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March 28, 2024, 09:42:58 PM

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Why do people not get 'Harry & Paul'?

Started by danwho9, January 08, 2022, 04:26:39 PM

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danwho9

Been watching a lot of clips on this on YouTube as I've never found the DVDs and like a lot of more satirical comedy shows you always get people who insist that the material in the show is stuff you 'couldn't get away with nowadays'. Of course with the whole moronic anti-woke trend this sort of thing is everywhere online but it seems that Harry and Paul in particular is seen by many as a show that was outrageously politically incorrect by modern comedy standards, despite its intentions clearly (to me at least) being to parody reactionary tendencies like misogynistic van drivers and old Tory backbencher homophobes rather than endorse them.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

A lot of it is unfunny shite, to be fair.

" I curse you! "  I curse when I see that character, ie by saying " that's not fucking funny "

" anyway, anyway, anyway" such savage satire! Take that, 1950s secretaries!

 " I saw you coming" I saw that punchline coming from about a million  square kilometres away after the first fucking sketch, thanks very much.

That middle aged man in love with Polish girl who works in the coffee shop is sort of alright though, I suppose.

danwho9

#2
Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on January 08, 2022, 04:43:49 PMA lot of it is unfunny shite, to be fair.

Yeah don't get me wrong there's some patchy moments in it. It's not my favourite comedy series by any means. I think the 'Benefits' sketches border on classism too although they're enjoyable.

Pink Gregory

There's an air of scathing nastiness to it that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.  Maybe people get confused between that and being offensive.

It does has the same iffy dressing up as nonwhite people as yer Little Britains perhaps, but it's a product of the time.  Would Enfield and Whitehouse do that now?  Probably not.  I don't think it's a hill they would feel the need to die on.

I think it's more likely that a sketch show wouldn't be greenlit today at all, in terms of 'not making this now'

pigamus

The Polish girl was Laura Solon I seem to remember - whatever happened to her?

Old Nehamkin

The chummy cameo from Nigel Farage is still really fucking weird.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: pigamus on January 08, 2022, 04:52:15 PMThe Polish girl was Laura Solon I seem to remember - whatever happened to her?

I see her name in credits occasionally, can't think of any lead roles though

Brundle-Fly

It's a tightrope. Lampooning the ugliness of society there is always a risk. Case in point, the upper class character treating Northerners/ Filipino maids like pets or 'Is He A Queer'? It's clearly an attack on grotesque poshos but sometimes the by-product is making the wrong people guffaw who probably don't even miss the point of the satire which is an easy presumption to make. s.

Brundle-Fly

I remember at the time uttering at the TV, "FUCK. KING. HELL!" was the Dragon's Den sketch when two characters blacked up as Rastafarians and sang a crap reggae song for their pitch. They immediately secure investment from the panel. Yes, obviously a satire on the hypocrisy of patronising rich, white folk but this payoff must've been rather offensive to Levi Roots because it suggests that this was the sole reason the Dragons got behind him. Oddly, the only one of those DD sketches not on YouTube.


the science eel

The Beatles thing they did was top notch

danwho9

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 08, 2022, 05:20:19 PMYes, obviously a satire on the hypocrisy of patronising rich, white folk

I guess it's almost ahead of its time in its prediction of vacuous corporate liberalism - e.g. corporations always adding pride flags to their social media logos on Pride Month despite obviously not really giving a shit about LGBT people.

Captain Z

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 08, 2022, 05:20:19 PMOddly, the only one of those DD sketches not on YouTube.

It is on Youtube - It's the "I Can't Believe It's Not Custard" one.

Captain Z

A post I made last year:

Quote from: Captain Z on February 25, 2021, 01:54:12 AMThere was a YouTube video that kept getting recommended to me called 'The Best of Harry & Paul... The Death of Comedy', which was a compilation of clips from the more recent Harry and Paul show, accompanied by a moaning paragraph (and many comments in agreement) about how 'you couldn't get away with this on the biased woke BBC now'. It was uploaded in 2016, just two years after the 'Story Of The Twos' special and one year before Harry & Paul were literally getting away with some incredibly contentious clips and impressions in their '25 years of' special.

This video still keeps appearing in my recommendations to this day.

Think I read somewhere that H&P are working on a new BBC milestone-celebrating special, so looking forward to finding out exactly what they can get away with nowadays.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Captain Z on January 08, 2022, 05:44:13 PMIt is on Youtube - It's the "I Can't Believe It's Not Custard" one.

Cheers Capt. One of my favourite sketches is Paul Whitehouse as the football manager giving a pep talk to each of his players in all their various different accents and languages. A proper comedy tour de force performance.

Pink Gregory

For me it's still the Landlady and the Confectioner

"Mintibles?"
"Bum Gums?"
"Milky Boy?"

Pink Gregory

Quote from: Captain Z on January 08, 2022, 05:45:23 PMA post I made last year:

This video still keeps appearing in my recommendations to this day.

Think I read somewhere that H&P are working on a new BBC milestone-celebrating special, so looking forward to finding out exactly what they can get away with nowadays.

Those cunts don't deserve comedy.

jamiefairlie

Really well observed satire always runs the risk of being misunderstood by thickos who think they're being genuine, both in the 'appalled' by it side as well as the 'well said sir!' Mob.

Many comedians are now scared to try because it's a bit of a minefield. Seems a shame.

idunnosomename

lest us not forget the frankly bizarre Nelson Mandela sketches.

regardless of the whole blacking-up thing that-you-cant-do-these days they were deeply weird and not funny. he wasn't even dead then. i guess the joke was the guy whose efforts helped end apartheid was now shilling complete crap? haha?

Pink Gregory

It's just typical 'unlikely person does unlikely thing'

I would assume that the voice came first and the sketch came after

paruses

Quote from: idunnosomename on January 08, 2022, 06:35:13 PMlest us not forget the frankly bizarre Nelson Mandela sketches.

regardless of the whole blacking-up thing that-you-cant-do-these days they were deeply weird and not funny. he wasn't even dead then. i guess the joke was the guy whose efforts helped end apartheid was now shilling complete crap? haha?

Didn't Enfield make the mistake of going on The Today Programme to talk about the state of not being able to say anything anymore and ended up defending that character quite disastrously. I think the defence was along the lines of what you say.

I'm not calling Nelson Mandela "a character". I mean the character that H&P created based on Nelson Mandela.

chveik

yeah i really didn't get those mandela sketches

but the biggest problem is how repetitive it is.

Brundle-Fly

It just seemed like Enfield felt he could do a passable dinner party impression of Nelson Mandela and then contrived this weedy conceit around it. And quite a few grands worth of prosthetics, no less. When Harry E hits the spot he's truly magnificent, but sometimes fails spectacularly. I quite like that about him.

g0m

Quote from: Old Nehamkin on January 08, 2022, 04:55:07 PMThe chummy cameo from Nigel Farage is still really fucking weird.

yes, i think it's hard to defend that specifically as satire

non capisco

I doubt that Daniel Kaluuya still puts 'Parking Pataweyo' on his CV.

danwho9

Quote from: non capisco on January 08, 2022, 09:35:00 PMI doubt that Daniel Kaluuya still puts 'Parking Pataweyo' on his CV.

Everyone loves Parking Pataweyo.

Gurke and Hare

Am I right in remembering one series in particular was particularly bad?

shoulders

Look it is perfectly fine in a juvenile silly way to have someone doing Nelson Mandela shouting 'Do you want to get AAAAABSOLUTELY WANKERED'

Noodle Lizard

The Question Time, Blackadder, Panel Show and Gervais sketches are all great. I don't really remember any others. An Eastern European couple watching Mr Bean?

markburgle

Quote from: non capisco on January 08, 2022, 09:35:00 PMI doubt that Daniel Kaluuya still puts 'Parking Pataweyo' on his CV.

Yeah I was gonna say that was proper baffling shite. As were all the sketches where characters just said the same thing over and over without any actual jokes ("is he queer", the "shut it" bloke with the dog, the one where Morwenna Banks said "cheese and pickle sandwich" a lot).

But the "I saw you coming" ones were brill I think you'll all find (the line itself hardly being the point of them), and I loved the one where the 3 blokes are fishing and two of them have been secretly enjoying culture but can't admit it because they're locked into laddish posturing.

Thought Story of the 2's was much better than the series so I'm excited to see what the next one is like (my favourite joke of theirs is "One, Clavdivs", for how dumb it is).

The OP could've just named the thread "Why do people not get comedy", you really do see the "couldn't make this anymore" moaning under anything funny made before about 2013, often stuff with no hot-button content at all. So many fucking idiots out there.