AIBU to think that Rita, Sue and Bob Too isn’t a laugh riot of a film?

[StanfordPines]

There was a Facebook post a little while ago about the film Rita, Sue and Bob Too. Lots of people were commenting about what a funny film is was.
I commented that while it is a fantastic film and certainly has a humorous side to it I wouldn’t say it was a funny film. I was told that I was without a sense of humour. I said that I didn’t find a grown man having sex with underage girls to be super funny and was told that that is just how it was then and it was fine.
I deleted my comments and walked away.
I’m the same age as Rita and Sue. It wasn’t how things were then and it wasn’t fine.

AIBU to think that while it is a great film comments like ‘such a funny film’ and ‘you wouldn’t be allowed to make that today’ are just missing the point?

(I know it’s Facebook and I haven’t taken it to heart but was I wrong?)

It's not a comedy but as others have said it is bleak, and darkly humorous in parts. It's well observed and written, girls like these existed and there was no protection for them, I'm glad that writer told their story so that today we can be appalled. She was a genius writer and it's tragic that she died so young and that there was no 'happy ending' for her and her family.

I was born in 77, v middle class, but from the north, in a small city with a posh Uni surrounded by lots of poor mining villages so lots went on like the film just I wasn't involved as such.
Also my Mum was a Social Worker.

I remember watching this secretly when I was a child in a hotel room when my parents were having dinner and having to scramble to get it off at 'the car scene' when they arrived back!

Anyway, I have always thought of it as a seedy, taboo film and definitely not funny.

I'd compare it to 'This is England'. It showed the tough / darker side of life in the 80s.
I think they are both excellent films, but are both sad with some humorous parts.

I left school early and went in the works (steel) my manager back then told me very sternly that I was NOT to shag about and get my name up. He explicitly said not to rely on being young and that the men believed grass on the pitch means match is on.
I lasted three days, my Dad ended up fighting him I was then given a job in the same works as my Dad. As a favour. I'd been sent for an interview by the careers office and actually got a job by accident. In the civil service. We were all so surprised, Dad told me to milk it while I could
One chance (compulsory) careers interview saved me 50 years throwing steel.
It's turned full circle though because my CS role is now contracted out, to Capita.
They aren't the best boss.

I grew up in a town in the North West just like the one in the film and I was a teen in the 80s. It was absolutely spot on with how life was and what was seen as acceptable back then. At 14 I started seeing an 18 year old and we were together 4 years. I was also working in a petrol station 5 nights a week on my own.

It was seen as normal to be going out with lads older than you and nobody batted an eyelid.

The bill wyman and mandy Smith relationship was all over the media at the time and it was seen as acceptable when really he should have been charged with abuse but back then the pubs and clubs were full of underage girls dressed up to look much older. The young "celebrity" girls were classed as a "wild child" and their behaviour was not questioned, nor that of the men they were involved with it was just gossip mag fodder.

It was a well know 'secret' at my high school that one of the male teachers was shagging one of the fifth year girls and again nobody saw it as abuse. He was the good looking teacher so it was more jealousy from the other girls.

Mixed race relationships were a big no and any girl who went out with an Asian or black lad was branded a slag and no white boy would want to know her afterwards.

On the council estate it was the norm for girls to get pregnant at 16 as you got a flat very quickly. Benefits were handed out easily and very few checks done so cash in hand work topped up people's income.

It was a very accurate film to me.

i knew Andreas middle daughter she was a nice lass who adored her children and yes sadly she died of cancer young she was very proud of her mom as Andrea overcame a lot of things and the estate where she lived still has a reputation for not being the best estate in Bradford to this day but like all big estates has good people who live there as well as dodgy ones

Remember the countdown to Sam Fox being 16 so we could see her breasts as a nation?
It was fucked up.

TheQueef Yes! I remember that! I cant believe it now .Thankfully times have changed for the better .Back then young WC girls were just seen as Good looking "Birds", with no thoughts to their personalities /Brain power or anything else as long as they had nice assets FFS!

I don’t think anyone who has experience of Bradford estates in the 70s could argue it wasn’t realistic, and whilst it wasn’t a comedy it did tell a grim story with the humour and energy with which many girls dealt with that level of deprivation and lack of agency. I remember a lot of girls on our estate being predatory by the time they were 16 and an older boyfriend was a bit of a catch. it certainly wasn’t uncommon for them to have a baby in their teens, with or without a partner.

And even in wider society I could name some celebrities / rock stars (now dead so I won’t) who picked up my underage peers and whilst it raised eyebrows and most of us would not have done it the girls concerned saw it as an achievement.

I know someone who did her first teaching practise at a primary school in the middle of one of the most deprived estate. When she asked her reception class to draw a tree not one could draw a tree with branches and leaves. They had never left the estate or seen one in a book and all the trees planted there on the estate were snapped off stumps. Almost the whole class suffered from the type of petit mal (absences, tiks, etc) which results from sleep deprivation. It was a start that those children would never recover from.

@AliceBlueGown

It was never sold as a bawdy sex comedy. It was always bleak and in places darkly funny. A film of it's time. I went to a secondary modern, in Bradford near Buttershaw estate during the 1980's There were Bob's, Rita's and Sue's - Andrea Dunbar was writing her experiences.

The poster doesn’t really say dark comedy.

The poster.

I hated that film and have always since, unreasonably, hated the male actor. He gives me the creeps.

@Loveagoodbuffet

I'd compare it to 'This is England'. It showed the tough / darker side of life in the 80s. I think they are both excellent films, but are both sad with some humorous parts.

I agree that it is very similar to This is England.

But the people I was talking to were talking like it was a laugh a minute Carry On type film and I was wrong and had no sense of humour because I didn’t think that an adult man having sex with school girls was hysterical.

Actually I agree with you @StanfordPines it wasn't sold that way. A pp mentioned Boys From The Blackstuff which looks at a similar segment of society ie working class deprived of work and which also uses bleak humour and misconceived notions of agency, but the men there are viewed as victims. Eg Yosser Hughes is a tragic deluded figure and we definitely don't think his assessment of himself is accurate. But apparently if a 15 yo girl being groomed and assaulted says she has power we'll take her at her word.

It's years since I've seen it - remember thinking it was vile.

Stanford It wouldn’t be the first time the marketing people misunderstood a film that subverted a genre and packaged it for the consumer in a way that was more in line with the stereotypes. That just looks like a very 80s brash bright film poster to me.

They are still at it, look how they represented Parasite....

The film accurately reflects the life for many girls my age of the time. It was normal for 14 year olds to be going to the pub or a night club and to have an older (much older) boyfriend who drove a car. In fact only the trendy “It” girls were in this situation and the rest of us looked in in envy!

Bob is an awful character but reflects many men of the time. The girls had little to look forward to and feeling loved, or at least wanted, by Bob was a bit of brightness in their predictable and dull lives.

I think there is humour in the film but it’s always entwined with a sense of sadness.

It’s a product of its time much like A Taste of Honey and Kes.

But it's how people talk about it as well. I've also discussed it with others and like @StanfordPines have found there are a lot of people who think it's a raunchy comedy. Because they're part of the process that creates Ritas and Sues.

It really is an accurate depiction of life on the Buttershaw estate. I worked in schools in that area for a long time and so much of it rings true.

I think the only part I found amusing was when they were baby sitting and dancing to a Madness song (I think) in the living room. Their quick walk was also amusing. Other than that, their life was grim.

Agreed OP, Carry on films are a slap-stick humour type of genre, nothing like Rita, Sue and Bob too.

It's grim.

I was thinking about the play, 'Our Day Out' a few days ago. That was also quite sad with some humorous parts (deprived school children / teenagers in the 70s / 80s). Mostly sad. I havent seen the play, only the film.

I don't think I saw it as a 'comedy' ever, more like a social commentary type film, with some darkly amusing moments.

It was certainly like my 1980's comp, some girls were talking and getting involved with sexual acts from 12 and the first one was pregnant by 13. Several teachers had had relationships with sixth formers, they were told off but retired on full pensions. Others of us were totally naive; we only did about periods in Year 4 when several girls had already got pregnant!

If you think about it, even now about a 1/3rd of girls have sex before their 16th birthday. In my experience, that's usually with older boys rather than boys their own age. It's not some remote experience that only happens to a few. They might not be 'Bobs' off the local posher estate, but they are having sex with someone.

Always thought it was grim,not funny ha ha .
Otherwise,to shamelessly go off topic - does anyone else think the film Educating Rita is actually a bit shit as its basically saying that hairdressers are thick as munce and its okay to be an alcoholic if you are a poet .
I liked the film at first viewing and its nice for anyone to study english lit for fun - but job wise where would rita's exams have gotten her - editor of poetry review quarterly ,teacher at a sink school ?
But she would not get any teacher training grants at her age .
In these lockdown times i know who i want next door - an expert hairdresser not Thomas Hardy .