Caddyshack and the Fast Show Rip-Off

Is anyone watching Caddyshack on Comedy Central? I've seen it many times over the years, but a few of minutes ago, I saw a scene that I must've missed the other times I'd watched it, because the minute I saw it, I realised that the Mark Williams Fast Show character that tells tall tales, then says, "Which was nice", was/is a complete rip-off of it. Bill Murray was telling a caddy an elaborate made up story about playing golf with the Dali Lama, and finished by saying, "Which was nice", just like Williams.

Actually, I should've really titled this thread 'The Fast Show and the Caddyshack Rip-Off'.

PATRICK NICE:
My mind was blank and I was devoid of ideas, until I saw 'Caddyshack'. I - er - borrowed the catch-phrase, "Which was nice." Which was nice.

I think you're assuming a lot there, we have no idea where the idea for The Fast Show character came from.

I'm sure I remember Williams saying, in a TV interview, that it was from someone one of them had met.

Quote: Nil Putters @ June 14 2009, 11:49 AM BST

I'm sure I remember Williams saying, in a TV interview, that it was from someone one of them had met.

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And that someone had watched Caddyshack. I have encountered this before - meeting interesting people who use interesting/memorable expressions - only to later discover they are often quoting an old movie or TV show line.

Quote: Kenneth @ June 14 2009, 12:04 PM BST

And that someone had watched Caddyshack. I have encountered this before - meeting interesting people who use interesting/memorable expressions - only to later discover they are often quoting an old movie or TV show line.

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Well, we'll never know that of course. Most things have been done somewhere or other before, it doesn't mean that the stuff that comes later is a direct rip off.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 14 2009, 11:42 AM BST

I think you're assuming a lot there, we have no idea where the idea for The Fast Show character came from.

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We do now....

1980
CARL SPACKLER:
So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

1994
PATRICK NICE:

[spraying his plants in the conservatory...]

... and all my environmental proposals were accepted at the Earth Summit.
out of the developing nations. Even though it was just an off-the-cuff
remark about greenfly.[slight pause] Which was nice.

Caddyshack is disqualified for inaccuracy the Dalai Llama had fled to Nepal by the time of Caddyshack.

Quote: Morrace @ June 14 2009, 12:24 PM BST

We do now....

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Wait, two people out of billions could come up with a similar idea? Unheard of! Of course he may well have copied it, we don't know.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 14 2009, 12:38 PM BST

Of course he may well have copied it, we don't know.

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I agree. We don't know for a fact - but the highly imaginative 'tall story in each one, ending in "Which was/is nice" is, well, one hell of a coincidence!

I wonder if, say, Little & Large, Cannon & Ball or Bernard Manning had used the 'tall story' ending in "Which was nice" (post Caddyshack), the defence would be so rigorous?

I noticed that too Griff.

Quote: Griff @ June 14 2009, 1:10 PM BST

I saw a Peep Show episode once where Mark said "Oh, hi" to Jez, only to discover years later that Walter Matthau had said exactly the same thing in the same way to Jack Lemmon in The Odd Couple!! What a RIPOFF!!!

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I wasn't aware of that one, Griff - well spotted. To steal a line from Neil Simon is really taking the piss. Hey, you're good! You really know your comedy history.

Well when I was 4 I wrote a story about some guys who fight a space empire and the big baddy wears black and had a giant death football.

You owe me George Lucas.

I'll be popping along to the Kings Head (Joe Orton country) this month, to see if I can nick anything - oh - and I'm not talking beer glasses or ashtrays. Easy peasey - 'cos some people seem to be quite liberal 'bout plagiarism. If you can't beat 'em - join 'em. I'm renowned (not as Morrace of course) for making commercial silk purses out of sows' ears.

Quote: Morrace @ June 14 2009, 1:04 PM BST

I agree. We don't know for a fact - but the highly imaginative 'tall story in each one, ending in "Which was/is nice" is, well, one hell of a coincidence!

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Yes, quite possibly a coincidence, in fact more than likely a coincidence. In fact, I'm going to go all out and call it a coincidence. Of course, who knows? Certainly not anyone on here.