Philomena Cunk
Comedy ain’t what it used to be.
I will probably piss off a few if I say that I found “Father Ted” or “Mrs Brown’s Boys” to be distinctly unfunny to the point of embarrassment. Especially the latter. I hate canned laughter and while some of the situations might have an element of mirth, they are overplayed to the point of being boring.
I don’t know when real comedy stopped. Programmes like “Open All Hours” or “Fawlty Towers” were among the last of a dying breed.
Occasionally though I come across something that makes me chuckle and even splutter out a laugh. I came across a short series on Netflix the other night that was a great example. It was serious and sincere and there wasn’t a hint of a laugh anywhere [though a couple of the participants found difficulty in hiding their mirth.
I refer of course to Philomena Cunk and her travels through such topics as the history of Earth, William Shakespeare and Britain. Top experts in their respective fields are interviewed and it’s enlightening to say the least. I don’t know how I missed them when they were originally broadcast.
The one on Netflix is “Cunk on Earth“.
Has anyone else seen it?
Is there anyone out there that shares my warped sense of humour?
I too have noticed this. “Mrs Browns boys” makes “Allo allo” look like Shakespeare. “Father Ted” is okay, but a lot of the gags are so predictable you can see them coming a mile away.
Comedy doesn’t stand a chance nowadays, with the state of reality currently!
You have a point there. It’s hard to parody a parody?
There are a few others you might like to try. “Two Doors Down”, or “Still Game”, are both set in Glasgow and full of the wry wit of the area. Worthy successors to the early Rab C shows (IHMO the later ones lost it a bit). Give an episode of each a go to see what you think.
Cas
I have heard of the first but not the second. I’ll cast an eye in their direction. Thanks!
Philomena Cunk is very droll, slightly changing words, or taking them in the wrong context, to ask really stupid questions of ‘experts ‘ – never sure how much they’re in on it. She (or rather actress) Diane Morgan keeps a splendidly straight face. Not seen the On Earth programs, but the ones on British history are well worth watching.
Never watched “Mrs Brown’s Boys”, it seems embarrassingly stupid; and Father Ted passed me by – other than the superb “perspective” scene. Anyway, should we be mentioning Graham Linehan, given that he’s been cancelled by the Edinburgh Fringe?
Welcome PaulF! I honestly don’t know how Morgan kept a straight face [and the faces she pulled were priceless]. I believe they had to cut out major parts where the experts were laughing. The questions themselves were weirdly and comically logical [“Did people float around the ceiling before Newton invented gravity?”]. I managed to find the whole lot, including a series of shorts – each around five minutes on different topics as diverse as Architecture and Feminism.
I saw Graham Linehan had been chucked out. He soars up in my estimation! I’ll even forgive him for Father Ted.
I’ll confess to a tendency to ask idiot questions, not for TV shows, but just to see how the recipient reacts.
In a past life in corporate computing, I once attended the formal launch of a new ‘portable’ computer by a very high-profile US manufacturer. The CEO made great play of its light weight and (then) large data capacity.
At the Q&A, I innocently asked “Although you said it only weighs 6 pounds, it can store up to 20Mb of data – how much does it actually weigh when it’s full of all that data?”
Faced with the risk of humiliating a big-spending corporate customer who’d asked such a question, it was fascinating to watch the CEO squirm and wriggle with that dumbo enquiry. Equally fun to observe the rest of the techy audience (and the CEO’s own underlings) tying to suppress their guffaws.
I tend to prefer British comedy TV series over American most of the time. Have you ever heard of the old “Are you being served? BBC comedy TV series?
Now it may not be British but the American TV “soap” series, “Dark Shadows”, I found to be fairly hilarious in the fact that it was broadcast live with little time for rehearsal so the cast relied on cue cards and directions from the director and crew of where to stand, when to speak etc. Forgotten lines with the cast standing around wondering who was supposed to be speaking, takes where you could see the crew dashing here and there in the background, that kind of thing.