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RIP Ronnie Barker

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Whisky Priestess

16:19 / 05.10.05

The f***ing garbage the fat c*** submitted as entertainment, I suppose, haunted my childhood like a bad, scary dream.

Strenuous abuse of the swear box aside, Grandma, I feel sure that Mr. Barker's output can only have blighted your widowhood at the earliest - unless you are, perhaps, not all you claim to be? Like forty years younger, for a start?

Speaking of which, has anyone seen Alex lately? He's in a terrible state: almost looks like a man twice his age, these days ... ever since the incident. Drooling in his wheelchair, weeping at the sight of a Woodbine and always mumbling, mumbling to himself. The nurses can't really understand him (and frankly, and who can blame them, they don't want to get too close) but they think he's saying something about "freaky Friday" ...

Saveloy

18:10 / 05.10.05

Alex:

" the fat c***"

Well said! It's about time someone had the guts to speak the truth about Barker. Obese wanker, make me fucking puke. Instead of stuffing him full of fucking Baftas they should have wired his fucking jaw up. Wobbling all over the fucking telly like that. Fucking shithouse!

That aside, I thought both Ronnies were brilliant when I was a kid. When I changed into a bloody awful miserable teenager I disliked them on principle, but now I'm a jolly old man I love 'em again. The classic sketches make me laugh my (fucking) tits off, and the bits that aren't funny I enjoy. I like a lot of old school comedy for that reason - it might not be laugh out loud funny, but it's enjoyable.

Supaglue

20:51 / 05.10.05

I had a scary grandmother along with whom my folks did not get. She used to show up just once a year, carrying big jars of homemade jam. She was Ronnie Barker's double.

S'funny, my nan made homemade jam and she was the spitting image of the old geezer in Grizzly Adams.

astrojax69

21:52 / 05.10.05

i have a clear memory of being quite young and laughing myself stupid - and it stuck; damn wind! - at the two ronnies in one of their mock dramas coming across a sign deep in the woods, along paths untrod for years, a sign that read simply 'please don't throw rocks at this sign'.

[threadrot] my dad played golf with the ronnie that lives yet, once. [/threadrot]

rip ronnie b

(as for dying in the wrong order, stoatie, at least they're off in alphabetical order. does that count?)

hanabius yamamura

22:14 / 05.10.05

re (This, with hindsight, was going a bit far, sorry, everyone.)

... as was using 'disgust' in my initial reply, now amended ...

... much appreciated, alex

Regrettable Juvenilia

22:38 / 05.10.05

I like a lot of old school comedy for that reason - it might not be laugh out loud funny, but it's enjoyable.

Ah, the good old days of British comedy! Del Boy leaning on the bar that isn't there and falling over. Compo rolling down the hill in a wheelbarrow. "Leesten very carfully, I vill say theese only vonce." Where is the horse and the rider now, eh?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:23 / 05.10.05

Jesus, you're dissing "Allo Allo" now? Is there no end to this?

Saveloy

07:34 / 06.10.05

Stoat:

"Jesus, you're dissing "Allo Allo" now? Is there no end to this?"

It's out-and-out racism, that's what it is, Stoat. Petey Flyboy has always hated the French.

Saveloy

07:54 / 06.10.05

Petey Shaftoe's Dark Side:

"Ah, the good old days of British comedy! Del Boy leaning on the bar that isn't there and falling over. Compo rolling down the hill in a wheelbarrow. "Leesten very carfully, I vill say theese only vonce." Where is the horse and the rider now, eh?"

Oi, don't try and peg me as some comedy equivalent of the beardy, old-skool hip-hop loving, contemporary-hating retro type. I didn't say I enjoyed *all* old Brit comedy, did I? Hmph!

Heh, Allo Allo does bring a smile to my face, mind.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:25 / 06.10.05

What's not to love about Allo Allo, eh? I particularly like, in retrospect, the fact that they had precisely ten jokes, shuffled in a slightly different order every episode.

"Renee! What are you doing with that girl?"

"You STEWPEED woman! Can you not see that I am comforting her etc etc. Oh no, here comes Lieutenant Gruber, the Nazi officer who is gay and fancies me."

"Hello Renee!" *camp little wave*

I'm afraid it's a scientific fact that 100% of British television comedy produced between 1969 and 1992 was absolutely shite.

Spatula Clarke

08:27 / 06.10.05

The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin.

You, sir, are wrong.

Saveloy

08:30 / 06.10.05

And don't forget 'Keeping Up Appearances'. Or was that post 1992?

paranoidwriter waves hello

12:27 / 06.10.05

I'm afraid it's a scientific fact that 100% of British television comedy produced between 1969 and 1992 was absolutely shite.

That's a VERY broad statement. Are you serious, and are you including sketch shows in this anlysis? If so, what about:

Q
Fry and Laurie
Yes Minister
Harry Enfield
Kevin Turvey
Monty Python

...I could go on...

Saveloy

13:39 / 06.10.05

Heh, nice try PW, but I reckon you've just replicated Petey's "Most Hated Comedies EVAH" list. You should have said "The Mary Whitehouse Experience", which started in 1990. He *loves* that, he thinks it's the funniest thing in the world.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:46 / 06.10.05

I wasn't actually thinking of sketch shows, to be honest. Keeping Up Appearances certainly falls into the category of "a good reason to wish that a few nukes had been detonated on British soil some time in the past thirty years", but I suspect Saveloy knows this.

Haus Of Pain

14:14 / 06.10.05

The f***ing garbage the fat c*** submitted as entertainment

Being a rather large person, i find this bloody offensive for obvious reasons you prejudice fuck. Hey he's fat, let's use it as a diss.

Nice one.

Mourne Kransky

14:19 / 06.10.05

And, by the time he died, he wasn't very fat at all.

Haus Of Pain

14:21 / 06.10.05

Oh how very reasurring for us "Fat Cunts".

Saveloy

14:26 / 06.10.05

Petey:

"Keeping Up Appearances certainly falls into the category of "a good reason to wish that a few nukes had been detonated on British soil some time in the past thirty years", but I suspect Saveloy knows this."

Yes and no. As with Allo' Allo', I wouldn't watch a whole episode unless paid to, but I don't mind admitting that, on the odd occassion that I've happened to catch a few minutes of it and been too weak to change the channel, I have found myself not just smiling but *laughing*.

I might as well admit now that I also laugh at Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, and not just because my wife likes it.

And... no, no. Even I can't admit to *that* one. I'm not that strong.

I'm so sorry. I feel I've let not just myself down, but everyone on Barbelith.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:31 / 06.10.05

What's your shame, Saveloy? You can tell us. As long as it's not 'My Hero'.

Saveloy

14:37 / 06.10.05

Oh, God, no. No, it's much worse than that. It's -

Hey, look! The Goodyear blimp!

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:41 / 06.10.05

No sitcom is worse than My Hero, surely? Even Coupling has the episode where the Welsh guy tells the guy he only has one leg, while My Family has Zoe Wannamaker's hair.

Spatula Clarke

14:45 / 06.10.05

I'm fairly sure that ITV must have produced worse. Or "as bad", at least.

That's what my heart says. My brain appears to have wiped the memories. Good old brain. Always thinking of my wellbeing.

Saveloy

14:54 / 06.10.05

But My Family has the 'mad' son, and no amount of Zoe Wannamaker's hair can make up for that. Anyway, yes, it was My Family.

Look, see, I'm not some huge fan of the thing. I've just laughed at it a couple of times.

Come on! You must *all* have sat through two or three episodes, or you wouldn't know how terrible it is. Right, I'm off up the road to top myself.

_Boboss

14:58 / 06.10.05

i've seen a couple My Families. when the mad son's not in it it can raise a laugh. will always be trumped by any repeat of friends though.

you know wedding-shame and bobossboy, who're too busy raving and preparing for fatherhood respectively to come round here much more? i'm pretty sure that their mum was somehow involved in Just A Gigolo. lovely woman, but...

Spatula Clarke

17:39 / 06.10.05

I don't think I've ever even heard of Just a Gigolo.

Good old brain.

Mourne Kransky

18:20 / 06.10.05

Between 69 and 82 there were some good shows, ERD:

I can list
Blackadder
The Good Life
Fawlty Towers
and Rising Damp, as mentioned afore.

And I loved Yootha Joyce in George and Mildred.

Mourne Kransky

18:22 / 06.10.05

Should read - between 69 and 92.

Typing in the dark, damn.

Spatula Clarke

18:25 / 06.10.05

I know! I agree! It's that Petey bastard you want to be schooling, Mr Xoc, not me.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:33 / 06.10.05

George and Mildred was quality.

Mourne Kransky

18:37 / 06.10.05

Sorry, Randius. Mr Shaftoe is devious and clearly operates below the range of my special Numptiness detector.

Saveloy

19:39 / 06.10.05

Feh, he'll just go "Ooh, Fawlty Towers, "Don't mention the war" ha ha!" in a sarcastic voice.

I'm wondering what the magic show was that appeared in '92 that Petey reckons hit the spot. Or 1993 - Petey, did you mean 69-92 inclusive?

On The Hour was about 1992, wasn't it?

Spatula Clarke

20:09 / 06.10.05

Maybe it was the Paul Daniels Magic Show?

Mourne Kransky

20:18 / 06.10.05

Did The Krankies not do magic tricks? With ladders?

Spatula Clarke

20:21 / 06.10.05

No, you're thinking of the Chuckle Brothers.

Did you mean the Chuckle Brothers, Petey?

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