Oh, like he could say no to his housekeeper.
“Ah, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on!”
According to the Father Ted entry at Wikipedia, Bishop Brennan was based on Cleary, and another famous Irish priest who had a secret family, Eamon Casey.
Father Ted; “July 19th? Now why does that strike me as important?”
Father Dougal; “I wouldn’t know Ted, ya big bollox!”
Father Ted; “Have you been reading those Roddy Doyle books again, Dougal?”
Father Dougal; "I have, yeah Ted, ya big gobshite! "
Ted’s Golden Cleric Award acceptance speech, which is just an hours-long rant against everybody who ever slighted him, categorized into the “twats” and the “liars”.
The programme could also have very surreal moments. I remember one episode when, for some strange reason, their living room was suddenly full of live rabbits.
Oh yeah. Dougal gets one rabbit and then suddenly there are rabbits everywhere. They never really explained that, either. And Bishop Brennan hated rabbits because he’d been trapped in an elevator with lots of rabbits, gnawing on his cape and so forth.
well, I saw the clips, and they were hilarious, but I have to give it a place below
- Fawlty Towers
- Ab Fab
Fawlty Towers… Pure brilliant comic genius… made me proud to be a part of the same species that produced it
Ab Fab… what can be said… anyone that remembers the sixties didn’t take part…
but Father Ted is funny, brilliant at times, but… well, a little too “here’s the laugh explained”… at times… still great and hugely funny
Just my opinion
FML
“I’ll bet no one ever says that to him. It’ll be brilliant!”
Lots of good quotes here, including:
Father Ted: Ah, Sister Assumpta!
Sister Assumpta: Hello Father!
Father Ted: Dougal, Dougal, do you remember Sister Assumpta?
Father Dougal: Er, no.
Father Ted: She was here last year! And then we stayed with her in the convent, back in Kildare. Do you remember it? Ah, you do! And then you were hit by the car when you went down to the shops for the paper. You must remember all that? And then you won a hundred pounds with your lottery card? Ah, you must remember it, Dougal!
[Dougal shakes his head]
Sister Assumpta: And weren’t you accidentally arrested for shoplifting? I remember we had to go down to the police station to get you!.. And the police station went on fire? And you had to be rescued by helicopter?
Father Ted: Do you remember? You can’t remember any of that? The helicopter! When you fell out of the helicopter! Over the zoo! Do you remember the tigers?
[Dougal shakes his head some more]
Father Ted: You don’t remember? You were wearing your blue jumper.
Father Dougal: Ah, Sister Assumpta!
And then there was that one priest who was killed every week for a while, just like Kenny on South Park, and always because of something Father Ted inadvertently did.
I saw this thread in passing two nights ago. I had long heard of Father Ted, and hung around people who loved it and often quoted from it, much to my puzzlement (“Why does she keep repeating ‘Go on’ at an increasing volume?”) but I thought I’d give it a go.
This is one of the funniest shows I have ever watched. Thank you, Straight Dope. Off to Season 1, Episode 5, as soon as I microwave me some instant noodles. Let the good times roll.
When the Pope visited Ireland in 1979, he gave a youth mass at Galway. His M/C’s/warmup men at that event, in front of something like 600,000 impressionable young people, were one Eamon Casey and one Michael Cleary.
As it turned out, at one point, of the 3 priests on the altar, the only one who hadn’t fathered a child was the Pope himself. In retrospect,that was a very Father Teddish moment, in a lot of ways.
I don’t know what people are finding so funny about these Father Ted moments, by the way :- here in Ireland we regard the program as a docudrama. For example,Ted himself was clearly modelled on the priest who officiated at my first communion, who had his own financial imbroglio involving money just resting in his account :- said monies ultimately being used to finance the purchase of an apartment for his presumed mistress. Definitely, it was a docudrama.
I don’t deny that he’s funny, but perhaps a tad lazy - your quote is the finale to one of his funniest flights of fancy, and probably the most memorable. It was hilarious when I saw him in a small expat comedy club in Paris; less so when he told it again a year or so later in the same venue to practically the same crowd. 
All comedy shows that begin with F are brilliant, fact.
Father Ted, Fawlty Towers, Frasier, Futurama, (The) Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Father Dear Father… oh wait
This is normal. Most comedians do not go up on stage and spontaneously generate a series of funny lines and sketches. Instead, they develop a comedy routine and then present that routine for a time, while at the same time working on the next one. (Occasionally, I’ve seen newspaper mentions of a big-time comedian appearing unbilled in a small club, usually noting that they are trying out new material or prepping for a late-night television appearance.)
Oh I acknowledge that but, & I guess we’re privileged in a way - comedians often use us as the small club for trying out new material and it was a surprise/disappointing to see him doing so much of the same material when over a year had passed.
I mean if ever there was a place to experiment, or at least, avoid doing the same stuff it would be here where you’ve got a maximum of 100 people in the crowd, often less - there are no other comedy venues so if you like stand-up this is where you go. Personally I’d think twice about paying to see him again. Perhaps I’m just spoilt having seen Greg Proops doing the spontaneus generation thing here a few times.
That would be an ecumenical matter.
No, it was fuck, feck is never bleeped 
I used to be a university student for several depressing years. The library toilet walls were regularly scrawled with a lot of sectarian garbage, until one bright soul started a list of the best Father Ted lines. Number one and two were; “These are small, those are far away” and “Hairy Japanese Bastards!” 
Father Ted trivia;
#1 Our neighbour thought it was a scathingly honest look at life as a priest.
#2 My grandfather taught Father Dougal.
He didn’t teach him very well - that guy was dumb as shit.
Well, he allegedly taught one of Lord Mountbatten’s killers in a remedial class at a technical school, so something must have gotten through :smack:
I always loved Dougal’s description of Versace as that fashion designer who was “so good, they had to shoot him.”
All my (Irish) relations over 70 [i.e. most of them] absolutely hated Father Ted as being a terrible slur on the Catlick Church. Those under 70 saw it as a documentary on contemporary Irish life.
Is “feck” particular to the Irish? I was surprised when I used “feck” in front of some British friends, and they’d never heard of it before.