This is the Modern World: Hancock's Half Hour edition

[gilbertharding]

Listening to HHH recently, it struck me that one of the treats (for me) is hearing The Lad just casually dismissing those things that obviously denoted modern degeneracy - eg: Frothy coffee.

In yesterday's episode, he complained that Hattie Jacques was seduced by the American Airmen offering her 'a stick of chewing gum and two packets of long fags'.

I mean, these aren't jokes as such, but as observations they're brilliantly funny. And now 65 years later what are they? What do they evoke?

Dunno. *presses post*

[neveragain]

Peep Show was good at picking up on recognisable, often mundane aspects of modern life.

[Armin Meiwes]

Listening to HHH recently, it struck me that one of the treats (for me) is hearing The Lad just casually dismissing those things that obviously denoted modern degeneracy - eg: Frothy coffee.

In yesterday's episode, he complained that Hattie Jacques was seduced by the American Airmen offering her 'a stick of chewing gum and two packets of long fags'.

I mean, these aren't jokes as such, but as observations they're brilliantly funny. And now 65 years later what are they? What do they evoke?

Dunno. *presses post*

Amazing that he was 30 when HHH started and still well off 40 by the time it finished given that he played a kind of curmudgeonly middle aged cynic often raging (or at least quietly sighing) at the modern world. Mind you I suppose 30 basically was middle aged back then so maybe not that surprising.

Best episode I can remember for specifically bemoaning the changing times was Fred's Pie Stall.

[gilbertharding]

Galton and Simpson were even younger than him, of course...

Just remembered his withering assessments of whatever Sid is wearing... winkle pickers, drainpipes...

[famethrowa]

One that sticks with me is our Tony complaining about pine needles on the Christmas tree... "I come running down in my rope sandals, and my feet look like pin cushions!" Such petty and wonderful sniping.

[crowsfeet]

Best episode I can remember for specifically bemoaning the changing times was Fred's Pie Stall.

"Oh dear...how plebeian."

One of the finest episodes

[Autopsy Turvey]

Not really sure what the OP is looking for, but I still wonder at how relatable HHH seemed to me as an adolescent in the late 80s. There's a recurring theme of the susceptibility of identities to cultural influences, like Hancock listening to the Archers and getting all Arcadian and rustic, and Miss Pugh "coming out of the pictures after seeing Marilyn Monroe, swinging your hips with your mouth half open trying to look sultry."

Or that pre-war copy of the Tailor & Cutter in the dentist's waiting room; every time Hancock has a tooth filled he behaves like Noel Coward for a fortnight.

That all feels very modern in a way.