Fools Gold
You know a comedy show has really crossed over into the public consciousness when spin-off games start springing up in random places. There was a spell in the early 1990s when most pubs seemed to have an Only Fools And Horses fruit machine, for example. Which was a perfect bit of merchandising, when you think about it.
Del, Rodney and co spent a lot of their time in mythical Peckham pub The Nag's Head (there actually is a Nag's Head in Peckham, but they filmed the show in Bristol), so it always felt apt. In fact, if that show were being made now they'd probably sneak an Only Fools fruity into the background of the pub set, as a little easter egg for anyone doing a YouTube '25 things you missed' deep-dive on each episode.
Then again, nowadays it would probably be online slots rather than physical fruit machines, and they'd pop up in something computer-related instead: The IT Crowd perhaps. Imagine Benedict Wong's supercool character Prime presiding over an IT Crowd web casino, then it turns out that Roy and Moss have been playing it at work all along. Woah! It's like the bit in the last Wolverine film, Logan, where he starts looking at X-Men comics - it's like we're all in the same universe.
Including merch in a show is a good way of making it seem a lot more realistic. There's a moment in the original UK version of The Office that absolutely nails it: there's an episode set on Comic Relief day, and at one point David Brent just points at a cuddly toy of Monkey from the PG Tips ads, and does the voice, which is exactly the sort of thing that passes for humour in real workplaces: people just repeating catchphrases, badly. But you didn't ever see it in the shows themselves. It was sort of oddly mind-blowing.
Perhaps including other comedy merch would throw up a tricky rights issue - did Gervais and co have to ask PG Tips for permission to use Monkey? - or there just isn't enough comedy merch in common usage. You might see the occasional Friday Night Dinner catchphrase t-shirt, or a John Shuttleworth mug, and every comedian that has ever been on TV has written a book now, but where's the really creative stuff?
Peter Kay was a big pioneer of merch - his tours have been like rock band shows, in several respects - but did he ever do his own brand of garlic bread? What a wasted opportunity if not. In an ideal comedy world you'd eat it with official Two Ronnies forks - four in a pack, with a picture of them on the handles - plus a couple of side sachets of Danny Baker's red sauce and brown sauce. And how would it be served? On one of Alan Partridge's big plates.
Of course, one show that has definitely sewn up the merch is Only Fools And Horses - a lot of people will no doubt receive Trotter-related cards and other stocking fillers this Christmas, even all these years after the show ended. Although just imagine if they did one last series, and it kicks off with Rodney wandering into the flat carrying one of those Only Fools bags for life. Cushty.