French and Saunders

This show has provided years of belly laughs, satirizing television, films, the arts, pretentious society types....if something's ripe for parody, they pounce on it. In the earlier series, the motif was a VERY low-rent variety show, complete with weekly guest stars, WAY past-their-prime dancers, and the cheesy 2-man band Raw Sex. The pathetic show-within-a-show was interspersed with comedy sketches, the funniest of which depicted a pair of extras in various show business locales (a war hospital film, a production of Carmen, the background of a Sports News show); regardless of their importance (or lack thereof) to the show, the two managed to get in the way and disrupt the production (always with the "props bahsket" in tow). Later series were more straightforward random collections of sketches. Film and TV parodies combined with skewering of pretension are their specialty; it's these later seasons you can see on the videos available for purchase, including the skit that spawned "Absolutely Fabulous." In any case, fans of anarchic British comedy should love this show.