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Heading 1: Not The Nine O'Clock News The Young Ones

The document discusses British comedy double acts throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s, Morecambe and Wise ended and edgier acts like French and Saunders emerged. The 1990s saw comedy become more like rock music, with acts like Newman and Baddiel and Reeves and Mortimer combining traditional double acts with bizarre humor.

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Jorge De Felipe Moreira
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56 views

Heading 1: Not The Nine O'Clock News The Young Ones

The document discusses British comedy double acts throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s, Morecambe and Wise ended and edgier acts like French and Saunders emerged. The 1990s saw comedy become more like rock music, with acts like Newman and Baddiel and Reeves and Mortimer combining traditional double acts with bizarre humor.

Uploaded by

Jorge De Felipe Moreira
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1980s
Morecambe and Wise had dominated British light
entertainment throughout the 1970s, but their presence
waned in the early 1980s. When Morecambe died
moments after finishing a solo show in 1984 (his last
words were 'I'm glad that's over'), the best-loved double
act in British comedy came to an end, and several new
acts emerged. The two distinct groups could not have
been more different.

In the wake of Not the Nine O'Clock News, The Young


Ones and the breakthrough onto television of
'alternative comedy' came French and Saunders; Fry and
Laurie; Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson; Hale and
Pace; and Smith and Jones. These edgier comics were
brasher and crude—comedy's answer to punk rock. They
developed the satire and vulgarity of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore rather
than the more gentle humour of Morecambe and Wise and The Two
Ronnies. In fact, Smith and Jones showed blatant disregard for their
predecessors, openly mocking the Two Ronnies (this may have been a
factor in Ronnie Barker's decision to retire from comedy in the late 1980s.)
1990s–present day
The early 1990s saw comedy become "the new rock and
roll" in Britain and this was inherent in the work of Newman and
Baddiel and Punt and Dennis on The Mary Whitehouse
Experience. Newman and Baddiel, in particular, symbolized this rock
and roll attitude by playing the biggest ever British comedy gig
at Wembley Arena. With this came tension. Newman and Baddiel
fell out with Punt and Dennis, not wishing to share screen time with them,
and then with each other. David Baddiel went on to form another
successful double act with Frank Skinner.
The 1990s also saw the introduction of one of comedy's
strangest yet most successful double acts in Reeves and
Mortimer. They at the same time deconstructed light
entertainment and paid homage to many of the classic double acts
(Vic Reeves would even do an Eric Morecambe impression on Vic
Reeves Big Night Out). They simultaneously used very bizarre, idiosyncratic humour and traditional
double act staples (in later years they became increasingly reliant on violent slapstick).

Another double act that emerged in the mid to late


1990s was Lee & Herring, who combined a
classic clash of personalities (downbeat and rational Lee
contrasting with energetic, childish Herring) with very
ironic, often satirical humour.

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