Famous and celebrated comedy things your friends don't know

[The Mollusk]

I've never seen a jot of Flying Circus.

Never seen Fry & Laurie either. Probably seen about 5 episodes of Seinfeld. Loads of stuff I've not seen actually. Don't give a fuck.

New page don't give a fuck about that either

[Icehaven]

There was a whole other thread about what we've never seen ourselves not long ago which encouraged me to rectify my Seinfeld ignorance, for which I'm extremely grateful. 

[Menu]

I was surprised when a very culturally switched-on colleague at a theatre in his twenties didn't know Morris. Turns out he had seen Four Lions but it made no impact on him. I also once heard some other youngish folk who didn't know Morris saying how that film was a fine drama but didn't work as a comedy.

Re: the lack of Python fans under 30, it's a crying shame as the stuff is perfectly accessible to kids (a bit too rude really but still they'd like it because of the silliness and cartoons and imagination, the series or Holy Grail is a good starting point). Ironically it's probably the mass of documentaries and people talking about how great or influential it is that puts young people off finding it.

Yes, if they never make another Monty Python documentary again it will be too soon. In my lifetime, and to my knowledge, the BBC have tried twice to show the original series on BBC2. But both times they've stopped somewhere in S2. A  great shame because those episodes should be as well-known as Dad's Army or OFAH or The Simpsons. I'm sure the Pythons themselves would far rather their TV show is aired again than have to contribute to another documentary about things we've heard discussed a million times already.

[C_Larence]

A depressingly large number of my friends don't "know" The Simpsons. These are people in their early to mid 20s. Some of them watched a few "newer" episodes growing up and so think of it as a generic middling quality cartoon only notable for having celebrity cameos.
I've noticed an interesting parallel between people who watched Spongebob Squarepants and people who watched The Simpsons. I reckon both get referenced by their respective childhood viewers at a similar frequency. Both also feature yellow characters. It's 5:55 i can't be bothered to elaborate so i'm going to post now

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

This is the only place I've ever come across anyone who knows of Shaun Micallef which is nice but a pity really

[sutin]

I'd never heard of Chris Morris until my friends went crazy over the Brasseye paedophile special being on TV back in the day. Then I realised he was the guy who played the posh farmer in I'm Alan Partridge, which I adored. I've tried watching Brasseye over the last 20 years and just found it sneery and smug. I thought Jam was fantastic though.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's always real-life deso in Dealz (Irish name for Poundland, basically) seeing countless copies of stand-up comedian DVDs for €1.49 alongside shit CDs.

I bet the comedians would rather see Stewart Lee kick them across the stage than them cluttering up the shelves of Dealz/Poundland.

[non capisco]

This is the only place I've ever come across anyone who knows of Shaun Micallef which is nice but a pity really

Micallef is one of my favourite direct-from-CaB discoveries. I would never have had the investigative resources or instinct to discover an Australian satirist by myself. Myron and The Giant Peach still kills me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2rRG3bnNg

[The Mollusk]

There was a whole other thread about what we've never seen ourselves not long ago

Never saw that either! You could fill a barn with the stuff I've not seen!

[Glebe]

I bet the comedians would rather see Stewart Lee kick them across the stage than them cluttering up the shelves of Dealz/Poundland.

Which is probably were he got them!

[Chriddof]

He genuinely did, didn't he? He even told a story once about how he was refused the right to buy a bunch of stand up DVDs from a Liverpool branch of Poundland. The manager thought Lee was some sort of alky who was going to sell them all back to the same shop later (which was apparently a scam that was going on at the time).

[Glebe]

He genuinely did, didn't he? He even told a story once about how he was refused the right to buy a bunch of stand up DVDs from a Liverpool branch of Poundland. The manager thought Lee was some sort of alky who was going to sell them all back to the same shop later (which was apparently a scam that was going on at the time).

The culprit? ELTON JOHN.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I know people who've never seen Max Miller or Tommy Trinder, FFS!

[mippy]

I've only seen And Now For Something Completely Different in full. For context, I'm 38, the shows weren't repeated on terrestrial when I was growing up (or at least I didn't catch them) and all the more famous material got ruined by over-quoting nerds before I'd even had chance to see it, so I never bothered. Like Harry Potter, though, is it not enough of a part of pop culture that it's difficult not to have absorbed some of it?

There are a lot of big US sitcoms I like that people I know IRL have never seen or in some cases heard of - Murphy Brown, 30 Rock, Cybill. I have a friend who is quite into 70s comedy (he realised the other day he had two copies of the Derek and Clive album) but doesn't know a thing about Seinfeld.

[mippy]

I hung out with a lot of stereotypical Python-quoting nerds in days of old and am still friends with some now,  and yet none of my circle have seen The Rutles.

I had a friend who loved it when I was sixteen so have seen it about eight times.

[Icehaven]

I can't remember if I've mentioned this elsewhere but Mr. Haven has more or less never seen Father Ted and doesn't know anything about it. Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading was on the other night and at the bit where Sister Assumpta's arrived and Dougal is awkward because he doesn't remember her, Mr H said "Why's he being like that, did he sleep with her?" I couldn't believe anyone could have such a fundamental misunderstanding of the Father Ted world, never mind the person I share my life with, so I was quite perturbed.

[Jockice]

I can't remember if I've mentioned this elsewhere but Mr. Haven has more or less never seen Father Ted and doesn't know anything about it. Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading was on the other night and at the bit where Sister Assumpta's arrived and Dougal is awkward because he doesn't remember her, Mr H said "Why's he being like that, did he sleep with her?" I couldn't believe anyone could have such a fundamental misunderstanding of the Father Ted world, never mind the person I share my life with, so I was quite perturbed.

My girlfriend (sorry, but this is relevant) has never seen Father Ted, so while flicking through channels with her one evening we happened upon an episode. Can't remember which one but I was quite happy to watch it. However after about five minutes she decided it was 'crap' and asked: "Do people actually laugh at this?'' So that was that. We were both brought up as Catholics so I thought she might enjoy it, but how wrong could I be? Yet she'll sit and watch bollocks like Birds Of A Bloody Feather.

[Icehaven]

My girlfriend (sorry, but this is relevant) has never seen Father Ted, so while flicking through channels with her one evening we happened upon an episode. Can't remember which one but I was quite happy to watch it. However after about five minutes she decided it was 'crap' and asked: "Do people actually laugh at this?'' So that was that. We were both brought up as Catholics so I thought she might enjoy it, but how wrong could I be? Yet she'll sit and watch bollocks like Birds Of A Bloody Feather.

Father Ted did manage to extract a few titters from him overall so he did like it, but I just can't believe anyone in their late 30s could be so unfamiliar with it. He blames being in the army so (apparently) not watching TV for most of the late 90s and 2000s. I expect they did watch TV but exclusively Bravo, the grubby gits.

[magval]

Crazy to think of Father Ted being unknown as someone who grew up in Northern Ireland. Everyone, from my pals in primary 7 to my lifelong pioneer-badge-wearing aunt from the Legion of Mary, knew that show inside out. It was gigantic, here. Mrs Brown's Boys seems to be similarly well known, especially among people who don't tend to talk about comedy ever, but it's not as well liked.

[Jockice]

Father Ted did manage to extract a few titters from him overall so he did like it, but I just can't believe anyone in their late 30s could be so unfamiliar with it. He blames being in the army so (apparently) not watching TV for most of the late 90s and 2000s. I expect they did watch TV but exclusively Bravo, the grubby gits.

Well, like I said, we were both brought up as Catholics. But her family are (or at least were) much more religious than mine. My mum was a proddy and my dad never put any pressure on me to go to Mass etc, whereas her parents made the whole family troop off to church every Sunday. So maybe there's part of her that thinks it's somehow wrong to laugh at priests. Or maybe she just didn't find it funny, full stop.

(My dad loved it. I liked it but think it's a bit overrated. I've seen every episode several times but there are ones that I can't remember at all.)

[mippy]

Father Ted did manage to extract a few titters from him overall so he did like it, but I just can't believe anyone in their late 30s could be so unfamiliar with it. He blames being in the army so (apparently) not watching TV for most of the late 90s and 2000s. I expect they did watch TV but exclusively Bravo, the grubby gits.

The amount of enormous, ubiquituous, zillion-selling songs Mr Mippy does not know from the last decade is staggering.

[Icehaven]

The amount of enormous, ubiquituous, zillion-selling songs Mr Mippy does not know from the last decade is staggering.

Oh I can sympathise with that. I don't/am not forced to listen to the radio at all, and there's no one in my house who inflicts any shite music on me so my knowledge of anything I don't like from last 10-15 years or so is virtually zero (apart from adverts). It's a mercy.

[Glebe]

I've still not seen the German Python shows, they're on Netflix, high time I game them a gander!*

*As in a look, not a male goose. I'm obsessed with geese, me!

[neveragain]

They're oddly brilliant.