Alright, true to my words, no talk of politics or ballistics in this entry...this time we are celebrating (oh isn't that a fantastically annoying liberal word?) the works of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. The latter being known to American audiences mostly as Dr. House on the similarly titled Fox medical dramedy. I say dramedy because "drama" just seems too heavy for that show. I digress. Anyway, the following are somewhat randomly selected snippets of their late 80s, early 90s sketch comedy show, "A Bit of Fry and Laurie". I heartily suggest you watch all of them. Every...last...one. If you must skip one...the Hey Jude a la chipmunk is amusing but disposable. The "subject of language" sketch is funny because Stephen Fry's character reminds me of the classic insufferable academic that loves to hear himself expound on any number of topics.
Hugh Laurie singing "America":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RXXaCIclJs
The "Major Donaldson" sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XehsN7OxVU0
Hugh Laurie's angry and incisive "Where is the Lid" song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZ-Cogr-rM
The "Subject of Language" sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHQ2756cyD8
Two quasi-jazzy but very witty Hugh Laurie songs, "Mystery" and "Little Girl":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYKsYehC_LI
This is just wrong...a chipmunked "Hey Jude":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkpNkBFUKMM
A limp-wristed song about Steffi Graf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBwbJWF8_-Q
OK, this final one is the strangest, most absurd thing I've ever seen. And it is abjectly disconcerting...the sort of thing where you are unsure whether to laugh hysterically or just be confused. Don't watch this until you've watched at least most of the others, just so you don't prejudge the comedy of Fry and Laurie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lb581YGhDY
Also, check out a number of the "related" videos, because there are tons of Fry and Laurie clips on youtube. Enough to easily waste an afternoon. Trust me, I know.
4 comments:
That last one was genious, to say the least. I have never seen anything like it at all, ever, period. Where did this show come from? Why have I never heard of it?
"Where did this show come from?"
A magical place far, far away, known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, specifically, the BBC.
"Why have I never heard of it?"
Well, it just came out on DVD recently and it is for some reason especially obscure in this country. I will be showing it on October 25th at a kind of more informal St. Crispin's thing (in honor of St. Crispin's Day, Oct 25) so mark your calendar (or "shedule"). I really hate to say this because I feel mildly blasphemous but on the whole, minute per minute, I find it actually funnier than Python, in the British sketch comedy genre. Along those lines, I tried to like "Little Britain" (a more modern British sketch comedy) but I couldn't get two episodes into it, even...it was terrifically dull to me. But "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" is now sailing high as the best TV show in my book, although it is a very fickle book indeed. Last night I just watched three episodes of "Jeeves and Wooster", again courtesy Netflix, which is another pairing of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, the former a calm and collected English servant and the latter being a bit of an upper class twit lacking in intelligence but still quite affable. Sort of reminds me a bit of a Stan Laurel / Oliver Hardy relationship as comic actors...shame they haven't done anything recently together. There was talk of a Sherlock Holmes and Watson pairing, which might work rather well now that they are a bit older. It's just ironic that at least in this country, Laurie finally finds this huge success playing an American. Which, in a way, he does better than most American actors...although he has compared acting with an American accent to "learning to play tennis when everyone else has a racket and you have a halibut".
Hahahahaha!! HA HA (continues laughing madly) I found it:
Lyrics to You, You, You
That page has a splendid Fry and Laurie script archive:
http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/
I would consider it the best thing I ever did if I could make a sketch like that.
Monty Python...utterly hilarious, but I think from what I've seen you're right. It's not blashpemy, Monty Python was revolutionary, and Fry and Laurie just carry the thing forward. So, yes, definitely St. Crispin's Day.
Post a Comment