1914 to 1917.

Posted by Ralph

14 11 2008

Lending my support to Ado’s “Can it” campaign, behold as a laugh track very nearly ruins the greatest scene in British comedy history.

The thing about truley great British situation comedy is that the situation around which the comedy is developed is so painfully tragic. The example here is one of the best, though comedy from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s is full of it.

Blackadder goes forth was based in a trench during the great war, a situation which should not be funny, clever writing can make the situation funny, but great writing also never shies away from the true horror of the situation. I think that the greatest line in comedy history is “We lived through it. The great war, from 1914 to 1917.” It’s the type of line which takes a moment’s pause to truly comprehend, I hope that if it was filmed infront of a live audience then they didn’t pause to realise the tragedy within this line, if the laugh track was added at a later date, then it was a huge production error which nearly robs the scene of its plausability as a valid comment on the futility and horror of war.

Tags: campaign, comedy, laughter, tv