Beadle's About. OMG how did we laugh at this?

[Sparklingbrook]

It's currently on an obscure Sky Channel and i remember thinking it was hilarious.
Can you imagine it being made now?

I absolutely hated it. I hate pranks, I think they are just cruel and unfunny

Jeremy was hilarious on this. Life seemed a lot simpler back then. What channel please I'd love to see it again!!

@Hoppinggreen

I absolutely hated it. I hate pranks, I think they are just cruel and unfunny

I can't gauge the year but I must have been a child. I hate pranks now.

@Morechocmorechoc

Jeremy was hilarious on this. Life seemed a lot simpler back then. What channel please I'd love to see it again!!

187 That's TV

I hated it at the time even though I was just a kid. It seemed so cruel. The same for Punk'd with Ashton Kutcher.

You've Been Framed was another one. It's just videos of people hurting themselves! Makes me cringe.

I have always hated this kind of thing and wondered what happens to the things that they have apparently damaged .
Was it a 'stand in' car / door / bike or the owners real one ?

I always hated that sort of "entertainment". I found it deeply upsetting, as a child.

I did love it as a kid but looking back it was cruel really. I know someone who got pranked in that show.
My favourite was the lady who thought ah alien had landed in her garden.

I couldn't watch Dennis Pennis (remember him).

The ones where someone on Beadle's About start a new job and it all goes wrong. Nooo.
There seems to be a lot of digging up gardens and smashing of crockery.

I hated Beadle's About, but apparently he was one of the nicest men in television and much loved and did loads for charity. I was quite surprised by that when he died.

There's so much that hasn't aged well on the TV. DH has been watching some old sit coms that I remembered as funny but they aren't or never were, I don't know really.

Butterflies is quite upsetting to watch now. as a child I thought it was funny but now I can see that Ria was probably clinically depressed.

The one where a guy thought his entire livelihood of stock had been lost when 'his' van rolled into the dock was awful. He genuinely believed he was ruined. I remember thinking it wasn't funny at all when I watched it.

I think watching it knowing that actually the guy's livelihood hadn't been lost in the dock somehow made it easier to accept? I don't know it was a long time ago.
Just watching a bit now and it doesn't look very realistic at all.

Ant and Dec do those bits on SNT where they prank celebrities and I hate watching that now even though it's not dissimilar.

Watch the Italian or Egyptian versions

I found it funny as reactions seem so over the top to our what was funny about our was the pretending nothing had happened

I also find You’ve Been Framed amusing ds used to love it

@iklboo

The one where a guy thought his entire livelihood of stock had been lost when 'his' van rolled into the dock was awful. He genuinely believed he was ruined. I remember thinking it wasn't funny at all when I watched it.

I remember that. He just dropped to his knees. I hated it. Really upsetting.

None of it was as bad as in Italian prank programme where a young woman drove into her garage, the door closed and she was greeted by a naked man. Not funny!

If Beadle's About was made now then they wouldn't get very far. Anyone's garden getting dug up would end up on FB Spotted and your mates would have messaged you to ask what was going on at your house. Or your Ring doorbell would have gone nuts.

Mr 'Livelihood in the Dock' would have dashcams.

Beadles About seems harmless in comparison to what is on YouTube and Tik Tok now. I am regularly horrified by what is seen as a harmless prank on YouTube.

@Ducksurprise

Beadles About seems harmless in comparison to what is on YouTube and Tik Tok now. I am regularly horrified by what is seen as a harmless prank on YouTube.

That's very true actually. Some of those couples who seem to continually prank each other pretending to throw DC out of the window and such like.

Never made my laugh at all

I hated it as a kid and I still can't watch prank videos - even as a young child I felt it was cruel and must have been so upsetting for people. I get angry when people try to make a fool of me - it's not a joke to do that.

There was so much terrible TV in the 80s and 90s. To think that millions of people tuned in every Saturday teatime to watch Noel's frigging House Party. Even just a clip of that trash makes me wince.

@StrychnineInTheSandwiches

There was so much terrible TV in the 80s and 90s. To think that millions of people tuned in every Saturday teatime to watch Noel's frigging House Party. Even just a clip of that trash makes me wince.

Oh yes. Didn't that have pranks in it as well? Mr Blobby molesting everyone? I used to like Noel Edmonds on Swap Shop too.

I remember people getting incredibly wound up and I supposed stressed especially when they did routines including fake police. They being all ha ha ha with the reveal

Maybe it was relief or whatever but could only imagine if it were me just being pissed off

I wonder if they ever had reactions that were show worthy so were binned ?

Somebody must gave got punched at some point, surely? And JB always impersonating a police officer.

The pranks on programmes like Beadles About and House Party were popular at the time. This was before the days of reality tv. I remember when Big Brother first aired and how unusual it was. Now we are flooded by reality tv programmes. Perhaps at some time in the future people will look back and wonder why we watched such stuff.