Usage of stock or archive footage in comedy

[George White]

RE:bargearse, don't forget the Olden Days, their redub of STV-ABC copro Rush. I always found the name 'Les Gock as the young Confucius' hilarious, only recently discovering that Les Gock is an Aussie-Chinese rock musician, and not an attempt to create a pleasingly Aussie stereotypical name for an Aussie-Chinese bit part actor.

[buzby]

I'm fairly sure the Comtrex ad has a couple of alterations, both sound only: first of all there's a

Spoiler alert

fart

[close]

dubbed on, and then Serafinowicz re-does the voice over at the end. It's a very close impersonation of some voice over man from the 80s, whose name I don't know, but I do recognise the impression.

The original VO for that series of Comtrex ads can be found here. As well as the 'Acrobat' and 'Fire Eater' adverts, there was also a 'Martial Artist' version from the same 1984 campaign (from the McCann-Erickson agency, using the same style as the brand's then-current US ad campaign) as well.

The footage used for the 'Never Buy A Used Condom' PIF was taken from this 1986 Public Information Film about a new GP in Kentish Town and a old GP in rural Somerset. Given the 'Intermission' video was made for the 'Look Around You at the BFI' event in 2012, I suspect most of the footage used came from the BFI archives.

[George White]

Christ, I always presumed the BUCA PIF was specially shot.

[buzby]

Christ, I always presumed the BUCA PIF was specially shot.

They would have been hard pushed to find a Subaru 1800GL Estate to film with, as they were almost exclusively sold to farmers and other rural buyers due to them being 4WD (the combination of the Subaru and Toyota Hilux in that sequence is quintessential mid-80s rural hill farming community) and driven until they rusted away. In 2012 there were 8 left on the road in the UK, now there is only one.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

a formative comedy moment for me was seeing a stock footage gag in the Muppet Babies and thinking suddenly knowing intuitively what "subversion" meant

[agentorange76]

Harry Enfield's "Smashie & Nicey: End of an era" mockumentary has some great footage clips interwoven with both Enfield and Whitehouse.

[Catalogue Trousers]

The Pepperpots applauding in Python is one that always comes to mind. No idea where it's from, presumably some kind of newsreel?

It's from one of the earliest National Viewers And Listeners Association rallies that Mary Whitehouse spoke at.

[Oh, Nobody]

There was a period of Brookside where any time a TV was switched on it was showing stock footage of monkeys.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

applauding in Pythonnewsreel?

Was just listening to the Fast Show DVD commentary and Higson said the audience for "where's me washboard" is the same as the one used in Python.

[Menu]

Harry Enfield's "Smashie & Nicey: End of an era" mockumentary has some great footage clips interwoven with both Enfield and Whitehouse.

That's such a good find. One of the few examples of a massively pissed off McCartney. I think the IRL explanation was that he was quite ill. Or is that another clip?

[Replies From View]

That's really well done.  Better than the entirety of Forrest Gump!  Does anyone know where the original interview can be found?  I'd love to know what McCartney was really reacting to.

[Alternative Carpark]

That's really well done.  Better than the entirety of Forrest Gump!  Does anyone know where the original interview can be found?  I'd love to know what McCartney was really reacting to.

It's here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXZ2vAzJa4M

[Replies From View]

Thanks!

[neveragain]

That's really well done.  Better than the entirety of Forrest Gump!

It's a lovely fact that the Smashie and Nicey special came out the same year as Forrest Gump, and the editing effects blow Gump out of the water.

[Brundle-Fly]

There was a period of Brookside where any time a TV was switched on it was showing stock footage of monkeys.

I remember watching an Xmas episode of EastEnders where the Slaters were chuckling away at The Morecambe & Wise Show on the telly. It was one of Eric and Ernie's running gags with Peter Cushing, where the veteran actor keeps asking when he'll get paid his appearance fee from the last series. It made me wonder if the Cushing estate received a residual payment off the back of this particular episode of EastEnders.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I remember how, throughout the seventies, they seemed nearly always use the same sound effect for a window breaking off-camera.  I always recognised the rhythm.

[superthunderstingcar]

I remember watching an Xmas episode of EastEnders where the Slaters were chuckling away at The Morecambe & Wise Show on the telly. It was one of Eric and Ernie's running gags with Peter Cushing, where the veteran actor keeps asking when he'll get paid his appearance fee from the last series. It made me wonder if the Cushing estate received a residual payment off the back of this particular episode of EastEnders.

Eastenders should fully commit to this, and have a CGI Cushing turn up to ask when he'll get paid his residual for that clip being used.

[Glebe]

They could pay the Cushing Estate in Des O' Connor albums.

[Brundle-Fly]

I remember how, throughout the seventies, they seemed nearly always use the same sound effect for a window breaking off-camera.  I always recognised the rhythm.

Ah, Britain's equivalent of the Wilhelm Scream? I love it, never fails to make me laugh especially if you don't see the glass breaking on screen but just a shot of some actors doing over the top grimacing reactions.

https://youtu.be/FtX2j3zgydk&t=5m21s

[Replies From View]

Why do they always use really recognisable sound effects as the ones they repeat most often?  A creaking metal door, a baby laughing.  They always choose something distinctive that will stick in the memory.

[FredNurke]

That glass breaking sound effect's been in use since at least the Goon Show in the 50s. There's also a very distinctive thunderclap sound that you hear everywhere.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

I had the glass breaking sfx on the Young Ones Comic Relief 45 so heard it repetitively.

See also:

The birdsong loop used as ambient noise in Riven, the sequel to Myst. I fucking hate that it still gets used when people are walking through an ancient English woodland with that very specific north American bird song in the background.

That fucking door creak, which I think Red Letter Media have already pointed out.

There is also one baby crying that goes wah-hu-wah-huuu which takes me right out of everything.

[Mr_Simnock]

The noise used for a gush of wind in Unreal, is that in that sound effect in games thing?

[Phoenix Lazarus]

That glass breaking sound effect's been in use since at least the Goon Show in the 50s. There's also a very distinctive thunderclap sound that you hear everywhere.

It partly repeats itself, prolonging the sound of breakage unnaturally.

[neveragain]

I'm always amused that the One Foot In The Grave episode about an abusive care home features a bit of Bottom (the evil nurses are watching it in their staff room.)

[Steven88]

I'm always amused that the One Foot In The Grave episode about an abusive care home features a bit of Bottom (the evil nurses are watching it in their staff room.)

And one of the staff in the care home played Skullcrusher on Bottom.

[DSBoy]

The Stock Footage Sketch Show from Adrian Gray is funny...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqMQQ29T1z8&list=PLIir-QfzN3vXMthSDZmeY9w5b6g53XUwe

[mrfridge]

Whore dogs.

[George White]

Watching the Night Gallery box set and the syndicated cuts of the eps (which were probably the ones aired in Britain) often were padded out with stock footage from other films (mainly Universal).

Stock footage of Frankenstein (1931) -the Housekeeper
Bengal Brigade used in Night Gallery - The Doll.   
Fahrenheit 451, Silent Running - The Different Ones
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon - Logoda's Heads
Colossus, the Forbin Project - Little Girl Lost
Jigsaw (1968), The House of Frankenstein - The Hands of Bogardus Weems
The Animal World - The Painted Mirror
The Birds (1963)- Big Surprise
The Sixth Sense - Coffin, Coffin in the Sky (1972 ep) - The Flipside of Satan
This Island Earth - The Camera Obscura

Night Gallery itself in its original form used
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) castle establishing shot in Quoth, the Raven  and Smile, Please.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) - footage of Sherborne School playing Brookfield School is used to play an 1820s New England medical college.

[neveragain]

That's peculiar. If the syndicated cuts needed padding out, why not just use the originals (or a bit more of them)?