To still after all these years find Fawlty Towers funny

[whitesandstorm]

They've been showing the series on Gold I think. It's still funny, unlike lots of comedy from years ago. Just watched the one with the rat and the health inspector. So funny. Anyone not find it so?

I don't find it funny. It's too loud and shouty and outdated. I think John Cleese is a very odd man.

to guest who had dared to specify what he wished for breakfast ( I think it was the dead one)
"Teak or mahogany Hmm?"
"What?"
"Your breakfast tray. What would you like it to be made out of?"

"Brahms third racket"

"When I asked you to build a wall I was rather hoping you'd actually cement the bricks together, on top of each other, in the traditional fashion."

Freudian/Jill - if memory serves, Basil was reading Jaws in that scene - for some reason that always tickled me.

The Germans: "However did they win?"

Still waiting for someone to give an example of sexism...

The Gourmet Night one, where the duck gets dropped and Manuel's slipping across the kitchen with it on his foot. Sybill on the phone : " we need another one.... I'm afraid it got trodden on"

The entire Wedding Party one.

My dad and I often speak fondly of "Brahms' Third Racket" :o

I binge watched both series on boxing day. I was really enjoying it until the 'n' and 'w' word scene in the last episode. I nearly fell off my chair when the Major first said it!

Freudian/Jill - if memory serves, Basil was reading Jaws in that scene - for some reason that always tickled me.

I'm laughing all over again .

I'm the same with Only Fools and Horses, I laugh my head off at some of the stuff on there. I have never actually seen an episode of Fawlty Towers, perhaps i should give it a try.

Love only fools and horses as well

Must complete my collection, on my to do list for 2015!!

Watching FT now to cheer me up.

I'm unemployed and need a good laugh.

Watching FT now.

I'm unemployed again and need a good laugh.

Gatorade, nobody now would use words like that in a sitcom broadcast before the watershed. But back in the 1970s when FT was made, those words were not taboo in the way they are now. For a lot of people yes, but not for everyone, by a very long way. Somebody like the Major would have used them completely unself-consciously. We can't go back through history simply re-writing it in our own image.

Sorry to hear that Tali

FT, Only Fools, Blackadder - they just don't make them that anymore, do they?

Real belly laughs. I must've seen every episode of FT approx 88 times, and they still make me laugh every time.

Sabrina yes he was reading Jaws

'Pigeons the roof'

FT is certainly not among the worst culprits for 70s sexism, or probably racism either, but for example the nurse in the Germans episode is fairly distasteful.

As is the black doctor with his weird voodoo style head manipulation...

I don't find it hard to get over these things and I still think most of it is very very funny, but nonetheless it does have some traces of the nastier elements of the society from which it came, understandably.

the nurse in the Germans episode is fairly distasteful.

How is she distasteful?

Pigeon - like your English!!!

Brilliant!

[Basil in hospital, having suffered a concussion, regain consciousness]
Basil Fawlty: [to nurse, a little groggily] My God, you're ugly, aren't you?
Sybil Fawlty: Basil?
Sister: I'll... I'll get the doctor.
Basil Fawlty: You need a plastic surgeon, dear, not a doctor.

Rude? Yes. Rude in a sexist way? Probably. Funny? Yes, very, I would say. Basil is rude to absolutely everybody.