Stress-inducing comedy

[non capisco]

Fawlty Towers , Laurel and Hardy , its a fucking piano take it up the stairs ,its your fucking job !

Wait til someone tells this guy about Chucklevision.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Fucking Piano Lifters union playing us all for fools. Those men should be out of the streets.

[Ferris]

I have to confess, despite the impassioned and convincing real life off forum proselytizing from The Mollusk, I stalled at that episode where one of them is loudly talking through a cinema showing of Star Wars or whatever it was. Never went back. I couldn't handle it.

The idea that there is an honest-to-goodness CaBber out there who has never seen "The Buffet" or "The Bank" makes me sad deep down inside. A google drive with the episodes is out there (on google). Sort it out.

[non capisco]

They're still all sat on my hard drive. I'll be a big brave boy and give them another look.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

 I thought the Nathan for You with the haunted house was tough to watch.

[Ferris]

Both shows take me to my cringe limit, but both are so brilliant it is worth it.

The second half of the haunted house ep

Spoiler alert

(The Hunk)

[close]

is a work of genius.

[famethrowa]

In the original version, Review with Myles Barlow, I think the most stress-inducing review is, funnily enough, stress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4aWrapduew&t=64s

Honestly, that episode where Myles became a drug smuggler in Asia had me in a cold sweat, then broken up by a splendid punchline. Good stuff.

[zomgmouse]

Laurel and Hardy

I've only seen Sons of the Desert but that was extremely non-stressful (and not hugely funny either I'm sad to say) - am I missing something?

[Zetetic]

Steptoe & Son. The misery Harold endured week after week used to quite upset me. At the end of the pilot episode when he can't move the horse and cart to leave is heartbreaking and oddly chilling.

I think "chilling" is a fair description of the series as a whole. It does make me laugh, but it also conveys such a horrible bleakness - exacerbated rather than undercut by the humour - that I can't manage more than one episode every few years.

Prompted by the rewatch thread, I've been reminded that Malcolm in the Middle created a similar feeling in me, albeit less crushingly and in moments rather than unremittingly - off the top of my head, there are things in Lois's experiences of work and near-poverty that suddenly strike me as very upsetting.

[Alternative Carpark]

Inside No 9 is always under this heading - admittedly, some barely qualify as comedy at all - because I'm always aware that there's going to be some twist in the tale at the end, often of a macabre sort, so I can never relax when watching that, at least for the first viewing.

[Autopsy Turvey]

I've only seen Sons of the Desert but that was extremely non-stressful (and not hugely funny either I'm sad to say) - am I missing something?

There's no major physical peril in SOTD, except the threat from their wives (which they probably deserve), but SOTD is still hugely funny so you must be missing something there alas. I once commandeered a TV/video in a shared house with a gang of manual labourers and got them to watch SOTD, to initial consternation ("How old?! Black and white?!") but within minutes we were all howling away, and the laughter snowballed over the hour long runtime, it was terrific. There seems something timeless about the set up of men trying to sneak away from their wives and responsibilities to enjoy silly pursuits together, of failed deception and the fear of reprisals, and it has a universal and relatable quality that there isn't with, say, Way Out West or The Flying Deuces. It's a very sitcommy domestic set-up which gives it extra immediacy and warmth. Plus the wax apple.

[msm]

Fucking Piano Lifters union playing us all for fools. Those men should be out of the streets.

those two were definitely, scabs .

[msm]

Wait til someone tells this guy about Chucklevision.

To Me ?

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Virtually unemployable and no longer able to claim benefits, there'll be No Slacking™  when Barry and Paul launch their Substack newsletter.

[Ferris]

Virtually unemployable and no longer able to claim benefits, there'll be No Slacking™  when Barry and Paul launch their Substack newsletter.

Well one of them is 6 feet deep which is the ultimate slacking.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Which of thems dead, Spoonbill or Gaz Coombes? Bet his tie was caught in the coffin lid. The other one better pull his weight if clients are expecting both of them.

[15Tawain]

Not a sitcom but I remember My New Best Friend being an excruciating watch, particularly the one where all the contestant's real friends outed themselves as homophobes

[Satchmo Distel]

Abbott and Costello - two very dislikeable characters whose humour seemed forced. Channel 4 once showed their TV series - fucking desolate.

Woody Allen in the 1970s- what's an ugly cunt like him doing shagging all these smart young women? He must be the funniest person alive to have that kind of romantic success but all I'm hearing is them laughing at shit gags.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

I used to fucking hate Abbott and Costello growing up. Black and white comedy used to see like such a treat - like a Road Runner cartoon coming on. I wanted it to be the Marx Brothers or Laurel and Hardy, and when it was Abbott and Costello it felt like a kick in the teeth. The Nachos Flanders style of the TV schedule. Flicking on to an old comedy on TV and instead of Bilko walking on its those two cunts is more stressful than Nathan For You and Curb combined.

But watching their bits on their own on youtube years later, I think they were pretty brilliant. Their movies and show were truly dire but what great bits. Their personas are so awful and abrasive, and its all "What Time Is It Eccles?" idiot logic delivered at a Motorhead tempo, I can see why people paid them millions of dollars to make some of the worst movies of all time just to hear them grind through "Two Tens For A Five" for the Nth time with cigar ravaged voice boxes and absolute contempt for everything that isn't a cheque.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I used to fucking hate Abbott and Costello growing up. Black and white comedy used to see like such a treat - like a Road Runner cartoon coming on. I wanted it to be the Marx Brothers or Laurel and Hardy, and when it was Abbott and Costello it felt like a kick in the teeth. The Nachos Flanders style of the TV schedule. Flicking on to an old comedy on TV and instead of Bilko walking on its those two cunts is more stressful than Nathan For You and Curb combined.

But watching their bits on their own on youtube years later, I think they were pretty brilliant. Their movies and show were truly dire but what great bits. Their personas are so awful and abrasive, and its all "What Time Is It Eccles?" idiot logic delivered at a Motorhead tempo, I can see why people paid them millions of dollars to make some of the worst movies of all time just to hear them grind through "Two Tens For A Five" for the Nth time with cigar ravaged voice boxes and absolute contempt for everything that isn't a cheque.

I used to bawl my eyes out whenever the Stoppit and Tidyup! theme came on apparently.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Be fair it sounded like Terry Wogan barking instructions over something that sounded like an outtake from DI Go Pop. Can see how that'd be upsetting.

I had the video and I had a friend who hated it and was terrified of the naked pink men with no faces or arms who used to sit on mushrooms and groan. Now that I type that I see his point.

[Leej88]

Him & Her the narcissism of Laura and her boyfriend who always felt like he was gonna explode at any moment was uncomfortable.

[Steven88]

Him & Her the narcissism of Laura and her boyfriend who always felt like he was gonna explode at any moment was uncomfortable.

I hated every character in Him & Her apart from Steve and Becky, Stefan Golaszewski's other sitcom Mum was similar in that respect.

[Leej88]

Yeah Steve and Becky were very laid back with the Madness around them reminds me of Moz in Ideal and all those zany characters.

[Steven88]

Yeah Steve and Becky were very laid back with the Madness around them reminds me of Moz in Ideal and all those zany characters.

I know what you mean but i'd say Ideal had a more likeable supporting cast overall, I did enjoy Him and Her but I don't think i'd ever rewatch it whereas i've seen Ideal numerous times.

[Leej88]

I did enjoy Ideal by series 6 you could tell the show was not as fresh and dark as it used to be. I would have liked a movie though.

[Steven88]

I did enjoy Ideal by series 6 you could tell the show was not as fresh and dark as it used to be. I would have liked a movie though.

It probably went on for two series too long but it was still watchable and funny even at the end. A movie would have been good but I think it's too late now, it's been ten years! since it ended next month.

[Leej88]

I know time flies when series 5 ended and it showed the outside of the flat I thought that was it for the show but I guess it got recommissioned at the last minute.

[zomgmouse]

There's no major physical peril in SOTD, except the threat from their wives (which they probably deserve), but SOTD is still hugely funny so you must be missing something there alas. I once commandeered a TV/video in a shared house with a gang of manual labourers and got them to watch SOTD, to initial consternation ("How old?! Black and white?!") but within minutes we were all howling away, and the laughter snowballed over the hour long runtime, it was terrific. There seems something timeless about the set up of men trying to sneak away from their wives and responsibilities to enjoy silly pursuits together, of failed deception and the fear of reprisals, and it has a universal and relatable quality that there isn't with, say, Way Out West or The Flying Deuces. It's a very sitcommy domestic set-up which gives it extra immediacy and warmth. Plus the wax apple.

I just didn't find the "overbearing wife" trope very funny and their gags seemed low-stakes and slow

It probably went on for two series too long but it was still watchable and funny even at the end. A movie would have been good but I think it's too late now, it's been ten years! since it ended next month.

The IMDb page for Ben Wheatley still lists Untitled 'Ideal' Film (announced)

[St_Eddie]

The IMDb page for Ben Wheatley still lists Untitled 'Ideal' Film (announced)

IMDB is a user created listing site.  Somebody would have added that entry way back when the film version was first mooted and nobody has bothered to remove it since.  It doesn't mean that the film's still on the cards.