To Think That Morecambe & Wise Are Not Funny

[TheShellBeach]

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.

Well they know what the viewing figures are for current repeats. They're not just guessing that they'll be popular based on the viewing figures from the 1970s. Enough people were happy to watch Andre Previn being infuriated when they broadcast it at Christmas 2021, that they can make a pretty shrewd guess that it would get better figures when broadcast yesterday at 9:30pm on BBC4 than anything else they could afford to schedule.

Oh I remember that one, v funny

I remember it, too and am struggling to see what is funny about it.

Just misnaming Andre Previn is hardly "funny."

Just misnaming Andre Previn is hardly "funny."

No, it's the whole thing which was funny. 'All the right notes but not necessarily in the right order' probably wouldn't be funny if you or I said it either.

Nor when M & W said it IMO.

Well, you do also have to see the body language, facial expressions, interplay between the 3 of them! It's a quite a bit more than just the words. That's the point!

It's not for everyone but it doesn't hurt does it? Just choose another of the squillion and 3 channels showing the boring repeats of more modern stuff - destined to be te equally much maligned in the 2040s.

Loved that: ‘that’s your mother that is…’
whatever happy Rob Newman?

Just watching a Shirley Bassey retrospective and they showed the sketch she did with M&W. Still love it. She laughed so much during the rehearsals she didn't think she could get through the recording, but she did. Brilliant stuff.

Still RUBBISH .......

I have never found them remotely funny. Now the two Ronnies they are funny

Same.

Thank you, Vera. Quite right.

Things I find funny:

The Fast Show
Father Ted
Mrs. Brown's Boys
Gary, Tank Commander
Still Game
Rab. C. Nesbitt
The Royle Family
The Windsors
Last of the Summer Wine
Armstrong and Miller
Gavin and Stacey
Blackadder

Things I do not find funny:

Morecambe and Wise

I never found them funny, I remember that a friend of ours booked tickets to take us to see Max Wall and he hated it. My MIL loved him. I, on the hand, expected to hate him but found him hilarious. I was laughing so much he kept pointing at me and I asked him to stop for a minute cos he he was making my ribs ache. He must have been in his 70's. I like Ian Hislop, he used to keep us in stitches in the wine bar talking about Boris Johnson's journalistic career. I loved Spitting Image back in the day.

Is someone forcing you to watch Morecambe and Wise, OP? The wonder of modern TV is that there are lots of options if you don't want to watch what's scheduled on the BBC, even beyond simply turning the TV off and doing something else.

There are lots of comedies I don't watch - half of your "good" list, in fact, as well as M&W repeats - but I don't feel compelled to start threads about them on the internet. Of course people find M&W funny - they were very popular, and have a strong nostalgia value for some people today. Nobody is compelling you to be one of those people.