On my only trip abroad I kept expecting to come across four guys in Essex who would be absolute trouble. I wish a domestic network would play those old shows featuring Vivian, Neil, Mike, and Prick (the P is silent).
Notables that I can think of: [ul]
[li]Rick: in response to discovering that the lentils are from South Africa Neil! Neil! What does it take to make a meal, Neil–from TOTALITARIAN VEGETABLES?![/li][li]Neil: Just once I’d like to have dinner without having to scrape it off the floor.[/li][li]Neil: Help! Help! I’m being hassled by a killer sock.[/li][li]Neil: after being questioned by a middle aged woman in front of the house Oh great. Now I’m being hassled in the street by a chick.[/li][li]Perhaps my favorite scene is one where, IIRC, the heat got cut off and Vivian is burning everything in the place. Neil can’t figure out what’s going on and thinks that stuff is just dissapearing, so he starts trying to nail the plates to the table. Of course, being ceramic, they all break. Mike discovers what Neil is doing and proceeds to try to figure out how to nail the plates to the table. Then the action moves to the other characters and one has to pay attention to Mike in the background as he ponders the dilemma. Finally he gets it and proceeds to hammer these huge barn spikes into these plates without breaking the plates. But the spikes are so long that they go through the table and into his thighs. Just then, Vivian cuts the legs out from under Mike, but he doesn’t fall because he’s now nailed to the table. Outstanding bit of physical humor, IMO. Outstanding.[/li]Motorhead doing Ace of Spades!! Yee-ha!![/ul]
What about when yer man is hanging his head out the window of the speeding train and it gets taken clean off by a lamp post or some such? The Head’s lying there in the grass and mutters " Bloody useless bastard"
“Thats it…Im going to kill myself!!” Rick starts gobbling pills by the handful.
“Hey Vyv…Is it possible to kill yourself with laxitive pills?”
“I dunno Neil but I am sticking around to find out!”
Ricks reaction to the explosive farting, surprised and blowing pills out of his mouth absolutely killed me.
Also Vyv’s ‘upgrading’ of the Community Chest cards in Monopoly
“You have won second place in a beauty contest. Smash Rick over the head with the bank.”
“Congratulations its your birthday. You may set fire to Rick’s bed.”
“Get out of Jail free. You may keep this card, sell it, or stick it up Rick’s bottom.”
VYVYAN: NO!! No! We’re not watching the bloody Good Life!! Bloody bloody bloody!! I hate it!! It’s so bloody nice! Felicity ‘Treacle’ Kendall and Richard ‘Sugar-Flavored-Snot’ Briars!! What do they do now?! Chocolate bloody Button ads, that’s what!! They’re just a couple of reactionary stereotypes, confirming the myth that everyone in Britain is a lovable, middle-class eccentric - and I - HATE - THEM!!
MIKE: That was a highly articulate outburst, Vyvyan.
The first ever episode I saw of “Young Ones” was, at the insistence of a friend, the week before I was to appear on “University Challenge.” Of course, it was the episode in which they go on the show, and wreak havoc against the team from Footlights, Cambridge. Absolutely hilarious, complete with non sequitur deus ex eclair from above!
“What’s that little white dot?”
“It’s a little white dot. It means ‘go to bed…there’s no more telly.’”
“Vyvyan, are you going to bed?”
“No, I’m going to stay up and watch the dot some more.”
“I wish we had a video, so I could watch it in the morning.”
“People’s Poet. Don’t die! We’ll kill ourselves if you do, but first we’ll take off all our clothes!”
I particularly liked the scene with the party the boys throw. The Pigs show up at the door and Neil hides a joint in his mouth. When he gets back into the room, he flies off the set and onto the moon where the aliens speaking alien language call him a stupid hippy. Priceless.
Being from the States, a Briton once had to explain to us why it was funny when Vyv stomped through the floor and kicked that guy in the head. We didn’t know that the two teams really weren’t stacked on top of each other.
Hey! Just what was (is?) a “Special Patrol Group”? I know there’s an old Exploited song called “Fuck the SPG”, but that sums up all I know.
