Vic Reeves Big Night Out

Just been gifted the DVD set for my birthday I'm having trouble writing this as my sides hurt from laughing so much Genius is often banned about these days but in this case Genius is the only word fitting VIC REEVES WILL SAVE US ALL!

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 )

I consider Vic Reeves Big Night to be one of the finest comedy shows ever to have adorned British television. It was brilliantly funny, incredibly inventive and superbly performed. It is comedy in the true sense, in that the objects or names that Vic mentions (eg when he's looking at what the man with the stick has written on his helmet) are funny in themselves. Reeves and Mortimer had an unerring ability to know exactly what was funny. So one type of vegetable is funny, another is not. The mere mention of one celebrity's name is funny, another is not. This is observational comedy in its purest form, and a sign of witty, perceptive minds. Get the DVD of this and keep it close. They don't make many like this.

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 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.