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Original poster

To Think That Morecambe & Wise Are Not Funny

290 replies

TheShellBeach · 14/12/2022 00:33

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.

OP posts:
Newwardrobe · 14/12/2022 07:38

Andre Preview was hilarious.

NooNakedJacuzziness · 14/12/2022 07:39

I'm not a big M&W fan but my parents love them. I have to disagree about Bob Monkhouse, he was very talented. Also love an early Carry On film, Kenneth Williams was hilarious. It's all subjective though - I can't stand stuff like the Mighty Boosh.

Illbeready · 14/12/2022 07:41

Not everyone likes the same humour and back then humour was a lot different to what it is today.

Sparklingbrook · 14/12/2022 07:44

When I was little I remember trying to work out what The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town was all about. Grin

EileenAdler · 14/12/2022 07:51

I read somewhere that Eric Morecombe found comedy hard work and told his producer that if he had to do another Christmas Special it would, literally, kill him.

DuncanBiscuits · 14/12/2022 07:52

HappinessAlley · 14/12/2022 02:14

Sorry, but this makes me laugh every time

Beat me to it.

😂

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/12/2022 07:55

Does anything make you laugh, OP? If so, what is it, and why do you find it funny?

I grew up on M&W and also The Two Ronnies, Dave Allen, any number of sitcoms and endless light entertainment shows on BBC and ITV which often featured, or were hosted by, comedians. Much of it is rightly now forgotten, but just because something was written a long time ago doesn't mean it's automatically unfunny now. I still laugh like a drain at Fawlty Towers and Father Ted, for example. Dad's Army stands up pretty well as far as I'm concerned. Some Like It Hot must be about 70 years old now and remains a strong contender for the funniest film ever made as far as I'm concerned. Diary of a Nobody is one of my all-time favourite novels and was written in the 1890s, I believe.

As for silent films not being funny any more, watch this and marvel.

M&W had some excellent writers and brilliant comic timing. I have very happy memories of all sitting together as a family on Christmas Day, watching that year's M&W special. Tens of millions of other people were doing the same across the UK and talking about it over the next few days. Almost nothing has that reach now.

DuncanBiscuits · 14/12/2022 07:55

EVHead · 14/12/2022 07:10

I hated Bob Monkhouse in the 70s. But this thing he said is hilarious: “When I told people I wanted to be a comedian, they laughed at me. Well, they’re not laughing now!” 😂

I liked, “When I die, I want to drift off peacefully in my sleep, like my dad. Not screaming in terror, like his passengers.”

Dark as fuck 😂

Bunchymcbunchface · 14/12/2022 07:57

YABVU

Desperatelyseekingreason · 14/12/2022 07:58

I'm with you on most 70s comedy except for Dave Allen.

However, I find the 80s Yes (prime) Minister episodes completely ageless. They could have been made yesterday the comedy is so en pointe.

It's sad really that our ruling classes are still so self serving but it's one of my few laugh out loud tv programmes.

CharityShopChic · 14/12/2022 08:03

I was at a corporate event in the 90s and the host was Bob Monkhouse and we were all a bit 🙄when we heard he was hosting - old, dated, not funny.

But he was SO FUNNY. Sharp and quick, talked to people in the audience and said something funny right off the cuff, nothing sexist, racist, homophobic.

Morecambe and Wise are great too, Eric Morecambe was a genius. Not all humour is for everyone, there are lots of shows people rave about and I just don't find amusing at all. Don't think I ever cracked a smile at Friends, for example.

FOJN · 14/12/2022 08:04

I recently watched a few episodes of Fawlty Towers. As a kid I roars with laughter at it. Even ten years ago I would have sworn it was great classic humour. Right now it’s started to look crass and unfunny, full of cruel bullying jokes, casual racism and sexism and very much of its time. It’s not surprising that humour from nearly 50 years ago is starting to look a bit incomprehensible.

I don't understand this. Basil Fawlty was the butt of the joke, his bigotry was being mocked. Everyone knew this even when it was first aired.

Lockheart · 14/12/2022 08:04

I like Morecambe and Wise, and I'm only 32! Not all of it makes me laugh but if there's one on the TV at Christmas I'll put it on. It's a nice change from the endless children's films, reality TV or soap specials that seem to dominate the seasonal scheduling, none of which are to my taste.

sashh · 14/12/2022 08:05

I thought they were OK.

I hated the two Ronnies.

Modern comics - Rosie Jones can do one along with Rod Brydon and Joe Wilkinson.

DuncanBiscuits · 14/12/2022 08:06

Thanks to whoever posted the World of Sport clip, that’s made my morning 😂

Eric Morecambe had a surreal edge to his comedy, which put him way before his time, imo.

I loved him. Bring Me Sunshine always gives me a happy tear these days.

Anonymouseposter · 14/12/2022 08:18

Everyone has a different taste in comedy. IMO, Morecambe and Wise, 2 Ronnies, Fawlty Towers, Peter Kay,John Bishop = funny. Little Britain, Mock the Week= not funny at all.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 14/12/2022 08:19

What people find funny changes but for many of us of a certain age, Morecambe and Wise is bound up with memories of childhood and a warm nostalgia that makes them very precious. But the breakfast sketch is objectively very skilful, and the irony of the humour - two middle-aged men making breakfast in their dressing gowns to music called ‘The Stripper’ - still stands the test of time.

SamphiretheTervosaurReturneth · 14/12/2022 08:21

TheShellBeach · 14/12/2022 00:56

I don't even find that sketch where they're making breakfast funny. Yes, the timing is quite clever but the sketch isn't funny.

So you don't like a certain type of humour. OK.

I could never understand the attraction of Vic and Bob, Little Britain, Keith Lemon, etc. It happens!

SinnerBoy · 14/12/2022 08:22

Mighty Boosh, Borat, all that sort of stuff is terrible. I enjoy Morecambe & Wise, but it'd be a strange world, if we all liked the same things.

SamphiretheTervosaurReturneth · 14/12/2022 08:26

Changechangychange · 14/12/2022 00:46

The shows are about 50 years old by this point, it isn’t surprising they are no longer funny.

Do you think people were sitting around watching 1920s silent movies in the 70s with the reverence we have for this? Do we think our grandkids will be watching Derry Girls repeats in 2070? I hope not. Let it die.

Do you think people were sitting around watching 1920s silent movies in the 70s with the reverence we have for this?

But we did! Every weekend. And the Saturday night double horror/creature feature that were in black and white.

ActionThisDay · 14/12/2022 08:33

Do you think people were sitting around watching 1920s silent movies in the 70s with the reverence we have for this?

Quite a lot of my early 80s childhood was spent watching B&W Laurel & Hardy films on television- they were on all the time. Genuinely still funny.

But overall I agree with you about the reverence- I think it comes from the fact that M&W were such a huge cultural thing when our parents were young (especially as channels were so limited so everyone watched the same stuff) and that generation still has quite a strong influence on things like current TV schedules. My kids don't have a clue who they were and I suspect within 20 years we'll all have moved on. A handful of very funny sketches which have lasted the test of time, lots more that haven't, as you'd expect.

SwedishEdith · 14/12/2022 08:36

I'm fortunate that my parents never found Morecambe and Wise funny either so they were only inflicted on us at annual Christmas trips to my cousins.

Fluffycloudland77 · 14/12/2022 08:37

“Des O’Connor came to my daughters wedding, he wasn’t invited but he came anyway”

He was a good sport.

Georgeskitchen · 14/12/2022 08:39

Morecambe and wise, are absolute comedy gods when put alongside the drivel that masquerades as funny these days. With the exception of the great Peter Kay of course

maddiemookins16mum · 14/12/2022 08:45

vera99 · 14/12/2022 01:27

RUBBISH !

Ha ha, thank you.