[TV] Fawlty Towers reboot.

[BadFish]

I don't find much modern comedy funny, I was wondering what comedy do you find funny now?

As I said I have never been one for the offensive stuff.

Off the top of my head I have enjoyed:
Mum
Friday Night Dinner
The Detectorists
Cunk on . . .
Derry Girls
Ted Lasso
Modern family.
Brooklyn 99
Fleabag
After Life
Peep show
IT crowd (how far are we going back?).


In terms of stand up I think that there are some doing brilliant stuff
James Acaster
Stewart Lee (hardly modern but you know)
Jon Richardson
Kevin Bridges
Jimmy Carr
Bill Burr
Jim Jeffries
Sarah Milligan
Tom Gleeson
Sammy J
Kris HC (tiktok)
Swag on the beat (tiktok)

Other stuff
Bob Mortimer
8 out of 10 cats countdown
Would I lie to you

Just my taste of course but I find enough to keep me amused between football and my wife's true life crime and gritty and grey Scandinavian police drama.

I'll probably think of some others as soon a I press post

 

[portlock seagull]

Big fan of and I drive past the former Faulty Towers several times each week. Often triggers me to think of and chuckle at numerous scenes. My late in laws used to drink there, it was a members club when the pubs shut at 11pm. the owner at the time only died a couple years ago. People always assume it’s Torquay, but S.Bucks is where it was filmed! Always enjoy the episodes where they pop out because i get to see local area, shops etc in the 1970s. Shame the building no longer stands and was replaced with several houses following a fire. Nice cul de sac mind!

 

[Flagship]

I stopped going to comedy clubs years ago because it became apparent that the only way some comedians could get a laugh was to ramble on about shite then scream and shout, then say FVCK. The crowd laugh and that encourages the comedian to carry on saying FVCK. The crowd carry on laughing and the fuckwit comedian Carrie's on fuckyng.
I save myself loads of money by watching repeats of Fawly Towers, Benny Hill, Ken Dodd, Les Dawson, Bob Monkhouse, Carry On etc etc. Proper comedy. Fvck off Ben Elton and all the laugh police.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Fawlty Towers is still absolutely hilarious. Brilliant comedy writing, performances and timeless.

Edit: I appreciate you’re doing a comedy “bit” and don’t really believe what you’re saying - hence the use of “gammon” and an insult to the man’s weight and age. My issue is if ironic dislike becomes the norm, there is no scope for ambition.

There’s enough dishonesty on social media as it is.

Mmmmm....no. I liked it then but too much of it makes me cringe now. And so it goes....

I just did some research on him and, in fact....the gammon jibe was unjustified. His many quotes are sometimes flippant but I can't find anything gammony, so I retract the slur.

 

[jonny.rainbow]

Go Set A Watchman

If you are referring to the Harper Lee text, then it’s not quite the same.

That was a manuscript written before To Kill a Mockingbird. The Fawlty Towers reboot is being written 40 years after the original scripts.

 

[Stato]

If you are referring to the Harper Lee text, then it’s not quite the same.

That was a manuscript written before To Kill a Mockingbird. The Fawlty Towers reboot is being written 40 years after the original scripts.

I'm aware of the circumstances. My comparison was based only on Lee's executors seeking a cash in on an inferior product because it had a ready made audience of millions who loved the superior one.

 

[NorthstandRacoon]

Woke and cancel culture are responsible for ruining much of todays society . It is not up to A few loud mouthed entitled people to police society .

Agreed. I lean to the left a lot with my views, but, the left has absolutely lost it's head with focusing on things which are in the grand scheme of things, not that important. I hate the word 'woke' by the way, but as it's being used here, I followed up with it.

 

[NorthstandRacoon]

Is it, though? I'd say the comedy world was pretty strong right now.

Absolutely it is. Jimmy Carr/Ricky Gervais, prime examples when they say something that's slightly offensive and get a battering in the press and social media for saying it, the whole point of comedy is to cringe and laugh and be offended (within reason).

 

[jcdenton08]

While we’re off topic on comedians, I really like some of Stewart Lee’s stuff but his hour special from York on the iPlayer was just dreadful. Partridge’s “Stratagem” was also absolutely pony, with some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen (the “drunk” stooge).

Lee was really bad though. At least he had a funny opening line.

 

[Stato]

While we’re off topic on comedians, I really like some of Stewart Lee’s stuff but his hour special from York on the iPlayer was just dreadful.

Tornado or Snowflake? Saw them both live and have seen the York recordings too. Both brilliant on the night. Loved his perfect description of 'After Life' in Tornado. The 'saying the unsayable' bit in Snowflake didn't come across as well in the recorded version as it did live. It didn't really capture his brilliant mimicry of Gervais's stage movements between the attempts to say the unsayable.

 

[jcdenton08]

Tornado or Snowflake? Saw them both live and have seen the York recordings too. Both brilliant on the night. Loved his perfect description of 'After Life' in Tornado. The 'saying the unsayable' bit in Snowflake didn't come across as well in the recorded version as it did live. It didn't really capture his brilliant mimicry of Gervais's stage movements between the attempts to say the unsayable.

Tornado - I’ve seen Stew live about four times, plus Lee & Herring a couple of times back in the day. I’m glad I didn’t see this routine as I’ve enjoyed every tour I’ve seen of his previously and thought this was really poor and lazy.

It rehashed previous material so much that it felt like a best of, without the best of included.

 

[Seagull58]

Absolutely it is. Jimmy Carr/Ricky Gervais, prime examples when they say something that's slightly offensive and get a battering in the press and social media for saying it, the whole point of comedy is to cringe and laugh and be offended (within reason).

Interesting viewpoint. I love Ricky Gervais' work but detest Jimmy Carr.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Unfortunately, John Cleese isn't funny any more.

 

[Stato]

Tornado - I’ve seen Stew live about four times, plus Lee & Herring a couple of times back in the day. I’m glad I didn’t see this routine as I’ve enjoyed every tour I’ve seen of his previously and thought this was really poor and lazy.

It rehashed previous material so much that it felt like a best of, without the best of included.

Similarly I've been going to see him regularly since catching him as Sadowitz's support act in 1990. I did read other long term fans saying they were a bit disappointed too. Snowflake/Tornado was the tour interrupted by lockdown*, so may have been impacted. It didn't hang together as coherently as some of the longer shows, but I was used to that from the format of the Comedy Vehicle tours. it still made me laugh a lot. On the night I saw the show in Bexhill, the final prop malfunctioned and came within a couple of feet of hitting him. Could have been his last show. Thankfully not. He's back in Brighton in April.

* We waited two years to see it, so were very pleased to be back at a comedy show. Bridget Christie's pandemic rearranged Brighton show was cancelled because she was taping Taskmaster.

 

[Stato]

Interesting viewpoint. I love Ricky Gervais' work but detest Jimmy Carr.

To be fair to John Cleese, it's taken him over 40 years to get around to ruining the Fawlty Towers legacy. Derek was only nine years after The Office.

 

[The Clamp]

Similarly I've been going to see him regularly since catching him as Sadowitz's support act in 1990. I did read other long term fans saying they were a bit disappointed too. Snowflake/Tornado was the tour interrupted by lockdown*, so may have been impacted. It didn't hang together as coherently as some of the longer shows, but I was used to that from the format of the Comedy Vehicle tours. it still made me laugh a lot. On the night I saw the show in Bexhill, the final prop malfunctioned and came within a couple of feet of hitting him. Could have been his last show. Thankfully not. He's back in Brighton in April.

* We waited two years to see it, so were very pleased to be back at a comedy show. Bridget Christie's pandemic rearranged Brighton show was cancelled because she was taping Taskmaster.

Does she not know how to set the timer to record?

 

[BadFish]

Woke and cancel culture are responsible for ruining much of todays society . It is not up to A few loud mouthed entitled people to police society .

What other parts of today's society have they ruined?

My experience is that I can usually go for weeks without hearing from or reading anything from the woke brigade.

Can't go more that a day without hearing from or reading someone complaining about them though.

I agree whole heartedly with your last sentence though. Isn't it wonderful that social media has now given everyone a louder voice so we don't only have to hear from loud mouthed people.

 

[BadFish]

Cancelled or rather trying to because it’s usually done by a few people on social media who usually think it can only possibly be their opinion that counts . I’m not talking about obvious or serious wrong doings but stuff that clearly even moderate people have different views . Like trans issues and all the grief JK Rowling has received . None of it necessary or needed . I personally don’t know anyone that doesn’t agree with Rowling on the trans issue .

Woke culture example . One of the funniest comedy’s in the last 10-20 years is Come fly with me & little Britain . Very funny because it parodied the differences between different cultures . It wasn’t nasty or attempting to stir up hatred against any particular culture it just played on the stereotypes . That’s why it was so funny because the stereotypes were recognised by the viewers .

Woke culture has now ruined all of that. Yes the occasional person might get annoyed that they are being displayed as being thick etc but it’s a comedy and it’s meant to be played for laughs .

From a quick google Little Britain is on BBC iplayer - so not really cancelled.

Come fly With me looks like it is still available through apple tv. Most other platforms have dropped it because of the use of blackface. If you don't understand why that is a problem then you should probably do some reading. It also may explain why you buy into the mythical 'cancel culture' is to blame for everything rather than looking at individual decisions made about things and considering the validity of each decision.

Both shows also appear to me available on DVD from Amazon and out sites.

So not really cancelled.

FWIW - I am not suggesting for a minute that there are not people who bang on about how offensive some shows are for no good reason. But I do find that their voices are heavily outweighed by the people who band on and on about woke and cancel culture.

The people who abused and threatened JK Rowling are half wits and certain part of the problem. However her views were ill-informed, unfounded in worthwhile evidence and fully deserved to be challenged (in a respectful and reasonable way). From what I have seen though many attempts to do this are met with abuse and threats from her 'supporters'. For me he issue isn't between the woke left and the ****** (insert your own meaningless insult here) right. The issue is between people wishing to discuss stuff and people wishing to throw meaningless insults, meaning less catch all words (woke, gammon etc) and abuse each other.

i would also point out that JK Rowling has 14m followers on twitter, appears to still knock out a fair few books, there also seems to be a few films knocking about. For the poster person (he he, that'll irritate her) of cancel culture she doesn't half have a platform.

All this crap is designed to stifle debate and offer an easy scape goat for today's troubled society. This is why it is usually the case that when a worthwhile example is requested it cannot be offered.

 

[The Clamp]

Of course let’s not rule out the idea that some things, not many but some things should be cancelled. Not that I think that is very useful term. “Cancelled”.
While we have an internet, nothing is truly gone.

 

[BadFish]

Of course let’s not rule out the idea that some things, not many but some things should be cancelled. Not that I think that is very useful term. “Cancelled”.
While we have an internet, nothing is truly gone.

Robin's nest has been cancelled and I will never forgive the woke brigade for it!

Edit: No it hasn't, its on youtube