The demise of sketch shows.

boogieman

Dominic said:

^ He was an odd character........we used to live about 4 houses away from him .He shot at kids with an air rifle if they climbed on his fence.

He was a downright grumpy git most of the time, but then he was a manic depressive. His office was just round the corner from Queensway where I worked as a Saturday boy in an ironmongery shop. He’d come in every now and then…. I remember selling him a set of hinges once which he claimed were “for an exploding penguin I’m making”.  

Philly_Q

Mellish said:

@Philly_Q I have visions of you back then looking at Ryan Davies as if he was Methuselah age-wise  

Yeah, I'm not sure how old I was, certainly under 12.  I remember exactly what he looked like - or at least I thought I did! - and I'm picturing a guy in his 60s.  We saw him in panto at the Swansea Grand Theatre a few times and again I'm picturing a guy of retirement age, but he'd have been in his late 30s.

He was very skinny and had a combover, so he did look older than his age.  And I've just realised Ronnie Williams looked like Saddam Hussein with his moustache shaved off...

Mellish

@Philly_Q but if they entertained you (and I hope they did), they did their job. I don't get modern comedy at all, just not my thing. Thanks for the pic, though, nice to see them 

axisus

Dominic said:

Mike and Bernie were not American they were from N London ( Cockfosters )

That is so weird! I'd have sworn that they were American! Oh well, they weren't funny and I probably haven't seen them since I was about 7.

Nitefly

axisus said:

Dominic said:

Mike and Bernie were not American they were from N London ( Cockfosters )

That is so weird! I'd have sworn that they were American! Oh well, they weren't funny and I probably haven't seen them since I was about 7.

What is undeniable is that they were shite.

Kittyfrisk

Talking of blasts from the distant past... video from a stage show as there don't seem to be many surviving TV programmes.
Featuring the comedy genius Rikki Fulton.

Dominic

Nitefly said:

axisus said:

Dominic said:

Mike and Bernie were not American they were from N London ( Cockfosters )

That is so weird! I'd have sworn that they were American! Oh well, they weren't funny and I probably haven't seen them since I was about 7.

What is undeniable is that they were shite.

There's been some horrors ....Cannon and Ball .......the Chuckle Brothers  etc

EricTheWeary

Dominic said:

Nitefly said:

axisus said:

Dominic said:

Mike and Bernie were not American they were from N London ( Cockfosters )

That is so weird! I'd have sworn that they were American! Oh well, they weren't funny and I probably haven't seen them since I was about 7.

What is undeniable is that they were shite.

There's been some horrors ....Cannon and Ball .......the Chuckle Brothers  etc

The Chuckle Brothers did primarily children's TV so I'm not sure they are a fair comparison in this Discussion. I did see them live once and they were very funny indeed and didn't do the double meaning thing to try to get parent's in the audience on board. It was just silly, funny entertainment and that was their schtick and they did it well.    

Mattharrier

axisus said:

fob said:

I think one of the letdowns of a lot of sketch shows is the sheer repetitiveness of them. 

I don't agree with that personally, I think there's a lot of fun in repeating characters, I think that Mitchell & Webb did that really well. 

I agree with both of you - the same character can be developed over several skits, and repetition, with modification, can be very funny; misdirection is one example - character A normally says "oh dear, what a whoopsie" when the inevitable calamity occurs, but suddenly he reacts in a different way, leading to much splitting of sides.

However, eventually it gets tiresome if pushed too far, which is why most sketch shows don't seem to last too long - the writers and performers get bored, if the audience don't get bored first.

TBones55

Check out Burnistoun 

Originally broadcast on BBC Scotland only, it's on the iPlayer and all over YouTube

Laugh out loud funny

Philly_Q

Dominic said:

Nitefly said:

axisus said:

Dominic said:

Mike and Bernie were not American they were from N London ( Cockfosters )

That is so weird! I'd have sworn that they were American! Oh well, they weren't funny and I probably haven't seen them since I was about 7.

What is undeniable is that they were shite.

There's been some horrors ....Cannon and Ball .......the Chuckle Brothers  etc

Little and Large.... Hope and Keen.... Lenny and Jerry.... Les and Dustin.... all classic stuff.

Mellish

Has anyone mentioned Hale and Pace?  

SteveRobinson

Reverend said:

axisus said:

There seemed to be loads in the 70s', 80s ... and 90s I guess, but the once classic Sketch show format seems to have died on its arse. I absolutely loved That Mitchell and Webb look but even that finished 10 years ago. I don't particularly recall anything decent since then?

Monty Python must be one of the earliest, Morcambe & wise and also The two Ronnies were huge, later big shows included Kenny Everett, Not the nine o'clock news, Fry & Laurie, Absolutely, Smith & Jones, French & Saunders, Harry Enfield stuff, Smack the pony, Fast show, Little Britain. So many of them seemed like the event TV of the week back in their day. Where have they gone? Surely people still like a laff???

Have I missed any good uns?

before python there were a few. The Idiot Weekly, Not Only... But Also, At Last The 1948 Show, A Show Called red and Q.
At Last and Q very obviously influenced Python 

Don't forget the seminal "Do Not Adjust Your Set"

EricTheWeary

Doing The Head Crusher from Kids in the Hall was a big thing in our house ( well, me and MrsThe Weary). 



Yeh, maybe these things don't age well...

Dominic

I think the best skit shows of recent years would have to be either Catherine Tate or Harry and Paul ;they both have some incredibly well observed and perfectly lampooned characters . Excellent stuff .

Mellish

Dominic said:

I think the best skit shows of recent years would have to be either Catherine Tate or Harry and Paul ;they both have some incredibly well observed and perfectly lampooned characters . Excellent stuff .

That would be a hard choice for me as I think both were top notch  

Shrews

I liked Dick Emery as a kid, especially when playing Roy Kinnear's son

'Dad, I got it wrong again.'

Les Dawson was another! Guaranteed to raise a smile or two.

Dave Allen, Freddie Starr, also did great sketches. 

Sassafras

axisus said:

Dominic said:

Mike and Bernie were not American they were from N London ( Cockfosters )

That is so weird! I'd have sworn that they were American! Oh well, they weren't funny and I probably haven't seen them since I was about 7.

The only funny one of the team was Schnorbitz:

tony99

EricTheWeary said:

Doing The Head Crusher from Kids in the Hall was a big thing in our house ( well, me and MrsThe Weary). 



Yeh, maybe these things don't age well...

haha I always remember the "I'm gonna give away a thousand dollars" song from that show

hollywoodrox

Burnistoun looks the best I only get bits on YouTube 

https://youtu.be/DZdFXcA_x0c