Please excuse if this is not the proper BCG dept.

I'm trying to ID a British comedy bit I heard long ago. It's probably a comedy record. I estimate it's at least two decades old.

THE "PLOT:"
Initially, the piece sounds like a spoof of a regular vacation/cruise commercial. As it continues (for, probably, 15-20 minutes), it becomes clear it is aimed at ethereal beings, inviting them to spend a fraction of their eternal existence as a Homo sapiens. Example: Have a brief stay (a few days) having your every need attended to, then pass back into the ether. It works its way up to a vacation package of 80-90 years with all the good/bad that can entail.

Thank you for reading/considering this request. It may be quite obscure, but I recall it being rather poignantly humourous.

Thank you very much, again.

Dave

Any idea of the voices or accents? It doesn't ring a bell at all.

Quote: Chappers @ 19th August 2014, 8:18 PM BST

Any idea of the voices or accents? It doesn't ring a bell at all.

View original

Chappers,

First, thank you for responding.

What? Aren't all English accents the same?!? Blimey!

Seriously, I know, as a Yank (who speaks with no accent whatsoever--so much for seriousness, eh?!!), I don't have the ear for regional dialects as a Professor Henry Higgins, but, I can say the promoter's speech patterns were more akin to Prof. Higgins than Eliza or Alfred P. Doolittle.

I'm reasonably sure the announcer was male. And, I'm similarly sure the accent is not Scottish, Irish, New Zealand, etc.

Perhaps a reasonable comparison might be with the narrator of the "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" radio series.

I seem to recall the sound track was somewhat space/new age music. Once again, perhaps, ala "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy."

Thank you so much, again, for trying. I hope somebody can suss it out and deliver.

Cheers,

David

Read your post three times now and nothing - sorry!

Thought it might be ISIRTA, but I don't think so.

Was it maybe the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

What about Red Dwarf?

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 20th August 2014, 12:09 PM BST

Read your post three times now and nothing - sorry!

Thought it might be ISIRTA, but I don't think so.

View original

Quote: Chappers @ 20th August 2014, 9:25 PM BST

Was it maybe the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

What about Red Dwarf?

View original

Thanks awfully for the offerings. I really do appreciate the suggestions, tho, I suspect, if one doesn't say somewhat difinitively, I won't be in a position to conclude.

On all the suggestions, I suspect not. I'm rather familiar w/HGttG, having heard > once and read at least once. I do feel I, or someone similarly fond, would remember.

I've scanned the wackypedia pages for ISIRTA and RD. Tho it could've conceivably been a fake commercial within a show, it's length, I suspect, precludes it. A veteran of countless comedy commercials, I remember being surprised that it kept going and going. So, it's length, roughly 15 minutes minimum, puts it closer to what we call an infomercial. (Don't know if you have 'em there. Here, some approach being comedy, however unintended!)

So, thanks again Hercules and Chappers for the effort. I'm still hoping you or another will remember hearing and come up w/the source.

Dave

If it's 15 minutes it has to be one episode of a comedy actor's show I would think. It's too long for an infomercial or a sketch.

Quote: Chappers @ 21st August 2014, 6:45 PM BST

If it's 15 minutes it has to be one episode of a comedy actor's show I would think. It's too long for an infomercial or a sketch.

View original

Or, as I suspect, a good portion or all of a record side.

My adolescence was spent (mis-spent?) listening to records by comedians, comedy music, and--the very best--comedy audio theatre.

Note: In the US, infomercials are a minimum of 15 minutes. Certain radio stations are rife w/programming featuring two people "chatting," supposedly extemporaneously. Even if the info is worthy, the format is a turnoff.

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Optional, for your listening pleasure, a sample of my youthful listening fare:

Stan Freberg: "Elderly Man River" (Preceding political correctness by 2 decades, or more!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLlTlYfqQV4

"Catch It and You Keep It" A game show from the National Lampoon LP "Radio Dinner" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NewSO3RzKZg