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Two Ronnies Star Wars parody musical number.

Started by Glebe, July 17, 2022, 09:39:39 PM

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George White

Quote from: Glebe on July 21, 2022, 12:11:03 AMShot-on-film movie parody sketch 'The Secret of the Sorcerer's Tomb' (which I can currently only find in the form of this shitty upload) features a
Spoiler alert
giant puppet Rabbi monster
[close]
(yes,really) that cracked me up as a kid but yeah, 'kin 'ell.

It's from the second-last ever Two Rons... there was a Gold rerun a few years ago that cut the entire offending piece out, except that part of it was shown during the closing credits!

Oh yeah, here's David Baddiel, Jenny Eclair and a priest reacting to the moment:


Think I've seen that before, from some doco about racism in comedy presumably.


The thing is, there's a 90s kids movie with Mara Wilson and produced by SId Sheinberg (both Jewish), A Simple Wish that has the exact same joke - where she wishes for a giant rabbit and Martin Short's inexperienced fairy godparent makes a giant rabbi. Except there it is just a bit-parter actor blown up photographically, and not a weird puppet thing.

poodlefaker

Crazy to think of Ronnie Barker in his mid 50s, sitting through TOTP every week looking for material. Surprised he wasn't tempted by Come On Eileen (RC in dungarees, marching on the spot) or This Charming Man...

I found it weird and out-of-character when Barker impersonated Buster Bloodvessel.  Part of the Two Ron's charm was the typical quaint, old-time-musical/music-hall character of their song and dance numbers.

idunnosomename

Quote from: Glebe on July 21, 2022, 12:11:03 AMShot-on-film movie parody sketch 'The Secret of the Sorcerer's Tomb' (which I can currently only find in the form of this shitty upload) features a
Spoiler alert
giant puppet Rabbi monster
[close]
(yes,really) that cracked me up as a kid but yeah, 'kin 'ell.

It's from the second-last ever Two Rons... there was a Gold rerun a few years ago that cut the entire offending piece out, except that part of it was shown during the closing credits!

Oh yeah, here's David Baddiel, Jenny Eclair and a priest reacting to the moment:


Think I've seen that before, from some doco about racism in comedy presumably.
David Baddiel takes a sideways look at anti-Semitism

By which he seems to sniff and doesnt say anything

Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: idunnosomename on July 21, 2022, 12:28:27 PMDavid Baddiel takes a sideways look...

Jews... always on the look out for the margins

(this is a very intellectual literary joke for the people in the back who like a bit of philology humour now and then, not a joke about money like you all thought aahhhhh)

Video Game Fan 2000


Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on July 20, 2022, 09:10:34 PMWhen I was a kid, yeah. When I was that age, the serials were the best bit and I just wanted this week's episode of The Phantom Raspberry Blower to hurry up and be on.

Yes, this.  Although not so much with the other serials.  I did like the wordplay sketches too.

My parents hated the monologues too, mind.  Definitely "nip to the loo or kitchen" time.  Never seen one as an adult.

Brundle-Fly

As a kid, I remember nearly having a coronary watching this moment I was laughing so much.


I knew it was co-written by Spike Milligan with Ronnie B but didn't know the back story and who provided the raspberries.

WIKI

The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town was a 1971 episode of LWT's Six Dates with Barker that was written by Spike Milligan and later adapted by Ronnie Barker for The Two Ronnies sketch show. Set in Victorian London, it featured a Jack the Ripper–style madman who stalked the streets and killed or stunned his victims by blowing them a raspberry.

The title was preceded by the words "Chopper Films Presents", a parody of Hammer Films, and the writing of the serial was credited to "Spike Milligan and a gentleman". The "Gentleman" listed as the co-writer was Gerald Wiley, the pseudonym used by Ronnie Barker as a comedy writer. The story was originally conceived as a TV special for Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Spike Milligan, to be produced by Peter Eton, their old Goon Show producer. Plans for the project were cancelled due to Peter Sellers' Hollywood commitments. The Phantom finally saw the light of day in an episode of Six Dates with Barker, broadcast on 15 January 1971, with Alan Curtis playing the role of the Phantom. Despite some sources claiming that Milligan provided the raspberry of the title, it was actually Barker's co-star from Open All Hours, David Jason, who was responsible for this sound effect - Jason confirmed this in his 2013 autobiography.

A stage version ran at the St. James Theatre in London from 30 October to 1 November 2015, with the premiere in aid of The Princes Trust. It was adapted by Lee Moone, with the addition of comedy songs. The format was as a live radio show, complete with sound effects. Each evening a different mystery guest was cast as the Phantom and could be heard offstage until the reveal in the closing scenes. The guests were John Culshaw, John Challis and Danny Baker. The director was Dirk Maggs.

Ambient Sheep

Yes!!!  Same here, to be honest it's the only bit I can remember of it to this day!

We re-enacted that scene in the playground for days on end.


EDIT: The David Jason revelation a few years back really surprised me, as I remember reading around the time of broadcast that Spike Milligan only consented to it being made if he could blow all the raspberries himself.  Presumably banter for the Radio Times or whatever; it does sound more like Jason.

Also had no idea a version of it was in Six Dates With Barker.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 21, 2022, 09:31:17 PMYes!!!  Same here, to be honest it's the only bit I can remember of it to this day!

We re-enacted that scene in the playground for days on end.


Ha! We did as well. It was the copper's unnecessary repetition of "Here, I want a word with you!'" and the final short raspberry that killed me.

grainger

#70
Goodness, this thread has brought back a fleeting memory. Here's my grandparents' critical view of the Corbett-in-a-chair bits, circa 1982.

Grandad: "He's clever. He starts with one joke and ends up with about... a dozen!"
Gran: "Clever at reading off a card!"


Alberon

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 21, 2022, 09:31:17 PMEDIT: The David Jason revelation a few years back really surprised me, as I remember reading around the time of broadcast that Spike Milligan only consented to it being made if he could blow all the raspberries himself.  Presumably banter for the Radio Times or whatever; it does sound more like Jason.

Yeah, well Jason claimed he was offered the role of Father Ted first so I take all he says with a pinch of salt.

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 21, 2022, 09:31:17 PMAlso had no idea a version of it was in Six Dates With Barker.

Me neither. Does it still exist?

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Alberon on July 22, 2022, 08:39:56 AMMe neither. Does it still exist?

Yes and is commercially available from Network.

Two other episodes of Six Dates with Barker were redone. One evolved into Clarence and the other became a film, The Odd Job, which retained David Jason but replaced Barker with Graham Chapman.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Alberon on July 22, 2022, 08:39:56 AMYeah, well Jason claimed he was offered the role of Father Ted first so I take all he says with a pinch of salt.

Tell me about it. Once, I bought a Futafax fax machine off him down Peckham market. It didn't work and there was no guarantee either.

Autopsy Turvey

Quote from: Video Game Fan 2000 on July 20, 2022, 04:47:04 PMThere are probably less than a dozen Python episodes that are funny all the way through

For me there are less than a dozen that aren't funny all the way through (and most of them are in the first series). There is just such an unfeasible amount to enjoy, if not actual lines then ideas, performances, deliveries, costumes, sets, aesthetics generally, or just tiny little references that only make you laugh when you find out what they were referring to. Flying Circus is full of these "unexploded bomb" laughs. Some of them took 30 years to register!

QuoteMe mam was watching Two Ronnies full episodes on TV Gold ages ago, no idea if they were edited for broadcast but so much of it was horrible, far more stereotype humour than I remembered,

See maybe this should be regarded as a guilty pleasure but (as you may have perceived from previous interactions) I do tend to find stereotypes very funny. Perhaps especially now that they're regarded as heinously out of order. They're invariably so absurdly reductive that the idea of anyone taking them seriously as a comment on an entire group of people makes them even more funny.

QuoteI really, really enjoy a Ronnie Corbett monologue I've never heard before. The boomer Stewart Lee. Did people really think these were boring?

I'm compelled alas to pedantically assert that Ronnie C was way pre-boomer, he's technically Silent Generation (1928ish-45), very nearly scraping into the Greatests.

Funny that you draw comparison with Stewart Lee because Armando Iannucci, on (I think) an IAP commentary, refers to watching the Two Ronnies musical guests and thinking "I don't want this, I want to see Ronnie Barker. Not so much Ronnie Corbett..." It was kind of fashionable for a long time to lionise Barker while diminishing Corbett, perhaps solely because of the NT9OCN LIE that "he writes most of the scripts and makes sure I get all the crappy bits".

I never understood that snobbery, Barker's monologues were way more hit-and-miss than RC in the chair, which were almost always ace. I used to put it down to RC's easy charm, conversational delivery and sparkling rapport until I found the book of Spike Mullins' RC monologues and found myself laughing out loud on every page at actual jokes and specific phrasings.

The Giant Rabbi is nothing you wouldn't see in a 21st century Family Guy, and ironically looks like the Spitting Image David Baddiel puppet.

Video Game Fan 2000

#75
Quote from: Autopsy Turvey on July 22, 2022, 03:51:27 PMFor me there are less than a dozen that aren't funny all the way through (and most of them are in the first series). There is just such an unfeasible amount to enjoy, if not actual lines then ideas, performances, deliveries, costumes, sets, aesthetics generally, or just tiny little references that only make you laugh when you find out what they were referring to. Flying Circus is full of these "unexploded bomb" laughs. Some of them took 30 years to register!

Yeah, I meant something like this when I said not many of them were funny all the way through but I still enjoy a huge amount of Python. Those dozen to fifteen episodes are constant laughs for me even though I've seen them dozens of time since I was teenager, but others are one or two bigs laughs and a lot of stuff thats funny and interesting. "Python-esque" doesn't really cover everything you say about deliveries, costumes, sets, etc. Its not just LOL Random but real absurdity, which is still rare in pop culture. At least until shitposting became a thing.

Quote from: Autopsy Turvey on July 22, 2022, 03:51:27 PMSee maybe this should be regarded as a guilty pleasure but (as you may have perceived from previous interactions) I do tend to find stereotypes very funny. Perhaps especially now that they're regarded as heinously out of order. They're invariably so absurdly reductive that the idea of anyone taking them seriously as a comment on an entire group of people makes them even more funny.

I actually agree with this. What killjoy doesn't love a good comedy German? But its not the Ronnies wheelhouse. Its lazy when the only joke is "he's italian". Incongruous terrible or bluntly reductive stereotypes are funny to me but you have to be good to pull them off. Like pie-in-the-face gags its something thats always funny in theory but execution is everything. When we argued about Little Britain and Enfield's slobs a while ago, its not the stereotype part that I was objecting to it was the "message" or notion of them being true to life. Stereotype humour, if its good, is the opposite to that.

I'll defend Corbett's monologues forever. Constantly telegraphing the punchlines, remarking on his own awful delivery, ruining his jokes and pacing with digressions. As a kid they were death but now I appreciate the fuck out of them.






Bennett Brauer


Quote from: Video Game Fan 2000 on July 20, 2022, 04:47:04 PMAnd I really, really enjoy a Ronnie Corbett monologue I've never heard before. The boomer Stewart Lee. Did people really think these were boring?

I liked the monologues a lot when I was a kid, I was fascinated with the mentions of 'the producer'.

In my memory every song they ever did was "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General".

TheMonk

This sketch is a prime example of the unusually slow pace that ran through the Two Ronnies. Even in their prime I remember thinking how slowly Ronnie Corbett's jokes and Barker's monologues would roll out. Many sketches would go on too long. It had its own pace in a world where sketch comedy was picking up pace.

Brundle-Fly

My favourite bit in The Two Ronnies were the house party sketches. A group of adults standing around drinking wine in a living room was so exotic to me as my parents never held anything like this in our home.

Although, I think this one was favourite ever TTR sketch. Wonderfully contrived and juvenile; so the perfect humour for a little nerdy kid. Mind you, rewatching it now, I forgot about the light-hearted sexual assault.


TheMonk

The whole of the Top Of The Pops sketch seems pretty different in tone to a lot of their stuff. Barker doing Bad Manners is spirited and Corbett's Adam Ant is a sight for sore eyes. There is absolutely no point to them doing Chas and Dave though.

Spudgun

Quote from: TheMonk on July 25, 2022, 04:36:23 PMThere is absolutely no point to them doing Chas and Dave though.
Oh, I don't know - I thought there was mileage in the concept (each hating the other's guts and taking cheap shots at each other in song). It definitely fell flat in execution, though.

On a slightly different note, this recently appeared on YouTube:


It's Ronnie Barker talking about his career specifically as a writer. Some of the sketches have been cut out, unfortunately, but it's still worth a watch.

Des Wigwam

Quote from: TheMonk on July 25, 2022, 04:36:23 PMThere is absolutely no point to them doing Chas and Dave though.

I quite liked the Chas and Dave bit in that it was all about the two of the bickering albeit a bit too low key. And it was good that it wasn't just a patter song. But yes it then flip-flopped between that and them just covering Rabbit - took me a few seconds to realise it was just a cover.

Glebe

#83
Quote from: George White on July 21, 2022, 06:09:47 AMThe thing is, there's a 90s kids movie with Mara Wilson and produced by SId Sheinberg (both Jewish), A Simple Wish that has the exact same joke - where she wishes for a giant rabbit and Martin Short's inexperienced fairy godparent makes a giant rabbi. Except there it is just a bit-parter actor blown up photographically, and not a weird puppet thing.

Crikey. Rip-off or coincidence? YOU decide!

The sketch must surely have been influenced by Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 22, 2022, 09:16:00 AMYes and is commercially available from Network.

Two other episodes of Six Dates with Barker were redone. One evolved into Clarence and the other became a film, The Odd Job, which retained David Jason but replaced Barker with Graham Chapman.

Chalk me up as another CaBber who didn't know Raspberry Blower had previously been done by Barker, until I watched it on YT awhile ago... look's like it's been taken down, in fact out of the six episodes of the series only the Clarence one is still be up, while 'Lola' is on Dailymotion.


Nice trio of Barker, Jason and Joan Sims in 'The Odd Job', while 'Come in and Lie Down' is a two-hander with Michael Bates and was written by John Cleese (although this'll all be old news to you Ignatius!).

Glebe

Quote from: Video Game Fan 2000 on July 22, 2022, 05:01:07 PMI'll defend Corbett's monologues forever. Constantly telegraphing the punchlines, remarking on his own awful delivery, ruining his jokes and pacing with digressions. As a kid they were death but now I appreciate the fuck out of them.

"Anyway, as I was saying... heh... as I was saying... before I was so rudely interrupted etc."

Glebe

#85
Also watched a few episodes of Seven of One online during my little Barker kick awhile ago, unfortunately still no sign of three of the episodes,  'My Old Man', (which apparently turned into a vehicle for Clive Dunn at Yorkshire Television), 'Spanner's Eleven' and 'One Man's Meat, but the rest are (at time of writing) on YT, apart from 'Prisoner and Escort', which is on Dailymotion.

That would of course gift us Porridge, and the series also gave us what was to be the pilot of Open All Hours. Meanwhile, Roy Castle and Barker do an entertaining Stan & Ollie in 'Another Fine Mess', while the charming Clement & La Frenais penned 'I'll Fly You for a Quid' was apparently Barker's favourite of the run and he thought it the most likely candidate for a full series, but it sadly came to nowt.






Bennett Brauer

Quote from: Spudgun on July 25, 2022, 09:00:35 PM

It's Ronnie Barker talking about his career specifically as a writer. Some of the sketches have been cut out, unfortunately, but it's still worth a watch.

Interesting, but quite off-putting that RB appears to be reading from a cue card. Maybe because he was a notoriously releuctant interviewee.

Bennett Brauer

Quote from: Glebe on July 29, 2022, 12:13:44 AMMeanwhile, Roy Castle and Barker do an entertaining Stan & Ollie in 'Another Fine Mess'


I have the Seven of One DVD and played the Laurel & Hardy tribute twice because I really wanted to like it for the concept alone, but it's an uncomfortable watch, badly directed, with unfunny jokes and poor timing. Perhaps it was made before the L&H shorts were shown more widely on British TV, because Barker and Castle don't seem to get anywhere near with their impressions. It's more like a Bob Block kids' show, daft and childish but not as funny.

Glebe

Quote from: Bennett Brauer on July 29, 2022, 03:07:58 AMI have the Seven of One DVD and played the Laurel & Hardy tribute twice because I really wanted to like it for the concept alone, but it's an uncomfortable watch, badly directed, with unfunny jokes and poor timing. Perhaps it was made before the L&H shorts were shown more widely on British TV, because Barker and Castle don't seem to get anywhere near with their impressions. It's more like a Bob Block kids' show, daft and childish but not as funny.

I have to admit I was atually somewhat disappointed by their renditions of Stan & Ollie, think I was expecting a bit more.

Ooh look, Ron B episode of Barry Cryer-hosted Comedy Legends!:


Glebe


"And I might cry. Gwyneth Paltrow watch out!"