Tag Comedy

Cash – #SoCS Aug 13/16

freyathewriter 7 Comments

 

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“Ground floor:
Perfumery, stationery, and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food. Going up…

First floor:
Telephones, gents ready made suits, shirts, socks, ties, hats, underwear, and shoes. Going up…

Second floor:
Carpets, travel goods, and bedding, materials, soft furnishings, restaurant, and teas. Going down…“

Anyone from the UK who remembers 1970s TV programming will probably recognise these lyrics… the theme tune to ‘Are You Being Served?”!

I was born in 1970, so my memory of this comedy series, set in the fictitious department store ‘Grace Brothers’, is informed by my childish interpretation, but as I mentioned last week, it was another sitcom that was funny for children and adults alike – it was definitely family viewing in my experience!

Innuendo littered every programme, but most of it passed me by at that age. There was much talk of Mrs Slocombe’s pussy (and yes, she did have a cat, but her leg was constantly pulled by Mr Lucas, the ‘Jack the lad’ junior in menswear, who clearly interpreted it rather differently!). Mr Humphries was the gay archetype, who’s strapline was ‘I’m free!’ when asked if he could serve a customer – of course, there was another double entendre right there. Old Mr Grace, one of the eponymous ‘Grace Brothers’ was always surrounded by a bevy of barely-suitably-dressed young ladies… it was typical 1970s – and certainly not PC. But really, I think that it was a perfect sitcom, taking the mickey out of the British way of the time. And it was harmless, in my opinion.

What has this got to do with cash? Well, the theme tune begins with the sound of ringing cash registers, fading behind the song, the lyrics being what a lift attendant might say whilst shepherding customers between floors.

Ah, reminiscing is such fun!

I’ve included a YouTube video below, so anyone who doesn’t know of the series can get more of a feel for what I’ve been writing about – enjoy!

 

It’s time for Stream of Consciousness Saturday, hosted by the lovely Linda. I seem to have gone down the 1970s TV route again, inspired by this week’s prompt of ‘cash’. I really enjoyed writing and thinking about this!

Please do head on over to Linda’s place, read, enjoy and why not take part?

And… here’s the new SoCS badge – eye-catching, right?

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Ex – SoCS Aug 6/16

freyathewriter 6 Comments

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“F U N E X ?”

Those of you who are of a certain age, those of you who are British, those of you who were brought up on 1970s British comedy as a staple of the only 3 TV channels available to us back then (and sometimes, I wish it was still the case, too much choice these days!) will recognise this question, that started off a whole conversation consisting of letters and numbers only, courtesy of The Two Ronnies – Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. And for those of you who have no idea what F U N E X means, it’s “Have you any eggs?”

As a little girl I remember laughing like a drain at some of the things The Two Ronnies got up to in their sketches. Of course, their comedy was on two levels, as some of the best comedy is, fun for children, and more risque humour for the parents. It was true family viewing.

I’ll leave a video below, so that if you want to watch the whole sketch, you can.

Ah, the 1970s… it had it’s own special flavour! Rose-tinted for me probably, because I had a great childhood. I remember playing outdoors in the garden a great deal, making up stories in my head for my Sindy doll (she was a world class gymnast in honour of Nadia Comaneci), writing (but never finishing) boarding school stories (I read so many Mallory Towers, St Clare’s and Chalet School books it probably wasn’t healthy!) and making Hallowe’en Jack o’ Lanterns with my step-dad to greet my mum from the window when she came home from her studies in the evening.

Gosh – this is a real stream of consciousness post – I hope my ramblings haven’t been too incoherent!.

Please enjoy the video of the sketch ‘Swedish Made Simple’ and find out the answer to ‘F U N E X ?”! (It’s slightly risque and of course, comedy of its time. I certainly didn’t understand at least one of the references made to a certain type of Swedish films at the beginning!).

 

It’s Saturday once more (hallelujah!), and time for the lovely Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. This week, she has asked us to write on ‘ex’. I’ve takena sideways approach to this – it was truly the first thing that came to mind!

Please head on over to Linda’s blog to see what other writes have been inspired by!