Not the Nine O'Clock News

What a pity that the comment that is visible on the front page puts down one of the best sketch shows of the 1980s and completely misses the point. It reminds me of the time when someone wrote to 'Points of View' to complain about the racism in 'Goodness Gracious Me' after the 'Indian teenagers visit Britain' and 'Going for an English' sketches. As the writer of the comment was Scottish I wonder if he finds 'Chewin' the Fat' offensive to people with throat cancer! Not the Nine O' Clock News was equally capable of hilarious comedy and biting satire. I remember Rowan Atkinson's monologue as an alien with a faulty translator being the first thing that ever made me laugh uncontrollably, long after the sketch had ended; The series' songs were clever parodies of such pop stars of the time as Sheena Easton, Blondie, Kate Bush and Motorhead; and the 'Gerald the Gorilla' sketch was superb. There was also excellent satire as well, directed at police racism (the 'Constable Savage' sketch), religious outrage over 'Monty Python's Life of Brian' (the 'Life of Christ' sketch) and patronising Hollywood attitudes to issues in other countries (the 'Hollywood Salutes Lech Walesa' sketch). Perhaps our negative reviewer found the 'Coca Cola' sketch offensive to fat people instead of a comment on the fact that a so-called 'cool' drink is actually fattening and unhealthy. It's a pity that this series is only available on 2 'Best of' DVDs (why the hell do the BBC do that?) as it was the launchpad for the careers of Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones, all of whom are still entertaining us (to a greater or lesser degree) today. And furthermore it shows us that Pamela Stephenson was a talented comedienne who need not have given up performing (though to her credit she has achieved a great deal in the years since her 'retirement'). A much-missed gem.

If there is one defining characteristic about British humour it is our ability to laugh at ourselves, not take anything too seriously, and therefore a good few 'sick' jokes abound. Name any major disaster of recent history (Townsend Thoresen, Exxon Valdez, Concorde) and dozens of 'sick' jokes spring to mind. Such is the case with NTNOCN, with their constant Chappaquiddick references and the 'Wallaby Airlines' skit. I was a big fan of NTNOCN, and loved the skits "Gay Christian" "American Express" and "Gerald the Gorilla" as well as their parodies of "That's Life" and "Game For A Laugh" ("Oh, I don't believe it! We love your show!") and dead-on impressions of celebs such as Janet Street-Porter and Sir Robert Mark. The songs were funny too, such as "Gob On You", "The Bouncing Song" and a great skewering of 80's music on "Nice Video, Shame About The Song". All in all a must for any aficionado of British humour.

Sure, this was the funniest show ever. Right up until 'Kids in the Hall,' anyway, which gave NTNON about ten years reign. Do you realise NTNON was the first comedy troupe to make fun of ABBA? Respect is due. If you can picture Mel Smith dressed like Agnetha, you get the idea... And if it comes easily to your mind, I raise an eyebrow at you.

Just a young lad when this show was on-air, I was glued to the tv set like wet toilet paper.

Nowadays NTNON's humour seems fairly commonplace. But NTNON was the first to mock the MGM logo by zooming out on the roaring lion to show him mounting a female. Since this is done routinely in comedy now, the impact is lost. But at the time, it was mind-blowingly irreverent. And since this was the first time I had ever seen sex, it was also educational.

This show was so funny. I especially liked the toilet sketch involving the assistant and the weird bloke trying to design a bathroom for the weird bloke and all he ever puts in it is a toilet. that was the best sketch ever.

De niro 2001, you really need to lighten up, not all the sketches involved plane crashes. Only about 2 or 3 did. the rest of the sketches were just funny things about everyday life. The humour isn't in the plane crash, it's how they edited together two completely different news stories and made them look relevent. People weren't sitting at home saying "Hahahaha look at those people on that plane dying". The thing is, if they did have to acknowledge the fact those people died, they would have done it in a funny sketch anyway. like they did when they had complaints about a (stuffed) hedgehog being run over. for god sake it was stuffed. they didn't ask the local nature reserve for a fresh hedgehog to run over but anyway they then did an apology the following week involving them saying "We probably exibited less pain to hedgehogs per-say than whoever it is who goes around stuffing them". Anyway, sorry about all this writing but this show was just great and i'll love it forever. Overall 10 out of 10.

When I went to school in Denmark the greatest joy was to recite the surreal dialog from the team behind Not the Nine o'clock News with my mates. Granted, some of the more malicious jokes must have appealed more to the younger audience than grown-ups with true knowledge of famine and war - but on the whole - it was the greatest introduction to British society and language usage next to Monty Python. Some of the gags were so classical - I've never forgotten them: The court sketch with the judge and the lawyers arguing over how to prenounce "alibi" or the smash-hit-music-video "Good video - shame about the song - oh oh" with the title repeated again and again while all effort was put into making a state of the art video worthy of MTV. I do hope that the DVD will be released in Denmark too - it's classic fun from the eighties! :0D