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Some comedy ages really badly as the Allo, Allo thread proves.
What do you think has aged well?
Can I suggest:
Porridge - ok a bit of the language is not very 2021, but the underlying humour is good.
Yes, Minister - the ties are terrible, the jokes excellent.
But what else?
Frasier, is still very good.
Porridge, Black Adder and Father Ted are comedies that I can still watch, along with the earlier Only Fools and Horses.
When i watch it now i realised just how daft The Fast Show was, but i think because it was popular when i was 20/21 it still makes me laugh.
Still enjoy a spot of Red Dwarf!
Fawlty towers,steptoe & son also Hancocks Half hour have aged very well. Vic and bob is timeless for me and still game is an all time favourite that I think I will happily watch in years to come.
8 Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown still works for me...
Not TV but I saw Simon Munnery reprise his Alan Parker character at a recent comedy festival. First saw him do this character around 1990 at university. It was superb, highlight of the weekend. Still relevant political humour.
I must have had a sense of humour bypass - the only ones mentioned I found funny even at the time are Porridge and Still game - Blackadder, only fools, Fawlty towers especially purile and unfunny even then
Porridge is utterly brilliant " a quiet night in" - how can you have half an hour of humour that is just to blokes locked in a cell overnight?
Blackadder.
Phoenix Nights is 20 years old now...
Bottom?
I've vanished down a bit of a 'Taxi' hole on YouTube since that other thread. Amazing how well it's aged.
Dad’s Army
Reginald Perrin.
Porridge and Yes Minister/Prime are classics. Probably my favourites. Black adder is good.
Porridge still creases me up. Fawlty Towers used to but now It's cringeworthy, Only Fools & Horses is still hilarious as is Dad's Army.
Now where's Morecombe & Wise when you need them? & Tommy Cooper cracked me up before he even spoke!
Porridge has always amazed me at how well it lasts, I think it's the understated performances.
Cheers makes for some pretty good comfort viewing!
Father Ted, Flight of the Concords, The Mighty Boosh, Dark Place and Black Books for me. All depends on what you find funny though I guess. Only Fools and Porridge do nothing for me
The Good Life
Everyone who's ever worked in an office can identify with Reggie
The Thick of It looks less like like satire and more like an instruction manual nowadays. I find myself viewing everything that happens through the prism of it. Its difficult not to when you're watching shit like this..
https://twitter.com/Zero_4/status/1431372211068227590?s=20
I’m sorry I haven’t a clue (ok that’s cheating a bit)
No mention yet for Vicar Of Dibley?
Great characters, brilliant script.
OK, so probably not pushing the boundaries of the sit-com genre, but always watchable.
Still game
From things my kids laugh at - Porridge, Blackadder, Yes (Prime) Minister, Vicar of Dibley, Dave Allen, even Allo Allo, ironically enough.
I have to confess to still laughing at Friends more than is appropriate, especially the first 4 series
Edit - forgotten Father Ted!
Spaced - watched it many many many times and still laugh at the bits I remember and still pick out new lines etc
Partridge. Not sure about him being back on the telly but Mid Morning Matters was gold.
Still game
Hilarious! I forgot about that one! We binge watched the lot in one go I think.
OFaHorses for the win. Cracking my mono-syllabic 15yr old up at the moment. Also Slackbladder, Father Ted, Red Dwarf, Friends (I know), Spaced is a good call. Faulty Towers always. Yes Minister/Prime Minister for sure. Porridge. The Brittas Empire (not really). Aware that I'm repeating, all of the above really.
Recently watched Stir Crazy which I looooved back in the day. Not only was it painfully unfunny, it annoyed me (specifically Gene Wilder and Richard Prior running around screaming) so much I had to turn it off
Peep show is as wrong as ever. I watched the lot again through lockdown, and it’s the work of unbridled genius
15 story's high
Pulling
Spaced, Black Books, still find the Fast Show funny after all those years, went back to Green Wing the other day when I was bored. Nuts and far too many ad breaks on More4 but still amusing.
Gasman, one of the best Bottom episodes. I love where they go on about putting him on a bus.
re-hashed repeats aside, Currently I think HIGNFY and QI are the only properly funny things on TV.. Ranganation is also very funny on occasion.
Black books is a good shout. I always found Only Fools and Horses tediously unfunny, and I don't think I ever got through a whole episode without either falling asleep or going to do something else. Not that I've tried to watch that many episodes. Mighty Boosh was good, and Friday Night Dinner. I did laugh at Fawlty Towers but find it too cringe-inducing now. Maybe I missed it but I haven't seen anyone mention Red Dwarf?
The Royle Family always ends up on in our house.
Early Doors is always a winner too.
No love for Green Wing?
I only discovered ‘Still Game’ during the first lockdown. Absolutely brilliant comedy.
Mrs Browns Boys?
Oh sorry, I though the thread was titled ‘comedy that never worked’
Black Books and Father Ted are great shouts.
I enjoyed some of the episodes of Coupling, some very clever writing at times.
The League of Gentlemen, Royston Vasey.
Thank you for reminding me of Black Books and Green Wing.
Sadly it’s also reminded me of the IT Crowd.
Hadn’t been thinking about standups, but yes Dave Allen, and also Billy Connolly.
And Morecambe & Wise. Simple concepts, just superbly executed.
Police squad, I educated some mates to it a couple of years ago on a mountain biking holiday, they didn't even know that the naked gun had come from a TV series.
The canned laughter on Blackadder grates with me now, even though I still think it is funny they really could do with editing out the laughter track. Porridge is still good as is yes minister and PM. Only fools and horses has aged very badly IMO. Father Ted is class.
This thread reminded me of the series that the BBC ran to find the best sitcom, back in 2004!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain%27s_Best_Sitcom
I liked Ideal but seem to have missed the last few series and can't find it on iPlayer and I'm too tight to pay for the boxsets.
Dad's Army, Porridge, Red Dwarf, Father Ted, Still Game, Bottom, Only Fools and Horses (now, never really watched it when it was actually on), Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister - not seen them all but the ones I have seen have been very good. Hitch Hiker's Guide was good, but hasn't aged well.
Blackadder - I found the 4th series to be the best and 3rd was good, 1st and 2nd were ok, but I don't tend to go back to them.
Fawlty Towers - I wouldn't make time to make sure I watched it, if it was on, I'd watch but it wasn't something I'd make sure I was sitting at the TV for.
Pretty much everything others have mentioned...
failedengineer
No love for Green Wing?
Really enjoyed the first season of Green Wing. Mark Heap who played Dr Alan Statham was brilliant.
Not much comes to mind by way of TV.
Filmic comedy that still works is plentiful.
Going back through time:
The Odd Couple
His Girl Friday
And these boys:
I still love the vid of Bottom live where they go off piste
for me, stuff like mighty boosh, blackbooks, green wing, bottom, ypung ones, monkey dust and I bloomin still love mongrels, although nelson reminds me of loads of posters on here.
Really enjoyed the first season of Green Wing. Mark Heap who played Dr Alan Statham was brilliant.
And before that in Spaced.
Always liked Coupling.
Wow, i was thinking about starting this very thread yesterday, mainly because I was wanting to see what would work for my young kids.
Dad introduced me to Monty Python very young and my kids have enjoyed the films (Meaning of Life can wait a bit for now).
He also used to record Red Dwarf so we could watch it together as it was on too late for me! I don't think that aged well though.
Fast Show, Absolutely, Smack the Pony, Vic and Bob worth a revisit. Miller & Armstrong, Peep Show, Mitchell and Webb, Green Wing, Spaced, Black Adder, This is Jinsy, Mighty Boosh, Father Ted, etc, but need to curate some of this I think.
The kids like Would I lie to You. Have the Father Ted DVDs so probably try them next.
Some of Chris Morris's stuff was genius too - I'll never forget seeing an advert for The Day Today as a teenager and for a minute thinking it was real and my mind being completely blown.
Mark Heap was in Jam and possibly some other Chris Morris work. Hilarious.
8 Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown still works for me…
But no Rachel Riley 🙁
The re-hash of Never Mind The Buzzcocks is awful btw. IMO
The canned laughter on Blackadder grates with me now, even though I still think it is funny they really could do with editing out the laughter track
I recently saw an episode of M*A*S*H from the US with canned laughter. It was b*a*d.
Also wonder about watching Teachers again - particularly the earlier ones.
Spaced was even better than I remembered, you can really see why Edgar Wright and the people behind it have gone on to such great things. Incredibly creative and it also reminded me why we liked Simon Pegg in the first place.
I want to give a shout out for Ever Decreasing Circles, which I watched in full a few years ago and still found very funny, as well as noticing a poignancy and quality of acting that had gone over my head as a youngster.
Obviously Father Ted is timeless because of the theme and setting, but I think Alan Partridge has aged well too - and interestingly the character first appeared on Radio in 1992, the same year that the final series of Allo Allo was broadcast.
Police squad
Is this on any of the streaming services? I've been itching to see it again for a while.
Alf is silly and childish. And still makes me laugh a lot. I kill me!!
The League of Gentlemen... I got it on DVD and it has canned laughter which makes it unwatchable for me. I always saw it as some sort of twisted horror story.
The Detectorists is 7 years old now. Does that count?
Nighty Night. Black as it gets ....
MrsMC was watching Armstrong and Miller on iplayer last night - I'd forgotten how good it was, given the crap they've gone on to do. The posh dirty talking in the Georgian dance skits still cracks me up, as do the street talking airmen.
The canned laughter on Blackadder grates with me now, even though I still think it is funny they really could do with editing out the laughter track
It's far worse on Dad's Army - sounds like people are rolling on the floor crying with laughter, side-splitting hilarity and so on for every minor visual gag. A lot of BBC comedy seems to rely quite heavily on it. Last of the Summer Wine, One Foot in the Grave and Keeping Up Appearances are just as guilty.
Would I Lie To You is consistently excellent, there's been very few bad guests on that and it's genuinely very funny, the ad-lib aspect works well on that and a studio audience means you get proper laughing.
Old school Tom & Jerry
Oh yeah, Nighty Night was full on.
Garth Marenghi's Dark Place was mental.
Police squad, I educated some mates to it a couple of years ago on a mountain biking holiday, they didn’t even know that the naked gun had come from a TV series.
I haven't seen it in years so might have aged badly, but in a similar vein was Get Smart.
I still love the vid of Bottom live where they go off piste
I was never quite sure whether that was genuinely ad-libbed or actually scripted. Genius either way though.
Third rock from the sun..... still works for me.
Third rock was great but not seen it since the first airing. Who remembers Operation hood guys? I really enjoyed it at the time but not sure how it holds up now.
Alan Partridge and Curb are the two greatest comedies ever made
The posh dirty talking in the Georgian dance skits still cracks me up, as do the street talking airmen.
Not to mention Brabbins and Fyffe.
8 Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown still works for me…
But no Rachel Riley 🙁
But but but...
Nathan Barley was years ahead when it came out, & lots of it seem more relevant now than when it was originally released
There was a documentary on last night about Richard Pryor, hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and it was really good, talking about how comedians are very aware that RP was a messed up character with routines that talk about him being abusive yet he's still respected in terms of the writing and delivery...
I think the IT crowd is one that is starting to show it's age, there is a lot of inherent chauvinisim in it (the portrayal of Jen and women being only in the office because of their attractiveness). I watched them all in order a while back and it was less funny than I remembered.
Has anyone re-watched Fast Show recently?
Mr Bean - the kids love it.
Green Wing still cracks me up.
Also just watched the box set of Peep Show and it really was as good as I remembered it back in the day.
Married with children
I have fond memories if big train, although maybe just for a couple of sketches.
I still love the vid of Bottom live where they go off piste
I was never quite sure whether that was genuinely ad-libbed or actually scripted. Genius either way though.
I watched Bottom Hooligan's Island and one of the off piste did look scripted but a couple did seem genuine especially when a missed timed hit by Adrian Edmondson caught Rik Mayall around the head.
I'm amazed only one person has mentioned Early Doors. Such an excellent parody of a backstreet pub and it's clientele. Phil & Nice, the 2 coppers were genius, especially the the skit about the forged tenners.
Just had a skip through Armstrong & Miller on YouTube. The Russian football club owner still makes my skin crawl 🤣
And these boys:
It doesn't get any better.
Police squad
Is this on any of the streaming services? I’ve been itching to see it again for a while.
For those interested, only way I can find the Police Squad episodes is on YouTube. Quality is poor, but gags remain as good as ever.
The amount of brilliant satire that no longer seems funny because reality has become far more absurd is slightly unnerving:
Veep
Day Today
Yes Minister