As I post this, it's going on Tuesday evening, so I apologzie for not posting this sooner. My offering for Tuesday's Forgotten this week is the British TV show The Goodies. I was reminded of this by Sweet Freedom's Todd Mason last week, and as I had forgotten about them, I thought they would be a good subject for this feature.
The Goodies were a British comedy trio specializing in broad absurdist humor, relying extensively on sight gags. Think slightly more sophisticated than Benny Hill, but less so than Monty Python, IMO. I saw a few episodes during the summer of 1983 when I was only 8 years old, and their wacky humor was the perfect fit for my sense of humor at the time (and, I'll admit, today).
Here are two samples of the show. In the first, they are in pursuit of a giant kitten (named Kitten Kong), and the second clip shows them out to take down renegade kids TV show puppets (a common problem in any country). Enjoy!
6 comments:
Well, Way better than Benny Hill, but I've never been a fan there...they did suspect their relatively gentle surrealism allowed their series to go on for a decade, where Python's series was done in half that time...there was a proto-Secret Policeman's Ball benefit that introduced me to the Goodies and Beyond the Fringe, which featured them and the Pythons, from ca. 1972...or at least that's when WGBH Boston ran it when I first saw it.
Top choice. I sill know all the words to 'Black Pudding Bertha' and most of their other hit singles.
Bill Oddie is, apparently, a bit of a knob but he was my favourite as a kid.
Todd: Thanks. I think WHYY only carried the series for that one year, and then possibly only during the summer. I've never seen it anywhere since.
Paul: welcome to the blog. Consider yourself my new Facebook friend!
Kitten Kong is the best! But what about Ecky Thump?! Always loved that one. Another fave is the movie-making one where there's the long chase scene with cowboys, Indians and then Julia Andrews and the kids from The Sound of Music all running down the hills -- and then one of the Indians stretches his bow, lets the arrow fly and down goes Julie Andrews. My brothers and I were laughing so hard, my mother came in to see what it was and we were laughing too hard to be able to tell her. Wonderful!
K.A.: funny indeed! I'm surprised the Goodies haven't had more of a run in the States.
The Goodies, running on PBS stations in upstate NY in the late 1970s, was my introduction to UK comedy.
The three guys in The Goodies were contemporaries of the Pythons, and there was good-natured spoofing of the Pythons on their show...
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