# The Benny Hill Show



## BAYLOR (Feb 16, 2015)

Definitely one of my favorite comedy shows of all time .  I enjoyed alot of his comedy bit event though he did recycle some of his bits.


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## Kerrybuchanan (Feb 16, 2015)

My dad was totally addicted to the show.

 I loved the theme tune at the end. It still makes me smile to hear it


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## BAYLOR (Feb 16, 2015)

Kerrybuchanan said:


> My dad was totally addicted to the show.
> 
> I loved the theme tune at the end. It still makes me smile to hear it




Boots Randolph on the Saxophone   I think the tune was called Yakety Sax .


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## J Riff (Feb 17, 2015)

Yes, and the guitar version was_ Yakety Axe_, by Chet Atkins. He redid it with lyrics, with M Knopfler on _Neck and Neck_.
"... and I wouldn't trade my Yakety Axe - even for a T-Bone."


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## BAYLOR (Feb 17, 2015)

I loved his spoofs of Kojack, Canon , Starsky and Hutch.  

Then there was hos classic spoof *Woodstick .*


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## Jo Zebedee (Feb 17, 2015)

Oh dear, shall I speak up for the non-cheerleading squad? I found him sexist and quite creepy. Not funny on any level. The image of chubby, middle aged at best him running after nubile young blondes to music came across as predatory, especially now we know what was going on with TV celebrities in the 1970s....


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## BAYLOR (Feb 17, 2015)

springs said:


> Oh dear, shall I speak up for the non-cheerleading squad? I found him sexist and quite creepy. Not funny on any level. The image of chubby, middle aged at best him running after nubile young blondes to music came across as predatory, especially now we know what was going on with TV celebrities in the 1970s....



He's not PC correct by any definition.


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## Jo Zebedee (Feb 17, 2015)

BAYLOR said:


> He's not PC correct by any definition.



I think it went beyond non-PC correct into something much more disturbing. I like lots of non-PC things. I'm not so keen on things that make predatory behaviour towards women seem normal and humourous.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 17, 2015)

springs said:


> I think it went beyond non-PC correct into something much more disturbing. I like lots of non-PC things. I'm not so keen on things that make predatory behaviour towards women seem normal and humourous.



He was popular for many years  in the Uk and he was on syndicated tv here in the states back in the early 1980's   In this day and age he'd be unable to find employment in the entertainment industry. You have to remember he was from a different era.  

 The last thing I recall seeing  him in was In a Genesis Video , he reprised the frank Scuttle character in that one.


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## J Riff (Feb 18, 2015)

Yea, lots of pretty girls, but Benny the lecher ended up getting bopped in the head as I recall. Kind of like reality on some weird level. The stuff out there now makes him look like Benny Disney.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 18, 2015)

I loved his Robin Hood sketch along with the silly song that went with it.


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## Brian G Turner (Feb 19, 2015)

One sketch I always remember had Benny Hill dressed as a tramp, falling asleep on a park bench underneath a large advert featuring a dancer. Then he wakes, she comes to life and dances around, while he courts her with a flower. All the time we hear the beautiful and poignant Satie's Gymnopedie No.3. Then the tramp wakes for real, and she's just an image in a poster - it was all a dream. Always found something moving in that at the time, though it may not look so good these days.


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## Vladd67 (Feb 19, 2015)

springs said:


> Oh dear, shall I speak up for the non-cheerleading squad? I found him sexist and quite creepy. Not funny on any level. The image of chubby, middle aged at best him running after nubile young blondes to music came across as predatory, especially now we know what was going on with TV celebrities in the 1970s....


Except it was him being chased to music not the other way round.


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## farntfar (Feb 19, 2015)

Pretending that it was all all right because he often finished up looking silly in the end doesn't detract from the fact that the joke was about a man who leered at girls in bikinis with his tongue hanging out. Nor does it matter who was chasing whom by the end. 
The program's main lure for its audience was  just titillation.

The shame of it was that Benny Hill was actually capable of some very good comedy when he felt like it, but he'd found that these cheap jokes  were so much easier and more profitable.


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## Vladd67 (Feb 19, 2015)

farntfar said:


> Pretending that it was all all right because he often finished up looking silly in the end doesn't detract from the fact that the joke was about a man who leered at girls in bikinis with his tongue hanging out. Nor does it matter who was chasing whom by the end.
> The program's main lure for its audience was  just titillation.
> 
> The shame of it was that Benny Hill was actually capable of some very good comedy when he felt like it, but he'd found that these cheap jokes  were so much easier and more profitable.


Different time, different culture


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## Jo Zebedee (Feb 19, 2015)

Vladd67 said:


> Different time, different culture



Doesn't mean a thread celebrating him will be universally liked.


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## farntfar (Feb 19, 2015)

Vladd67 said:


> Different time, different culture



No. I don't think so.
I don't like him any better in hindsight than I did then.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 20, 2015)

farntfar said:


> Pretending that it was all all right because he often finished up looking silly in the end doesn't detract from the fact that the joke was about a man who leered at girls in bikinis with his tongue hanging out. Nor does it matter who was chasing whom by the end.
> The program's main lure for its audience was  just titillation.
> 
> The shame of it was that Benny Hill was actually capable of some very good comedy when he felt like it, but he'd found that these cheap jokes  were so much easier and more profitable.




Many of his comedy bits made me laugh because he could be quite absurdly funny .   But as I mentioned earlier, he did recycle a lot.  And he's definitely not PC correct by any definition.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 20, 2015)

springs said:


> Doesn't mean a thread celebrating him will be universally liked.



How do you explain his popularity?


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## Cascade (Feb 20, 2015)

I'm with @springs and @farntfar on this one.

Benny Hill was creepy even of its time and I think saying that they were 'different times' is giving him to much credit.

It was sophomoric, sexist and pandered to the page three pervert in all of us who watched it. And as a kid I did watch it.

Compare Benny Hill to something like 'The Two Ronnies' or 'Dave Allen', both of whom were also perfectly capable of being un-pc, without giving anywhere near the same disturbing scent of lechery and predation and whose comedy has stood the test of time as comedy. #fourcandles


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## farntfar (Feb 20, 2015)

This is tricky, because I'd like to reply, but really this is just a little nostalgia trip thread and I don't want to make it heavy. 
So I'll say no more.


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## Jo Zebedee (Feb 20, 2015)

BAYLOR said:


> How do you explain his popularity?



I didn't make any comment on his popularity - I merely pointed out that some find him distasteful.


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## Vladd67 (Feb 20, 2015)

He was popular because that type of comedy was popular at the time, compare him with the comedians of today, such as Russell Brand, and it is like comparing a seaside saucy postcard with the letters page of a porn mag. Benny Hill was of an era that produced such series as Up Pompeii on TV and the Confessions films at the cinema, as well as comedies such as Love Thy Neighbour, and Mind Your Language, both far more ofensive than Benny Hill. If you watch old episodes of Top of the Pops and see some of the outfits worn by Pan's People or Legs & Co you will see that sexy women in skimpy outfits was a standard of the time. The 70s and early 80s were a different time from now, but compare Benny Hill with say your average Rap video and you will see that even in this 'enlightened age' there is far worse on our screens today than Benny Hill.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 20, 2015)

Cascade said:


> I'm with @springs and @farntfar on this one.
> 
> Benny Hill was creepy even of its time and I think saying that they were 'different times' is giving him to much credit.
> 
> ...



And shows like Monty Python didn't on occasion go into that  mode ?


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## BAYLOR (Feb 20, 2015)

springs said:


> I didn't make any comment on his popularity - I merely pointed out that some find him distasteful.




I understand that that but,  how can you not chuckle at the Wondergran Skit    And there's  the All because the lady wants chocolate joke at the end of the Three Musketeers Skit .  And the Castle Colpitz bit.  

He was far from perfect , no question , but he made people laugh.


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## Boneman (Feb 20, 2015)

Here's a funny thing - when I watched Benny Hill way back when, I found it funny. When I watched it last year I didn't. At all. I hope that's because I've grown as a person, but first time round I didn't see the crude sexism, just ribald 'slightly-over-the-top' rudeness, and now I cringed. Hopefully it's not just me that changed, but perceptions of what was funny, generally, that aren't any longer. Society is improving?


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## Jo Zebedee (Feb 20, 2015)

BAYLOR said:


> I understand that that but,  how can you not chuckle at the Wondergran Skit    And there's  the All because the lady wants chocolate joke at the end of the Three Musketeers Skit .  And the Castle Colpitz bit.
> 
> He was far from perfect , no question , but he made people laugh.


But not me. Don't I have a right to say I found someone's humour unfunny and, indeed, distasteful? I wouldn't be trying to force my opinion on what's funny on you? 

I wonder - are you surprised that some people don't like him? Surely you didn't expect universal agreement with your viewpoint when you put the thread up. 

To state - no, I don't find him funny. (yes, by the way, I like Monty Python. I find their humour more subtle and less reliant on the obvious and easy tropes. Not to say some of it doesn't work for me, though, of course.) I found him offensive. That's my view, and I don't see why you should feel the need to convince me otherwise. 

I'll bow out now.


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## Brian G Turner (Feb 20, 2015)

And now for something completely different...


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## Boneman (Feb 20, 2015)

I still laugh (well, smile very loudly) at Monty Python, which _has _stood the test of time. When I first saw Blazing Saddles, I came out of the cinema still chuckling. When I saw it again about 3 years ago, I wondered what the heck i found funny first time round. Everything seemed so obvious, you saw the gags coming  a mile away...


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## farntfar (Feb 20, 2015)

I was wondering what that racket was. It must have been your loud smiles.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 20, 2015)

springs said:


> But not me. Don't I have a right to say I found someone's humour unfunny and, indeed, distasteful? I wouldn't be trying to force my opinion on what's funny on you?
> 
> I wonder - are you surprised that some people don't like him? Surely you didn't expect universal agreement with your viewpoint when you put the thread up.
> 
> ...



Fair enough and to each his own. 

At least this thread got a bit of discussion going.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 20, 2015)

Boneman said:


> I still laugh (well, smile very loudly) at Monty Python, which _has _stood the test of time. When I first saw Blazing Saddles, I came out of the cinema still chuckling. When I saw it again about 3 years ago, I wondered what the heck i found funny first time round. Everything seemed so obvious, you saw the gags coming  a mile away...




I still chuckle  at Blazing saddles.

Then there's Young Frankenstein  " Put the Candle Back" !  That film still holds up well.


Im also a fan of  the 3 Stooges The Marx Brothers , W C Fields , Laurel and Hardy,  Abbot and Costello .


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## BAYLOR (Feb 20, 2015)

Brian Turner said:


> And now for something completely different...




" A man With A tape recorder up his nose "   And so man other wonderfully insane skits and bits . 

In a world of ordinary supermen there is only one Bicycle Repairman " !


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