The Comic Strip Presents

I love the cast but the episodes are more miss than hit. There are a few gems but only for fans of goofy loud comedy.

I remember catching The Comic Strip back when it was first aired stateside. I waited with anticipation every week to see what the next show would conjure up. My favorite of the series was definitely "Bad News Tour", "More Bad News", and "The Supregrass" flick. These scamps were also responsible for aiding with the development of the phenomenal "Eat The Rich" film. Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan and Rik Mayall would go on to fame as "The Young Ones." Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French would go on to "French and Saunders" and eventually part ways for "Absolutely Fabulous" and "The Vicar of Dibley." Basic comparison as far as career launching would be comparative of "SCTV" or the original "Saturday Night Live" TV series here in the states. The shows and skits were very well written. Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall would go on to do "The Dangerous Brothers," "Filthy, Madcap and Laughing" and "Bottom." Excellent stuff that is all well overdue for a region DVD reissue.

Fun, but a lot of the humor is going to go over a lot of heads if you're not actually English.

It was great seeing the origins of three of the four / five Young Ones, and I was pretty well impressed by Nigel's breadth of character, and later Abe and Rik as Bottom (fart jokes and random violence are universal,) but yeah, I'm pretty sure I missed a lot as an American. You had Thatcher and the Falklands, we had Reagan and pretty much all of Central America. Also a great introduction to French and Saunders.

"The comic strip presents" team is made up of numerous hero's of British comedy, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmundson, French + Saunders, Peter Richardson and Nigel Planer to name just a few. Starting in The "Comic strip night club" in the early 80's they turned many a famous head. Getting their break with channel 4 was in my opinion, the best choice the channel has ever made. Ranging from famous five re-makes to posing as heavy metal super-stars, the comic strip team have excelled in over 30 TV films and a number of feature movies. Building a base for Mayall and Edmondson to leap foward, they have gone on to become household names appearing in such favourites as "Bottom" and "The young ones" (also with Nigel Planer.) All in all the comic strip team have achieved comic greatness at the very highest level. A shining example to young and old comedians.

unique, hilarious parodies of cliche-ridden entertainment by a semiregular group of brits. I particularly remember their spoofs of spaghetti westerns ('a fistful of travelers checks') and post-apocalyptic flicks ('the slags'), as well as shots at kids shows, Rebecca, back-to-the-wilderness retreats, and a pre-Spinal Tap metal band's misfortunes. the Slags featured a young Anthony Stewart Head (Giles on Buffy tVS) as the leader of a gang called the Hawaiians ('that's not...nice!'). my personal favorite is the 'Travelers Checks' episode; the music and scenery and camera work would have made a perfectly good movie of the genre (especially the guitar-and-whistle music); and who could forget 'Billy Balfour, the Man with No Name'?! some of the regulars (Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer) played in the bizzare 'Young Ones' series.