Hi Everyone,
I'm doing a bit of research into British-Indian comedy.
I wanted to gather everyone's thoughts about the sketch show from the late 1990s - Goodness Gracious Me.
There's a number of sketches on Kulvinder Ghir's YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/kulvinderghir
Please let me know your thoughts!
Much appreciated,
H
I used to enjoy it. All very talented performers. Not sure what I can add to the "British-Indian comedy" topic though?
It was a bit before I got particularly interested in comedy, so (despite owning the DVD, woops) have only seen the odd episode here and there - broadly enjoyed what I have seen though.
Also quite enjoyed Channel 4's Meet The Magoons.
At the time I thought it was good if unspectacular. But in retrospect it had a pretty consistant hit rate. That said, I wish it had a bit more bite. They seemed to shy away from doing or saying anything too controversial. At times it was too nice and safe.
Also, I remember at the time a lot of white liberals who probably didn't watch a lot of television comedy really raving about it.
I remember thinking it was pretty 'meh' at the time, didn't do a lot for me.
Dave "Come Dine With Me" Lamb
Was in this as well.
It had many really good sketches, as well as some truly amazing ones that I would argue stand the test of time. It was important as well, not that a comedy series has to be important, in giving a previously almost totally ignored section of British society a voice. It was satirical when it needed to be, and introduced me to the quirky odd world of Indian life in Britain and how they see themselves and others. I feel I know more about Hindu/Muslim life because of this series. I know how odd that sounds! In a way I suppose I watch it in the way I do a lot of say Jewish humour. I may not get everything instantly but there's nearly always something I can laugh at and lot more that I can learn from. Father Christmas? Indian!
I realy liked it. The character who believed everything was Indian was funny.
"English Oxford Dictionary........... Indian!"
Royal family? Indian!
Brilliant, comedy at it's best and always made me laugh
"Kiss my chuddies"
The show also contained some sub-par Fast Show stuff, like the "Cheque please" guy. That was lazy catchphrase comedy at its worst.
I thought it was really good when it first started, a lot of good sketches and ideas in there. "Going for an English" and such like, the dad who thought everyone was Indian was very funny, and the competitive mums were also good. I felt as it went on, it ran out of steam and ideas.
I remember thinking at the time how much they over did the aspect of playing on famous film and TV shows but giving them an Indian twist - so Skippy the Bush Kangaroo became Skipinder and such like. For me there was no actual joke there other than giving Skippy an Indian name, and they seemed to start doing that stuff to death. Maybe a downfall was that they were concentrating too much on getting Indian references into as many sketches as possible, instead of concentrating on just writing funny material.
I also found the more they tried to make a social point (especially through song) the less funny it was. I remember a terrible song about scratch cards, and also a song about tensions between Muslims and Hindus that was really cringeworthy.
All in all, a good show I remember fondly with some great comedy moments, but ran out of ideas and started repeating itself.
