I recently purchased the DVD boxed set of all the Comic Strip movies. Whilst i cannot say that I should demand my money back, I was not over impressed.
A large number of these films were of low quality, not only in the obviously low budget production values, but in the obviously contractually obligated scripts.
What happened guys? Was it closing time at the pub, and you suddenly remembered you ahd a script to present to Channel 4's head of comedy on Monday?
Even the ones I did find myself laughing at, twenty plus years after the fact, were funny either because Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson just were funny all the time, or because the fondly remembered Five Go Mad, or Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, or Dirty Movie etc took me back to a time when that kind of thing was pretty new and different, and I was young and wide-eyed and actually thought that life wouldn't turn out to be crap (now THAT's funny).
The recent ones - Four Men In a Car, Four Men in a Plane, were just not funny. Not at all. And these guys were being paid to make these shows, and were given a budget to make the show. I mean for goodness sake, I could have got more laughs by videoing my cats.
When these shows were at their best, they were very good. But the very good ones constitute about thirty per cent of the total.
Here's a list of the bad ones that I can think of:
Gino
GLC
Didn't You Kill My Brother?
Bullshitters
The Yob
The Strike
Consuela
Slags
Eddie Monsoon, a Life
The Beat Generation
War
and here's the kicker - Bad News wasn't funny. I watched in in horror and disbelief - it's just some blokes messing about. There's obviously very little in the way of the script. Nigel Planer revives his Neil character from The Young Ones because apparently that's all he can do other than the Filthy character from Filthy Rich and Catflap.
Very sad.
However the good ones are obviously:
Dirty Movie
Five Go Mad in Dorset
Five Go Mad on Mescalin
Mr Jolly Lives Next Door.
And patchy:
A Fistful of Travellers' Cheques
Feel free to disagree, but the Comic Strip is definitely not worth a second look.
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Show Summary
EDITBroadcast history: C4 1982-1988 BBC2 1990-1993 C4 1998-2000 Running times are given in the production code field for episodes longer than 35 minutes.
| S 7 : Ep 9 | Sex Actually | Aired 12/28/05 | |
| S 7 : Ep 8 | Four Men in a Plane | Aired 1/4/00 | |
| S 7 : Ep 7 | Four Men in a Car | Aired 4/12/98 | |
| S 7 : Ep 6 | Jealousy | Aired 5/27/93 | |
| S 7 : Ep 5 | Demonella | Aired 5/20/93 |
Newest Full Episode
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Saturday
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Sunday
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Monday
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Four Men in a Plane
S 7 : Ep 8
Aired 1/4/00
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Four Men in a Car
S 7 : Ep 7
Aired 4/12/98
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Jealousy
S 7 : Ep 6
Aired 5/27/93
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Demonella
S 7 : Ep 5
Aired 5/20/93
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Themes
British TV, Dark Comedy, Parody & Spoof, Satire, Sketch