Celebrity deaths you really can't be arsed about

[Satchmo Distel]

Thread on the series:

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/for...-s-h-tv-series

[Benjm]

So you thought it was shit, then?

Put bluntly, yes.

[jwdd27]

I was surprised to see Large's death being announced by the "And there's more" unfunnyman Jimmy Cricket. If you'd told me he'd died in 1995 I wouldn't have been surprised, but he's even younger than Large, just 74.

All these celebrities who seemed to be in their 50s in their 70s/80s heyday, but actually hadn't reached 40.

[treibeis]

I was surprised to see Large's death being announced by the "And there's more" unfunnyman Jimmy Cricket. If you'd told me he'd died in 1995 I wouldn't have been surprised, but he's even younger than Large, just 74.

All these celebrities who seemed to be in their 50s in their 70s/80s heyday, but actually hadn't reached 40.

Did Eddie Large really make a record called "Gee Musky ... Moi Non Plus", or is that Wikipedia Vandalism?

[Gangster Octopus]

I've been trying to explain M*A*S*H over on the Current Watching thread. Oh, and anyone who doesn't think that the Brothers Marx are still funny has no soul.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Dunno, something like Tony Hancock still stands up today, at least to a British audience. A few others too.

[Wouter D]

So you thought it was shit, then?

Ah, Treibeis. Truly OTF's equivalent of South Park's Kanye West parody.

I'm a motherfuckin' lyrical wordsmith motherfuckin' genius!

[Jah Womble]

Comedy tends to be very much 'of its time'. I've never (and I mean never) understood the 'humour' in The Three Stooges or the Marx brothers or whatever. The Keystone Cops and Charlie Chaplin are worth watching for the incredible physical work, but it's not really funny, per se.

M*A*S*H* is one of the all-time great comedies, but it gets less funny with each passing year. I Love Lucy, too. It just comes off as forced and hacky now, but it was top of its class back then.

Anyway, we're probably among the last who'll find Fawlty Towers and Monty Python funny. Kids today stare blankly at it. Racism and sexism are getting harder to find laughs in.

I think both shows had a little more about them than that - and with Basil Fawlty and his outmoded viewpoints, the joke was always on him. (Which I'll concede isn’t always an easy sell.)

Agree with your overall point, however.

[Satchmo Distel]

I was surprised to see Large's death being announced by the "And there's more" unfunnyman Jimmy Cricket. If you'd told me he'd died in 1995 I wouldn't have been surprised, but he's even younger than Large, just 74.

All these celebrities who seemed to be in their 50s in their 70s/80s heyday, but actually hadn't reached 40.

With changes in diet, smoking, etc, 35 years old in 1975 was 45+ in today's terms. Additionally, having been born before 1950, they were expected to take on their parents' cultural values at a very young age, which often meant starting to look like your middle-aged parents by the age of 30. Hence "family entertainers"; there was no comedy specifically for the under-35s until Beyond The Fringe and Python, which in turn tended to have middle-class audiences. The Goons was an exception but was tolerated because it was so abstract (like the Marx Brothers' Russian-Jewish-derived humour in the US).

[WOM]

I think both shows had a little more about them than that - and with Basil Fawlty and his outmoded viewpoints, the joke was always on him. (Which I'll concede isn’t always an easy sell.)

Yes, of course. It's just sometimes hard to watch past the shitty bits. Archie Bunker likely suffers from the same phenomena. The racism was a contemporary satire of outdated ideas, but how would younger viewers know that now?

[Jah Womble]

Yep, absolutely - they wouldn’t get past what would seem completely unacceptable language. Regardless of context or nuance.

[treibeis]

Ah, Treibeis. Truly OTF's equivalent of South Park's Kanye West parody.

Look, here you are, here's €2.80. Go get yourself something from a vending machine and, while you're eating it, think about what you wrote.

[jwdd27]

Roy Horn of the Siegfried and Roy magic/tiger taming Vegas act has succumbed to Covid-19.
He was the one who was mauled on stage a while back, pretty much bringing their bizarro career to an end.

[Snake Plissken]

One of my favourite gags I ever wrote.

"Siegfried and Roy have got a new film out, called 'Crouching Tiger, Nervous Magician'".

[Jah Womble]

Inevitably, Siegfried & Roy were playing Vegas when I was there with friends in 1996, which was promoted via a ninety-foot billboard featuring the duo either side of their white tiger. This we re-imagined with Siegfried saying to the tiger: ''Ere, Roy - who the f*ck's that other bloke?'

You had to be there really.

[Patrick Thistle]

Someone who was in Beverly Hills 90210.

Wow, this was the Luke Perry tribute thread?

Anyway, several years late to it, Mrs Thistle and I have been watching Riverdale. We had forgotten Luke Perry had died. His character seemed to disappear toward the end of season 3. Noticeably. As in we were asking Archie where his dad was...

...then the opening episode of season 4 killed off the character and it turned into a tribute episode and we suddenly remembered that he had died. Somehow it felt like a shock.

[MrLeam]

'Are You Being Served?' is huge in the US, as was Benny Hill.

It was rare for there to be an issue of UK-based magazine Hip Hop Connection which didn't have a major 90's US rap star proclaiming their love of either Benny Hill or Phil Collins to a rather bemused readership

[Discordant Resonance]

Most UK footballers tended to also cite Phil Collins as their go-to singer, much as Gaelic footballers would invariably list Shawshank Redemption as their favourite film.

[ursus arctos]

Are You Being Served? was/is an absolute mainstay of public "educational" stations to the extent that they would bring members of the cast over to shill for funds during pledge drives.

[Discordant Resonance]

I take it they were free, then.

[Wouter D]

I take it they were free, then.

You've done very well, there.

[Gangster Octopus]

That disturbs me that you know so much about rubbish UK sitcoms.

[Wouter D]

That disturbs me that you know so much about rubbish UK sitcoms.

I know things. It's what gets me paid.

Rubbish UK sitcoms were a mainstay of Dutch TV when I was younger.

[Jah Womble]

Most UK footballers tended to also cite Phil Collins as their go-to singer, much as Gaelic footballers would invariably list Shawshank Redemption as their favourite film.

During the seventies, Shoot! magazine's 'Focus On' questionnaire section habitually had hardmen-types citing Barbra Streisand or Barry Manilow as their preferred singers. (Alongside the inevitable 'steak and chips' dinner.)

Would've been great to have had a player like, I don't know, Laurie Sivell waxing lyrical about Captain Beefheart or Jobriath once in a while.

[sw2borshch]

George Logan, who was Hinge out of Hinge and Bracket, died on 21 May. I don't remember hearing about this when it happened.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Logan_(performer)