Depiction of the police in comedy

[evilcommiedictator]

Tiptoes around Police Academy......

[JesusAndYourBush]

Do you remember that old trop of the bobby on the beat bending his legs akimbo then straightening them while keeping  his hands behind his back?

When I was about 10 I was coming out of school and a policeman walked past so I did the leg bend thing accompanied by the words "evening all" and my trousers split.

I've no idea what it was from.  Some programme I never saw because it was before my time probably.  Dixon of Dock Green??

[Mr Banlon]

The two coppers from Early Doors https://youtu.be/bYXc4Au12fs?t=142

[Phoenix Lazarus]

When I was about 10 I was coming out of school and a policeman walked past so I did the leg bend thing accompanied by the words "evening all" and my trousers split.

I've no idea what it was from. 

From them being too tight or worn-out, I imagine.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The deeply corrupt Officers George Green and Ted Johnson beating Jim Lahey with a stack of telephone books.

Weren't a good proportion of the Nova Scotia officers on Trailer Park Boys gay/bi actually? Idk how true-to-life that is.

I quite like how they faded in the fact that all of them use Lahey's 'shittisms', like when Julian is dating one of them but she realises he's a bad dude and says "I guess a shit-leopard can't change it's spots".

[king_tubby]

All seven seasons of Trailer Park Boys were great on so many levels. What a pity they stopped after that and did nothing else that would sully their legacy.

[Sebastian Cobb]

All seven seasons of Trailer Park Boys were great on so many levels. What a pity they stopped after that and did nothing else that would sully their legacy.

Agreed. Although in one of the crap later series that doesn't exist I was in fits of laughter at Lahey turning himself blue in that paddling pool of moonshine.

[king_tubby]

Agreed. Although in one of the crap later series that doesn't exist I was in fits of laughter at Lahey turning himself blue in that paddling pool of moonshine.

I couldn't go on with it. It's up there with Futurama.

[Alternative Carpark]

When I was about 10 I was coming out of school and a policeman walked past so I did the leg bend thing accompanied by the words "evening all" and my trousers split.

I've no idea what it was from.  Some programme I never saw because it was before my time probably.  Dixon of Dock Green??

Very old thing that, probably originates in Victorian music hall.

[Glebe]

Constable Savage on NTNOCN, and the treatment of any police characters (Neil's "Open up, it's the Pigs!", and Jim Barclay's racist copper with the sunglasses come to mind) in The Young Ones were my first exposure to the idea that the police weren't anything other than fundamentally a Force For Good in the world.

"Take the tit off your 'ead!" It's been discussed before, but cuts were made to that episode when it was screened in the '90s, I think.

Scanning through the thread mine eyes have failed to spot any mention of Cannon & Ball movie The Boys in Blue!

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Do you remember that old trop of the bobby on the beat bending his legs akimbo then straightening them while keeping  his hands behind his back?

For some reason this has me thinking of a gag where some robbers are trying to get away from coppers, and they get on a cart that won't move, so they get the coppers on who all do the leg-bend thing in unison and they rev up like an engine and drive the cart down the street.

This is probably either Milligan or me imagining that a Beano comic I read was something off tv

[studpuppet]

"Take the tit off your 'ead!" It's been discussed before, but cuts were made to that episode when it was screened in the '90s, I think.

Yes. From Wikipedia:

Spoiler alert

This episode is rarely repeated on television because of its racial content, including two uses of "coon", one use of "sambo", and one use of "n**ger". All three words are spoken in a scene by a Caucasian policeman in sunglasses unaware that his interlocutor is white until he removes them, satirising the severe racial issues that affected the police at this time. When it is shown on television, it is edited to remove these references.

[close]

[studpuppet]

Capitalist Police!

Gay Police!

[Glebe]

Yes. From Wikipedia:

Spoiler alert

This episode is rarely repeated on television because of its racial content, including two uses of "coon", one use of "sambo", and one use of "n**ger". All three words are spoken in a scene by a Caucasian policeman in sunglasses unaware that his interlocutor is white until he removes them, satirising the severe racial issues that affected the police at this time. When it is shown on television, it is edited to remove these references.

[close]

Ah right cheers.

[Harpo Speaks]

Springfield cops are on the take
But what do you expect for the money we make?
Whether in a car or on a horse
We don't mind using excessive force

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Here's D'Unbelievables "Crime Busters" sketch:

As with most D'Unbelievables sketches it draws on and lampoons "characters" from rural Ireland, in this case rural Gardaí, treating the community with barely disguised contempt while also being utterly inept.

[popcorn]

Wiggum!

[H-O-W-L]

Yes. From Wikipedia:

Spoiler alert

This episode is rarely repeated on television because of its racial content, including two uses of "coon", one use of "sambo", and one use of "n**ger". All three words are spoken in a scene by a Caucasian policeman in sunglasses unaware that his interlocutor is white until he removes them, satirising the severe racial issues that affected the police at this time. When it is shown on television, it is edited to remove these references.

[close]

Pretty sure the early DVDs or VHS tapes (can't remember which) also exclude it.

[Petey Pate]

Three pages in and no one has mentioned this episode from The Simpsons or this specific exchange.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Three pages in and no one has mentioned this episode from The Simpsons or this specific exchange.

The lad released some bangers tbf.

[Ambient Sheep]

For some reason this has me thinking of a gag where some robbers are trying to get away from coppers, and they get on a cart that won't move, so they get the coppers on who all do the leg-bend thing in unison and they rev up like an engine and drive the cart down the street.

This is probably either Milligan or me imagining that a Beano comic I read was something off tv

No, I think it was Milligan, or possibly Dave Allen.  It seems familiar, anyway.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Yes. From Wikipedia:

Spoiler alert

This episode is rarely repeated on television because of its racial content, including two uses of "coon", one use of "sambo", and one use of "n**ger". All three words are spoken in a scene by a Caucasian policeman in sunglasses unaware that his interlocutor is white until he removes them, satirising the severe racial issues that affected the police at this time. When it is shown on television, it is edited to remove these references.

[close]

Don't know about the other words but they left the n-word in when the episode was shown sometime early 2000s (or possibly even later), during some sort of theme evening. I remember people posting in this forum beforehand wondering if they'd edit it, and surprisingly that line remained intact

[purlieu]

Didn't Spitting Image often have a policeman come on to just hit people with a truncheon?

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Does Jamie and his Magic Torch count as a comedy because that had an all time weird copper

[JesusAndYourBush]

PC Copper in Bod!

[Gurke and Hare]

Police Constable Pan Am.

[Icehaven]

Regarding Brooklyn 99...

Recently axed partly, apparently, as depicting the police as the loveable scamps you're rooting for doesn't exactly play well anymore. But it was on it's 8th series too so it's probably that as well, they were running out of Die Hard references anyway.

I would imagine it's more to do with it being on its 8th season than anything, but I could be wrong. I know they tried to do a bit of a course correction down the line, but any course correction on a show starring cops could be seen as "not all cops".

...I'm just watching the first episode of the new series and it's 100% about the post George Floyd world.

Spoiler alert

Rosa's quit the force to become a PI helping victims of police brutality, Charles has become obsessive about supporting BLM and Holt's marriage has ended because of the pressures of being a black policeman.

[close]

Be interested to see if it stays the prevalent theme through the whole series but it looks like it probably did have quite a lot to do with why it's been axed.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I watched Super Troopers for the first time in ages the other day. I doubt the makers were trying to make any kind of point with it, but it's all a bit dodgy: The main characters basically harass the public for their own amusement. One of them brutalises someone and it's played for laughs. The baddies turn out to be the local rival cops, but they're arrested by our team of lovable goofs, thus upholding the comforting myth that the system will deal with any bad apples.

I still love it though.

[gib]

Very old thing that, probably originates in Victorian music hall.

That sounds right but i'd love to know more. Sometimes the policeman is gently swinging his truncheon from side to side behind his back and it only becomes visible to the audience when the leg bend is performed, at least in my head.

[beanheadmcginty]

The policeman in Punch and Judy shows is usually a bit of a prick.