# OMFG! Its Benny Hill!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215 "2003-01-02T16:04:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@pestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestie)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/21 "2003-01-03T16:58:20Z")
Oh, thanks a **lot**! Now I have the Benny Hill theme stuck in my head. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/22 "2003-01-03T17:54:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arden Ranger \* > \*\*Hey! I loved Benny Hill! > > My first husband and I used to watch it on HBO (I think). Of course, itā€™s even funnier when one is slightly stoned. Not that I _ever_ discovered that first hand. \*\* I loved it too- not while being stoned (not my gig), but the functional equivilent, being a teenager. Ah, good times . . . ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/23 "2003-01-03T19:18:39Z")
**Moderatorā€™s Notes:** This looks like a fine topic that should relieve some of the monotony of the 10,000 LOTR threads over in Cafe Society for Euty and Ukeā€”and maybe everyone else, too. Off it goes. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/24 "2003-01-03T19:48:03Z")
You want light entertainmentā€¦ possibly I heard it here, but I tried it, and it was great. Got Grand Theft Auto 3 going, and put the Benny Hill music on infinite repeate on my MP3 player. After thirty seconds it becomes annoying. After ten minutes, itā€™s the funniest thing in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/25 "2003-01-03T20:22:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Abe Babe \* > \*\*And Soylent Green is made from people. \*\* **Hey!** How about a spoiler warning, for Peteā€™s sake! šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/26 "2003-01-03T20:29:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dougie\_monty \* > As compared with what? Rod Stewart, who punches photographers? Liam Neessen? John Cleese? > \ > With slapstick, and with Benny Hill, I could just watch the routines and laugh. With Cleese or Neessen, I would proably have to be told itā€™s funny, and therefore since it is funny I must laugh. ā˜¹ Liam Neeson is supposed to be funny? I need to go rent **Schindlerā€™s List** againā€¦ šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/27 "2003-01-03T20:36:31Z")
My brother takes part in a Civil War reenactments, and a member of his platoon was from England, who said he served in the military alongside Benny Hill. I think every male was required to serve back thenā€¦but he said Hill constantly spent time in the brig. No wonder he lampooned military figures in a lot of his sketches. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/28 "2003-01-03T21:35:21Z")
You know, all these years, I would have sworn that was Benny Hill playing one of the two IRA guys in The Quiet Man. I see now from the IMDB list that he was not in that film, but the film actor is a dead ringer for him. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/29 "2003-01-04T00:55:15Z")
I was shocked when I first caught one of his shows. He was doing some sort of musical involving diseases and I have the vague memory of Benny dressed like a nurse holding a large hypodermic needle and singing something. Then they overlaid him as Carmon Miranda singing a duet, and even a third BH in a different costume. Then there were the times when he played an Indian, complete with brownface makeup. I think he did blackface routines as well, which would have gotten him cancelled in a heartbeat if tried on an American network. Yes, Benny was a throwback to the old days of burlesque and vaudeville. Most of the jokes were corny and old, but they had a lot of energy behind them (in the same way as ā€œAirplane!ā€ one of my favorite movies). And some of the song parodies were pretty clever. I can appreciate him for being him. And I would love to play GTA with the Hill theme playing! Ah, Benny, if you only knew how much we loved you. ---
**Author:** ![TyrC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@TyrC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TyrC)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/30 "2003-01-04T05:11:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*Benny Hillā€™s program is one of my countryā€™s most worthless exports. I apologise. \*\* ``` You have no idea what you're saying to the people of the United States. His show is considered great over here and his appeal seems to cross all racial, cultural, and economic barriers here. He is one of the funniest men in history. That said I myself apologige for "Friends." I understand it's been exported to the U.K. and I'm truly sorry. A comedy is supposed to be funny I thought. ``` TyrC! ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/31 "2003-01-04T06:33:10Z")
His show was one of the first ā€œwesternā€ programs shown on Soviet television in the '80s. According to a friend of mine, the advertising was left in placeā€¦ so they really wanted and could not get those Kit-Kat bars. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/32 "2003-01-04T15:58:57Z")
Jeez. I avoid the Cafe Society like the plague. I started this over in MPSIMS because it was more about the shock of seeing Benny where I didnā€™t expect him, and now its bloomed into a Cafe Society ā€œBenny Hill Appreciationā€ thread. Now thatā€™s a real shock! šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215/33 "2003-01-05T02:10:41Z")
ā€˜soylent green is STILL made from people! they said they were going to stop, but they didnā€™t!ā€™-old snl sketch. that being said, benny hill was hilarious. his material must have been several millennia old, but he could pull it off hilariously. i was shocked that he was as old as he was when he died. i thot he was in his 30ā€™s or 40ā€™s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omfg-its-benny-hill/146215.md?page=1)