Chewin' the Fat

The BBC must have been drunk when they approved this show. 20 years ago people might of found it funny and I suppose some 8 year olds today probably do. These guys should stick to Christmas panto. The "humour is seriously dated. Long sketches that end with the weakest punchlines since sooty threw a cream pie at sweep are given ridiculous canned laughter. I was initially looking forward to this programme as I had heard it compared to the great Scottish sketch show "naked video". a comment I find insulting to the naked video team.

I've lived in one of the rougher areas of Glasgow all my life and grew up with such comedies as Rab C Nesbit and Naked Video, and i can honestly say that Chewin' the Fat is a near perfect representation of real life in this part of the dear green city! The characters portrayed in the show are people i see in every day life - there's a Jack and Victor on most Glaswegian buses at any given point in the day! And an earlier comment made about the school teacher and her pupils being disrespectful, well thats exactly what happened when i was at school and i have it on good authority from my younger brother that the case is still the same today. If you don't 'get it' then fair enough but no show on TV has annoyed me enough to make me feel like logging on here and going off on a multi-page rant about it. Basically if you don't like it - then its probably not been aimed at you in the first place, so get over it.

OK the series that was broadcast nationally was by far their worst, I gave up watchin it but the rest of it was brilliant. It represents stereotypes of the scots, ie the ponces from edinburgh (oh! the banter), the weegies. there were other great characters such as the 2 old men, jack and victor [featured in the spin off still game]. the kind of characters u see around Scotland. before u slag off a show u shld get a good idea of what ur slagging. u cant just brand all Scottish comedy rubbish... I'm too young for Rab C Nesbitt but i do know that chewing the fat was a great show and its spin off, Still Game is the best Scottish comedy ever

I'm surprised to many people think you can only find this funny if you are from Glasgow. I think they are selling this program short. Yes, the accents are thick and, at times, difficult to understand, even with the subtitles on. And, yes, there are a lot of local jokes that we won't get. But we still laugh our butts off! My husband and I have been making a point of watching Chewing the Fat on Netflix and we've really enjoyed it. So much of the humor translates better than the Glaswegians think, ... or wish. Many of the recurring sketch taglines have become part of our own jokes. No one we know watches the show so no one gets us on this, but that's OK. Funny is funny, whatever the language.

Aye, yer gonnae sh**e yerself from laughin!

Take a bit of Monty Python, add The League of Gentlemen, then scrap all the bad stuff and give it a real edge and a heavy Scottish accent and you have Chewin' The Fat, a marvelous show from the brains of Ford Keirnan and Greg Hemphill (plus Paul, Karen, Julie and the rest). With recurring characters and a few story lines, this sketch comedy series is as brilliant as it is sometimes rude and crude. You need to have a good ear for the accents, and there are a few references that may go over your head, but the three 6-episode series (plus the Live! show and their "Still Game" stage play on DVD) are about the best thing to come along in years. And a fourth series is due in November 2001!

This is not for kids. And I'd recommend that anyone who gets upset by mothers proudly telling their friends that they "need to do more laundry these days because their 14 year old son has just started mastrubating" stay clear. A solid 5 of 5 points.