[HN Gopher] The Young Ones changed comedy
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       The Young Ones changed comedy
        
       Author : mellosouls
       Score  : 79 points
       Date   : 2022-11-13 08:46 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | mrob wrote:
       | And if you like The Young Ones, you will probably also like
       | Bottom. The surrealism is toned down somewhat, but the crude
       | slapstick is the same, and Rik and Ade play very similar
       | characters.
        
         | LocalH wrote:
         | In the same vein, I'd also recommend Filthy, Rich, and Catflap.
         | Comedically, it feels very much like a bridge between The Young
         | Ones and Bottom, rightfully so.
        
           | Freak_NL wrote:
           | And don't forget the film Guest House Paradiso (1999).
           | 
           | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202381
        
         | jl6 wrote:
         | Time to share this masterful piece of audience interaction from
         | the Live show:
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/NjQD9zpAcGk
         | 
         | RIP Rik.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | That was amazing, thank you for posting!
        
       | ThinkingGuy wrote:
       | I always felt like The Young Ones was aimed at people like me,
       | who didn't feel intelligent or cultured enough to appreciate
       | Monty Python.
        
         | 0xbadcafebee wrote:
         | What about Python felt intelligent to you? I thought it was
         | just a bunch of dudes in dresses being weird for weird's sake
        
           | tanseydavid wrote:
           | The Philosopher's World Cup is a pretty good example.
        
             | PebblesRox wrote:
             | Link: https://youtu.be/92vV3QGagck
             | 
             | And an homage that I was just reading earlier today:
             | https://existentialcomics.com/comic/35
        
           | JohnBooty wrote:
           | I'm not saying Python was rocket science, but while it had a
           | lot of broad humor (Ministry of Silly Walks, etc) there were
           | also a lot of subtler jokes.                   I thought it
           | was just a bunch of dudes in dresses          being weird for
           | weird's sake
           | 
           | A lot of the jokes might have been misfires for you because
           | of subtlety, cultural differences, references that are
           | completely obscured by time 50 years later, etc.
           | 
           | Or maybe just not your brand of humor! Certainly lots of
           | people think much of Python was funny.
        
             | 0xbadcafebee wrote:
             | I wasn't implying I didn't find Python funny. Watch
             | documentaries about Python and the members all say they
             | were just trying to come up with the silliest thing they
             | could to make each other laugh
        
           | mikrl wrote:
           | They were all from Oxbridge and the weirdness specifically
           | satirized British culture of the 60s and 70s. It just so
           | happened to be universal enough for an American audience to
           | appreciate "a bunch of dudes in dresses being weird for
           | weird's sake"
           | 
           | Compare to something like SNL which would be unfunny to a
           | Brit unless they had some specific interest in American
           | culture.
        
             | dekhn wrote:
             | To me, the epitome of Python (outside of the movies) is the
             | series of sketches making fun of upper-class twits.
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Class_Twit_of_the_Year
             | which is just devastating and I'm american
        
             | randomcarbloke wrote:
             | correct me if I'm wrong but isn't SNL unfunny to most
             | Americans too?
        
               | fragmede wrote:
               | that's just your online bubble where loud complaints that
               | substitute for intelligent discourse go. if you think
               | it's funny you don't have a reason to go online and say
               | only that
        
       | mikrl wrote:
       | I watched it in my teens and had high expectations for student
       | life.
       | 
       | My first place (2012) wasn't a disappointment, I lived with a
       | hardcore feminist arch-hipster, effervescent gay couple and an
       | overworked everyman grad student.
       | 
       | This was in Canada, and lacked much of the zaniness of the show
       | (of course) but it was still a riot for the wide-eyed 20 year old
       | me.
        
       | dekhn wrote:
       | The Young Ones ran on MTV in 1985. It was hilarious. There's one
       | episode... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambi_(The_Young_Ones)
       | which really stands above and beyond.
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | While Bambi is amazing one of my favorites is Sick where they
         | unintentionally start a massive riot on their street while
         | Madness plays "Our house" in the middle of it all, then cut the
         | song to join in the rioting and violence.
        
           | gw98 wrote:
           | That was a top one. I rather liked "cash". They think Vyvyan
           | is pregnant so they make Neil join the police to make some
           | money.
           | 
           | Ending: https://youtu.be/mhxkY9adDCg?t=146
        
             | andybak wrote:
             | I can still recite Neil's letter from that episode.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | issa wrote:
       | A friend with MTV made VHS copies for those of us without cable.
       | So good. And Madness!
        
       | drumhead wrote:
       | Watched it again recently and its aged very badly. At the time it
       | was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, but now its not at all. The
       | bands that came on it were maximum nostalgia though.
        
         | JohnBooty wrote:
         | Purely subjective, of course, but it's lost none of it's
         | hilarity for me!
        
         | yamazakiwi wrote:
         | As a person who hasn't seen the show, do you have an example of
         | a joke that you found funny but no longer has any humor due to
         | a change in you or social groups in general?
         | 
         | In my experience sometimes there are usually a few
         | contributors, like a voice that only represents a moment in
         | time or a style of humor that has fallen out of fashion.
        
           | Joeboy wrote:
           | Quite possibly not the sort of thing they're talking about,
           | but there's a slightly notorious scene that was presumably
           | intended to portray the police as racist and stupid, which
           | _in_ _theory_ is probably a much more acceptable message now
           | than then. Except it depicts the cop coming out with a stream
           | of very OTT racial insults, played for laughs, and doesn 't
           | fit the current zeitgeist at all.
        
       | klelatti wrote:
       | I remember seeing the first episode when the series started. I
       | can still remember things that made me laugh - top of the list
       | the hamster called Special Patrol Group - the name for the
       | police's notorious rapid response group at the time. It was so
       | different to the sitcoms that dominated TV comedy in the U.K.
       | 
       | Rik Mayall was also very funny at that time as Kevin Turvey. [1]
       | RIP Rik.
       | 
       | [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yaG6oiSdHpo
        
       | narrator wrote:
       | The only thing since the Young Ones that really got that zany
       | vibe just right is Aqua Teen Hungerforce.
        
         | jancsika wrote:
         | Have you watched the Eric Andre show?
         | 
         | In one episode he gets frustrated with the direction of the
         | show and inserts a betamax tape to play a previous episode,
         | sped-up and overlaid with partial opacity atop the ongoing
         | episode.
         | 
         | In another episode the host and one of the members of NSYNC
         | literally jump out of the way of a motorcycle that runs over
         | the host's desk.
        
         | JohnBooty wrote:
         | In a more general sense, the "main cast made up exclusively of
         | irredeemable characters" trope really blossomed in the
         | subsequent decades. You see it in _Seinfeld_ , _It 's Always
         | Sunny_, etc.
         | 
         | I think it existed before The Young Ones but that's where I
         | first saw it.
        
       | KineticLensman wrote:
       | I had just moved into my first shared student house in Headingly,
       | Leeds Uni in 1982 and The Young Ones perfectly captured the
       | feeling. My basement room had snail trails on the floor,
       | extensive damp and while unpacking I found a stolen road sign
       | under the bed.
       | 
       | Luckily we were able to afford a TV and this was our goto TV
       | programme that was watched every week, regardless of which band
       | were performing at the student union that week. Awesome, life-
       | affirming comedy.
        
         | gw98 wrote:
         | When I was at university we put snails in someone's room for a
         | joke when we were all drunk and he was unconscious. Woke up to
         | snail trails all over his room. Wasn't Leeds though :)
        
       | davisoneee wrote:
       | I remember watching the show when I was very young and loved the
       | pure anarchy of it.
       | 
       | This documentary is a really great coverage of the young ones,
       | including interviews with all the main cast. Not sure quite how
       | much of it is in overlap with the article, but fun bit of
       | background watching.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4reFlDsnGM0
        
       | mxmilkiib wrote:
       | Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar on BBC Radio 4 is
       | exceptionally funny.
        
       | olivermarks wrote:
       | 9/11 Scene from 'One by One' Rik Mayall's last film release
       | before his sudden death https://youtu.be/MW-oXuJTdjI
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | For those wondering about this: the towers obviously _weren 't_
         | knocked over by the planes since the collapses started more
         | than a half-hour after the planes collided with them.
         | 
         | The collapses were due to thermal stresses caused by the fire;
         | as each floor heats up it expands, pushing the supporting beams
         | outwards, then when the floor buckles, the beams snap back.
        
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