[TV] Fawlty Towers reboot.

[Greg Bobkin]

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).

And their careers have REALLY suffered

I don't agree that comedy should offend people. Maybe it was accepted - and it did - back in the 'good old days' but not anymore. If you can't be funny without being sexist/racist/homophobic or anything else, you're doing comedy wrong.

 

[Live by the sea]

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.

I obviously agree about black face but apart from that , it’s not really offensive unless you are looking for it .

 

[BadFish]

I obviously agree about black face but apart from that , it’s not really offensive unless you are looking for it .

To be fair, I can't comment on that, I watched about half an episode a couple of times and it wasn't for me.

 

[Icy Gull]

Given the absolute shite (imo) that I have seen recently that passes as comedy and is so popular. Mrs Brown’s Boys as an example, I will be very interested to see how Fawlty Towers 2023 turns out.

Seems most of you have already blindly passed judgement that it’s rubbish so won’t be changing your mind, even if it’s good

I loved FT and even though it’s now considered un PC, I won’t be changing my mind about it.

I still smile when I see clips, unlike Monty Pythons Flying Circus, which I walked 3 miles to and from a mates flat to watch every week. (He had a tv, I didn’t) Thought it was hilarious, now seems incredibly dated and most of it is rubbish (there are a few exceptions, obviously)

 

[NorthstandRacoon]

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

Fair enough!

 

[NorthstandRacoon]

And their careers have REALLY suffered

I don't agree that comedy should offend people. Maybe it was accepted - and it did - back in the 'good old days' but not anymore. If you can't be funny without being sexist/racist/homophobic or anything else, you're doing comedy wrong.

But its not overtly any of those! You can still tread on ice with those kind of jones, obviously, not with jokes like that throughout your whole set, but, with at least one or two wincers!

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Given the absolute shite (imo) that I have seen recently that passes as comedy and is so popular. Mrs Brown’s Boys as an example, I will be very interested to see how Fawlty Towers 2023 turns out.

Seems most of you have already blindly passed judgement that it’s rubbish so won’t be changing your mind, even if it’s good

I loved FT and even though it’s now considered un PC, I won’t be changing my mind about it.

I still smile when I see clips, unlike Monty Pythons Flying Circus, which I walked 3 miles to and from a mates flat to watch every week. (He had a tv, I didn’t) Thought it was hilarious, now seems incredibly dated and most of it is rubbish (there are a few exceptions, obviously)

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that you should be changing your mind about how good the original Fawlty Towers is. As has been near universally agreed, the acting, scripting and timing put it in the category of all time great comedies.

I think though there is also very strong agreement that if you were producing a new comedy now, some of the jokes you shouldn’t really replicate because society has moved on.

Also there is strong agreement that the chances of this project being a success are very small, A) because it will be judged against the original material and B) that most of the beloved contributors won’t be involved and C) Cleese’s reputation and comedy standing have plummeted in recent decades due to some strange opinions and that he hasn’t done anything funny for about 30 years.

 

[Icy Gull]

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that you should be changing your mind about how good the original Fawlty Towers is. As has been near universally agreed, the acting, scripting and timing put it in the category of all time great comedies.

I think though there is also very strong agreement that if you were producing a new comedy now, some of the jokes you shouldn’t really replicate because society has moved on.

Also there is strong agreement that the chances of this project being a success are very small, A) because it will be judged against the original material and B) that most of the beloved contributors won’t be involved and C) Cleese’s reputation and comedy standing have plummeted in recent decades due to some strange opinions and that he hasn’t done anything funny for about 30 years.

Maybe just wait and see how it turns out before dissing it was my point

 

[Seagull58]

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.

But Afterlife is wonderful.

 

[jcdenton08]

But Afterlife is wonderful.

As was Extras

 

[Seagull58]

Given the absolute shite (imo) that I have seen recently that passes as comedy and is so popular. Mrs Brown’s Boys as an example, I will be very interested to see how Fawlty Towers 2023 turns out.

Seems most of you have already blindly passed judgement that it’s rubbish so won’t be changing your mind, even if it’s good

I loved FT and even though it’s now considered un PC, I won’t be changing my mind about it.

I still smile when I see clips, unlike Monty Pythons Flying Circus, which I walked 3 miles to and from a mates flat to watch every week. (He had a tv, I didn’t) Thought it was hilarious, now seems incredibly dated and most of it is rubbish (there are a few exceptions, obviously)

A fair amount of Monty Python was pretty rubbish at the time. There typically used to be 10 to 15 minutes of very funny stuff and 15 to 20 minutes of not really funny at all stuff in every show. The excitement for me at the time was hoping the next sketch would be a banger.

 

[brightn'ove]

The problem is it won’t be as funny because you are not allowed to make fun of anyone anymore in case it offends them !

That's not true.

Comedians make fun of people like you all the time.

 

[WATFORD zero]

That's not true.

Comedians make fun of people like you all the time.

It's all in the timing

 

[BBassic]

"Old git baffled by the modern world" doesn't particularly hit my funny bone.

Pass.

 

[Brovion]

Maybe just wait and see how it turns out before dissing it was my point

That's a fair point, but then so is pointing out that Cleese hasn't been funny for forty years, and therefore the chances of the Fawlty Towers reboot being even remotely good (let alone up to the standard of the original) are very small.

 

[Stato]

But Afterlife is wonderful.

Afterlife is absolutely terrible. Actually worse than Derek. Gervais' character wanders about being self obsessed and unpleasant whilst loads of straw men appear just to give the character opportunities to express the real Gervais's views on the world. Everyone around him is treated awfully, but keeps saying how lovely he is. We never see any evidence of this loveliness. At one point his character pretty much murders an addict and this action is never referenced again. As a drama it makes no sense. No characters have an inner world, nothing moves anywhere. There is no story. Just the same things repeated again and again every episode. The comedy moments are hacky and don't come naturally from character or situation. The only real laughs are from that weird edit where they superimposed Kerry Godliman's smiling face on a swimmer who is obviously not her. I hate watched it, unable to believe that something so trite had been made let alone been given awards.

 

[clapham_gull]

further down in that piece it says that Reiner is also working on a sequel to This Is Spinal Tap. Somebody stop these people, please.

To be fair there have been numerous "sequels" to Spinal Tap.

Reunion docs, albums, performances as their folk alter ego etc...

And to be fair to them they have been consistently funny.

 

[keaton]

Maybe just wait and see how it turns out before dissing it was my point

That's sounds pretty "cancel culture" to me and not something Mr Cleese would be on board with

 

[Icy Gull]

That's sounds pretty "cancel culture" to me and not something Mr Cleese would be on board with

Suggesting it’s jumping the gun to suggest something nobody has seen and has not been filmed yet is likely to be shit is cancel culture?

It might well turn out to be a car crash but I’ll be watching it before deciding

 

[keaton]

Suggesting it’s jumping the gun to suggest something nobody has seen and has not been filmed yet is likely to be shit is cancel culture?

It might well turn out to be a car crash but I’ll be watching it before deciding

You were saying people shouldn't share an opinion that they thought something would be shit( not that it was shit, just that they thought it would be shit) .