Usage of stock or archive footage in comedy

[George White]

Was on twitter where there was a conversation from Mumoss about the origin of some of the footage of The Day Today, ie the clip of Greg Louganis splitting his head open and the footage in ep 2 of a witness to the killing of Joy Gardner, and that perhaps knowing the origin kills the entire comic universe.

What are our favourite and least favourite use of pre existing footage in comedy...

For me, the use of RKO films in s2 of the Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos

Oh, and that ITC car off cliff in Father Ted: Hell.

 Re:least favourite, the Joy Gardner one. Also even using a photo of Sidney Cooke in BES feels dodgy.

[Twilkes]

First one that comes to mind is the timepips from Inside Victor Lewis-Smith - now realise they must have re-used the footage from the spaghetti tree April fool gag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzdmLMa83jM#t=5m08s

[Moj]

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

[neveragain]

the footage in ep 2 of a witness to the killing of Joy Gardner

Had no idea about this (and a big fan of TDT). Which clip was it?

[George White]

The bit about the woman being sat on, something about a parrot attack.

[Bernice]

Duck Soup - Help is on the Way.

A very early example that adds to the general surreal cacophony of that final war sequence. Feels very ahead of its time.

[Old Nehamkin]

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 footage of a Women's Institute meeting that was in the BBC archive, apparently. Don't know what it was originally shot for, though.

[Alberon]

Always like it when they're used in a deliberately surreal way like Dougal looking out the window in Father Ted.

Least favourite is probably Chris Morris again. He used a shot of the shocked reaction from mission control when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up.

[dissolute ocelot]

Random animal footage is always funny, as in Reggie Perrin or Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. (Or indeed Father Ted.)

[Brundle-Fly]

I love a good nuclear bomb mushroom cloud insert, talking of which, Not The Nine O'Clock News made good use of news footage and stock stuff. Here's a selection.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Not+The+Nine+Oclock+news+opening+titles

Similarly, Look Around You. Popper and Serafinowicz have such a good eye for archive material.

[Matthew Dawkins Jub Jub]

Random animal footage is always funny, as in Reggie Perrin or Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. (Or indeed Father Ted.)

And of course Python's Lion Tamer sketch!

[Norton Canes]

First thing that sprang to mind was some of the recurrent clips used on Harry Hill's World of TV. Then I realised I couldn't remember any of them specifically. Tomatoes? Concrete?

[Jittlebags]

It's footage of a Women's Institute meeting that was in the BBC archive, apparently. Don't know what it was originally shot for, though.

Churchill getting his cock out probably.

[famethrowa]

Random animal footage is always funny, as in Reggie Perrin or Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. (Or indeed Father Ted.)

[famethrowa]

One that stuck with me is in The Goodies, just before the end of the world, Graeme looks at the TV at (presumably) stock footage of people celebrating in the Trafalgar square fountain.

Also the non-sequitur Western movie ending credits in The Young Ones.

[George White]

I love a good nuclear bomb mushroom cloud insert, talking of which, Not The Nine O'Clock News made good use of news footage and stock stuff. Here's a selection.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Not+The+Nine+Oclock+news+opening+titles

Similarly, Look Around You. Popper and Serafinowicz have such a good eye for archive material.

Same. For years, I've wondered what those clips came from.
Aside from the World About Us - Tlentifini Maarhaysu.
Like what doc did the American Policeman come from? Or the businessmen meditating? Or that footage of Britain's most Beautiful Bottom?

[neveragain]

The bit about the woman being sat on, something about a parrot attack.

Oh my God, that's quite vile. I always thought there was something odd about that clip, I assumed it was someone acting poorly. Turns out they were genuinely distressed. My view of what's suitable in this regard is very malleable, but at the moment it seems a bit of a misfire.

[Uncle TechTip]

One that stuck with me is in The Goodies, just before the end of the world, Graeme looks at the TV at (presumably) stock footage of people celebrating in the Trafalgar square fountain.

Also the non-sequitur Western movie ending credits in The Young Ones.

John Hoare did a detailed analysis of all the subliminal bits in the Young Ones and why they were there. https://www.dirtyfeed.org/2023/01/freeze-frame-part-1/

[George White]

Always like it when they're used in a deliberately surreal way like Dougal looking out the window in Father Ted.

Least favourite is probably Chris Morris again. He used a shot of the shocked reaction from mission control when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up.

Is that for Sidney Cooke's space prison?

This Tomorrow's World btw contains the Goodier RokTV clip from TDT.


I've already mentioned Hoare (he's Mumoss on twitter) for inspiring this thread. His good work inspires us all, I hope.

[petril]

the clip of the pub where everyone's looking in a different direction, from Look Around You series one

about 2.10 into Music

[George White]

https://www.dirtyfeed.org/2021/04/hi-de-hi-closing-part-two/ FIne article by John Hoare here on the Hi-De-hi titles.

[Alberon]

Is that for Sidney Cooke's space prison?

Yeah, that's it.

I know it's a bit hypocritical what with the jokes I've enjoyed (and made) about the Titan sub imploding recently. I suppose it's because it was a big event for me at the time being such a space and science fan.

[Norton Canes]

First thing that sprang to mind was some of the recurrent clips used on Harry Hill's World of TV. Then I realised I couldn't remember any of them specifically. Tomatoes? Concrete?

Ah yes, who could forget

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

[Sebastian Cobb]

Random animal footage is always funny, as in Reggie Perrin or Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. (Or indeed Father Ted.)

And it has the thing of being a shot-on-video sitcom cutting away to faded archive film.

The opposite of this being (alright it's not a comedy, but still) the track footage of Tony Sopranos horses losing, which cut from decent quality (especially in HD) 35mm to piss poor video shot from a US race track for the trackside/bookie feeds. Even when I worked in a bookies in 2009, American track footage looked like it was shot on 70's tube cameras, just a blurry brown mess for reasons I can't understand.

[George White]

Is the Comtrex ad genuine... Always wondered.

[PammySpacek]

Is the Comtrex ad genuine... Always wondered.

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.

(There's just one thing that bothers me about that bit, and it's the really bad interlacing artifacts on the clip used. I'm guessing Serafinowicz couldn't find a better quality version.)

Also once upon a time, you couldn't have had a thread like this without this getting mentioned:

[George White]

I already did mention it, spec. the use of RKO films.

[Alberon]

Ah, well. If you're talking about comedy redubs of old stuff there's The Flashing Blade from some BBC saturday morning show.

Apparently the spoof script was written by a Russell T. Davies who has since disappeared completely.

And, of course, there's Bargearse.

[studpuppet]

I always loved seeing sketch shows use airport stock footage as shorthand for 'going far away' - my favourite is arty Feldman's 'She thinks I'm putting the cat out' sketch where his lovers' locations get ever more convoluted (the earlier scenes are shot for the sketch), and it's got the magic ingredient of studio-video-to-on-location-film feel to it as well.