Quote: Ming the Mirthless @ October 8 2010, 10:28 AM BST

It's parody at its funniest but I can't help feeling it was something of a cheap and rather cruel shot by Smith and Jones.

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Written by Peter Brewis, who was pissed off working on the Ronnies show.

Hardly cruel. Nobody is beyond satire or criticism.

Quote: Ming the Mirthless @ October 8 2010, 10:28 AM BST

What made the Two Ronnies so succesful was their ability to entertain 'all the family' simultaneously - something that few TV performers have ever managed to do.

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Ah, f**k the family.

I think Corbett has said that Barker was offended but that he thought it was funny.

I agree with Ming about the double entendres. I have never understood the hostility to this comedy device. It has become something of a lost art only surviving in the laboured efforts of the likes of Jonathon Ross and Julian Clary, who seem to fail to realise that the whole point of a double entendre is that it should have two possible meanings.

Quote: Ming the Mirthless @ October 8 2010, 10:28 AM BST

Should the parody have been transmitted?

I think not.

It was bloody funny, though.

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Yeah, let's not have anything funny on telly, eh.

The Village Idiot sketches were among my favourites, and I liked the butler ones too. Also the ones where they were in a pub with cloth caps on, probably my favourite, I remember a couple of really good ones. Some of the middle class party ones were good too. Too many of them, including Mastermind were simply clever variations on a theme, using the same language/miscommunication device far too much. Benny Hill had also got to the Mastermind one first, as he had on many other 'borrowed' sketch ideas.

There has been much mention in this thread of the authors of the sketches referred to.

While many of the Ronnies' sketches were wonderfully well-written, there were many others that would, on paper, be outshone by sketches posted in our own Critique section.

Such were the Ronnies' performance skills that a basically mediocre sketch could often be made good.

I was a huge fan of The Two Ronnies when I was a kid. Many of their sketches are still very funny, whilst some feel dated - such is the nature of comedy.

I always particularly liked the sketches where they played two strangers encountering each other at drinks parties. Anyone know if a particular writer(s) wrote these? They were often the best thing in the show and became quite a staple of their humour. These are the sketches I remember most fondly.

What I never really enjoyed much - and still can do without seeing - were the often overblown and tedious comedy song numbers. The reason the NTNON parody (above) is so good, is that it nails exactly how contrived and repetitively innuendo-laced they were. Especially their 'Status Quo'/Rockers spoof - which wasn't funny even in the 1970s - and would be excruciating to have to watch today.

Just for you Tim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq2OHOyJHnY

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! TAKE IT AWAY... it's burning my brain!!!!

There's 25 years of intense psychotherapy down the drain...

The musical numbers are often my favourites...

Quote: Aaron @ October 20 2010, 11:30 PM BST

The musical numbers are often my favourites...

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Pervert.

Quote: The Comedy Guy @ September 15 2009, 3:53 AM BST

I also highly rate the sketch where the two of them are in phone booths and Corbett is giving the double entendre answers to everything Barker says!

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Yes - 'Crossed Lines'. That's my favourite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlyps0bAczM

Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 4 2009, 5:37 AM BST

"This isn't the place to come to if you don't like rook".

"This isn't the place to come to if you DO like rook."

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Raises a huge smile just thinking about the sketch.
I saw restaurant in Belgium the other week called the Raven, decorated with the silhouetted black birds.

Quote: Aaron @ October 20 2010, 11:30 PM BST

The musical numbers are often my favourites...

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What you think of this one Aaron- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woqfb12h4y4

Very good.

Quote: Tim Walker @ October 8 2010, 1:55 PM BST

I always particularly liked the sketches where they played two strangers encountering each other at drinks parties. Anyone know if a particular writer(s) wrote these? They were often the best thing in the show and became quite a staple of their humour. These are the sketches I remember most fondly.

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My favourites too and I liked some of the musical numbers.