TV “I’ve been watching the first series of A Bit of Fry & Laurie.”
“Have you. Have you indeed. Indeedy.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“It’s very funny.”
“And?”
”They look very young. Very young. Indeed.”
“Well it was the late eighties.”
“Ah, the Eighties. Do you know I used to have a pink shirt.”
“Did you, Jeremy.”
“My name’s not Jeremy.”
“James?”
“No.”
“Geoff?”
“No.”
“Andrew?”
“Warmer. No, but it is hilarious and hasn’t date. At all.”
”How tall?”
”What?”
”How tall?”
”No. At all.”
”Oh ha ha ha ha.”
”(?)”
”Why hasn’t it dated, Alan?”
”No, still wrong. Well it’s because they use very few contemporary references and hardly ever as the crux of the joke.”
”Like Ricky Gervais?”
”No.”
”Harry Hill?”
”No. Often they also seem rather prescient.”
”Prescient?”
”Well, at one point, Fry gives a satirical piece to camera as a politician which could as well be a speech from last week in which Gordon Brown or some other minister outline the current ills of the world.”
”Could that just be the comedian’s touching on perennial social problems and inadequacies of a government state?”
”Possibly, possibly.”
”Look, is this review going to carry on like this. I mean it’s a half decent idea to use this dialogue instead of proper paragraphs, but if the intention is for you to sound like Mr. Fry and myself as Mr. Laurie, it’s clearly failing because this bit sounds like it should be spoken like you, though less erudite.”
”True. But what you’ve touched upon is the other innovation – the generally fractured nature of their sketch comedy.”
“Go on.”
”It isn’t often that their material reaches a purposefully satisfactory conclusion. Like the Pythons they’re experimenting with the format, often interrupting a sketch before the end, either themselves in order to criticise their own words to camera or each other or through some outside influence. In one episode, an audience member starts threatening them with legal action for plagiarising his writing and it’s done well enough, at least at first, that you’re not sure if its something which actually happened on the day. Is that a long enough paragraph for you?”
”Better. Much better, Nigel.”
”It doesn’t all work. The Control and Tony spy characters haven’t quite warmed up yet and the vox pops which appear between sketch don’t go anywhere after the initial flurry and end up only being fitfully funny. But it’s just particularly refreshing to see comedy that doesn’t talk down to the viewer and assumes a certain level of intelligence.”
”So you’d recommend it then would you?”
”Yes.”
”Douglas?”
”No.”
”Arthur?”
”No.”
”Norris?”
”No.”
”Horris?”
”No.”
”Boris?”
”No.”
”Well that is your name then?”
”Rosemary.”
”That’s not very funny.”
”Well we’re not real comedians, and neither is the person typing this into his computer. Depending upon your point of view…”
No comments:
Post a Comment