Refreshing myself of their genius and comic legend by having a look at some YouTube clips of their superb improvised sketches from the late 70s.
Tell you what. YouTube don’t half give me the fucking horn.
The genius of Derek and Clive can partly be explained by the dynamic between Pete and Dud. The way Cook was able to hold it together and keep such a straight face whilst Moore was completely unable to get a hold of himself. The way he creases up is side-splitting in itself.
Of course, they were also successful because of the time in which they lived and performed…a time of enormous anti-establishment sentiment and disrespect for authority. The era when Monty Python bulldozed away all of society’s taboos and cobwebs, and when the arrogance and hypocrisy of the elites was called into question. The time of punk and anger and angst and revolution. And all the while, Pete and Dud are there to rip the shit out of everyone. With crass, sick, twisted and unrestrained abandon.
The language would still be shocking now, but less so. But I think we need a new burst of talent like Pete and Dud. This is nothing to do with the invented malaise of ‘political correctness’. Yet it remains for a fresh saviour of comedy and enlightenment to dispell and vanquish, at long last, the piety of today’s stagnant ‘mustn’t cause offence’ liberal consciousness.
Where, in the 60s and 70s, the establishment was still very much the old guard, the stuffed shirts and the lofty members of unreachable classes, today the establishment are the baby boomer generation who have attained everything they wanted and have turned the tables on the next line down. Telling them what to think, what to do, what morals they should have, what is acceptable and unacceptable, what is ethical and what is their lot.
Well, there I go again. Turning something light fucking hearted into a serious political rant. What a fucking cunt I am. Fucking cunting cunt cunt. Cunty fucking twatting cunt.
I give myself the fucking horn I do.
Only one way to calm myself down. A trip to the races…
Filed under: 1, Humour, Legends - Roll of Honour | Tagged: classic comedy, comedy, comic, derek and clive, dudley moore, funny, history of comedy, humor, Humour, pete and dud, peter cook
