Being interested in steam engines I find myself often defending anarchronisms. I think this humour was very much of it's time; I'm glad we have moved on. Progress isn't always to be feared.

21st century

I only recognise 2 names, and watched neither

uk 21st century comedies

I believe the thick of it was very good

Edited By Ady1 on 10/10/2021 23:59:33

Smoking is verboten

Gratuitous swearing and violence is fine though

I think this is what is missing from today's miserable offerings that are called humour.

I suppose that dates me!

Is Benny Hill funny? I think so, but not all of it. Like most comedians he operated close to the edge, and the edge moves. Go too far, and jokes become offensive. Don't go far enough and they aren't funny – who laughs at Charlie Chaplin today?

Bad-language in jokes has been fashionable for a few decades, but it's fading now. In twenty years TalkingPictures will be prefacing early 21st century comedy with bad taste warnings. The next generation of old men will moan about it, whilst their youngsters try to explain why grandad of 2040 is crass, prejudiced, tactless and out of touch. Old folk never understand the young, and the young don't understand they will soon be old too.

Anyone serious about comedy should read Henri Bergson's Le Rire. Essai sur la signification du comique. Brief overview in English here on Wikipedia. Bergson determines the process of the comic instead of analysing its effects. So you're not allowed to enjoy Benny Hill unless you can explain why he's funny now racism, homophobia and misogyny are in disrepute. As laughter is a social mechanism, laughing at the wrong time is a gaffe!

It's no wonder I have a complex.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 11/10/2021 17:45:12

I quite enjoyed quite a lot of this, especially the slap-stick aspects, and particularly the nurse learning karate and then using it to remove a patient's plaster cast. The scenes of lots of skimpily clad women running about seemed very dated though.

Rod

Do I live in a different world?

Remember that we will be vilified in two centuries time for our actions and views.

Just as the woke brigade do now for the actions of two centuries ago, when what was tolerable or commonplace was acceptable, but now abhorrent.

No doubt, in two hundred years time, we shall be castigated for using fossil fuels, and plastic, and radios will be a museum novelty, as long as no one thinks about the materials within them and their sources ..

Standards change. Different ships, different splices!

Howard

Kenny Everett is being re-run on Freeview here, it even has a disclaimer at the start!