Vic Reeves Big Night Out

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.

I felt the need to defend this programme after reading the first review written by someone who has never been a fan. Everybody is entitled to an opinion and i understand that Vic & Bob's humour is not for the masses. In fact it tends to be very much a love or hate thing (My mum loved it, my dad hated it!).

I remember the first time this was shown on television. I would have been around 15 years old and it had a huge impact on me. I had always been more into comedy than music like most of my mates and this was not only a new show but a brand new style of comedy, much in the same way that Python paved the way for so many comedians, i reckon BNO or rather Mr Reeves and Mr Mortimer did the same in the nineties. Not that comedy had gone stale during that time, we had some great programmes; Absolutely (the Scottish sketch show, not to be confused with Absolutely Fabulous), The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Fry & Laurie, Harry Enfield and Chums, etc etc. So for BNO to be such a breath of fresh air took some doing! These days you'd be hard pushed to find anything that stood out from the crowd, with the exception of The Office, The Mighty Boosh and Peep Show (with maybe a handful of others). But i can safely say that nothing has made my jaw drop in sheer wonderment in the way Vic & Bob did back then. Yes it was rough around the edges, the props were bad (that was the point) sometimes the timing was off, but you could forgive them anything for that next belly laugh.

They just simply did what they thought was funny. THAT'S it. No statements, no irony, satire or the need for any kind of structure. You saw, you laughed. End of. Visual humour that went way beyond slapstick and into another realm.

From the very first viewing they had me, i was hooked and woe-betide the video recorder if it malfunctioned during the show. Vic Reeves' Big Night Out is one of my fondest memories from my teenage years and throughout their careers Jim & Bob have remained two of my most favourite people in the world!

(Although i have to admit, i think the Smell Of series was ever so slightly better :P )

Full of memorable quotes like "you wouldn't let it lie!!" and complete and utter randomness, I love this. I don't remember it first time round, but recently bought it on DVD and I think it's hilarious. It's not as refined as some of their later stuff, but I like the rawness about it. Worth a watch, if only to decide if you love it or hate it. Marmitey methinks. It's good to see where Reeves and Mortimer started out, plus there are others who appear who went onto fame, such as Charlie Higson. One of my favourites is the character Graham Lister, played by Bob, who was Vic's nemesis, appearing on Novelty Island (a kind of talent contest) each week with another hilarious failure of an act, and addressing Vic with complete scorn as "Reeves". Another regular, the Man with the Stick ("What's on the end of the stick, Vic?") is amusing, as we learn what he's learnt that week by what's drawn on his paper helmet. Definitely worth a viewing.

Big night out is probably the worst show ever on English television - but that is what makes it so great. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer guides us through a world of their own including Les - a man who fear chives and people being sentenced to being part of the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar for a year.

Anyone with a taste for the bizarre should see this show.

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.