Page 11 | To Think That Morecambe & Wise Are Not Funny

TheShellBeach · 2022-12-14T00:33:40+00:00

Now that it's almost Christmas it reminds me that we watched Morecambe and Wise Christmas Specials every year when I was a child. My parents thought they were funny but I always found them cringeworthy. I just don't find them funny at all and I don't understand how anyone can enjoy them, not to mention wishing they were still around to make even more Christmas Specials.

100ML · 15/12/2022 13:38

The thing is, who is funny now ? Who is around, doing great funny shows right now ? What is the must see funny show going to be this Christmas ?

RoseOud · 15/12/2022 13:52

M&W sketch of The Jungle Book. Can't fail to bring a smile to your face!
Of all the sketches they did together, this one is hardly ever seen.

Also loved The Two Ronnies singing sketches.

😁

Catspyjamas17 · 15/12/2022 13:56

The thing is, who is funny now? Loads of people. I don't go to a lot of comedy shows but even the jobbing stand up comedians we had to our local village hall were mostly pretty hilarious and went down really well. I just read Rob Beckett and Daisy May Cooper's books and laughed a lot, plus Am I Being Unreasonable was brilliant.

RunDownRita · 15/12/2022 15:11

The thing is, who is funny now ? Who is around, doing great funny shows right now ? What is the must see funny show going to be this Christmas ?

Hate to say it but I think the nearest equivalent to M&W (in terms of millions of people gathering to watch one show) is probably Mrs Brown's Boys. There's a reason they keep putting it on every year- they're not doing it to spite us.

There are lots of brilliant comedians around at the moment but I think people's taste has become more fractured- we don't all laugh at the same things- because it's so easy now to access exactly what you like. I'm well aware that some of my favourite comedians (Stewart Lee or Daniel Kitson, say) are about as funny as herpes to a lot of people, including people I know who enjoy comedy. I'm not sure there will ever be the same mass enjoyment of modern comedy as there was 50 years ago.

AGoodDayForSomebodyElseToDie · 15/12/2022 15:25

they're not doing it to spite us

It does feel like they are though. Still, the OP's happy with it, so we must all be wrong!

Everyone I know is excited about the Detectorists special this year. It's not the new M&W, for sure, but it's a far better offering (in my opinion) than MBB.

LubaLuca · 15/12/2022 15:37

Eric Morecambe had impeccable comic timing and funny bones. Ernie Wise was a bit of a duff straight man, just didn't understand how he could make his partner funnier so lots of the jokes fell a bit flat.

woodhill · 15/12/2022 16:29

KimberleyClark · 15/12/2022 09:56

I used to love The Goodies (RIP Tim Brooke-Taylor). Apparently a man died laughing at that show.

So did I as a dc but I suspect it hasn't aged well

woodhill · 15/12/2022 16:31

AiKayai · 15/12/2022 00:32

I used to love To the Manor Born and Terry and June when I was a kid

I didn't find them in the least bit funny, but I liked the cosy, regular, comfort of them somehow.

So did I

Really cheesy

EvilRingahBitch · 15/12/2022 20:09

I have the Goodies DVD, and sadly watching it made it clear why it's not been repeated even though bits of it are still very funny.

The laugh track is horrendous and makes it all but unwatchable, and there are loads of very dated jokes about gay men, and a few about race. The problem is that because each episode has a single plot, they can't just edit out the bits which have aged badly, unlike Monty Python, Morecambe and Wise or the Two Ronnies where they can cobble together the classic sketches with no offensive material to make a perfectly watchable show.

woodhill · 15/12/2022 20:33

So is every episode offensive as I only remember them from a child's perspective

Magnificentbeast · 15/12/2022 20:38

YABU!

Magnificentbeast · 15/12/2022 20:41

It's ok if you don't understand why other people find them funny. It's subjective.

JenniferBooth · 16/12/2022 20:41

The Goodies and Kenny Everett are repeated on Thats TV.

Pedallleur · 16/12/2022 20:49

Of their time. Family entertainment on Saturday night when there was no internet, gaming etc. Some was ok but other sketches were brilliant.

Original poster

TheShellBeach · 16/12/2022 20:53

JenniferBooth · 16/12/2022 20:41

The Goodies and Kenny Everett are repeated on Thats TV.

I will know how to avoid The Goodies, then.
I did like Everett, though.

OP posts:

SamphiretheTervosaurReturneth · 17/12/2022 07:25

LubaLuca · 15/12/2022 15:37

Eric Morecambe had impeccable comic timing and funny bones. Ernie Wise was a bit of a duff straight man, just didn't understand how he could make his partner funnier so lots of the jokes fell a bit flat.

That was the point. That was Ernie's character, his schtick. He was written by Eddie Braben to be "changed from being a conventional straight man into a pretentious and self-satisfied buffoon"

Something Vic Reeves and others have adopted, polished, mangled...

LubaLuca · 17/12/2022 07:29

I know what he was supposed to be, but he often didn't hit the right beat with it. He wasn't a great straight man.

Featheryboa · 17/12/2022 09:04

Things do date. I remember lmao at the goodies as a child, but I know its not going to be the same.
Even blackadder has homophobic jokes and that was written by the very right on Ben Elton.

SamphiretheTervosaurReturneth · 17/12/2022 09:04

No, I meant that his not getting it right, missing the timing, looking to camera for applause, being generally clumsy with the gags, etc. THAT was the point. He wasn't written as a straight man, he was written as an odious little man who thought he was the star in a completely different kind of show.

Watch the Stripper and see just how good his timing, acting and ability not to corpse, really is!

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 17/12/2022 10:50

SamphiretheTervosaurReturneth · 17/12/2022 09:04

No, I meant that his not getting it right, missing the timing, looking to camera for applause, being generally clumsy with the gags, etc. THAT was the point. He wasn't written as a straight man, he was written as an odious little man who thought he was the star in a completely different kind of show.

Watch the Stripper and see just how good his timing, acting and ability not to corpse, really is!

Agreed and M&W was very heavily rehearsed. Eric was nervous about the Andre Previn sketch because they hadn't had the usual weeks of rehearsal (you see him relax part of the way through when Previn comments on getting his baton ... in Chicago)
So everything Ernie did would have been meticulously planned and deliberate.

DriftingDora · 17/12/2022 11:22

Totally agree about parts of Morecombe & Wise not being particularly funny and in many ways they were over-rated, although some of their sketches hold up well, but for me the definition of unfunny is those blurdy Richardsons, she of the voice like she's inhaled a helium balloon, he with the one expression (dim) on his face. And those "hilarious"(????) adverts for Dave channel, where four people stuck on a train wet themselves laughing over watching footage of a "comedy" show showing a couple of twits with blue painted faces. Brilliant job done of convincing me not to watch that c**p, thanks Dave.

Pluto46 · 17/12/2022 13:33

HeatwaveToNightshade · 15/12/2022 07:07

I love Morecambe and Wise. My dad used to have tears rolling down his face watching them and I love remembering that. My mum has never liked any comedy show, so the rest of us would all be laughing (mostly at dad laughing🤣) while she sat there looking a bit bewildered! My dad gave me my love of comedy as he just loved to laugh and would have watched anything from the gentlest, lightest comedy show to very edgy, dark and complex stuff. And my tastes are similarly varied.

It's good that we all like different things. I'm not sure I've ever completely understood why people start threads like this. Did you really think you were alone in not liking Morecambe and Wise? That would just be weird.

This! - so true for me too. Wonderful memories of very happy, simpler times and the joy of my parents was incredibly infectious. I probably didn't 'get' the humour as a child but fully understand it now and completely see why they were so beloved. No public vote, sob stories, dubious 'celeb' culture, narcissistic wannabes or woke nonsense- just joyful silliness. The fact someone wants to start a critical thread rather than appreciating other people have differing views says far more about today's self-absorbed society than the topic itself.

DonttouchthatLarry · 19/12/2022 11:49

WhatIsThisPlease · 14/12/2022 09:10

Watching M&W is like somebody giving me a massive hug and instantly taking me back to my childhood ☺️

I still think they're funny. It's a gentle humour though, no swearing, no sexual references. I still love it. And The Good Life, Ever Decreasing Circles and many more from back then.

Never liked Terry and June though!

And also more recently, never got Mrs Brown's Boys. Total garbage.

Totally agree.

awaynboilyurheid · 19/12/2022 11:57

SamphiretheTervosaurReturneth · 15/12/2022 09:52

Do you think the plethora of channels has made things funnier @awaynboilyurheid ?

Or is it, to paraphrase Pink Floyd just endless channels of shit on the TV to choose from?

Having lived with both I am certain that today's 'wide range of choices' has not really improved my viewing experience. With all that cheap reality TV, the even cheaper substandard cartoon rubbish, house/cooking/antique/other rubbish selling etc. The hunt for meaningful programmes is endless.

And that's without a streaming service - where it's all vampires and old BBC comedy

No but viewing figures would be higher I’m guessing? So they probably think everyone still wants to watch it since they had such high numbers .. we don’t.

awaynboilyurheid · 19/12/2022 11:59

Well I’ll change that, I did like them, but surely not every Christmas does it needs to be on repeat!