Smell of Reeves & Mortimer...

[Jerzy Bondov]

I don't think there's much I find funnier than Vic & Bob corpsing

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Is the Big Night Out DVD heavily cut? Its me fav Vic and Bob by miles but I somehow remember stuff from the television broadcasts that weren't on the DVD - prop gags before and after the adverts, including the legendary "I'm sweating cobs tonight!"  and more appearances of characters in front of the stage with the curtains down, not just one appearance of Mr Dennis. I was a kid when I first saw it so I'm probably misremembering a lot. It was one of the very few alternative comedy things allowed on in our house so maybe my memory is embellished.

Never got the Smell of... DVD for that reason. I want to get it now because of all the blackface in it might lead it to it getting (justifiably, sadly) cut to ribbons in future.

[Goldentony]

Is the Big Night Out DVD heavily cut? Its me fav Vic and Bob by miles but I somehow remember stuff from the television broadcasts that weren't on the DVD - prop gags before and after the adverts, including the legendary "I'm sweating cobs tonight!"  and more appearances of characters in front of the stage with the curtains down, not just one appearance of Mr Dennis. I was a kid when I first saw it so I'm probably misremembering a lot. It was one of the very few alternative comedy things allowed on in our house so maybe my memory is embellished.

Never got the Smell of... DVD for that reason. I want to get it now because of all the blackface in it might lead it to it getting (justifiably, sadly) cut to ribbons in future.

Yeah the BNO DVD has the introductions of the adverts from Vic then the curtains/music/credits all butchered out really awkwardly leaving huge awkward gaps and missing material like a post war avant garde thing, also misses the pilot, the new years special, the love show, wasnt there a fan club video too?

[Video Game Fan 2000]

What's the love show?

[Goldentony]

live, not love, fuck about! sorry

[Gurke and Hare]

live, not love, fuck about! sorry

The first attempt at an inspirational slogan to be painted on the kitchen wall needed some rework.

[Mr Banlon]

I don't think there's much I find funnier than Vic & Bob corpsing

Peak corpsing : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX3XtFQtFRw

[Video Game Fan 2000]

live, not love, fuck about! sorry

Here's me sat here imagining a Blind Date style show they might've done for Valentines one year...

[non capisco]

Can someone identify what series/show the Le Corbussier et Papin sketch is in where they fart at one of those coin operated seaside booths with a clown inside and the clown clambers out of the booth and legs it down the pier? Been trying to find the thing on YouTube for years, it seems every sketch with those characters in is on there barring that one.

[Magnum Valentino]

I think someone (you?) asked this last year and the answer was that it was on some one off VHS or Christmas special rather than the main series itself. I'll have a hoke.

Edit: it was you! But no one replied :-(

[non capisco]

I'm leaning towards a special since I think it definitely was on broadcast TV. Maybe some kind of 90s 'Christmas Night With The Stars' equivalent?

[The Mollusk]

"Cottage cheese is normally associated with crackers, or the centrepiece to a delightful crisp salad."

"That's right Vic! But, there's a more sinister side. Here's Vic to tell you about it..."

"VOODOO!!!!"

[The Crumb]

Can someone identify what series/show the Le Corbussier et Papin sketch is in where they fart at one of those coin operated seaside booths with a clown inside and the clown clambers out of the booth and legs it down the pier? Been trying to find the thing on YouTube for years, it seems every sketch with those characters in is on there barring that one.

Definitely in series 1 of Smell, I just rewatched it. It was around episode 3-4 iiirc

Edit:Yes, episode 4

[badaids]

"Cottage cheese is normally associated with crackers, or the centrepiece to a delightful crisp salad."

"That's right Vic! But, there's a more sinister side. Here's Vic to tell you about it..."

"VOODOO!!!!"

I love that while opening, even the genuinely revolting bit where they are force feeding cheese to the Asian man.

The bit you refer too, even 25 years later, I still think of most days. It's the light, agreeable and affable way that Bob says 'That's right Vic!, with his wrist limp across his chest, head held back and with the camera looking slightly down on them.

[The Culture Bunker]

I love that while opening, even the genuinely revolting bit where they are force feeding cheese to the Asian man.

The bit you refer too, even 25 years later, I still think of most days. It's the light, agreeable and affable way that Bob says 'That's right Vic!, with his wrist limp across his chest, head held back and with the camera looking slightly down on them.

Was it cottage cheese or rice they were forcing down his gob?

It's a wonderful opening, which then leads into the love potion bit which also never fails to make me smile.

"Uncle Peter - these two here are trying to cop off with me!"
"I don't blame them - you're gorgeous! I love you..."

[The Mollusk]

It's a Kind of Magic will always be my favourite sketch. A masterclass in OTT physical absurdity. The final trick has always been the one which has me in stitches but I've just noticed the isolated brilliance of Bob approaching the equipment and writhing about on the floor, it's incredible.

[non capisco]

Definitely in series 1 of Smell, I just rewatched it. It was around episode 3-4 iiirc

Edit:Yes, episode 4

Ah, cheers!

[badaids]

It's a Kind of Magic will always be my favourite sketch. A masterclass in OTT physical absurdity. The final trick has always been the one which has me in stitches but I've just noticed the isolated brilliance of Bob approaching the equipment and writhing about on the floor, it's incredible.

The dustbin with the enormous 71 on it in the corner.

[Gurke and Hare]

I like the way that's obviously mocking the same thing that Tony Le Mesmer was mocking at the same time.

[chrispmartha]

It's a Kind of Magic will always be my favourite sketch. A masterclass in OTT physical absurdity. The final trick has always been the one which has me in stitches but I've just noticed the isolated brilliance of Bob approaching the equipment and writhing about on the floor, it's incredible.

Brilliant

On the queen theme, wasn't there a 'guy fawkeing of the legs' bit with Vic as Brian May?

[checkoutgirl]

I had a friend who had The Weekenders on  VHS; when I asked to borrow it he brought it round, sat and watched it with me, then took it home because it was too precious to lend.

Very wise. I had the double VHS of series 2 around 1999 and my mate (whose flat I kipped on the floor) asked if his manager in the restaurant he worked in could borrow it. Never saw it again. That was a hard won lesson as I have series 1 on my computer but never found series 2 which is my favourite R&M stuff.

Ladies and gentlemen, two owls.

Do you want to come to a party Bob?

How many owls are coming?

Two.

Count me in.




Vic can you smell onions?

No.

Even if they're really up close? *Holds onion under Vic's nose*

[Gulftastic]

Does that have 'Vic, have you farted?' 'No.' 'What, never?'

[willy crossit]

It's a Kind of Magic will always be my favourite sketch. A masterclass in OTT physical absurdity. The final trick has always been the one which has me in stitches but I've just noticed the isolated brilliance of Bob approaching the equipment and writhing about on the floor, it's incredible.

just unreal.

i can't hear the song without seeing the nob snip/'no-no' mime they do in time to the music in my head

[checkoutgirl]

Buff bark. Donkey. Donkey went 't market.

I upgrade. Upgrade. To donkey.

[Papercut]

I remember having the script book for the first series, which contained what must have been the original shooting scripts for each episode. Most of the extra material ended up in the longer VHS edits, but there were small (improvised?) changes throughout as well, if I remember. Some of Vic's drawings from the series are in there too I think.

So daft that the DVD release only includes the broadcast versions.

[Autopsy Turvey]

"Monday he don't turn up. Tuesday he turns up late. Wednesday he turns up, we don't work Wednesday!"

I remember having the script book for the first series, which contained what must have been the original shooting scripts for each episode. Most of the extra material ended up in the longer VHS edits, but there were small (improvised?) changes throughout as well, if I remember. Some of Vic's drawings from the series are in there too I think.

Loads of them! It's a great book, some friends and I queued round the block when they did their signing tour of Dillons (don't look for it, it's not there anymore) and I got them to address my copy to a fictional character we had a sort of running in-joke about, which seemed giddily exciting at the time. Reading it aloud and handing round the pictures on the bus home is one of my happiest memories of a very happy era.

So daft that the DVD release only includes the broadcast versions.

When the SORAM and BNO DVDs came out my assumption was that they were so butchered and lacking extras they must have been accidental botch jobs (not even the New Year's special, just an incompetent oversight surely?) and they would eventually be rectified with a big box set and an apology, but no. They had one chance, one brief window to get the definitive R&M experience onto a durable physical artefact before such things were consigned to the skip of history, and they muffed it.

Even weirder, the VHSes, although extended editions, removed snippets from the broadcast episodes, so if you want the series as complete as can be, you need both sets cross-format. Mind you, the Python boxset was a long time coming, so maybe it'll happen when Vic n Bob's 50th Anniversary rolls around...

[badaids]

"Monday he don't turn up. Tuesday he turns up late. Wednesday he turns up, we don't work Wednesday!"



Loads of them! It's a great book, some friends and I queued round the block when they did their signing tour of Dillons (don't look for it, it's not there anymore) and I got them to address my copy to a fictional character we had a sort of running in-joke about, which seemed giddily exciting at the time. Reading it aloud and handing round the pictures on the bus home is one of my happiest memories of a very happy era.

When the SORAM and BNO DVDs came out my assumption was that they were so butchered and lacking extras they must have been accidental botch jobs (not even the New Year's special, just an incompetent oversight surely?) and they would eventually be rectified with a big box set and an apology, but no. They had one chance, one brief window to get the definitive R&M experience onto a durable physical artefact before such things were consigned to the skip of history, and they muffed it.

Even weirder, the VHSes, although extended editions, removed snippets from the broadcast episodes, so if you want the series as complete as can be, you need both sets cross-format. Mind you, the Python boxset was a long time coming, so maybe it'll happen when Vic n Bob's 50th Anniversary rolls around...

Thanks for posting this it's helped me formulate something I've been thinking about a lot today.

If Noel Fielding, for example, were to draw that it would be complete shit. And there's the thing with Vic and Bob. When they do material that for anyone else would come out as LOL RANDOM, it just comes out as brilliant.  I love them dearly and they are hilarious, but I've never been able to put my finger on what it is that makes them so funny and effortless and generous and natural and sublime in spite of the seeming simplicity of what they do. Rope + Vinegar + silly name and dance = wonderful sketch. Anyone can come up with that, no?  And yet they are impossible to imitate, and the cunts that try fail miserably.  Does their magic purely lie in their ability as performers therefore?

It's like all those knock offs of Viz that cropped up in the 80s like Zit and Smut, they looked identical but totally missed the effect AND the affect of what they were taking off.  Someone please explain to me where Vic and Bob's magic lies. I can see it that magic but I can't see where it comes from.

Thanks.

[Autopsy Turvey]

Thanks for posting this it's helped me formulate something I've been thinking about a lot today.
If Noel Fielding, for example, were to draw that it would be complete shit. And there's the thing with Vic and Bob. When they do material that for anyone else would come out as LOL RANDOM, it just comes out as brilliant.

Pleasure! And I think saying this is like drinking ice cold Coca-Cola from a glass bottle and saying "If Panda Pops were to make this it would be complete shit". (Might be a bad example due to the divisive nature of cultural imperialist fizzy pop, but in terms of something being a definitive exemplar vs a cheap weak knock-off).

I love them dearly and they are hilarious, but I've never been able to put my finger on what it is that makes them so funny and effortless and generous and natural and sublime in spite of the seeming simplicity of what they do. Rope + Vinegar + silly name and dance = wonderful sketch. Anyone can come up with that, no?  And yet they are impossible to imitate, and the cunts that try fail miserably.  Does their magic purely lie in their ability as performers therefore?

I've often wondered this, I think it's not purely in their ability as performers, but also in their ability as thinkers and creators - writers, I suppose, although I get the feeling it's a more intuitive, spontaneous and innate process than sitting down for ages chewing a pen, agonising over the most surprising and detailed constructions. With Boosh I got the feeling they wrote using a series of hats full of random verbs and nouns, to be plucked out at certain points in a sentence, where Vic & Bob seem to work on instinctive rhythms, wide-open imaginations and total self-possession.

[badaids]

Pleasure! And I think saying this is like drinking ice cold Coca-Cola from a glass bottle and saying "If Panda Pops were to make this it would be complete shit". (Might be a bad example due to the divisive nature of cultural imperialist fizzy pop, but in terms of something being a definitive exemplar vs a cheap weak knock-off).

I've often wondered this, I think it's not purely in their ability as performers, but also in their ability as thinkers and creators - writers, I suppose, although I get the feeling it's a more intuitive, spontaneous and innate process than sitting down for ages chewing a pen, agonising over the most surprising and detailed constructions. With Boosh I got the feeling they wrote using a series of hats full of random verbs and nouns, to be plucked out at certain points in a sentence, where Vic & Bob seem to work on instinctive rhythms, wide-open imaginations and total self-possession.

Been reflecting further on this today too, particularly the way they might come up with stuff. The Boosh are a good example to compare against and they do seem to but the random in LOL RANDOM when they come up with stuff. 'A bicycle made of glitter, And too often it doesn't come up with anything more than that.

Vic and Bob though I don't think it is random, though there is spontaneity. And I also think they have a fundamental understanding in what they write; it's a complex mix of cultural references, personal memories, stereotypes, pisstaking and daftness. But they also understand what is funny and why so they know how to deploy it. That's as far as I've got.  Oh, they also do a fair bit of lifting. The sketch with Bob singing on skis and Vic arrives in his car is basically the same as the Morecambe and Wise sketch where Eric arrives at the back of the stage in his coat and hat clutching the carrier bag.

[poodlefaker]

I've been watching the Eric Andre Show on the Channel 4 player recently, and it's one of the few comedy shows since Vic n Bob that captures their energy and mood. I doubt EA has ever seen V+B, but it really reminds me of Smell and BNO. Genuinely creative, surprising and makes me bark with laughter.