Blackadder - Pilot Episode

[Talk Talk]

Overrated you mean? *Hides*

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries

[janaage]

Blackadder goes forth was a true work of comedy art. Goodbye was breathtakingly good.

[Ells]

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries

I'm not saying I think Python is bad - that'd be nonsense. It obviously has brilliant moments and has its place in comedy history, not to mention all the amazing things it's inspired. But I just find it difficult to find it as impeccable and hilarious as some people act like it is.

[Talk Talk]

I'm not saying I think Python is bad - that'd be nonsense. It obviously has brilliant moments and has its place in comedy history, not to mention all the amazing things it's inspired. But I just find it difficult to find it as impeccable and hilarious as some people act like it is.

Well that's my point really. It's not over egging it. I used to sneak downstairs and watch it with my co-operating dad after my mum had gone to bed. I was 9/10/11 and you can imagine the effect that it had on me at that young age. I was absolutely enthralled. So I'm not acting, I lived it first time around.

So that explains a lot then John, what with the innuendo and the partial nudity... 

[suttonred]

I never found the python series funny, first 2 films though were superb, first black adder was Interesting. I can remember not going to the pub until it had been on, which only happened with that, Brideshead, and Auf Widersehn pet in my early drinking days.

[Ells]

With you about the films. Loved them when I was about 10, love them now.

[Talk Talk]

With you about the films. Loved them when I was about 10, love them now.

The first one was a compilation of the best TV sketches acted out again which was ok. Holy Grail is possibly the best comedy film ever. Life of Brian is widely lauded (and yes, I get the hype Ells) but inferior to HG in my opinion. Didn't think much of The Meaning Of Life, it tried too hard to be outrageous and that was never what Python was about, it was always bizarrely subtle somehow, if you know what I mean.

[Batch]

If there was a "Things you never thought you'd hear people say" thread 

Shame really as his blackadder era & the young ones are classics for me.

I think his early TV standup was much needed at the time in bringing "alternative comedy" into the mainstream and disrupting the somewhat long in the tooth traditional standup. Plus a little bit of politics in attacking the Thatcher regime didn't hurt.

If you watch it now its terribly dated and largely terrible, very much of its time. So you'll have to take my word for it.

Quite liked his early books too, sadly he seems to have lost it in more recent times. Actually, no idea what he's up to.

On the plus side, he annoys Stewart Lee, which is good as he's one comedian I just can't warm to, but whom everyone else in the entire universe seem to find hilarious.
-----------
I fart in your general direction.

[Batch]

Life of Brian is widely lauded (and yes, I get the hype Ells) but inferior to HG in my opinion.

 

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries

Although this was used in Game of Thrones recently. Not in English though. So it (python) is still influencing people today, not bad.

[Costanza]

Monty Python will influence comedy as long as people are able to perform and watch comedy.

Outside the Internet forums, I'm quite history minded and there are historic  bits of Goes Forth that irk me, it's a fine piece of comedy work though. I, II, III are obviously a lampooned versions of the eras that they are set in.

[Reg Smeeton]

Well that's my point really. It's not over egging it. I used to sneak downstairs and watch it with my co-operating dad after my mum had gone to bed. I was 9/10/11 and you can imagine the effect that it had on me at that young age. I was absolutely enthralled. So I'm not acting, I lived it first time around.

So that explains a lot then John, what with the innuendo and the partial nudity... 

Being that bit older, I came to Python through a tradition of listening to the Goon Show on the cat's whisker. 

For me Spike Milligan was a comic genius, who inspired much of the subversive comedy, which society in the 50's/60's generated, with the Python's picking up the flag.

I had the pleasure of seeing Spike at the Wyvern....could hardly believe it....all time hero at our shitty little theatre. he didn't disappoint, pretty sure he had no script and just made it up as he went along, just asking the audience stuff, then running with it.

[A Gent Orange]

I do love Blackadder but I would agree that Four is different - and inferior to Two and Three in many ways (I'm ignoring One as I didn't enjoy it and so have never revisited).

Four is an more orthodox, traditional sitcom: Bladder is meant to be more likeable - protecting his men etc. Baldrick is just too stupid to be anything other than for bouncing gags off - but then all the characters bar Atkinson's get dimmer as ther series go on.

Four is more mannered. It is slower. Every laugh is ridden. The 'more silly than a x' jokes have become an in-joke in themselves rather than just lines. They were written deliberately and fussed over as the audience liked and expected them, not because the jokes were good.

It is no surprise that it would be the most popular with mainstream audiences as it is the most mainstream. The oppositie goes for the others.

Oh but the over-dubbed bit in the fighter plane is shit.Just shit.

[donkey]

Monty Python will influence comedy as long as people are able to perform and watch comedy.

Outside the Internet forums, I'm quite history minded and there are historic  bits of Goes Forth that irk me, it's a fine piece of comedy work though. I, II, III are obviously a lampooned versions of the eras that they are set in.

To satisfy my curiosity, of you don't mind, which bits irk you. As an historian myself I have my own thoughts, but keen to hear yours.

[JayBox325]

Good to see it's not just me that hated series one.

The Blackadder character in series one is much better than the one they actually went with.

Hugh Laurie in Series three was spot on.

[suttonred]

Series one was good when it was aired. But it suffers against the other 3 series now, as  he changes from a simpering fool to a more rounded character, so doesnt hold up well If viewed for the fist time say now.