Reviews

A really funny video produced on April Fools day based on the infamous none existent movie Shazaam starring Sinbad.

Really well made (well the obviously fake VHS filter kind of gives away the fact it's not real) and filled with a lot of nice little nods to other famous Mandela effects, plus it's great to see Sinbad had enough of a sense of humour to play the role he was arguably born to play.

This is one of the funniest shows ever made in my opinion, you may disagree but to me it is a masterpiece. It's low brow and stupid but it's a prime example of how to do sex and toilet humour correctly. Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson are one of my favourite double acts and this is an example of them mastering there trade. The characters of Richie and Eddie are brilliant as two flatmates in a s***y flat looking for birds and alcohol (and beating the c**p out of each other). This formula has been done before in sitcom such as Steptoe and Son, Porridge and Red Dwarf but this is by far the best (although Red Dwarf comes very close). These are characters we enjoy watching and detesting but let's face it, on the inside we all have a little Richie or a Eddie but we won't let them out for moral, ethical and legal reasons. This comedy show is about as deep as a puddle in terms of it's themes and targets for satire unlike other brilliant comedies such as The Young Ones, The New Statesman and South Park, but it's not intended to be deep, it's suppose to be something to watch (preferably after a long drinking binge and some curries) and get a good laugh out of. Every episode had me laughing out loud and they all have great writing and rewatch value (I can watch it 100s of times and never get board of it), even plots that seem dull on paper like being stuck up a ferris wheel or trying to kill time without the telly, in execution they are as funny as hell (I will still keep quoting it until the day I die). Overall a brilliant comedy that's not for everyone but if you have a demented sense of humour like me than, yeah give it a go.

I detest politics from all sides of the spectrum (I don't even vote) and this perfectly illustrates why. Despite it beginning it's broadcast run in 1987 it's still relevant in the world of British (or maybe global) politics today. Rik Mayall plays corrupt Tory back bencher Alan Beresford B'Stard and he fits this role perfectly as a slimy character who we are suppose to utterly detest and yet the character (written and acted) is so evil and so cruel that he is incredibly entertaining (and even a little bit admirable). The series is firmly set in the 80s under Thatcher's government but it's still surprisingly relevant even 30 years later (which can't be said for a lot of other satire shows), for example in one episode B'stard says he wants to shut down the health service to reduce waiting lists and 30 years later Boris Johnson is going on about doing the exact same thing (maybe he watched this and didn't get that it was suppose to be making fun of people like him), in fact in a lot of ways Alan B'stard is like Boris Johnson, although B'stard is more openly corrupt. Proof that even though tech and ideas have changed idiots will always be idiots.

I really wanted to enjoy this show because of it's reputation as a classic but I found it boring, stupid and down right unfunny. The idea of a skinflint corner shopkeeper isn't a bad idea on paper and a few of the characters were entertaining but in execution it was as boring as sin. Ronnie Barkers Arkwright got on my nerves very fast, especially that stutter, (before you get on my case and lecture me about discrimination, he's acting and it's used in the show for comedic effect, so in reality it's the show that's being discriminatory). I could let the stutter pass but that's his only joke. The skinflint aspect could have been developed even further, he has no redeemable aspects (so I can't feel any sympathy for him) and he's not extremely slimy either (a character you love to hate). Also I can't stand that romance plot between Arkwright and Nurse Gladys Emmanuel, she clearly has contempt for Arkwright and he is oblivious (to the point of being a peeping tom which last time I checked is a criminal offence), why hasn't she put a restraining order on him yet? Each episode was as boring as sin (each is only 30 minutes long and I felt every second of it) and the best it got out of me was a mild chuckle once or maybe twice an episode, the first time I got truly annoyed at a sitcom studio audience. The only redeemable part was Granville played by David Jason, he was the only character I felt any sympathy towards and provided most of the chuckles, although that could largely be down to David Jason. Nurse Gladys Emmanuel played by Lynda Baron was a fairly fun character but nothing remarkable. Ronnie Barker is an amazing actor and comedian from his work in The Two Ronnies and Porridge but this was by far the worst thing he ever did, (down to a combination of the writing and acting). And for the writer Roy Clarke I much preferred his later sitcom Keeping Up Appearances. There were plenty of great sitcoms produced in the 70s, such as Porridge, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Fawlty Towers and even On The Buses (which I know a lot of people slate but I enjoy it a lot more than Open All Hours). You can come to the argument that it's not suppose to be deep and it's suppose to be clean feel good fun but it majorly fails because it's so unfunny and so boring.