Tuesday, July 19, 2005
"Lashings of ginger beer!"
I just got my copy of the Comic Strip Presents boxset - it was a lovely present to have waiting for me when I got home from Melbourne. Watched a whole bunch last night, and found myself slightly sad that my favourites were made over 20 years ago. I know that good comedy is still being made, but is it going to last the ravages of time? One can only hope...
Plus, I really had to come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to find myself part of the bustling and incredibly cool world of the alternative comedians in the early 80's. Damn you, lack of time travel capabilities!!
The box set has all of the short films, from 1982 to 1993, and also The Supergrass (which, d'oh!, I had also bought seperately). It does not, however, contain Eat the Rich, the absence of which was a great disappointment to me. That has always been one of my favourite movies, and I really hoped it would find it's way onto dvd some day. Sigh. I totally want to call my vegan cafe (when I open it *she says, in denial of the real world*) Eat the Rich, due entirely to that movie.
I watched:
The Bullshitters: Roll Out the Gunbarrel
This is where my ongoing (and faintly inexplicable) crush on Peter Richardson (he's the one in the incredibly bad curly wig) really kicked into high gear. There's nothing funnier (and thus sexier) than a man in a red leather posing pouch, cowboy boots and leather jacket running around London, desperately attempting to ensure that his bits don't get revealed in the midst of all the action. As it were.
Consuela
Ah, French and Saunders. You are truly bizarre. I love this episode, even though it don't make a whole lot of sense (it makes a little more to me now that I have finally read Rebecca, but still..."It was like a giant enormous beetle!") This episode has the added bonus of Ade's ridiculous hair, and Rik playing almost straight for most of it. And again, sigh, ongoing and slightly disturbing crush on Rik Mayall.
Five Go Mad in Dorset
The first. The classic. The "you can't get any better than this ever" episode of Comic Strip Presents. I'm so glad that they set the bar so high. The satire is obvious, but unrelenting and hysterical.
Five Go Mad on Mescalin
The not quite successful followup to Five Go Mad in Dorset. Still funny and lovably nasty, just a little disjointed. But seeing Ade singing incredibly badly whilst sitting on rocks...the hysteria, it overtakes me.
Bad News Tour
I stopped there, not wanting to overdose. I'm so excited about this box set - there are lots of the episodes that I have never seen, or have only seen once, or have read about and really want to see. I'm absolutely looking forward to rewatching Mr Jolly Lives Next Door - "Nicholas Parsons!!!"
Given, however, that I am currently halfway through Season Seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, only on the first disc of Cowboy Bebop, and desperately waiting for my flatmate to finish Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince so that I can read it, I'm not sure I'm going to get back to Comic Strip Presents any time soon...
Plus, I really had to come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to find myself part of the bustling and incredibly cool world of the alternative comedians in the early 80's. Damn you, lack of time travel capabilities!!
The box set has all of the short films, from 1982 to 1993, and also The Supergrass (which, d'oh!, I had also bought seperately). It does not, however, contain Eat the Rich, the absence of which was a great disappointment to me. That has always been one of my favourite movies, and I really hoped it would find it's way onto dvd some day. Sigh. I totally want to call my vegan cafe (when I open it *she says, in denial of the real world*) Eat the Rich, due entirely to that movie.
I watched:
The Bullshitters: Roll Out the Gunbarrel
This is where my ongoing (and faintly inexplicable) crush on Peter Richardson (he's the one in the incredibly bad curly wig) really kicked into high gear. There's nothing funnier (and thus sexier) than a man in a red leather posing pouch, cowboy boots and leather jacket running around London, desperately attempting to ensure that his bits don't get revealed in the midst of all the action. As it were.
Consuela
Ah, French and Saunders. You are truly bizarre. I love this episode, even though it don't make a whole lot of sense (it makes a little more to me now that I have finally read Rebecca, but still..."It was like a giant enormous beetle!") This episode has the added bonus of Ade's ridiculous hair, and Rik playing almost straight for most of it. And again, sigh, ongoing and slightly disturbing crush on Rik Mayall.
Five Go Mad in Dorset
The first. The classic. The "you can't get any better than this ever" episode of Comic Strip Presents. I'm so glad that they set the bar so high. The satire is obvious, but unrelenting and hysterical.
Five Go Mad on Mescalin
The not quite successful followup to Five Go Mad in Dorset. Still funny and lovably nasty, just a little disjointed. But seeing Ade singing incredibly badly whilst sitting on rocks...the hysteria, it overtakes me.
Bad News Tour
What's that you say? This looks a lot like Spinal Tap? So it does....Supposedly, they were in production at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I love Spinal Tap, it's a brilliant film and is essentially the first in Christopher Guest's wonderful ensemble pseudo documentaries, but still...occasionally I wonder. I think Spider is my favourite character that Peter Richardson played.
I stopped there, not wanting to overdose. I'm so excited about this box set - there are lots of the episodes that I have never seen, or have only seen once, or have read about and really want to see. I'm absolutely looking forward to rewatching Mr Jolly Lives Next Door - "Nicholas Parsons!!!"
Given, however, that I am currently halfway through Season Seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, only on the first disc of Cowboy Bebop, and desperately waiting for my flatmate to finish Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince so that I can read it, I'm not sure I'm going to get back to Comic Strip Presents any time soon...
