Did anyone else realise that "A Touch of Class" was a pun?
Fawlty Towers no longer relevant Page 2
Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 24th October 2018, 12:46 PMDid anyone else realise that "A Touch of Class" was a pun?
I certainly didn't.
It's the title of the first ever episode of Fawlty Towers in which Basil is trying to give his hotel a touch of class by attracting a better class of guest.
It seems an entirely appropriate title to me but, if it's also a pun, I'd love to know more.
No, he's being touched by "class"...
Oh, a Guardian journo. What a surprise.
They're not really relevant.
This would be the original article?
Well it has been 767543 years, and comedy dates very quickly. When Catherine Shoard writes 12 epiosodes that still make me laugh even though I know them inside-out...
Isn't it more ironic than a pun because it's intended to be a classy event but turns out to be a disaster. Fancy putting no riff-raff.
You're thinking of Gourmet Night, Tarby. It's Touch of Class where the classy "Lord" touches him for money. It's more what you'd expect in Fawlty Towers than ironic.
Why is someone from the Guardian saying class isn't an issue anymore?
Accordingly, today's acclaimed British sitcoms - Fleabag, Mum, Catastrophe - are not about a 50-year-old property owner failing to better himself. They're about women struggling with sex, rent, men and children.
All of which are middle class and have been pointed out as such. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's certainly worth talking about, especially as those three bring up serious issues and it wouldn't be right that we only see those issues through a certain filter.
I omitted Motherland because it's terrible.
Quote: jsg @ 3rd April 2019, 3:41 PMI omitted Motherland because it's terrible.
In that case, I suggest you edit your post to include "Motherland" because it's very good indeed.
When "Fawlty Towers" was new, British sitcom and British life itself were very much more dependent upon class differences than they are today. The series remains relevant, however, because it's still funny and it's still an excellent example of how to write sitcom. If I had to throw £1 down the grid for every unnecessary word in a "Fawlty Towers" script, I don't think I'd be very much poorer by the end of the exercise.
In the 1970s, comedy was largely dominated by men who made jokes about women, foreigners, non-Caucasians, gays, lesbians and the disabled. Today, turn on any comedy show on TV and the chances are you'll see women, foreigners, non-Caucasians, gays, lesbians and the disabled onstage telling their side of the story.
Some of those people are absolutely excellent comedians but many of them are somewhere between "not much good" and "absolute shite" and they're on TV simply because they're members of one or more historically-oppressed minorities to whom the government, broadcasting companies and the British people are giving airtime as a form of reparation for past atrocities.
"Fawlty Towers" remains relevant today for many reasons - not least of which is that people from all walks of 21st-century life need to know that smacking a Spaniard around the head can, in certain circumstances, be funny.
If Faulty Towers is no longer relevant then surely there should be zero posts in this thread. 
I've had a craving for a Waldorf Salad recently even though I don't think I've had one before and if I did it must have been over 30 years ago. I was going to make one for lunch on Monday but couldn't find the walnuts in Sainsbury's. Next time I'll ask someone but it becomes a matter of principle when I can't find something that I have to work it out myself. I couldn't find them in the fruit aisle but didn't try the nuts and seeds aisle so they are probably there.
I was watching the DVD a few weeks ago and it got me reading up on Ken Campbell. Did anyone ever see his live shows?
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 3rd April 2019, 5:19 PMI've had a craving for a Waldorf Salad recently
For a time (this century) my next-door neighbour was a German professor - an absolutely splendid chap and one of the most pleasant people I've ever met.
The strange thing was that for every second I was in his company, I was continually reminding myself not to mention the war.
I wonder how young a person has to be in order to think that mentioning the war to a German is not one of the greatest social errors it's possible to make.
Quote: jsg @ 3rd April 2019, 3:41 PMWhy is someone from the Guardian saying class isn't an issue anymore?
All of which are middle class and have been pointed out as such. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's certainly worth talking about, especially as those three bring up serious issues and it wouldn't be right that we only see those issues through a certain filter.
I omitted Motherland because it's terrible.
And the Grauniad is written and read by all those middle class lefties.
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 3rd April 2019, 5:19 PMI've had a craving for a Waldorf Salad recently
Worst episode by a c**try mile.