# Benny Hill or Mr. Bean...who's funnier? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893 "2003-07-30T13:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FairyDust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@FairyDust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyDust)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/21 "2003-07-30T22:55:54Z")
[Here](http://www.blackadderhall.com/) is a site about Blackadder. ---
**Author:** ![FairyDust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@FairyDust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyDust)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/22 "2003-07-30T22:58:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mockingbird \* > \*\*Phyllis Diller is a good comedienne. > > And you have obviously been deprived of seeing the Pruitts of Southhampton. \*\* My older cousin once told me about that show. She even sang part of the theme: How’d you do, how’d you do, how’d yo, my dear. ---
**Author:** ![FairyDust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@FairyDust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyDust)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/23 "2003-07-30T23:00:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FairyDust \* > \*\*My older cousin once told me about that show. She even sang part of the theme: How’d you do, how’d you do, how’d yo, my dear. \*\* :smack: Correct-a-mundo: “How’d you do, how’d you do, how’d you do, my dear.” Was it Phyllis Diller’s only sitcom? ---
**Author:** ![Skillet38](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Skillet38](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skillet38)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/24 "2003-07-31T00:19:24Z")
John Cleese Graham Chapman Eric Idle Terry Jones Michael Palin Terry Gilliam Dinsdale was a Gentleman, and what’s more, he knew how to treat a female impersonator. sorry ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/25 "2003-07-31T00:40:28Z")
John Cleese is a genius. Fawlty Towers is one of the most brilliant shows ever. Bar none. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/26 "2003-07-31T02:11:57Z")
I like Benny Hill better than Rowan Atkinson, though Rowan CAN be absolutely brilliant in small doses. That’s why I’m sorry to see him doing movies. a 5 minute Mr. Nean sketch can be hysterically funny. But 90 minutes of Mr. Bean gets tiresome in a hurry. Now, I don’t expect everyone to like Benny Hill. If he just doesn’t make you laugh, fine. Watch something else. But the people who find him offensive and/or creepy are missing an important point: in Benny Hill’s comedy, the joke is always on HIM! Sure, he ogles youg ladies and lusts after them, but he never actually scores with them. He always gets some kind of comical comeuppance for even TRYING to hit on young beauties. Benny’s efforts at seduction invariably end with him running for his life from the police or the girl’s muscular boyfriend (to the tune of “Yakkety Sax”). Benny Hill almost always played a loser, a poor sap who never had a prayer of making it with the girls he drooled over! Even if you don’t find that funny, you certainly shouldn’t find it offensive. Ultimately, Benny was harmless. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/27 "2003-07-31T03:04:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*in Benny Hill’s comedy, the joke is always on HIM! Sure, he ogles youg ladies and lusts after them, but he never actually scores with them. > Benny Hill almost always played a loser, a poor sap who never had a prayer of making it with the girls he drooled over! Even if you don’t find that funny, you certainly shouldn’t find it offensive. Ultimately, Benny was harmless. \*\* Benny Hill didnt “almost” always play the role-- he \*\* ALWAYS \*\* played the same, stupid role. With the same, stupid jokes.How often can you repeat the same thing before intelligent people (like me !) get bored with it? One show of Benny Hill was more than enough for me. Mr Bean is also boring with his juvenile antics. But at least he can act and make funny faces. Now, Monty Python–they keep you on your toes, never knowing what will come next. Half their skits weren’t funny, but the ones that we still love to quote now–after 30 years -were brilliant, because they were so original. Nobody in all of human history has ever returned a dead parrot to a pet store.That’s why M. Python is funny. But everybody has seen a poor sap ogling girls.That’s why Benny Hill is not. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893/28 "2003-07-31T04:09:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chappachula \* > \*\* Nobody in all of human history has ever returned a dead parrot to a pet store.That’s why M. Python is funny. But everybody has seen a poor sap ogling girls.That’s why Benny Hill is not. \*\* I’m definitely a Monty Python fan, but come now- any number of Monty Python sketches mighjt jus tas well have been Benny Hill sketches! Think of Terry Jones wandering all over the beach, trying to find a place to change into hius swimsuit. That’s essentially a Benny Hill sketch! Think of the delightfully silly, puerile pee-pee and poo-poo jokes Monty Python used to do (Harry Organs, Howard Stools, Mrs. Smegma, et al.). Typical Benny Hill gags. Yes, Monty Python did some very original stuff and very cerebral stuff. They also did a lot of silly, derivative stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benny-hill-or-mr-bean-whos-funnier/191893.md?page=1)