A Bit of Fry and Laurie (TV Series) Episode #1.6 (1989) User Reviews

Humor and sword fights!

[intriguement · 9/10 · 9 July 2011]

"A Bit of Fry and Laurie" sets the gold standard for comedy sketch shows. Stephen and Hugh are best friends who have appeared together in many productions. They write and act all the sketches. In the first two seasons, they are occasionally aided by one or two other actors. Sometimes, one of them cross-dresses to create new characters. However, the vast majority of sketches consist simply of two Englishmen experimenting with different ideas. But Stephen & Hugh are so ingenious and work so well together that each sketch feels fresh and exciting.

The sketches are: Margery's Had a Fall; Snipper; Oh, Leave it Out!; Who Told You That You Were Naked?; Control & Tony; Responsibility Television; Irish Joke; Cocoa; Tony of Plymouth.

This episode has a lot of great moments - the way Stephen's character lilts the word "God," the adorable puppy Snipper, Fry and Laurie's attempts to brainwash their viewers, Hugh as a cranky old man/Stephen as a nurse, and the hilarious duel at the end. An excellent conclusion to the first season!

Season 1: Rarely side-splittingly funny but consistently funny and entertaining nonetheless

[bob the moo · 9 December 2009]

The recent international success of Hugh Laurie and the awarding of national treasure status to Stephen Fry in the UK made me think back to the show that brought them to my attention all those years ago. I decided to pick up a couple of the seasons on a cheap DVD. Season 1 seems to pretty much hit the ground running as the wonderful absurdity of the sketches is really well done. It has the air of a rather intellectual humour but rather it is very accessible since the comedy is very physical in nature. Yes we have the wonderful falls done by Laurie but more physical is the sheer onslaught of language and word play, all done in a wonderfully nonsensical fashion.

It has a lot of brains behind it though and it regularly has targets that it hits with glee. Laurie is the "goofy" one of the pair and he often has to play the buffoon to Fry's rather straighter role, but he does it very well and he is in no way the "second" person anywhere other than the title. Fry is very fresh and is full of the language skills that we have become accustom to. In a way I prefer him here because he seems a lot sharper than he is recently – perhaps the younger Fry was not yet comfortable in his position in the way that the older one is. Together they make a great team and their material is mostly very good. I wasn't rolling round in laughter at many points but mostly I was chuckling along very regularly, which is fitting the style of humour.

I was not free of critical things though. Specifically I grew a little tired of how often the pair resorted to breaking the 4th wall and coming out of character during sketches. Once or twice was funny and clever but it happened in each and every episode, sometimes several times an episode and it did feel like they had overdone that idea somewhat. Similarly some of the sketches were not funny enough to justify being reoccurring characters – the two bureaucratic spies were a good example of this, amusing but not varied enough to come back to again and again. Overall though, season 1 of this show starts very strong, with a real sense of the absurd comedy that they rattle off so easily with such great use of language and characters. Rarely side-splittingly funny but consistently funny and entertaining nonetheless.