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David Lloyd's homages to British comedy

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David Lloyd's homages to British comedy

Postby Whisper of cinnamon » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:20 am

Hi to everyone at Frasier Online! I'm a huge fan of the show, I think it's the finest T.V. show ever!

I wanted to post about something I've noticed. The brilliant David Lloyd's scripts seem to have some references to British comedy.

I think it's been mentioned that 'The Innkeepers' feels rather 'Fawlty Towers'-esque at times, especially the second half, as a fast-paced real time farce involving food service. I don't know if there are any specific 'Fawlty Towers' references in the episode, but maybe some big 'Fawlty Towers' fans could tell me if there are!

I also love the classic British radio and T.V. comedy of the 50s and early 60s, 'Hancock's Half Hour', and I think I've spotted a few references to it in David Lloyd's scripts. 'Ham Radio' involves Gil in a radio play where he is meant to die in the script but he refuses to do so. This comedic set up is used in the Hancock episode 'The Bowmans' – see this Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USfBwoko2lg&feature=related . Hancock even comes back later in the episode as his dead character's brother, as Gil does! I'm not criticising David Lloyd, by the way, he's one of the all-time great comedy writers, and his jokes in 'Ham Radio' are all different, I think this comedic set up is just a conscious homage to a show he loves! This is supported by the fact that the title, 'Ham Radio', is a reversal of the title of another famous Hancock ep, 'The Radio Ham'. (Hancock even calls his fellow actors 'untutored hams' at one point in 'The Bowmans'). I felt that 'Ham Radio' itself, with the actors huddled around microphones, is D. Lloyd's homage to the great radio comedies of yore, of which Hancock is an outstanding example.

Then there's the start of 'Four for the Seesaw', which has Frasier being scared of getting a flu shot, and because he's looking away, he thinks the shot has been given when the doctor has merely swabbed the area and is relieved that it wasn't that painful! This reminds me of the most famous moment in the most famous Hancock ep, 'The Blood Donor', when Hancock, who is also scared of needles and is looking away, thinks a blood smear test is the full blood donation, and is relieved it wasn't that bad!
Doctor: 'That's just a smear!' Hancock: 'It may be just a smear to you, mate, but it's life and death to some poor wretch'!' :lol:

Then there's 'Taps at the Montana', which has a dead bird that Niles tells a woman is 'resting', which reminds me of Monty Python's most famous sketch, the parrot sketch, where Michael Palin says exactly the same thing about the dead parrot!

I think there may have been a few others, but I can't remember them now! To me, this suggests that D. Lloyd is a fan of British comedy and has put in a few references to it in his scripts.
What do people think of this theory? Has anyone else noticed this? Has anyone else noticed any references to other comedy shows in Frasier?
Whisper of cinnamon
 
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