What do you think the funniest scene from this series is? I would say mine is when the doctor is trying to see if Cyclops is mentally OK by bringing in a pink elephant, dumping water on him etc. Though I also enjoyed the very first scene with the military.
ThE MaStER wOuLd NoT ApPrOvE- Torgo
No-one has spoken to you in 18 months, but here's my favorite.
I p*ssed myself with laughter when they have the lie detector in the presidents head, and he gives the speach on television laying down the law to the ruskies!
The last line made me choke !!!!
Don't you think we've gone a little bit too far with the Easter decorations this year? asks Johnny Cyclops as a man nailed to a cross is raised on the lawn outside the Oval Office window of the White House.
shareIts a really simple gag - but I haven't seen the series in about a quarter of a century so the fact it stuck in my mind this long must mean something.
(Voice over to the Johnny Cyclops campaign video) - 'he gambled with the gophers ... and lost...)
I was also of an age that the topless newsreader attracted my full attention.
Apart from that, Ed Bishop's wonderful one-liners and dry delivery.
Still got the book of the series somewhere - the post-apocalypse map of the world was worth the purchase price itself!
I found the spectacle of the SAS raiding a P&O cross channel ferry in an attempt to kill the Shah of Iran rather amusing. Ed Bishop's fast-reading 24-hr newscaster ('I'm Jay Garrick & you're an insomniac!') is great too as is the topless female newscaster. Obviously a lot of the news within the programme stuff is a hilarious caricature of what was then perceived by us Brits as vulgar American telly but it's still very funny stuff.
Frankly, there's far too much that is hilarious to list in full. For me it's one of the funniest British comedies ever. There's David Kelly's Ab-Dab, a peasant Muslim who wears a blindfold because he considers himself unfit to gaze on the Shah of Iran's countenance. The opening scene has a Citroen 2Cv weaving precariously along a dockside. Cut to a nervous Shah (Bruce Montague, excellent) sitting in the passenger seat. 'Ab-dab,' he says, looking over nervously at the driver, 'Would it be possible just this once to remove the blindfold?' Then there's John Cleese's super terrorist & master of disguise, Lacrobat, who even has his own set of video testimonials (all played by Cleese including a screamingly funny piss-take of a Swedish businessman complete with silly beard & clutching an Abba LP), Barry Morse as the well meaning but clueless President, & John Barron (CJ from Reggie Perrin) as the Prez's fire & brimstone personal adviser who carries around a huge chequebook disguised as a Bible ('With the Good Book we can accomplish anything, Mr President!')
The Labour Govt - complete with a Prime Minister (Peter Jones) who thinks he's Superman - is also great fun. There's a scene where the PM walks into his office holding a dog with a red cape around its neck & says 'Well Crypto, time for your daily walk' & then throws the dog out the window. You can hear the studio audience practically killing themselves laughing.
In some ways the show the show has dated - the Cold War aspects obviously - but in others - the threat of nuclear bombs falling into the hands of terrorists, a nuclear apocalypse in the middle East, the destruction of Israel - it's still very topical.
I'm really pleased that at last Network appear to have sorted out what seemed like a tangle of rights issues over the show. I have a complete set of the episodes on VHS from when C4 repeated the show in 1983 but a DVD release will be most welcome - not least because it will introduce this wonderfully ferocious satire to a whole new generation of viewers.
Mai Yamane! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD83P-vn5JI&feature=related
The news broadcasts are very funny - even if some of the celeb references are a bit dated.
And all of John Cleese's secenes (natch!) - especially when he plays all the former clients endorsing himself.
And everyone seems to remember the Shah and his manservant. I love the laundry gag on the ferry.
I am - SUPERFLUOUS!!!
i just love the soviet premiere
soviet premiere dubjenkin, its first time we met is it not?
meat shortages, what are they
food riots, never heard of them
just because i have a dead dog in my freezer proves nothing.
russsssia is'a great country
"Meanwhile in Texas a man carrying a WORLD ENDS TOMORROW banner was arrested for leaking classified information"
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