Funniest Comedy Decade Page 2

Quote: Mannikin Bird @ January 20, 2008, 1:06 PM

This is difficult, I think like the Chapman Chappie it does depend on age but I do think radio comedy has been pretty consistent. Whilst TV is suffering a sitcom drought there's been some cracking radio sitcoms being churned out. If I was pushed for an answer probably 1970's.

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Well if you're talking about radio I always used to listen to it with my mum and dad in the 60's but generally since then for me radio has just been about music ever since. Yes - I know I'm a Philistine.

Quote: David Chapman @ January 20, 2008, 1:09 PM

Well if you're talking about radio I always used to listen to it with my mum and dad in the 60's but generally since then for me radio has just been about music ever since. Yes - I know I'm a Philistine.

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Being a writer, I know I should listen to radio comedies, and I do try to, but sometimes, as a child of TV, i do find it hard to sit there for half an hour in the front room just looking at the wall, or trying to close my eyes to take it all in. I find I have to upload them to my MP3 player and listen on the bus. I think TV has done something bad to my brain.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 20, 2008, 1:07 PM

90s for me-vic and bob, lee and Herring, brass eye, day today, fast show, kids in the hall, Im Alan Partridge, Red Dwarf, Seinfeld, Spaced started, Big Train, Father Ted, Friends, Frasier, League Of Gentlemen started, and on, and on. Thats pretty unbeatable as far as Im concerned! Obviously there was a fair share of rubbish too, but that little list alone I think makes a solid case for it being regarded as a golden age.

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Drop The Dead Donkey, The Thin Blue Line... It definitely has a lot going for it, I agree. Buuuuuut I dunno. 70s still wins for me. Most of Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, the beginning of Blackadder (pilot was made in 1979), Sykes, some Steptoe, Are You Being Served?, and a bunch of other shows prettty much everyone but me hates.

I do sometimes listen Saturday lunchtimes on Radio 2 when they've had Vic Reeves or TWTIN or those Arthur Smith / Jeff Green compilation type things but that's about it.

I still want to get into it though. Do you have to know about it before you can write it?

Quote: David Chapman @ January 20, 2008, 1:16 PM

I do sometimes listen Saturday lunchtimes on Radio 2 when they've had Vic Reeves or TWTIN or those Arthur Smith / Jeff Green compilation type things but that's about it.

I still want to get into it though. Do you have to know about it before you can write it?

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Well it can help if you know what kind of thing works and is commissioned for radio. Its like with any medium, if you want to work in it then you have to become expert about it.

Yo Chapman, have you tried writing for radio?

Quote: Mannikin Bird @ January 20, 2008, 1:18 PM

Yo Chapman, have you tried writing for radio?

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I have - it is a different discipline definitely. Hence we're trying to put that Radio sketch project together - sometime!

I promise it will happen soon though.

Quote: Aaron @ January 20, 2008, 1:15 PM

Drop The Dead Donkey, The Thin Blue Line... It definitely has a lot going for it, I agree. Buuuuuut I dunno. 70s still wins for me. Most of Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, the beginning of Blackadder (pilot was made in 1979), Sykes, some Steptoe, Are You Being Served?, and a bunch of other shows prettty much everyone but me hates.

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Porridge, Reg Perrin, The Good Life, WHTT Likely Lads, Rising Damp...That's me voting for the 70s as well by the way.

Matthew has made a good argument there. I think I'm now going to side with the 90's.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 20, 2008, 1:07 PM

90s for me-vic and bob, lee and Herring, brass eye, day today, fast show, kids in the hall, Im Alan Partridge, Red Dwarf, Seinfeld, Spaced started, Big Train, Father Ted, Friends, Frasier, League Of Gentlemen started, and on, and on. Thats pretty unbeatable as far as Im concerned! Obviously there was a fair share of rubbish too, but that little list alone I think makes a solid case for it being regarded as a golden age.

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Yep!

We are definitely right.

Also it co-incides with times when you haven't got a life.

Quote: Nick @ January 20, 2008, 1:23 PM

Porridge, Reg Perrin, The Good Life, WHTT Likely Lads, Rising Damp...That's me voting for the 70s as well by the way.

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Yep, definitely a winner. The Goodies too, most of Python, and any number of other smash hit hugely popular and hugely influential shows!

70s is the clear winner in my book.

It has to be the nineties for me. You had Vic and Bob (Shooting Stars, The Smell Of, Big Night Out and Bang Bang), Harry Enfield, The Fast Show, HIGNFY (when it was at it's best), Fry and Laurie (both their sketch show and Jeeves and Wooster), Red Dwarf, Father Ted, The Day Today, The Friday Night Armistice, Whose Line Is It Anyway, and that's only scraping the surface.

I will agree though that the seventies were also a strong decade in regards to comedy though, and if the seventies ended up the winner then it would not be a surprise at all.

You're all odd in the head! As good as some of the 90s stuff may be, look at the 70s! Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Steptoe and Son, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Rising Damp, Porridge, Open All Hours, Sykes, The Goodies, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Two Ronnies, The Morecambe and Wise Show, and many maaaany more. Come on. Just look at some of those titles - and they're almost entirely just TV sitcoms! As good as Jeeves and Wooster, Father Ted et al are, there's really no comparison at all! Nineties are a reasonably close second yes, but come on, just look at some of those titles!

Quote: Aaron @ January 20, 2008, 3:02 PM

You're all odd in the head! As good as some of the 90s stuff may be, look at the 70s! Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Steptoe and Son, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Rising Damp, Porridge, Open All Hours, Sykes, The Goodies, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Two Ronnies, The Morecambe and Wise Show, and many maaaany more. Come on. Just look at some of those titles - and they're almost entirely just TV sitcoms! As good as Jeeves and Wooster, Father Ted et al are, there's really no comparison at all! Nineties are a reasonably close second yes, but come on, just look at some of those titles!

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Except Blackadder was in the eighties