British Television

OK, I will have to say, I grew up watching British television on PBS.  I remember watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Faulty Towers and Benny Hill.  In later years, Are You Being Served came along.  I didn’t follow it so much but I would catch it once in a while.  Last summer I ran across Monty Python shows on DVD at the library.  Feeling nostalgic, I checked one out.  I forgot how funny many of their sketches were.  Maybe because I was older and understood more but I enjoyed it more than I remembered.  I also enjoyed the facts that there were interviews with cast members included. They filled in more of the background on who they were at the time.  I found myself searching the library catalogue to see what other’s they had on DVD.  I was able to track down several episodes, found a copy of they live performance the “Pythons” did at the Hollywood Bowl and also found a few, “Are You Being Served?”  I also found the movies they did.  I was surprised at how late they were doing them as well.  I always just pictured that to be a ‘70s era.  I had always liked Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  I didn’t appreciate that humor at the time.  I didn’t enjoy “The Meaning of Life” when I was younger but now I just found it to be hysterical.  It has been great to enjoy these classics all over again.

I was recently introduced to anther British comedy, Little Brittan.  I enjoy the cleverness of it.  The cast is two men who play a variety of different characters.  The difference between this and Monty Python is the detail in make-up, wigs and costumes.  I did not realize at first they were the same two guys dressed differently.  They clearly did some character studies.  They play some people I swear I have met at the DMV, the administration office at a business or just people on the street.  I think that may be the base to what makes it funny to me.  They aren’t some crazy skit with weird things happening to people.  No one is randomly being attacked by a tiger or has a two ton weight dropped on them.  I found characters the walk into a shop and ask for but item and no matter what the shop keeper shows them it isn’t right.  They might change the description or make it really obscure and specific.  I am sure I have been behind this person at the paint department in Home Depot.  I also enjoyed the fact they moved the setting to the states and changed the gist, jokes and settings to fit American humor.  The show only ran a few seasons, and that is too bad.  It was a very clever creative team.  I keep my ear open in case they put something else together.

I guess my taste in comedy has changed over the years. It is nice to be open to enjoying wit from other cultures.