Comedy Only Connect

[Norton Canes]

TWISTED FLAX

You'll be seeing an apparently random series of clues (except they're all sitcoms). What connects them?

• Detectorists
• Absolutely Fabulous
• The Young Ones
• It Ain't Half Hot Mum

Bit easy this one TBH.

[Rolf Lundgren]

They all have a short man in them.

Lance from the Detectorists, Mike from the Young Ones when he was in Absolutely Fabulous, Mike from the Young Ones and Lofty in It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

[Norton Canes]

Not it

[Menu]

TWISTED FLAX

You'll be seeing an apparently random series of clues (except they're all sitcoms). What connects them?

• Detectorists
• Absolutely Fabulous
• The Young Ones
• It Ain't Half Hot Mum

Bit easy this one TBH.

Is it something along the lines of having music released off the back of the show?

[easytarget]

Is it something along the lines of having music released off the back of the show?

Is it that the theme song is performed by people who (at some point) appear in the show?

[dissolute ocelot]

All feature actors who share their names with places in Canada: Mackenzie River/Crooks, Windsor Davies/Ontario, er Edmonton, Alberta, and Lumley, Ontario? Say something funny, Coren-Mitchell!

[Menu]

Is it that the theme song is performed by people who (at some point) appear in the show?

I've never seen TD but that would fit the other 3 I think.

[Norton Canes]

Is it that the theme song is performed by people who (at some point) appear in the show?

Ooh close, very much on the right lines. But there are other sitcoms where this is true, whereas these are the only four sitcoms I could think of with the theme tune related connection I had in mind

[Norton Canes]

All feature actors who share their names with places in Canada: Mackenzie River/Crooks, Windsor Davies/Ontario, er Edmonton, Alberta, and Lumley, Ontario?

Nice thinking. Did you know Lumley, Ontario or were you just Googling [Ab Fab actor]+Canada?

[mrapollo]

Ooh close, very much on the right lines. But there are other sitcoms where this is true, whereas these are the only four sitcoms I could think of with the theme tune related connection I had in mind

Different music for the beginning and end titles?

EDIT: Oh no, there's also Only Fools And Horses. And probably a bunch of others.

[Artie Fufkin]

Adrian Edmonson was in The Young Ones.
Adrian Edmonson sang the theme tune to Absolutely Fabulous.
Adrian Edmonson's daughter was in The Detectorists
Adrian Edmonson's dad was in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum

[Norton Canes]

So good if true

[Tony Yeboah]

Were the theme tunes all performed in an episode of the respective shows?

[Norton Canes]

Now Yeboah with a chance...



..oh, what a stunning goal!

• Johnny Flynn plays and sings the Detectorists theme in S1 E3
• Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley perform a karaoke version of 'Wheels On Fire' in S1 E6 of Absolutely Fabulous
• Rik Mayall's rendition of 'The Young Ones' is pretty much the first thing we hear after the credits in S1 E1
• Apart from being the title footage, 'Meet the Gang' is played in some episodes of It Ain't Half Hot Mum

[Norton Canes]

Any other sitcoms which feature their theme song during their actual episodes? U.S. sitcoms, perhaps?

[notjosh]

Any other sitcoms which feature their theme song during their actual episodes? U.S. sitcoms, perhaps?

Have a feeling that Ally McBeal did, but not sure how to prove it.

[Hey Kidz]

Goodnight Sweetheart?

[Jumblegraws]

Any other sitcoms which feature their theme song during their actual episodes? U.S. sitcoms, perhaps?

Community did a doesn't-really-count variation where Abed sings the theme song of the sitcom that exists in his head and it's a parody of the actual theme song.

The Trapdoor has an episode where Berk finds a radio and the full-length version of the theme song plays, with the extended cast joining in for portions.

[olliebean]

Any other sitcoms which feature their theme song during their actual episodes? U.S. sitcoms, perhaps?

How I Met Your Damn Mother did it once. Possibly Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, if you count the lyrics appearing as dialogue.

[magval]

Doesn't Bart hum the Simpsons theme at one stage, annoying Marge?

[thecuriousorange]

Any other sitcoms which feature their theme song during their actual episodes? U.S. sitcoms, perhaps?

The Northern Irish sitcom Give My Head Peace once featured a scene with a busker playing the theme tune.

[lankyguy95]

Drunk Victoria Coren Mitchell

"Come on you nerdy pricks, what's the piss-easy connection between these four fuckers?"

• Happy Days
• Yes Minister
• Seinfeld
• Only Fools And Horses

[mrapollo]

Drunk Victoria Coren Mitchell

"Come on you nerdy pricks, what's the piss-easy connection between these four fuckers?"

• Happy Days
• Yes Minister
• Seinfeld
• Only Fools And Horses

They all had a knight in them.

Christopher Knight
Sir Nigel Hawthorne
Wayne Knight
Sir David Jason

[lankyguy95]

I can't give that to you. Because it's not the answer.

[Ominous Dave]

Drunk Victoria Coren Mitchell

"Come on you nerdy pricks, what's the piss-easy connection between these four fuckers?"

• Happy Days
• Yes Minister
• Seinfeld
• Only Fools And Horses

They all changed their theme music after the first series/season?

Edit: actually it's only the pilot of Seinfeld that has different music, so it's maybe just that they changed it at some point after they started.

[lankyguy95]

They all changed their theme music after the first series/season?

Edit: actually it's only the pilot of Seinfeld that has different music, so it's maybe just that they changed it at some point after they started.

I'll give it to you because you're there with the theme music change.

Happy Days changed the opening theme tune in the third season to the one everyone knows now.

Yes Minister had a different theme tune for the pilot (which ended up being delayed anyway). A sort of marching band style that didn't fit with the show. When they broadcast the first series, with the delayed pilot, they kept the original theme for that episode, and changed to the new one in episode two.

Seinfeld I actually put in because although there were a couple of recognisable motifs, they actually recorded a different theme tune for each episode. Jonathan Wolff based it around the tone and rhythm of Seinfeld's delivery in the opening stand up segment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVldNNHQWVw

Only Fools And Horses had this awful, upbeat, game show style saxophone theme during the first series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCg93od-qY

[Ominous Dave]

Cheers, that's actually really interesting about the Seinfeld music.

Anyway, this is probably a fairly obvious one, but what links:

- Being introduced by an excerpt from Sibelius' Karelia Suite
- Killing Manfred von Richthofen
- Killing milkmen
- Doing badly in a Sociology exam

(Last one edited for reasons of pedantry.)

[Cold Meat Platter]

Rik Mayall

Kevin Turvey
Blackadder
Filthy, Rich and Catflap
Young ones

[Ominous Dave]

Rik Mayall

Kevin Turvey
Blackadder
Filthy, Rich and Catflap
Young ones

Is the right answer of course. Now you must come up with a question! (Are those the rules, or am I just having flashbacks to weird student drinking games?)

[magval]

The Seinfeld theme WAS changed after the first season, just once, early in season 3 or 4 I think, with vocals added. A sort of dreadful expansion on the scatting. One episode, and dropped.