British Comedy DVDs (REGION 2 I MEAN)

[Jixby Phillips]

I wanna finish off my Leauge of Gentlemen Collection and get the movie and the Live show. But I also wanna get a few other things. I guess I'm looking for advice in case I'm overlooking anything.

Some stuff I'm intrested in:

Steve Coogan's series - No Alan Partridge because theres a good enough chance that that stuff'll be released in the US (Knowing Me, Knowing You is already out), I am probably gonna get Coogan's Run because from what I saw I liked. Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible I'm kinda on the fence about, the two episodes of it I saw didn't thrill me too much. What is Paul and Pauline Calf's Cheese and Ham Sandwich?

Christopher Morris stuff - I have The Day Today and Brass Eye, I wanna see Jam. Is that "My Wrongs" thing worth getting? From what I can tell its ridiculously short.

I wanna see BIG TRAIN - I love Father Ted and Black Books, is this worth a blind purchase?

Anything else that's just good that I might not know about?

[MetalMilitia]

If you liked black books get all three of Bill Bailey's standup DVDs.

The IT crowd is a new series which is not brilliant but i'd say its worth a watch, you can download all the episodes free from http://synitex.com/~itcrowd/ . It starts off slow but the later episodes are better than the first two. They should work but have some kind of gay DRM.

Monkey dust is really great but I advise pirating an episode or two from the first series before forking out on the DVD.

[Krythor]

I remember being in pain from laughing so hard at something in Big Train, but I was about 10 at the time and I haven't seen any of it since then so that might not mean anything. I still love Father Ted as much as I always did though, so.

Is Armando Iannucci's show on dvd? That might be worth looking at.

I'm really annoyed that season 2 of the HBO Ali G hasn't been released in region 2. That season was so consistent and just the best that ali g has ever been, and nobody in britain bothered to watch it.

[Dole]

Jixby, you have to get Jam. Its weird, uncomfortable and in places fucking hysterical, in a very wrong way. Its like brass eye meets eraserhead.

My wrongs is good, but yes its only about 10 mins long.

Its really worth finding 'On the hour' - the radio version of the day today that preceded it (you can probably download these quite easily) - just as funny if not funnier than the day today.

Same goes for Blue jam - morris radio show before jam - a mix of music and weirdness - some amazing sketches on it.

I love Steve Coogan, but thought Dr terrible was fucking appalling.
Coogans run was good as I recall (its pretty old) -keep meaning to pick it up. All his stand up is worth getting especially, for the partridge bits.

Big train had some funny moments but it was very hit and miss - probably still worth buying overall.

The IT crowd is worth it for the morris bits- but its not amazing by any stretch of the imagination.

Jixby:I am curious as to what you think of the day today and brass eye- obviously most of the shit celebs on brass eye arent famous in the states, and the day today (and vrass eye) for the most part was satirising UK TV....did it GET YOU OFF?

Partridge's frame of reference is also very, very british (not so much knowing me knowing you - more the later series)- interested to know what you think..

[the_dudefather]

its not on your criteria, but what about the Mighty Boosh? which incidently has a two series boxset out now

[sloth]

the armando iannucci show isnt on dvd as far as I know, the only copies I can get are TV rips. they're fucking funny though, and definitely worth it. the town sniper and the stab victim reunion are priceless.

jam is really strange. you'll either love it or hate it because sometimes it feels more like trying to see how far a comedy can be taken. like brass eye and the day today it suffers sometimes from a narrow frame of reference - the kilroy sketch probably wouldnt be nearly so funny if you hadnt seen his obnoxious daytime tv show and how much of a condescending shit he is.

big train is quite hit and miss, but the hits are worth it. its not as dark as brass eye and plays out more like a conventional sketch show but yeah, give it a peek.

garth marenghi's darkplace is definitely worth it. i don't know why it gets overlooked, t5he stage version won the perrier award and has moss from the IT crowd as an amazing hospital boss.

i never watched spaced, but someone can probably help you with that.

[the_dudefather]

Originally Posted by sloth

garth marenghi's darkplace is definitely worth it. i don't know why it gets overlooked, t5he stage version

stage version?

MUST FIND!

[Zomboid]

Little Britain? :/

[the_dudefather]

bah, whatever

[MetalMilitia]

peep show!!

best show ever.

[pjalne]

I remember the Emperor Ming skits from Big Train were awesome.

[Jixby Phillips]

Thanks for the advice everyone I didn't expect this thread to get very many replies for some reason!

Jixby:I am curious as to what you think of the day today and brass eye- obviously most of the shit celebs on brass eye arent famous in the states, and the day today (and vrass eye) for the most part was satirising UK TV....did it GET YOU OFF?

Partridge's frame of reference is also very, very british (not so much knowing me knowing you - more the later series)- interested to know what you think..

Day Today and Brass Eye worked for me because a lot of it applies to stuff on in america. There's obviously stuff in it that I know I'm not getting the specifics of, but I like to think I have a sixth sense for parody. When I was a kid I was obsessed with parody movies (mostly bad ones) and parody books and parody music and just the idea of making fun of something was enough to make me laugh, even if I didn't know the reference (and when I was a kid I almost never knew the reference). It's like I learned about most pop culture through the things that parody it, and i still kinda do that now.

I can remember one time when I was watching STELLA SHORTS for the first time they do a BIG CHILL parody and I remember laughing really hard at it and somehow KNOWING not only that it was a parody of the BIG CHILL but it was a parody of a specific scene, yet I had never seen the movie or the scene or even read or heard about the scene it was parodying, and I was racking my brains trying to figure out how I knew to laugh, like I thought MAYBE I had seen the scene and forgot.

As for Partridge I've only seen the first three shows of Knowing Me Knowing You and it seems pretty straight-forward to me.