BBC rejection letter to John Cleese Page 3

I'm with Griff I'm afraid. I suspect it was originally written separately as a character thing and fitted in rather than used as a specific plot development but that doesn't make it any less clever or funny.

'Uno, dos, tres' sounding like 'On those trays' is one of those quirks about language that amuses me. It's a bit like 'Beer Can' sounding like a West Indian saying 'Bacon'. It's true, it does, and not meant to be offensive and shouldn't be taken that way.

The only part that bothered me about that scene was Basil's exaggerated way of pointing to the butter so I guess it was set up to a point but it's still a good joke.

I suspect that Connie wrote that line, or John.

Quote: Marc P @ April 13 2011, 3:16 PM BST

I suspect that Connie wrote that line, or John.

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Probably Boothe.

Booth would have been better.

Quote: Griff @ April 13 2011, 6:55 PM BST

"An instruction to remove two dead pigeons from the water tank on the roof of the hotel is not a proposition by Wittgenstein!"

... but your quote is and hence I approve.

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Actually, strictly speaking it's either an axiom or it isn't, but anyway can't be false ergo can't be a proposition - and there's me blown my tosser allowance for the day.

Quote: Tuumble @ April 13 2011, 3:14 PM BST

but that doesn't make it any less clever or funny.

'Uno, dos, tres' sounding like 'On those trays' is one of those quirks about language that amuses me. It's a bit like 'Beer Can' sounding like a West Indian saying 'Bacon'. It's true, it does, and not meant to be offensive and shouldn't be taken that way.

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I never said it wasn't clever ...

Beer can/ bacon works for me. Maybe I just like phonemes but I don't like holiday languages.

But we are getting away from the point. Faced with two possibilities of the BBC Script Editor being bad at his job or the first script not actually being very good, we all jump for the first option because that works out better for us - we are all comedy geniuses frustrated by the Bumbling BBC, hoorah.

I'm as deluded as anyone. This is my therapy. Thank you for listening.

Quote: Griff @ April 10 2011, 11:26 PM BST

The uno, dos, tres joke is clever and funny, and in character for both Basil and Manuel.

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Indeed. When I introduced a French couple to Fawlty Towers last year, that was the joke they were repeating the next day while affecting Basil and Manuel mannerisms.

Quote: Bomsh @ April 14 2011, 12:52 AM BST

we all jump for the first option because that works out better for us - we are all comedy geniuses frustrated by the Bumbling BBC, hoorah.

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Not everyone here is a writer (or aspiring writer) of comedy; I'm just a fan of comedy.

Quote: Bomsh @ April 10 2011, 11:23 PM BST

In Defence of Ian Main:

Has anyone considered that maybe that first script wasn't much good?

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You make a good point.

It was only after we heard The Beatles' Decca Audition tape - borrowed equipment, Epstein convincing them to do a 'Showbiz' set, nothing like a Cavern performance - that we had some sympathy with 'The Man Who Turned Down The Beatles'.

Of course, in both cases they failed spectacularly to spot potential!

There was probably a degree of snobbery - sketch show man and his gf thinks he can write sitcom now, Tarquin!