Perch Hill Insurance

TV ADVERTISEMENT

INT. PERCH HILL INSURANCE OFFICE - DAY

In the background are Insurance office personnel, with telephone headsets on, talking to clients on the telephone while tapping this information into computers. In the foreground is a man in a suit, wearing a tie. Next to him, on a table is a small model of a hill. Stocking out of the top of it is a perch, with a parrot sitting on it.

SOUND FX: Tinny, trumpety sound: doo-doo-dah-doo.

MAN
Tired of ringing round for affordable car insurance? Can’t get anyone to insure you? Look no further. Here at Perch Hill Insurance we are guaranteed to tell you what you want to hear. And what’s that?

PARROT
Yes!

MAN
Yes! We advise you NOT TO GET ANY car insurance. And tax? That’s for the birds. Why pay tax and insurance? Isn’t that a great idea?

PARROT
Yes!

MAN
Yes! Don’t pay! Thousands of illegal immigrants can’t be wrong! Just ask our satisfied customers.

CUT TO:

EXT. STREET - DAY

Asian man sitting in his car.

MAN
Perch Hill is works for me innit!

CUT TO:

EXT. STREET - DAY

Man walking down the street.

MAN
When I come from Poland, I think England is too expensive. But Perch Hill helps me out, and now I am zip around Reading in my cut-and-shut car.

INT. PERCH HILL INSURANCE OFFICE - DAY

Back to the man & parrot.

MAN
So, for free advice on insurance, come to Perch Hill Insurance. Isn’t that right, Perchy?

PARROT
Yes!

This I don't like very much, it's a bit racist, with out really having anything very funny to say for it's self.

I agree with Sooty - the sketch focuses on immigrant drivers without insurance for no apparent reason. But I think there is a sketch in the idea of an insurance firm for uninsured drivers, if you made it a bit more representative (i.e. most uninsured cars are not driven by immigrants).

I also think you could come up with a funnier name for the firm. Perch Hill and the parrot on a perch on a hill is so contrived just to rhyme with Churchill that it's a bit distracting.

Racist:
a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

So, no, sottyj, I don't believe it is racist.
However it cold be construed as not politically correct.
But if it's okay to make jokes about missing little girls and paedphilia then what's wrong with a little bit of political incorrectness?

Quote: Badge @ May 2 2008, 8:10 PM BST

I also think you could come up with a funnier name for the firm. Perch Hill and the parrot on a perch on a hill is so contrived just to rhyme with Churchill that it's a bit distracting.

View original

I never got that!
Think I lost it in the graphic description.

I am thoroughly sick, and bored. With this dreary, and mindless use of the dictionary use of the word racism.

n.b. in this case it even follows the dictionary definition. e.g. racial minorities avoid paying insurance due to racial cultural needs. As opposed to economic, e.g. insurance isn't paid by people who are excluded from the economic life of society.

To use the dictionary term is also a tad racist. Stick with the UN one, that is the one that is internationally accepted (e.g. other than on this narrow little island).

Also criticize my skits in their own threads.

Quote: sootyj @ May 2 2008, 8:20 PM BST

I am thoroughly sick, and bored. With this dreary, and mindless use of the dictionary use of the word racism.

n.b. in this case it even follows the dictionary definition. e.g. racial minorities avoid paying insurance due to racial cultural needs. As opposed to economic, e.g. insurance isn't paid by people who are excluded from the economic life of society.

To use the dictionary term is also a tad racist. Stick with the UN one, that is the one that is internationally accepted (e.g. other than on this narrow little island).

Also criticize my skits in their own threads.

View original

https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/6406

n.b. this is an example of a skit I did on a potentially racist subject, with out in my move crossing over the line.

But then who knows?

Well, I'll tell you how I got the idea for this. I had read in the newspaper about asylum seekers not getting tax/insurance. Then after reading it, I was watching TV and saw a couple of insurance ads. So, I put the two together.

I wouldn't want to offend anybody. Yes, it's true that lots of non-immigrants don't have insurance. Probably customer no.1 should have been, say, a cockney. Though that might have drawn criticism too!

Wasn't there an insurance ad with a bird of some kind in it? A cockatoo or something?

Quote: Bad dog @ May 2 2008, 8:33 PM BST

Well, I'll tell you how I got the idea for this. I had read in the newspaper about asylum seekers not getting tax/insurance.

View original

That pesky Guardian again

Actually, was the parrot in Guardian insurance ads?

EDIT: Hang on - Admiral?

I think it's the one where an actor does the ad in costume, dressed as a pirate or sea captain? Not sure who it's for!

That, and Churchill and the one with the little red phone that drives around (hence the little tune) all merged together for this.

That's Admiral, I think it had an ex Blue Peter guy in it.

I think this skit has an inherent problem. In that you're advertising a product that can't be sold. e.g. how can you buy not paying your insurance?

Also asylum seeking is a hot button issue, which can always be risky (which is no reason not to do them).

I think to win an audience over, make the last guy a Ghurka?

I don't buy car insurance, cos Brown won't let me live in the UK?

Maybe people buy Perch Hill's advice - which is, don't get any tax or insurance! At one point, I thought of people phoning them for a cheap quote. "How can you do it so cheaply?" they ask, and Perch Hill say it's because they don't pay out if you have an accident.

Now that would work. I often like doing skits where people phone advice lines and it's Bin Laden on the other end.