Vic Reeves Big Night Out

"Vic Reeves Big Night Out" is stupid humour for the very juvenile mind. There is more intelligent humour to be found in a children's day care center than in this show.

I like surreal humour as much as the next person, but I swear I could feel my brain cells dying off while viewing this waste of time.

Fortunately, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer redeemed themselves later with the enjoyable and stimulating Randall and Hopkirk(Deceased).

If you have not yet purchased this show on DVD, keep "Vic Reeves Big Night Out" out of your DVD collection. If this is what a Big Night Out is like, I'd rather stay in.

I have seen a couple of repeats of this in 2005 and it reminded me just how awful this show was. There is real talent out there and those like Reeves and Mortimer who are untalented. VR-BNO was one of those programs that people watched just to say that they watched it, and therefore were fashionable. Ask people now and they will admit what a pile of cr*p it was.

Nothing Reeves and Mortimer have done since has been of any great shakes. They now make money creating and selling game show ideas. Well, if it keeps them off the screen then it has to be a good thing! So there you have it.

"Vic Reeves Big Night Out" is one of the funniest shows that I have ever seen. If you like surreal & nonsensical humour, this is definitely your cup of tea. If you need your humour based in reality, you will probably not like this show. I find that people either love or hate Vic Reeves - there is no middle ground. Vic Reeves & his comedy companion Bob Mortimer will utterly amaze you with their ability to come up with total nonsense. The show was filmed in front of a live audience who join in with catchphrases and occasionally are called upon to participate in the silliness. The show is like some sort of surreal music hall or variety show with Vic Reeves (billed as the "King of Light Entertainment") as the emcee. The set & props are all very cheaply done which I think adds to the whole feel of the show. I think that people who don't like this show are trying too hard to "get it" when there's really nothing to "get". The humour of the show comes from its utter nonsense. It is the sheer absurdity of the characters and their acts that is so funny. There is no underlying meaning. If you like this show, you should definitely check out Reeves & Mortimer's other surreal comedy shows "The Smell of Reeves & Mortimer" and "Bang, Bang, It's Reeves & Mortimer". These shows were made with a higher budget which allows them to go out even farther than on "Big Night Out" where they are limited to performing everything on a single stage. However, I definitely recommend "Vic Reeves Big Night Out" as a starting point. It really is one of the funniest shows ever made. Reeves & Mortimer are the funniest thing since Monty Python.

To me, this is/was the best television programme ever - simple as.

There's something about BNO that has stuck with me since I first saw it in the early nineties. It was cheaply made, a minimal cast, yet for that it was honest and ridiculously hilarious. It has a natural funniness that I've just not seen on anything since - it just didn't try too hard, it was just that funny.

But as a couple of reviewers have said here, either you get it or you don't - there is absolutely no middle ground. You won't 'half' like it. It is truly silly - but intelligent at the same time. Part of its humour is the way lots of different comedy concepts are seamlessly included - verbosity, falling over, sarcasm - it works on many levels. But there you go - I'm over-analysing.

Just watch it; if you don't find it funny, you've lost nothing. But if you do, you might have just discovered what you'll see as the funniest thing ever.

This show is hilarious. When it first came out it changed the way I saw the world. In the UK it was the last show that everyone watched and everyone talked about it every week.

Comedy snobs might criticise it for catchphrases and prop comedy, but only the ones who think Otto and George should be marked down for being a puppet act. Sure, a lot of hack comedy uses props, puppets or catchphrases but to use them and be strikingly original (And derivative) takes genius. The point of comedy is to be funny. Stick your rules where the sun don't shine.

It's regrettable that none of their subsequent work has lived up to this striking beginning* but, to paraphrase Josef Heller, whose has?

This show made the world a better place for me and millions of others and I'm forever grateful. Thank you Slim. Thank you, stocky feller.

*On TV anyway. Vic's drawings are brilliant and Bob's podcast Athletico Mince is superb.