MARK’S TV: Razor Sharp Comedy
I am a sarcastic bastard. It’s been said many a time by many, many different people and I can say without a hint of shame (or indeed sarcasm) that I always take it as a massive compliment. Historically, it has been said that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. I would say in turn that this is absolute bollocks, real sarcasm is a skill which can be used to devastating effect; a finely crafted, witheringly sarcastic putdown can be enough to silence anyone and goes a long way to helping you win any conversation (and surely winning is the point of all human social interaction, or is that just for me?). Besides, we all know the lowest form of wit is an episode of The Might Boosh.
I class myself very lucky to be so sarcastic (my friends however, may feel otherwise) but it’s really the after effect of a brilliant parenting when I was at my most impressionable, especially the fact that I was allowed to watch two television programmes in particular, Black Adder and Red Dwarf, despite being well below the BBFC classification age. Looking back, it’s staggering just how many of the jokes went flying over my head at 30,000 feet, pretty much a whole jumbo jets worth of wordplay devices, innuendo and insinuations, which I was too young to appreciate on first, second or third viewing. The beauty of both shows is in the amount of levels each episode works on; the devilish complexities and wordplay of Edmund Black Adder’s ultimately failed plans across the centuries should be irresistible for any devious ten year old, whilst Red Dwarf is packed with enough brilliant banter and classic sci-fi ideas to make any young mind with a decent imagination boggle.
As a child I got an incredible amount of worth from both shows including a decent vocabulary and a grasp of ideas well beyond what was offered in cartoons (apart from the Spider-Man cartoon, that was bloody ace), but the reason I continually came back to these two comedy classics in particular was that with each viewing I’d pick up on a new joke or a new meaning to an old joke and each time my appreciation for the shows writing would grow until I not only understood every joke, but had assimilated the sense and style of humour into my own and genuinely learnt new things along the way.
The 80’s and 90’s (when Black Adder and Red Dwarf started) were a particularly purple patch for television comedy , with an extremely talented bunch of Comedy Store performers (Rik Mayall, Ade Edmonson, Ben Elton) and Cambridge Footlight alums (Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Griff Rhys Jones) creating some of the most inventive and highly regarded comedy to come out of Britain in any decade. Black Adder, Red Dwarf, A Bit Of Fry And Laurie and Not The 9 O’Clock News all sprang from the same well and were all in a similar vein of intelligent, mainstream comedy, comedy that, as I have said, hugely informed the humour of myself and many others. Looking over today’s schedules though, I despair for the next generations.
Television comedy has split into three distinct sections. The first is the pale-imitation of the old style family friendly sitcoms of yesteryear, shows like Life Of Riley and My Family which are, thankfully, finally dying off despite having shown the symptoms of rigor mortis long ago. Unfortunately there is an exception to this rule, Miranda, a show which is about as funny as having your leg amputated and actually includes more falling over. Somehow writer and star Miranda Hart is constantly having awards thrown at her for her cliché slapstick schtick (presumably she tries to balance them all precariously to hilarious effect) despite the fact her show is a string of pratfalls and self deprecating, “Ooh aren’t I unconventional”, dialogue.
The second type is the panel/stand up show. Stand-ups are everywhere these days, and paradoxically they’re most often sitting down on all the usual panel shows. There’s no escaping the panel show and the recent sea change in its favour has arguably made it the new sit-com, the most popular ones such as QI even have dedicated Christmas specials most years. Such shows are fixed points in time, trapped by topical jokes and references to events and most do not warrant a repeat viewing (although Dave would try and convince you otherwise). There’s nothing more to uncover from re-watching episodes of Mock The Week, it can’t teach anybody anything new and there’s certainly not enough content that can span the age gap to a younger audience like Black Adder did for me. No child is going to grow up treasuring an 8 Out Of 10 Cats box-set.
The third and final branch of mainstream TV comedy is the entirely adult orientated shows. Peep Show and the Inbetweeners are the best example of this newest breed of sit-com, and whilst they can both have their moments (Peep Show more so than its sex obsessed little cousin) they’re certainly more explicit than anything that was considered mainstream in the 90’s, and definitely not suitable children to be exposed to at an earlier age. To be fair to them they’re not supposed to be, they’re unashamedly targeted at people old enough to smoke and drink. Unfortunately though, the Inbetweeners has become so ridiculously popular and culturally overblown that its obviously already been seen by any school child old enough to know what their underwear is hiding, and it’s possible that there’s no way back from that.
It would seem then that the comedy I grew up with, the comedy that challenged, taught and entertained me in new ways time and again, is gone, replaced by a parade of pandering, inclusive sit-coms and comedians locked in a cycle of weekly pissing contests. I’m not being overly nostalgic; I genuinely believe the razor sharp alternative comedy of the 80’s and 90’s is a lost art with both a real quality and a real worth. Without it we are very soon going to be stuck with a whole generation of people who think the height of comedy is falling into a custard pie, and that the word ‘clunge’ is a piece of wit to rival the entire works of Oscar Wilde. Do you really want that for future generations? Humourless, puerile, cretins falling all over the place? I know I don’t. Won’t somebody please think of the children?
