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.

Dave Allen invented observational comedy. He was before his time in that way certainly.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻At last I have found my people.

Steptoe, Porridge, The Likely Lads are all still funny, I think. And, being Brit comedy, very close to sad.

But I disagree that Dad’s Army has stood the test of time. I think it has aged badly - twee, predictable and formulaic. A collection of one-gag characters on a merry-go-round.

Then again, I didn’t find The Vicar of Dibley very funny either - and that’s essentially Dad’s Army in a dog collar.

I would be inclined to think it was that it was so dated but I still find Monty Python hilarious. Never found M&W funny no.

Yeah, that’s a fair argument.

i was thinking more of Bob Monkhouse, Tommy Cooper , Morecombe and Wise , Larry Grayson - I’d say that ‘before their time’ is precisely what they weren’t.

Not funny. Had its day.
Please put in a box with Dad's Army, Last of the Summers wine, Sarah Millican, Miranda Hart & most other 'comedy' light entertainment.

Tommy Cooper was funny because the audience always knew what should have happened. what the gag should have been.

Watching his magic tricks go wrong is an education in magic. They have to look right until the moment they go wrong and they have to go wrong in a ludicrous manner. Or sometimes they would go right!

A professional magician friend, who specialises in sleight of hand, says she really can't work out how he knew both variations of a trick. The placement of a card etc is so precise and has to be practised until it becomes natural, to perfect 2 very similar, different by millimetres, of the same trick is bloody amazing.

And his gags are much the same, almost but not quite... written by some of the best gag writers of the day

MP make me cringe but loved all members except J Cleese who needs to go in the box. All others were, are v funny but he is deeply odd.

I always laughed at some sketches even as a kid- the one where they are having breakfast and preparing everything in time to The Stripper music, for example. Some things I didn't really get until I was older. They are a bit hit and miss and some of it is of course dated but generally quite jolly and uplifting. Wouldn't go out of my way to watch it all again but I would chuckle along if someone put it on TV.

Vicar of Dibley I found much funnier as I got older and moved to a small village.

You have to appreciate it was written for a time and an audience that were not immersed into 24-hour distraction through social media on a phone in their hand. Brains work differently these days. So many people are constantly "entertained" by crap that they can't appreciate something like this sketch. It seems normal and plain now, but in the 1970s was hilarious.

woopdedoodle

Some one up thread said we weren't sitting around watching silent movies in the 70s, but we were.

In the 70s, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were on regularly, in the early evenings. I'm not a fan of The Vicar of Dibley, I watched it a couple of times, but ended up turning over.

I absolutely loved Ab Fab.

Oh God, do you think that in 50 years they'll be showing old Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Specials as "classic comedy". And the care home staff will put it on and say, "Here you go, Mrs ThisDay, you'll remember this, everyone loved Mrs Brown back in the 2020s " aaaargh.

The main attraction to M&W on Christmas Day was the element of surprise to their show. Dancing newsreaders were an absolute novelty!

I would usually be with you on Yes, Minister but I put an episode on last night as I felt in need of a good laugh as I hadn't had one for ages, telly being usually miserable or mawkish and just didn't enjoy it.
It just all struck too close to home will the smug, self serving creepy civil servants and MP's, so I only managed about 5 minutes. Hopefully next time I watch I will find it funny again.

Fawlty Towers is classic Commedia Dell'Arte with Basil Fawlty as the Pantalone character. It follows a centuries old comedy tradition. In Commedia Pantalone is bigoted, avaricious and cruel to his manservant Zanni. The audience laugh at him whilst acknowledging his awfulness.

YANBU, I have never got the appeal but parents and grandparents loved them and love the repeats. Humour is massively subjective and all that. OTOH The Goes Wrong Show makes me literally laugh until I'm coughing but no one else in my family thinks it's remotely funny.

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · Today 10:15

Fawlty Towers is classic Commedia Dell'Arte with Basil Fawlty as the Pantalone character.

Yes, you laugh at his stupidity and bigotry, the same as Alf Garnet, in Till Death us do Part. I remember being about 8 and my grandad saying, "He's very clever, he's got it exactly right, but not for the reason most people think." In other words, a lot of people thought he was Telling It Like It Is and not thinking, "God, what a horrible old racist!"

I loved the Kenny Everett show and howled with laughter while my OH sat stony faced 🤣

Even as a young child I knew Alf Garnet was very flawed ( my parents only let me sit up late once to watch him)

Oh yes, Kenny Everett!

Thankyou vicar that's made me laugh so much seeing that again. The material acting and timing, so clever. A timeless classic.
As for Morecambe &Wise pure genius so funny so many memories.
@TheShellBeach imo YABVVU

the morecambe and wise (and other classics) detractors should also acknowledge you’re not viewing them for the first time. Some of the jokes may have got old through over-repetition, but that’s now how they were viewed when first broadcast.

That’s another on my hate list.

Exactly.