[jim]

Originally Posted by MoMo

Aye, but it tastes like it was made from old girdles!

good one Mo.

[dilligafocau]

Originally Posted by MoMo

This sums up the whole era of Sit Coms in the UK. in the 70s and 80s and 90s, etc........

As far as comedies go, Yes Minister & Fawlty Towers would take some beating.

[MoMo]

As far as comedies go, Yes Minister & Fawlty Towers would take some beating.

Yes, dilligafocau, you are quite right to point out the exceptions. There were a lot of good comedies which suited the mood of the times. As far as Brit-Com is concerned, I still watch my DVDs of " Red Dwarf, series 1 to 6. This comedy was masterful in taking the piss out of Sci-Fi ( of which I am a big fan ) and offered us the ideal male habitat : a gigantic spaceship full of beer, food and pointless pastimes, and no work! The only problem was that there were no women! After series 6 the comedy died when the creators got greedy and tried to sell the show to the USA in an Americanised format with American actors....it just wasn't funny! The irony is that all Americans who have seen the original Brit productions just love them!

It's strange how many times Corporations have killed the Golden Goose to sell the product to a wider audience who just want to be entertained, not have their values reinforced by a bunch of half-witted ' Media Experts'!

MoMo

[djjeffhall]

MoMo,
Ahhhhh, Red Dwarf. That was one funny series. I've only caught abut 8-10 episodes here in the states and they all had me rolling on the ground.

[MoMo]

Just for all you " Red Dwarf" fans, including djjeffhall, a few pics and words on the comedy sci-fi show to beat all comedy sci-fi shows!

Red Dwarf is a gigantic spaceship with a hundred decks on which Lister ( bottom left ) and Rimmer ( bottom right ) toil (day and day out ) to unplug loose debris from the vending machines.

Rmmer, the architypical Little Hitler with a Napoleon Complex, presses a wrong button and effects a nuclear leak. Lister, at this point, is in the Stasis Cell being punished while the entire crew is wiped out. Rimmer is saved as a hologram ( which is why he has a metal H on his forehead ).

3 Million years later, Lister is revived and finds tha he is stuck on board the Red Dwarf with Lister who he hates! Lister later discovers that his cat has evolved into a Cat- Person ( top left ).

The three characters start on a comedic journey to get back to Earth. The ship is run by Holly, the ship's computer ( centre of pic ) who appears on screens everywhere. Holly starts the series as a man, but by series 3 had been transformed into a woman. Holly has lost her tremedous IQ of 2000 and has been reduced to an idiot...i.e. almost human!

To pass the time The Cat and Lister goad Rimmer constantly ( he deserves it! ). They also think up pointless games to play like naked bicycle beach volley ball, played with French loaves and a square ball.

Before the end of series 3 they had found Kryten the obsequious robot on an asteroid. Lister makes it his life's work to get Kryten to break his programming and insult Rimmer!

Also by series 3 they had found Starbug and began to visit the worlds they passed. The worst world was where they encountered the Emohawk which fed on emotions. The Cat lost his Cool, Lister lost his cowardice and Rimmer lost his petty authoritarian attitude! They could not find the Emohawk because it could change shape at will.

Before all this business with the Emohawk transpired, we have to appreciate that Lister and the crew brought it all upon themselves when Lister left the daughter of the Chief Gelf standing at the marriage altar. In a parody of the scene in " The Searchers " when The Duke and his sidekick try trading with the Indians, something is once more lost in translation.

Let the script speak :

( you can view this part of the script and and see many more hilarious clips from the series at this site :

http://www.squidoo.com/reddwarftvseries/ )

Don't miss the clips!

GELF LEADER: (Tapping at the O/G unit) Rec raht wig dig ana tut pata.
(Gestures towards LISTER)
KRYTEN: Oh dear.
LISTER: What? (Pulls at his hat) What, you want my hat?
GELF LEADER: Ahg nu dewka ana weg bah. (Again gestures at the O/G unit
and then towards LISTER)
LISTER: My jacket? (Pulls at his jacket) You want my *jacket*?
KRYTEN: No sir, he doesn't want your jacket.
LISTER: He doesn't want my longjohns does he?
KRYTEN: Not your longjohns either sir.
LISTER: Well what then?
GELF LEADER: Ahg nu dewka ana weg bah.
LISTER: *ME*! (To KRYTEN) He wants me?
KRYTEN: Yes sir, he says in exchange for the oxygeneration unit he wants
*you* to be his daughter's mate.

Close up of gelf with longing look in her eyes

LISTER: *That's* his daughter?
KRYTEN: One of three. Apparently sir *she's* the looker.

Close up on gelf again...VERY ugly bigfoot

LISTER: Tell him, not if she was the last water yeti lookalike in the
world and I was the only boy.
RIMMER: Oh, come on, Lister, you've dated worse.
LISTER: Only due to very poor disco lighting.
GELF LEADER: Ana beg ewitah og iy con nich kawal bah.
KRYTEN: He says: no wedding, no O/G unit.

GELFs rise to leave

GELF LEADER: (As they leave) Panta anag ew, panta wa ah.
KRYTEN: Hmm yes, he's giving us 5 hanaka to decide.
RIMMER: How long's a hanaka?
KRYTEN: Curiously enough it's exactly the same as one Earth minute.
CAT: 5 hanaka! That only gives us 28 hours.
LISTER: OK, let's get out our sheet music and play the real waltz. There
is no way I am going down to Moss Bros for anyone who is less
attractive than my own armpit after 20 games of table-tennis.
RIMMER: What about us? You're not going to hang *all* of us out to dry
just because for some reason she doesn't hit your G-spot. What about
sacrifice? Putting your friends interests before your own selfish
drives.
LISTER: Rimmer, it would never work out. She's obviously an Aries, and
me and Aries, forget it.
KRYTEN: Sir, they are a proud people and will not change their minds
unless you are prepared to stay here and marry hackhackhack ach
hachhachach.
LISTER: That's her name? I could never settle down with anyone who's
name sounds like a footballer clearing his nose.

The Crew :



STARBUG


CAT


Rimmer

Lister painting Red Dwarf Rimmer and Mister Flibble

If you can beg, borrow or steal the DVDs of Red Dwarf, watch it with a few beers. Be prepared to make a mess or have an accident when you fall off your seat laughing! Don't watch anything beyond series 6! The best to watch are series 3 to 6...these shows had the winning formula and the best scripts.

SKUNKY...YOU HAVE GOTTA SEE THIS SHOW!

Momo

[djjeffhall]

MoMo,
The only reply that seems appropriate is SMEG! (I hope that doesn't get me in trouble?)

I liked this show so much that I've been determined to save up some cash and get the Red Dwarf toy made by Product Enterprise. I like their Space 1999 Eagles, but the exchange rate makes them REALLY pricey.

[jim]

Hey Mo ,Lorraine likes ALLO, ALLO she just cracks up every time they do reruns of that show.

The Two British airmen make me laugh mainly because I know a couple of warbird pilots that speak and look just like them.

[jim]

[quote=MoMo;41797]

It really is boom time in the U.K. and some employers can't get men with skills.


Mo where is this boom time? the men I made redundant just before Christmas have found it almost impossible to get work except for minimum pay and these are few and far between.

One of the main reasons is the influx of eastern European workers we have experienced over the last couple of years, approx 650.000.
I went to my local job center last week and was told that although I have a lifetime of experience in manufacuring management that my chances of finding a job was Zero!!

Pushing trolleys around at Tescos is the only hope us old guys have of working it seems.

However I am lucky enough not to have any finacial problems at the moment and in any case I have Lorraine in reserve. If things get tough then she will just have to take up ploughing again although it is seasonal of course.

[MoMo]

Dear Jim,

all things are relative, of course, and when we have a boom time here it means that for the employed middle classes it is a boom time.

We live in an age of make hay while the sun shines and that is what people are doing! We've never had it so good! Everywhere you look in the cities, there seems to be rampant prosperity. What it's based on, I don't know. But the feeling is there.

Where I live there used to be a huge industrial base to sustain the rest of the economy. Glasgow was the Mechano set of the Empire, and men were in and out of work according to the whims of the world economy.

Now, I don't know what drives the economy, except that we all know that SERVICES are the key. We all sell services to one another and that sustains the castle in the air. Don't ask me how!

I get as angry as anyone else when I see the erosion of the traditional base of industry, but I've been used to that all my life. We have had a slow, slow death of industry here and a hard tradition of life-long unemployment for many men. Skills we have had in abundance, but they are no longer needed. I see wonders of engineering all round me, but the men who made them are long gone, or are in their dotage.

You're right to point out the shame of it all, Jim. I just hope that a job that requires your skills and wit comes up for you.

Godd luck, mate.

MoMo

[jim]

Very well put indeed Mo.

I worked in the weaving industry all my life, building machines maintaining them and to some degree inventing them. I worked in the birthplace of the industrial revolution and experienced it in all its glory. It is all gone now, all of it.
At one time Britain supplied 99% of all the worlds textile machines, it now supplies about .25% at the last count.

People have a totally wrong conception of textile manufacture. In the last couple of decades the industry has been one of the most innovative of any in the world. Not only did the industry invent the first ever computers but nowadays it uses them way beyond what anyone ever thought possible.
The machines used today are almost unbelievable in the technology they use and it takes a lot of effort for even the experts to keep up with the pace of development.

The company I ran used technology to the full BUT it was impossible to compete against the Chinese.
Why was this ? Do they have some secret formula or are we too inefficient? NO the reason is that they use 1930s technology to produce textiles (cheap and dont need highly skilled workers) and dont have the burden of health and safety, effluent disposal charges , trade unions , water rates , sick pay, maternity pay and leave, heating bills (they just put on an extra coat) etc etc.

HOWEVER they do make cheap diecast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!