Chewin' the Fat

Comedy is in the eye of the beholder. Have read some of the comments about Chewin' The Fat and can't believe people who laugh at Bottom or The Young Ones feel qualified to put this brilliant show down.

The Scots are capable of laughing at themselves and if the English or Americans don't get it then all the better.

Not every piece of work is created for an international market and you have to wonder at people who only produce work for the Americans. After all there is nothing funnier out of America than their President!!

Chewin' The Fat is a refreshing and often strangely realistic interpretation of some of the finer points of Scotlands society. I don't laugh all the way through it, nor would i expect to, but I have laughed heartily at a good bit of the show. Thats enough to keep me happy.

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.

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.

Personally, I think that part of the genius of Chewin' the Fat is that it doesn't need to be prestigious or live up to any kind of predecessor to be quality entertainment.

There're countless jokes in the show which can simply be described as plainly silly, but its this naïvety and disregard for intellect makes these sketches hysterical on even the most primitive of levels.

Chewin' the Fat is more orientated (and, indeed, is prone to subjectiveness) around the Glasgow way of life as opposed to that of Scotland in general; hence it's likely to appeal to an even more limited audience than anticipated.

It's unjust to write of this show as a failure to amuse due to its skin-deep lack of precision, but this programme has mair baws than is widely concievable because the creators were aware that it didn't need to live up to any bygone acts.

Top-notch; just don't watch it too many times :)

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.