rounds so they can jot down some ideas but they certainly don't need a writing team.
[ 11. November 2014, 13:18: Message edited by: Clint Boggis ]
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ExclamationMark
Shipmate
# 14715
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eirenist:
What about Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister - the 'Winner' as Loser?
Oh no. Awful - smug, self satisfied, poncy.
Posts: 3845 | From: A new Jerusalem | Registered: Apr 2009
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
... co-written by Peter Jay so what do you expect?
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by goperryrevs:
When you and I were kids there was just children's BBC / ITV. So the appeal of a lot of TV was family-oriented programming, rather than narrowing down to specific demographics. So comedy-wise it'd be universal viewing. Nowadays there are a lot more channels (inculding children's channels), and most programming targets specific demographics. Which means a lot of comedy is 15+ rating.
I think the gender thing is a bigger deal than the class thing (see Misfits and Skins above). It seems a lot harder for women to succeed in comedy than men. I find that frustrating, and tire of the panel show format where you have five men trying to out-vulgar each other, with one token woman who's usually just there as some eye-candy to laugh at the 'funny' men.
The other underrepresented element is race. Despite the huge growth in immigration over the past couple of decades, this hasn't really been reflected in TV entertainment shows. I was pleased when Citizen Kahn came on a while back (despite its faults) because there's certainly less racial and cultural diversity in comedy than when I was younger.
In general, it seems harder and harder now to talk about British humour as a unified thing when there are so many niches.
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
In general, it seems harder and harder now to talk about British humour as a unified thing when there are so many niches.
Actually, I totally disagree with this. I think there is a style of humour that is identifiable as "British". What is impressive is that shows like Goodness Gracious Me can take British humour, add a cultural aspect that reflects the more diverse population that we have, but retain the essential humour.
I do think one aspect of British humour is a question of racial tolerance/intolerance. From Monty Python (on Watch this last week) "Did you see them who moved in next door? Black as the ace of spades. There goes the neighbourhood" - which would be completely unacceptable today, but was actually taking the mickey out of this. To auf wiedersehen pet, which would make UKIP fume, I am sure (going over there, taking those poor Germans jobs).
You also see this on some of the panel shows. When they have a comic from the US, very often they are completely out of their depth, having no idea what is going on. This is semi-deliberate - not racist as such, but marking "insiders" as those who know what is going on, and the tropes that are being referred to. This can cover anyone residing in the UK - skin colour and race is not relevant. It is funny, because you can see the "outsider" trying hard to understand something that they have no hope of doing ("So your big news story is a video of a man chasing his dog? Why?").
So I think British humour has retained its distinctiveness, while embracing the huge diversity of our country today - and that is a great thing.
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
Ah, well I see 'Goodness Gracious Me', Monty Python and 'Blackadder' as old shows, rather than as representatives of British humour as it is today.
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Anglican't
Shipmate
# 15292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
... co-written by Peter Jay so what do you expect?
I also thought this, but it's actually co-written by Antony Jay.
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mudfrog:
Stand a Brit next to a German and you'll soon see who has the sense of humour.
Rather, you'll see who has the better sense of queuing. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:
Do you mean the song Every Sperm Is Sacred? Because that song IS about Catholics having a lot of kids. Though I suppose they weren't so much portraying Catholics in general, as Catholics at that particular time and place(Yorkshire, late Victorian era, I think).
Yorkshire isn't particularly Catholic though - much less than Lancashire, and especially Liverpool.
I think part of the absurdist humour of the Pythons was their ability to splice together parodies of totally unrelated situations. In this case, fecund Catholics are combined with gritty 'grim oop north' dramas.
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Yorkshire isn't particularly Catholic though - much less than Lancashire, and especially Liverpool.
I think part of the absurdist humour of the Pythons was their ability to splice together parodies of totally unrelated situations. In this case, fecund Catholics are combined with gritty 'grim oop north' dramas.
Hmm. You may be right, but from the perspective of someone who doesn't know much about English religious geography, that didn't really come off as an obvious pythonesque incongruity. In contrast, to say, the Gumbys performing Chekhov.
I think most people who don't know much about Yorkshire would just assume that it was chosen because it's known as a place with a lot of Catholics.
As I recall, the opening credits of that scene announced that it was taking place in "The Third World", followed by the subheading "Yorkshire", so I guess Yorkshire might have been chosen as a place known to have lots of poor people.
Incidentally, refering disdainfully to a First World place as being Third World is another example of the trite and ham-fisted humour that blights much of that particular film. They really were going for the low-hanging fruit in that one.
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
It was, I think, pointing at attitudes towards the North held by some Southerners, especially those who appear to be unaware of civilisation outside the M25.. It's a little, as far as I can gather, like the way in which some folk from Northern states of the US might regard some of the more - rustic - areas of the Deep South. Well, a bit. More black pudding and less fried chicken, obviously.
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
I'm afraid Karl is right on this and both Stetson and Gwai have in different ways, missed the point, which is a demonstration of how, like wine, comedy doesn't always travel. I sometimes wonder whether there is likewise American comedy that I don't get, or if I do laugh, I'm doing so for the wrong reason. What might just appear a bit laboured, is actually satirising something I can't see.
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:
I must have spoken badly then because I was in no way disagreeing with Karl later said. It is obviously true. Indeed I may overestimate Python, but rather I was hoping there was another subtler layer of humor also.
Many overestimate Python because while a lot of it was funny and some utterly brilliant, about a quarter of the scenes, especially in the earlier series, went nowhere.
As for modern British humour it's still there. On TV recently Outnumbered has only ended because the children have grown up and that's going to be remembered as an all-time classic, Gavin & Stacey has some wonderful characters and dialogue and The Thick of It isn't bad either. There's more on radio, the One True Home of British wit and Humour.
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
I'm afraid Karl is right on this and both Stetson and Gwai have in different ways, missed the point, which is a demonstration of how, like wine, comedy doesn't always travel. I sometimes wonder whether there is likewise American comedy that I don't get, or if I do laugh, I'm doing so for the wrong reason. What might just appear a bit laboured, is actually satirising something I can't see.
Interesting comparison with the US south. I guess I sort of took the Yorkshire reference to be the equivalent of someone yelling "Squeal like a pig!" and mimicing dueling banjoes when someone else mentions a southern state. The understood butt of the joke would normally be southerners, not people who have misperceptions of southerners.
But FWIW, I didn't think that the Pythons were really ridiculing notherners(the way Deliverance jokes ridicule southerners), just sorta having a go at its supposedly economic and technolgical lag, at least in the times portrayed. I'm not ENTIRELY buying the idea that the point was "Isn't the rest of Britian silly for thinking that the north is so different?"
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
For clarity, my sentence in the second paragraph should have been written as...
quote:
But FWIW, I didn't think that the Pythons were really ridiculing notherners(the way Deliverance jokes ridicule US southerners)
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Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
To compare the US comedic attitude directed towards the South, I think you'd need to combine the North and Wales.
But even then, ISTM, there is more awareness of regional differences.
In the US, the humour seems to, broadly, be divided thusly: the Midwest, the South, California and New York City. ETA: and Florida as a combination New York retirement home and Cuban refugee centre.
The average American, and American comedian, seem to be less aware of the difference between a Texan and a Georgian than the average Brit that between a Brummie and a Geordie.
This is IME and not a statement of "better and worse".
[ 12. November 2014, 20:14: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
To give you an idea of the joke about the North then you could do worse than listen to Uncle Mort's North Country. It also stereotypes the fun-in-adversity attitude that I think is behind some of this thread.
Jengie
[ 12. November 2014, 20:32: Message edited by: Jengie jon ]
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
To compare the US comedic attitude directed towards the South, I think you'd need to combine the North and Wales.
But even then, ISTM, there is more awareness of regional differences.
In the US, the humour seems to, broadly, be divided thusly: the Midwest, the South, California and New York City. ETA: and Florida as a combination New York retirement home and Cuban refugee centre.
The average American, and American comedian, seem to be less aware of the difference between a Texan and a Georgian than the average Brit that between a Brummie and a Geordie.
This is IME and not a statement of "better and worse".
That's a good observation, though I think my comparison would still stand, but I might have to fine-tune it to calling the Python target in MOL "Yorkshire", in comparison to "the south" in Deliverance-style jokes.
But I'll also fine-tune your American comedic taxonomy a little...
quote:
The average American, and American comedian, seem to be less aware of the difference between a Texan and a Georgian than the average Brit that between a Brummie and a Geordie.
I think Texas does have its own niche, separate from the rest of the south, in the US comedic imagination. If you flipped on a show and saw a cigar-chomping guy in a ten-gallon hat drawling on about how big his car is and how big his house is and how big everything down here is, and you tried to guess his purported region, you would not assume Georgia.
For California...
I think LA(as a theme, not a setting) is basically ignored, at least in movie comedy, with the exception of ostentatiously self-mocking portrayals of fast-talking Hollywood types("Call me!!), and maybe the airheaded, sexy beach scene(eg. Three's Company). Cheech and Chong did LA skid-row material for a bit, but that wasn't widely copied as a trope.
Other than that, I think California is mostly identified with flaky hippies(vaguely left-wing) and New Age people, such portrayals focused largely on San Francisco and its surrounding areas. I suppose a bit of that drifts into portrayals of the Hollywood life as well.
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GordonThePenguin
Shipmate
# 2106
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mudfrog:
Stand a Brit next to a German and you'll soon see who has the sense of humour.
So have you tried that, or is it just a stereotype?
In my experience, North Germans (especially from Hamburg) have a dry/dark humour that many would say is very British.
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Eirenist
Shipmate
# 13343
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Posted
Yes Minister - 'smug, self-satisfied, poncy': yes, but I thought that was what we were expected to laugh at.
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'I think I think, therefore I think I am'
Posts: 486 | From: Darkest Metroland | Registered: Jan 2008
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eirenist:
Yes Minister - 'smug, self-satisfied, poncy': yes, but I thought that was what we were expected to laugh at.
Precisely. I think the current government have heard that Thatcher enjoyed it and assumed that it was a documentary of perfect government.
The whole point of it was that these people made claims of "Moral stances" and "making a difference", whereas they were actually doing what they were told was the most politically expedient course. We laughed AT them, in a very cruel and judgmental way. Then we elected them.
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
Stetson, as has been said though, they're not satirising Yorkshire *at all.* They *are* satirising the southern view of Yorkshire/the North. The Yorkshiremen sketch from the series - *that* satirises Yorkshiremen's apparent need to advertise their masculinity and humble origins,* the one in the Meaning of Life, not so much
Quite apart from anything else, both Eric Idle and Michael Palin are northerners - Palin hailing from, er, Yorkshire.
Perhaps you have to live here to appreciate that, for many people, the world ends north of the Severn/Trent line.
*"Yorkshire born, and Yorkshire bred - thick in the arm and thick in the head"
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
quote:
Perhaps you have to live here to appreciate that, for many people, the world ends north of the Severn/Trent line.
North of the M25 for many.
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[ 14. November 2014, 11:47: Message edited by: Eutychus ]
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
quote:
Perhaps you have to live here to appreciate that, for many people, the world ends north of the Severn/Trent line.
North of the M25 for many.
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M25? River Thames more like!
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
quote:
Perhaps you have to live here to appreciate that, for many people, the world ends north of the Severn/Trent line.
North of the M25 for many.
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M25? River Thames more like!
We lived on Thorney Island for a couple of years in the 1960's (it's a peninsular in Chichester Harbour, a few miles east of Portsmouth). The local saying was that "They're all savages north of the A27", which as the A27 runs from Southampton to Brighton doesn't leave much.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Erroneous Monk
Shipmate
# 10858
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:
Do you mean the song Every Sperm Is Sacred? Because that song IS about Catholics having a lot of kids. Though I suppose they weren't so much portraying Catholics in general, as Catholics at that particular time and place(Yorkshire, late Victorian era, I think).
Yorkshire isn't particularly Catholic though - much less than Lancashire, and especially Liverpool.
I think part of the absurdist humour of the Pythons was their ability to splice together parodies of totally unrelated situations. In this case, fecund Catholics are combined with gritty 'grim oop north' dramas.
I've always found the funniest aspect of Every Sperm is Sacred to be the parodying of a big cinematic musical number (cf Mary Poppins, Oliver!) where everybody suddenly starts joining in and singing and dancing, even the corpse.
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And I shot a man in Tesco, just to watch him die.
Posts: 2950 | From: I cannot tell you, for you are not a friar | Registered: Jan 2006
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Urfshyne
Shipmate
# 17834
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Posted
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Mudfrog: "Stand a Brit next to a German and you'll soon see who has the sense of humour."
It must be the German - after all, she married me!
Posts: 98 | From: Maidenhead - lost | Registered: Sep 2013
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Circuit Rider
Ship's Itinerant
# 13088
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
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Monty Python is an interesting example. It has exported well, all across the world, but that is a lot of the humour in them that other cultures cannot understand. ...
Monty Python has done well here, although the humor at times may be considered too vulgar for Southern tastes. My children are huge fans, and quote favorite lines (with accent) when a situation brings it to recall.
I visited Moreton-in-Marsh a couple of years ago and delighted to find a cheese shop. Had to have a look. I told the shop keeper I noticed that her cheese shop was not "uncontaminated by cheese." She rolled her eyes.
The ringtone I set for my district superintendent is the unforgettable line from Michael Palin, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition ..." For a while my text tone was the sound of the arrow flying in and John Cleese saying, "Message for you, sir."
My family are drawn to British culture and if we could we would jump the pond and not look back.
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I felt my heart strangely warmed ... and realised I had spilt hot coffee all over myself.
Posts: 715 | From: Somewhere in the Heart of Dixie | Registered: Oct 2007
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ExclamationMark
Shipmate
# 14715
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
M25? River Thames more like!
In one village in markland, not far removed from creamtealand - you're an outside if you live in the other half of the village across the churchyard. Each half has its own pubs, local words and never "marries" across.
Posts: 3845 | From: A new Jerusalem | Registered: Apr 2009
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Erroneous Monk:
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
quote:
Originally posted by Stetson:
Do you mean the song Every Sperm Is Sacred? Because that song IS about Catholics having a lot of kids. Though I suppose they weren't so much portraying Catholics in general, as Catholics at that particular time and place(Yorkshire, late Victorian era, I think).
Yorkshire isn't particularly Catholic though - much less than Lancashire, and especially Liverpool.
I think part of the absurdist humour of the Pythons was their ability to splice together parodies of totally unrelated situations. In this case, fecund Catholics are combined with gritty 'grim oop north' dramas.
I've always found the funniest aspect of Every Sperm is Sacred to be the parodying of a big cinematic musical number (cf Mary Poppins, Oliver!) where everybody suddenly starts joining in and singing and dancing, even the corpse.
Yes. It's the completely inappropriate subject matter for a big musical number that makes it funny. It's straight out of the Mary Poppins/Oliver schoolbook, as you say.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ExclamationMark:
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
M25? River Thames more like!
In one village in markland, not far removed from creamtealand - you're an outside if you live in the other half of the village across the churchyard. Each half has its own pubs, local words and never "marries" across.
What's the odds that the number of toes divided by the number of chins in the village is significantly more than the normal c.10?
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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ExclamationMark
Shipmate
# 14715
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider: What's the odds that the number of toes divided by the number of chins in the village is significantly more than the normal c.10?
I wouldn't take a bet on it -- the answer, of course, is well in excess of 10. I couldn't believe how seriously they take it .... but I know personally of one family shunned by said village where he wasn't to blame at all. He had to move and 20 years later it's still talked about as if it were his fault.
Posts: 3845 | From: A new Jerusalem | Registered: Apr 2009
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
It depends on the number of double chins.
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
It depends on the number of double chins.
Elsewhere the number of "chinless wonders" may have a effect.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Fuzzipeg
Shipmate
# 10107
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Posted
My father was rector of two villages in Suffolk within a couple of miles of each other. He had to have separate Christmas Parties, separate everything as they would never ever do anything together. One village was royalist during the Civil War and the other for the Commonwealth.
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http://foodybooze.blogspot.co.za
Posts: 929 | From: Johannesburg, South Africa | Registered: Aug 2005
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Fuzzipeg:
My father was rector of two villages in Suffolk within a couple of miles of each other. He had to have separate Christmas Parties, separate everything as they would never ever do anything together. One village was royalist during the Civil War and the other for the Commonwealth.
Not that far from here, there are two villages a mile, if that, apart where the same sort of thing happens. One of the allegations locally though is that to make it worse, they can't remember which one was on which side. They just know they were on opposite sides.
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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