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March 28, 2024, 11:14:35 PM

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Utterly trivial observations about comedy

Started by Twed, April 07, 2019, 08:59:06 PM

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gilbertharding

Quote from: magval on April 08, 2019, 12:12:24 PM
Good point. There's clearly no door to it in the main hallway though, except in the pilot. Hadn't considered that she would have exclusive access (but really I don't think there's any thought process to it, just an oversight.)

Possibly her access to the rest of the house would be via the kitchen? Are we shown the whole of that wall to the hall? Could there be a door somewhere we never see? Dunno.

But the reason I considered it was possible is because I've recently done some work on a building which was originally a Roman Catholic chaplaincy (built in 1970), which had the priest's 1 bedroom bungalow on one side of a small assembly hall, and the housekeeper's flat and kitchen on the other side.

Icehaven

Quote from: gilbertharding on April 08, 2019, 11:25:22 AM

If you look on the internet people have drawn or modeled various flats from the sitcoms - mainly American (Friends, Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory). The main problem with most of these is the number of diagonal walls which are obviously only there because they're stage sets.


Didn't what was behind the door on the back wall in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment magically change at some point? Can't quite remember now but I think it was another room at first, then morphed into a cupboard.
Edit; Can't find any reference to this so I might have totally made it up.

St_Eddie

Quote from: gilbertharding on April 08, 2019, 11:25:22 AM
I might look later to see if anyone can explain why the upstairs set had the ridiculous three steps up and three steps down again at the top of the main stairs.

Quote from: EOLAN on April 08, 2019, 12:07:48 PM
Personally; I would love if it was just because they found it funny. Never occurred to me before but it just adds a bit of something to the farcical sense of some moments when Basil in particular has to go up and down again.

I recently covered this in a separate thread.  EOLAN is correct...

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 22, 2019, 10:38:51 PM
Quote from: The Telegraph - How They Built Fawlty Towers[The staircase] was put there deliberately by the director, who recalled such an absurd device in a real Edinburgh hotel. It also helped to exacerbate the sense of frantic movement.

EOLAN

I probably half remember reading that St Eddie. Or to be more blunt; just blatantly plagiarised it.

Sebastian Cobb

I've spent ages thinking/wondering what the doors lead to in Frank and Charlie's apartment in IASIP.

gilbertharding

Never watched it - so I don't know how accurate this is...



Where's the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom?

Cuellar

You're looking at it or is that the joke

Sebastian Cobb

Yes but there are at least two doors on the walls that the sofabed is on.




gilbertharding

Quote from: Cuellar on April 08, 2019, 05:13:05 PM
You're looking at it or is that the joke

All I know about it is what I read just now... so unfortunately the joke (yes - let's say it's a joke!) was unintentional.

Cuellar

Oh well yes, they eat, sleep, cook, piss and shit in the same room, often in the same bed.

gilbertharding

It sounds great. I wish I'd seen it. Is it on one of those fancy-Dan channels they have now?

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: gilbertharding on April 08, 2019, 05:23:31 PM
It sounds great. I wish I'd seen it. Is it on one of those fancy-Dan channels they have now?

I know vice show it. But it's all on netters as well.

Andy147

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on April 08, 2019, 12:25:37 AM
A mistake corrected almost immediately afterwards by Idle's sniffing film critic

Philip Jenkinson, who was also one of the somersaulting sailors in the Morecambe + Wise "There is Nothing Like a Dame" sketch.

Captain Z

Finally I know what IASIP is, I've been reading it as I Am Sir Ian Partridge.

Chriddof

Quote from: Andy147 on April 08, 2019, 08:36:04 PM
Philip Jenkinson, who was also one of the somersaulting sailors in the Morecambe + Wise "There is Nothing Like a Dame" sketch.

Bloody hell! I just looked this up. I know that Python episode, I know the M+W sketch, but never realised there was a link there or that even Idle was imitating someone specific.

Bennett Brauer

Jenkinson was also behind all of the film that the Old Grey Whistle Test used to show as accompaniment to tracks when the artists were unavailable for the studio and had no film of their own. He had a massive private film archive that he would trawl to find something appropriate for the music OGWT producer Mike Appleton sent to him.
Trampled Underfoot is a pretty well known example of his ingenuity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKv4goxIR1Q

alan nagsworth

In The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror III", in the "King Homer" story, Marge asks to join the expedition to Ape Island. Burns asks Smithers, "What do you think" to which Smithers replies "I think women and seamen don't mix". Burns then snaps back "We know what you think!"

WHY'D YOU ASK THEN MONTY YOU BELLEND

Uncle TechTip

Quote from: gilbertharding on April 08, 2019, 11:25:22 AM

I might look later to see if anyone can explain why the upstairs set had the ridiculous three steps up and three steps down again at the top of the main stairs.

Wasn't there an American version of Fawlty Towers (actually there were a couple) where the set was an exact replica, but the opposite hand?
I thought this was done to give the impression of someone walking up the stairs when they reach the top, whereas in reality it's another set on ground level. Common in theatre?

dallasman

Bill Maher did a joke attack ad on John McCain. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZgyRyEkezY
My trivial observation: The tombstone gag would work better the other way around, i.e. the voiceover saying something like "...but it's officially established that John McCain lies" (extreme closeup of McCain's eyes or mouth) "in fact, it's written in stone" (reveal tombstone). Maybe not, but that was my immediate observation when I watched it just now, and I was about to call someone, but then I remembered, there's a CaB thread for that - I don't have to wake anybody up.

Andy147

Quote from: Bennett Brauer on April 09, 2019, 01:21:49 AM
Jenkinson was also behind all of the film that the Old Grey Whistle Test used to show as accompaniment to tracks when the artists were unavailable for the studio and had no film of their own. He had a massive private film archive that he would trawl to find something appropriate for the music OGWT producer Mike Appleton sent to him.
Trampled Underfoot is a pretty well known example of his ingenuity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKv4goxIR1Q

The Pythons apparently weren't fans, judging by the script (from the Roger Wilmut book): "Ordinary simple Philip Jenkinson at a desk set as seen in Monty Python's Flying Circus. Philip Jenkinson sits simpering and pouting like a cross between Truman Capote and a pederast vole."

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Andy147 on April 09, 2019, 11:42:36 PM
The Pythons apparently weren't fans, judging by the script (from the Roger Wilmut book): "Ordinary simple Philip Jenkinson at a desk set as seen in Monty Python's Flying Circus. Philip Jenkinson sits simpering and pouting like a cross between Truman Capote and a pederast vole."

and judging by him getting graphically shot to bits in that scene, with close ups of his bloodspurting figure, and the caption "tee hee". (still one of the Pythons' funniest sketches IMO).

magval

Michael reads "with special celebrity star guest Sue Cook" from a sign that says "with special celebrity guest star Sue Cook".

Twed

Quote from: Twed on April 07, 2019, 08:59:06 PM
The (US at least) airing of Limmy's show has enough rights-based substitutions to keep Dee Dee busy for a week.

Falconhoof no longer uses Jean-Michel Jarre.
Pet Shop Boys - In The Night in the "do you need another spoon for your dessert?" sketch is replaced by the Limmy's Show theme. It's so off, and wonderfully lazy.
Limmy's "Wrong Way Down A One Way Street" duet with Jimmy Somerville (a man in a mask) is blurred out. They couldn't show a fake Jimmy Somerville, in America, where nobody knows who Jimmy Somerville is.
They replaced Holiday Rap in that phone-rining/dad dying sketch with a stock jaunty beepy ringtone.

Just cut the sketch.

Aqua - Dr Jones is still in the Dee Dee one. Maybe because he's actually singing it and they couldn't cut that, so they just paid up.

Icehaven

More Friends ones;
In Monica's apartment there's no door to the balcony, the only access is through a window.

There's one shot in series 8 where you see the 4th wall, when Chandler manages to open the secret closet and Monica comes running over it's shot as if from inside the closet, so you can see it behind them.

Clownbaby

I didn't want to bother starting a new thread just on this and it's not really technically a comedy observation but one of the horses in the betting shop in GTA San Andreas is called Shatner's Bassoon.

Also in GTA V there's a pharmacy called Good Aids Pharmacy

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: icehaven on April 12, 2019, 08:16:18 AM
More Friends ones;
In Monica's apartment there's no door to the balcony, the only access is through a window.

There's one shot in series 8 where you see the 4th wall, when Chandler manages to open the secret closet and Monica comes running over it's shot as if from inside the closet, so you can see it behind them.
You can see some of Jerry's fourth wall in the Seinfeld episode where Kramer is using a camcorder to interview Elaine and George as if they were porn actors.

Clownbaby

In the Seinfeld episode where Kramer swaps round the spy hole you see into his house and it doesn't make any logical sense, because when the door is opened it's just a corridoor with a shelf on it but the view through the peephole is him scratching his chest in the living room by the couch.

Ray Travez

Barely worth typing this- in one episode of 'Fags, Mags and Bags', the plot hinges on Ramesh's inability to smell, or 'niffnorance', however in another episode he smells something.

Icehaven

ANOTHER Friends one; in series 7 or 8 Phoebe has a boyfriend across a few episodes (he's blonde, cute, looks a bit like Neil Patrick Harris) and it seems to be going well, then he just vanishes with no mention of them breaking up at all. I think every other relationship the 6 of them have (i.e. involving other people who are actually seen and/or appear more than once) has it's breakup either shown or at least mentioned, but he just leaves Central Perk one day with Phoebe telling the others how well it's going and he's never seen or mentioned again.

Utter Shit

Quote from: icehaven on April 15, 2019, 10:57:17 AM
ANOTHER Friends one; in series 7 or 8 Phoebe has a boyfriend across a few episodes (he's blonde, cute, looks a bit like Neil Patrick Harris) and it seems to be going well, then he just vanishes with no mention of them breaking up at all. I think every other relationship the 6 of them have (i.e. involving other people who are actually seen and/or appear more than once) has it's breakup either shown or at least mentioned, but he just leaves Central Perk one day with Phoebe telling the others how well it's going and he's never seen or mentioned again.

Hah, never noticed that before.

QuoteIn The One With Chandler's Dad, Joey starts socializing with Jake. After the two agree to go see the New York Knicks, Jake bends over to take out his diary from his bag, and Joey notices that he's wearing ladies' underwear (they turn out to be Phoebe's). When Joey asks Phoebe about this, she reveals that the panties are hers and that she asked him to wear them. Joey still thinks this is weird, but Phoebe tells him she is wearing Jake's briefs, Joey finds that hot. He argues with Phoebe about Jake's masculinity, and even Joey's. She tells Joey how Jake is secure with his masculinity. Joey is so surprised about this that he tries out one of Rachel's panties for himself, with funny results. He soon becomes insecure about his masculinity and the episode takes off from here.

He's never seen again after that, and it is never revealed why or when they broke up.