Comedy shows which have an unsettling atmosphere about them...

[Kane Jones]

Ah well, horses for courses and all that.  'Hole' is a fantastic episode, but it's the whole 'hand of God' thing that spoils it.  See for me, despite it's over-the-top violence, Bottom always teetered on the brink of reality - but moments like the Hand of God, Richie chainsawing Eddie's legs off, driving ridiculously fast through the countryside, etc just well.. er, literally - lost the plot.

And Parade, Hole and S'Out are good episodes too!  The 'You sucked water in through your eyes?' gag from Parade is one of my favourite Bottom moments. It's just round about that time that when the episodes finished, I didn't feel as nourished as say when I first saw 'Smells' or 'Gas'. ie; giddy from the spiralling mayhem, and aching from laughter.  For me there was the feeling of watching something absolutely top notch right up until the middle of series two, and then it became just something really funny!

(Anyway as I said, I can sit down and enjoy any Bottom episode - series 1 through to 3.  Well, all apart from 'Finger' - which I will happily write off as being utter crap from start to finish.)

[Jemble Fred]

To prove it is not just an age/unsuitable TV combination, I have recently been watching Innes Book Of Records for the first time. I love it, but I find myself with a really kind of empty, hollow feeling, that is not quite fear and not quite depression. Very strange.

That's exactly the feeling it used to induce in me; to the extent that I had to stop watching it.  I used to come away from an episode feeling 'flat' and strangely sad.

I sort of know what you mean, but it's only the Catmeat Conga that makes me shout for my Mum.

One of the most excitingly eerie shows for me has to be The Weekenders. More than any other Vic & Bob project, it just oozes creepy unpredictability. Perhaps it's because it was the first time we saw R&M humour in something akin to 'the real world'. Perhaps it's just because it's a work of.... [notusedlightly]genius.[/notusedlightly]

[neveragain]

The Brittas Empire - truly erratic characters, a great deal of darkness in many areas, quite a bit of audience-confusing what-the-fuckery and more deaths than the Holocaust.

[Sigmund Fraud]

To pick up on what ELW10 said in the first post, I was nine in 1994 and I remember watching The Day Today and finding it very disturbing. It was a mixture of two things I think.

Firstly, the basic premise of unusual news stories being presented in such a real way was very disorienting. Being nine I had little reason to suspect that bomb-dogs didn't actually exist, because you're raised to think that anything you see on the news is true. The Day Today looked like news, it smelled like news, so I thought it was news. Hence I thought next-door's dog might explode.

Secondly, Chris Morris' face genuinely used to scare me. I have no idea why, but it did. Years later when Brass Eye was shown on Channel 4, although I'd smartened up to some extent (I'd seen adverts and clips for ths show and remember finding certain bits funny, whereas I was quite dismissive of TDT) I was put off watching the show because of Morris. I thought of him as 'someone I don't like' and ignored Brass Eye because of that stigma.

So yes. Chris Morris has an unsettling atmosphere about his person.

[23 Daves]

Very disturbing - that bit in "Father Ted" where Richard Wilson starts screaming because all he can hear in the Very Dark Caves is Ted's voice echoing "I don't believe it... don't believe it... don't believe it..."  I remember the first time I saw it the friend I was watching it with actually said "Eurgh, that's horrible".

I'd also echo the opinion that some of the later "Shelleys" were indeed bleak and worrying.  One episode that always sticks out in my mind is where he's living with that single old man on a largely demolished estate, and the man keeps on and on telling him that he's in with a chance with a local news reporter who is visiting.  In the end, Shelley just gives up on the idea, and the older gent sleeps with her instead.  To which Shelley just shrugs.  Plenty of humour always came from his levels of cynicism, but towards the end he behaved as if he'd totally given up on everything around him, even when the opportunities were there for the taking.

[Panbaams]

Derek and Clive Get the Horn: aside from some of the material, you feel it particularly during the bust and when the stripper turns up.

The Peter Cook Talks Golf Balls! video has some very unsettling moments. It was pretty much the last thing PC ever did and he doesn't look in great shape – sweating freely when he's playing the secretary of the golf club, awkwardly trying to pull things out of the golf bag when he plays the American commentator ... you wonder how much of it is acting and how much of it is real. Plus the whole thing was made for about 20 quid, so that's a bit disorientating as well. Golf Balls came in for a bit of stick in Publish and Bedazzled, but I've always thought that there's some good jokes in it – but there's always a nagging feeling of "Doesn't he look terrible?" whenever you watch it.

[Dark Sky]

Early Red Dwarf's an obvious one

'Confidence And Paranoia' never ever sat comfortably with me as an episode. Even now I skip that one on the DVD.

I'd forgotten how freaky that one is!

What about Waiting For God?!  There's a bizarre and empty and sad episode!  They completely changed it on the Remastered version to try and make it less bleak (by removing a lot of the organ music and editing out a lot of the Cat's blazé comments whilst the Old Priest Cat is dying).  

Forgot how much I loved series one of Red Dwarf.  So sad and lonely and lovely...they didn't rekindle that brilliant atmosphere until series seven.

I'm trying to think of another example of a freaky-atmosphered comedy programme but I can't at the moment.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's a shit show, but every sketch apart from the Chav one and the swearing pensioner on The Catherine Tate Show is really uneasy. It's an odd show to watch. Then again, it's not funny so I don't watch it very often.

[kenneth trousers]

Friends.
No, seriously. The story line of Monica and Chandler adopting (taking) the new born babies of a young mother. The character of the woman was of a young, white trash girl. It was as if the writers were saying, "No, don't feel sorry for her, she is poor and stupid, and besides we all know how nice Monica and Chandler are."
Infact, wasn't there some sort of payment for the babies?

[Pepotamo1985]

I'd like to say A Bear's Tail makes for unsettling watching, if only because I keep asking myself "Why?".

[Mr Grue]

It's a shit show, but every sketch apart from the Chav one and the swearing pensioner on The Catherine Tate Show is really uneasy. It's an odd show to watch. Then again, it's not funny so I don't watch it very often.

I find the school girl unsettling because of the way she ends up rejecting everything that is offered to her. I went a bit watchng the 2.1 sketch where she ends up getting thrown off the day trip. But then I cried at the end of the South Park Movie.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Derek and Clive Get the Horn: aside from some of the material, you feel it particularly during the bust and when the stripper turns up.

Absolutely - the whole 'long lost recording' background to it helps, but it's unsettling anyway. Not for 'Peter hated Dudley' reasons, but just because of the look of it. The darkness in the studio. Cook's sunglasses. The way it's ambiguous whether it's daytime or evening. Then you learn other bits that unsettle you - the fact that Cook's friend Keith Moon had died the day before, for example.

Anyone seen Behind the Fridge? The sketch in the taxi has a horrible atmos to it. And Cook looks exactly like he did in D&CGTH.

I find Derek and Clive Come Again has an unsettling atmosphere. Not because of the subject matter, but because (apparently) nobody knows where/when it was recorded. That freaks me out.

[Dark Sky]

Stressed Eric used to make me actual feel incredibly stressed out and sweating and hyperventilating by the end of each episode...

That count?

[Mr Grue]

Derek and Clive Get the Horn: aside from some of the material, you feel it particularly during the bust and when the stripper turns up.

Anyone seen Behind the Fridge? The sketch in the taxi has a horrible atmos to it. And Cook looks exactly like he did in D&CGTH.

That's one of the most troubling skits going. It was purloined by 2001 Footlights quite effectively too.

[neveragain]

Hoh yes. And I'd like to add some more comments about the 'Waiting For God' episode of 'Red Dwarf'. Noel Coleman as the old cat priest is fantastic, more than words could describe in my opinion. And yes, it is incredibly sad. Someone devoting their entire existence to something completely untrue and then being lied to before they die. 'This... is the happiest day of my liii-agh.'

I really wish they'd kept the rest of the series in the same vein as the first three. Grant and Naylor keep going on about how wrong the grey set was but it isn't, it's utterly perfect to capture the bleakness of their situation.

Oh, and as a side-note: 'Frasier', by which I mean the programme, can get incredibly sad and tense at times, giving it an occassionally perturbing feel.

[Jemble Fred]

I find Derek and Clive Come Again has an unsettling atmosphere. Not because of the subject matter, but because (apparently) nobody knows where/when it was recorded. That freaks me out.

Hang on, I thought that was Goldhawk Road as well?

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Hang on, I thought that was Goldhawk Road as well?

Is that the Townhouse Studios, where they did Ad Nauseam? I don't know - the PCAS people told me once that recording info about Come Again is impossible to track down. I think the identity of the producer/engineer is unknown too.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Is this the Ad Nauseam studio? If so, they've done it up.

http://www.4rfv.co.uk/outside.asp?id=16423&to=www.townhousestudios.co.uk&cat=239

[Jemble Fred]

No, I can just about make out the celery stains.

[trotsky assortment]

The darkness in the studio. Cook's sunglasses.

I've never had the stomach to watch the whole thing, but last time I saw clips on the TV, I also found those sunglasses troubling.  I felt kind of silly for feeling uneasy over something that trivial, but it is definitely unnerving.

[dan dirty ape]

but there's always a nagging feeling of "Doesn't he look terrible?" whenever you watch it.

This reminds me of 'Atoll K', the last Laurel and Hardy film. Any laughs it may possibly have generated (and its script is actually an improvement on some of the mid 40's L&H films) are killed dead by the shocking appearance of both of them, particularly Stan Laurel. Watching a man so obviously gravely ill attempting the usual pratfalls feels ghoulish in the extreme.

[dan dirty ape]

Derek and Clive Get the Horn: aside from some of the material, you feel it particularly during the bust and when the stripper turns up.

Anyone seen Behind the Fridge? The sketch in the taxi has a horrible atmos to it. And Cook looks exactly like he did in D&CGTH.

That's one of the most troubling skits going. It was purloined by 2001 Footlights quite effectively too.

Ah, yes, I meant to mention that. I've only seen it as part of the Peter Cook documentary a couple of Christmases ago. Really unnerving.
That skit on 'Goodbye Again' about their adultery has a bit of a troubling atmosphere about it as well.

[sam and janet evening]

but there's always a nagging feeling of "Doesn't he look terrible?" whenever you watch it.

This reminds me of 'Atoll K', the last Laurel and Hardy film. Any laughs it may possibly have generated (and its script is actually an improvement on some of the mid 40's L&H films) are killed dead by the shocking appearance of both of them, particularly Stan Laurel. Watching a man so obviously gravely ill attempting the usual pratfalls feels ghoulish in the extreme.

On a similar note I saw some bits from a Buster Keaton 'talkie' called 'What No Beer' (I think) in which he plays a heavy drinker. Buster was pretty much an alchoholic himself at the time, and watching him slurring lines for laughs and because he can't help it is very troubling. He looks awful as well and his timings shot. It appears to be a typical late-thirties throwaway comedy, which somehow makes it more depressing. I haven't seen the whole thing though, so maybe the scenes give a false impression.

Oh, and I like that 'Mini-Drama' sketch too ; )

[Narshty]

One episode of Stressed Eric made me feel genuinely queasy. It's set in a hospital, and it's basically an entire episode of Eric being inadvertently tortured again and again. Near the end, he gets accidentally caught up in a fight in the waiting room and ends up being stabbed through the leg, cue much wailing and sobbing. It freaked the hell out of me at the time.

[Squidy]

Even more unpleasant than that was the episode of Stressed Eric which ended with the explosion of a pony.

[The Mumbler]

You chaps should seek out "Well Anyway", a sitcom from Bird and Fortune circa 76/77. Shown once only. Cold, unsettling, completely unpredictable and funny flat-share comedy. Lobby your MPs for a DVD release.

Didn't Bird lament that they'd been wiped in Fringe To Flying Circus?  He also described that series as "our last chance with the BBC".  Shame - it sounded fascinating.

Another mention for Some Mothers - the Morris Minor on a cliff-edge (which as I mentioned on another thread, distressed me greatly as a small child) is a deeply uneasy thing to watch even as an adult.  The rapid zoom out is in itself a shock.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/w/wellanyway_1299003312.shtml

[benthalo]

Two editions survive according to Kaleidoscope - an untransmitted pilot and show 4, 'There Again' tx 15/10/76. My rule of thumb is to never believe what comics of that generation* say about the BBC wiping policy. It's usually a great deal more complex.

I recently tracked down a trailer for A Series Of Birds: Here Come The Trendies, which constitutes the only surviving material for that series. All three seconds of footage. Just thought I'd share that.

* And Stewart Lee.

[benthalo]

This reminds me of 'Atoll K', the last Laurel and Hardy film. Any laughs it may possibly have generated (and its script is actually an improvement on some of the mid 40's L&H films) are killed dead by the shocking appearance of both of them, particularly Stan Laurel. Watching a man so obviously gravely ill attempting the usual pratfalls feels ghoulish in the extreme.

Quite. See also their hideous This Is Your Life (they'd clearly just been having an argument, and recognised no one), or the genuinely distressing Babes In Toyland (for fairy tale reasons alone).

[The Mumbler]

Two editions survive according to Kaleidoscope - an untransmitted pilot and show 4, 'There Again' tx 15/10/76. My rule of thumb is to never believe what comics of that generation* say about the BBC wiping policy. It's usually a great deal more complex.

I recently tracked down a trailer for A Series Of Birds: Here Come The Trendies, which constitutes the only surviving material for that series. All three seconds of footage. Just thought I'd share that.

* And Stewart Lee.

Wow - some more things for people to request BBC Four to show, only for them to either a) ignore it completely, or b) broadcast some continuity announcements in the middle "by accident" or some other fuck-up.