What was our funniest decade?

[ohdear]

UK Gold are starting a year long debate (that's a lot of clip shows) on when Britain was at it's funniest,so,any excuse to start another thread,I thought I would ask you lot on what you would consider to be the best decade for comedy.

A lot of it would have dated badly now.The Mary Whitehouse Experience for example,I imagine would be total shit now,but at the time I thought it was brilliant.

So going by that kind of judgement alone.What made you laugh the most at the time.What would you say was the funniest time??.

I can only think of these programmes at this moment in time,but I'll add some more as you remind/moan at me for not including your favourite.I'll even include pre eighites stuff!!.I started this too late to really think it through.

The Eighties
Blackadder
The Young Ones
The Comic Strip
Only Fools and Horses
Benny Hill

The Nineties
Absolutely
Red Dwarf (I think it started in 87,but the best of it was in the nineties)
Mary Whitehouse
Father Ted
Bottom
Bevis and Butthead
Bit of Fry and Laurie
The Fast Show
Simpsons

The 00's
Peep Show
Alan Partridge
Spaced
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Arrested Development

[Kid of the Kop]

What about comediens and such though?

Good stand up usually makes me laugh more than a programme

[Kid of the Kop]

Also what about quiz shows like Have I Got News For You and QI and that?

And The Simpsons started in the 80's.

I'll stop moaning now.

[ohdear]

You are probably right,but the list would be endless.

Could be another thread though.That would be a tough one.

[ohdear]

I thought about quiz shows.I can't see why not although they are meant to be more off the cuff than sitcoms.

Fuck it,there in!!!.Anarchy.

[themaninred]

Benny Hill first made his name in the 1950s for the BBC before switching to Thames in 1969...The other ones in bold are AMERICAN!

Lets see...

1960s
That Was The Week That Was
Not Only But Also
Till Death Us Do Part
Steptoe and Son
The Likely Lads
It's Marty
At Last the 1948 Show
Do Not Adjust Your Set

1970s
Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Goodies
Rising Damp
Fawlty Towers
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads
Q5
Man About the House/George and Mildred/Robin's Nest
Ripping Yarns
Rutland Weekend Television
The Morecambe and Wise Show
Tommy Cooper
On the Buses
Please Sir/Fenn Street Gang
Doctor in the House/At Large etc
Dave Allen At Large
The Two Ronnies
Porridge/Going Straight
Sez Les
Citizen Smith

1980s
Not the Nine O'Clock News
The Young Ones/ Filthy Rich and Catflap
Alexei Sayle's Stuff
Saturday/Friday Live
Girls on Top
A Kick up the Eighties
Only Fools and Horses
Just Good Friends
Dear John (the most underated John Sullivan comedy IMO)
Whose Line is it Anyway?
Whoops Apocalypse
Hot Metal
Spitting Image
End of Part One
The Comic Strip Presents...
The Black Adder /II/the Third/Goes Forth
Alas Smith & Jones
Naked Video
Kit Curran ('King of the airwaves')
Victoria Wood As Seen on TV

1990s
Nightingales
The Day Today
Men Behaving Badly
Brasseye
Bottom
Red Dwarf
Father Ted
The Mary Whitehouse Experience
Fantasy Football League
In Bed With Medinner
Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge
I'm Alan Partridge
The Fast Show
Have I got News for You
Vic Reeves Big Night Out
Reeves and Mortimer
Shooting Stars
A Bit of Fry & Laurie
The Royle Family
Dinnerladies


2000s
The League of Gentlemen
The O****e
Nathan Barley
Spaced
Fonejacker
The Mighty Boosh
E****s
The IT Crowd
Little Britian
The Catherine Tate Show
Peter Kay's Phoenis Nights
Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Harry Hill's TV Burp (and the other show he did)
Peep Show
The Robinsons (the most underated comedy of the decade)
The Worst Week of My Life
Bo' Selecta

and loads more probably...

[NeverOffside]

I've gone for 70's. There's plenty of shite during that period, as there is at any time.

[ohdear]

Ha!,you missed Hancock Half Hour from your list:o.

When this first came about I immediately thought of the eighties,but thinking about it and looking at the list,I'm swinging towards the nineties.

I'd completly forgotten about Nightingales.I used to love that.

Your right about Dear John,that was a good one as well and I think everyone secretly fancied Belinda Lang.

[isaac_hunt]

Ha!,you missed Hancock Half Hour from your list:o.

When this first came about I immediately thought of the eighties,but thinking about it and looking at the list,I'm swinging towards the nineties.

I'd completly forgotten about Nightingales.I used to love that.

Your right about Dear John,that was a good one as well and I think everyone secretly fancied Belinda Lang.

It was not a secret! Shame 2 Point 4 Children was such a pile of shite.

Dear John was class, loved it at the time.

[Evs]

I originally thought Seventies for 'Fawlty Towers', 'Rising Damp' and 'Porridge', but the Nineties had 'The Day Today', Partridge and 'BrassEye'.

So Nineties it is then.

[North Wales Red]

I was going to say the eighties but these four sealed it for me.
Alan Partridge
Spaced
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Arrested Development

[North Wales Red]

And you missed out Married with Children from the eighties and the brilliant Larry Sanders from the nineties.

[redforever]

all of the decades mentioned are full of classics and could easily be named the best for me though it has to be the eighties closely followed by the nineties.
Blackadder
only fools
spitting image etc etc these are truly great comedies in fact i may cheer myself up before my night shift with some black adder.

surprised no one has mentioned the office yet, although the american version is hilarious much better than the uk one imo

[ohdear]

The Office and Extras are in Themaninred's list (not that,that list is a patch on mine though).

[redforever]

The Office and Extras are in Themaninred's list (not that,that list is a patch on mine though).

thats why i couldn't make detective ;)
if someone can clarify for me this, does anyone remember a series called prospects? it was on when i was dead young and i loved it, i have tried to find it for ages with no luck, anyone know of it?
cheers

[themaninred]

thats why i couldn't make detective ;)
if someone can clarify for me this, does anyone remember a series called prospects? it was on when i was dead young and i loved it, i have tried to find it for ages with no luck, anyone know of it?
cheers

Yeah, it starred Gary Olsen didn't it? ITV, early eighties about two young, unemployed men...

Can anyone remeber the Tales of Sherwood Forest with Pete Postlethwaite?

[themaninred]

Here's some more...

Dad's Army
Shelley
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Absolutely Fabulous
Operation Good Guys
Fist of Fun
One Foot in the Grave
Only When I Laugh
The Good Life
To the Manor Born
Ever Decreasing Circles
Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister
The Thick of It
Carrott's Lib
The Kenny Everett Video Show
Goodness Gracious Me
Still Game
This is David Lander
Absolutely
The New Statesman
Marion and Geoff

[redforever]

Here's some more...

Dad's Army
Shelley
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Absolutely Fabulous
Operation Good Guys
Fist of Fun
One Foot in the Grave
Only When I Laugh
The Good Life
To the Manor Born
Ever Decreasing Circles
Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister
The Thick of It
Carrott's Lib
The Kenny Everett Video Show
Goodness Gracious Me
Still Game
This is David Lander
Absolutely
The New Statesman
Marion and Geoff

loved the ones in bold

[ohdear]

Operation Good Guys was great.

15 Storys High was another good one from a couple of years back with Sean Lock.I was the only person on the planet to watch that though.

[simon pieman]

thats why i couldn't make detective ;)
if someone can clarify for me this, does anyone remember a series called prospects? it was on when i was dead young and i loved it, i have tried to find it for ages with no luck, anyone know of it?
cheers

Prospects was ace , missed a certain shag so i could watch an episode of Prospects :o .The theme tune was good aswell had it on single but the exwife got custody :mad:

[1984]

I love Dad's Army. I think it was in the 70's.

Kevin Nolan.

[Can Man Red]

Just take your pick from each decade, even the 50's and you'll be entertained for hours. No one has mentioned the goon show.

I was lent DVD's of Shameless and Monkey Dust, both not been shown over here I think , Monkey Dust is pretty black humour.

[North Wales Red]

Just take your pick from each decade, even the 50's and you'll be entertained for hours. No one has mentioned the goon show.

I was lent DVD's of Shameless and Monkey Dust, both not been shown over here I think , Monkey Dust is pretty black humour.

Sgt Bilko was ace and still holds up well today?
Anyone remember Pushing Up daisies starring Hale and Pace and Chris Barrie?

[ohdear]

Channel Four have a new series out called Heroes of Comedy.Last week was Ricky Gervais,this week it's David Walliams and Matt Lucas.Fucking rubbish.

[candyman]

thats why i couldn't make detective ;)
if someone can clarify for me this, does anyone remember a series called prospects? it was on when i was dead young and i loved it, i have tried to find it for ages with no luck, anyone know of it?
cheers

I remember it. There were two main characters. One was black and one was white (wasn't one of them on Grange Hill previously?). I loved it too.

Disagree with the American version of the office. Not half as good as the British version.

[candyman]

Anybody mentioned The Comic Strip, Garth Marenghis Darkplace or Kevin Turvey yet?
All great comedies.

Oh and series one of Game On. Loved that.

[candyman]

Sgt Bilko was ace and still holds up well today?
Anyone remember Pushing Up daisies starring Hale and Pace and Chris Barrie?

Yup I remember it.
Used to be on Sunday nights if I remember correctly.

[ohdear]

I've never seen a single second of Kevin Turvey as far as I'm aware.This is strange considering I have seen every Young Ones/Bottom/Filthy Rich and cat Flap a million times throughout the nineties.

[tonk]

Growing up in Australia in the '70s I saw many English sitcoms eg Are You Being Served?, Man About the House, George & Mildred, Porridge, Some Mothers do 'ave 'em, as well as Benny Hill, Dick Emery, Dave Allen, The Two Ronnies etc. I suppose these seem like classic comedy to me, but I imagine they've dated quite badly although I saw a couple of ep's of 'Some mothers..' recently and still got a good laugh out of them.
In terms of the funniest British comedies I've seen, I reckon Blackadder, The Office, Fawlty Towers, The Fast Show, The Young One's are the best, so no one decade stands out, but I voted for the 80s overall.

[candyman]

I've never seen a single second of Kevin Turvey as far as I'm aware.This is strange considering I have seen every Young Ones/Bottom/Filthy Rich and cat Flap a million times throughout the nineties.

I recommend it.
Used to enjoy watching that after Friday Night Live (later became Saturday Night Live) finished.

[candyman]

My heart says The 80s but my head says the 60s.
The 80s was when I was growing up and the "alternative" comics back then such as Alexi Sayle just seemed so fresh and dangerous. They were the backlash against Thatcher's Britain.

But the 60s was probably the most important decade for comedy. Everything good that followed in the 70s, 80s, 90s and even now has some roots from the comedy back then of Milligan, Cooke, The Pythons, etc. There are some notable exceptions such as The Day Today and Brass Eye which I think was the most brilliant and truly original comedy for many a year. So even the bland (in general, not comedy) 90s produced some great stuff.

[ohdear]

The Paul merton Show!!!.Just remembered it.Came out just before HIGNFY and drifted into it a bit as well I think.

Only done one series.Wasn't an all time great.but I have just remembered the scene where he is in a prisioner of war camp and is dressed up as a german Solder to escape.All of his fellow POW's giving him his passport and wishing him luck etc..then he walks out of the door and he is in a Japanese POW camp.Very funny.Might have been an old pub joke now I think of it.

[ohdear]

I automatically thought of the eighties when this subject was raised.I remember seeing the Universally challenged episode of the Young One's and it was the most outragous thing I have ever seen,probably ever.I must of been younger than ten I think (got an older brother who showed me loads of things I was too young to look at).

It's not as simple as that though.When I think of Spaced,I'm Alan Partridge,Peep Show,Father Ted.Even Arrested Development and Flight of the Conchords.Makes it very hard to choose one decade.You can't really,but it's good to talk about the comedies you thought no one else had watched.Nobody else has mentioned 15 Storys high yet though!!.

Am I the only one who thought Fawlty towers was in the eighties??.

[Evs]

Anybody mentioned The Comic Strip, Garth Marenghis Darkplace or Kevin Turvey yet?
All great comedies.

Oh and series one of Game On. Loved that.

Agree with all of them and had forgotten them all!

Early Alzheimers probably.

OhDear, that 'Bambi' episode is rare in that even though it's ridiculously dated it's still superb.

Piss myself everytime I see it.

My favourite episode of any sitcom ever is the 'Gourmet Night' episode of 'Fawlty Towers', but the ubiquity of the series has detracted from it somewhat, being on UKTV Gold every night.

Still genius, though.

[ohdear]

I think the comedy episode that made me go WOW,was the Lord Flasheart episode in Blackadder Goes Fourth,when Rick Mayall was in it.Woof woof.

Wanted to be just like that for a few days afterwards.Never happened.