"You haven't got the Asian flu. You have the Egyptian flu. You're going to be a mummy." - Benny Hill as a doctor to his voluptuous patient
Benny Hill: Complete & Unadulterated - The Naughty Early Years: Set One DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
I must admit I hesitated before placing the first disc of The Benny Hill Show: Complete and Unadulterated - The Naughty Early Years: Set One in my DVD player, and not simply because it took me about twenty minutes to read the complete title. For many of us, the show holds childhood memories of staying up late and laughing at Hill's vaguely dirty antics. It was so.well.naughty. Although his color series premiered on British TV in 1969, it was not until ten years later that the best bits from each episode were edited into thirty minute compilations for syndication on American TV. Would the show be as funny as I remembered? As it turns out, no - parts of it are even funnier.
For the uninitiated, Hill is a talented performer/writer who combines the moron humor of The Three Stooges, the old-fashioned verbal humor of Abbott and Costello, the physical comedy of silent film comedians, and the novelty-song stylings of Weird Al or early Ray Stevens. The result is a series that in many ways resembles Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In crossed with Saturday Night Live, but often with bigger laughs.
The series most closely echoes Laugh-In during its regular "Benny's Bloopers" segments. As the name suggests, this portion of the show contains staged bloopers, but is also home to quick blackout jokes, sight gags, and commercial parodies. The commercial parodies mock products with which Americans are not familiar, but the fact that they are still quite funny proves that selling techniques are often universal.
Another regular feature employs sped-up film to tell comic tales without the use of dialogue. "The Short Happy Life of Maurice Dribble," for example, recounts the entire life of its hero from birth to death. Since his entire life is seen in fast forward, we are treated to seeing the actors running around with arms akimbo, all to the sound of music played at the wrong speed. These throwbacks to silent film are often outrageously funny even in their simplicity. Don't try to analyze it - it's just plain funny to watch people moving at the wrong speed.
Hill also performs comedic sketches that would not be out of place on Saturday Night Live. These sketches often feature recurring characters played by Hill, including Chow Mein, a pidgin English speaking Asian character (no one ever accused Hill of being politically correct, but more on that later) and Fred Scuttle, a lisping buffoon who seems to have a new profession each week.
The show also thrives on musical moments. Hill sings one or two novelty songs in each episode. Think of these songs as clean versions of dirty limericks - rife with sexual innuendo but nothing even remotely obscene. Like traditional variety shows, each episode also features a performance or two by special musical guests. These guests tend to be "easy listening" to the extreme. They are so mellow that they make Burt Bacharach sound like thrash metal. The most frequent performers are The Ladybirds, a groovily bland trio of old-before-their-time women (including a circa-1970s Hillary Clinton look-alike). Fans of this kind of sleepy, kitschy pop will relish performances by Kiki Dee, Miss Ira Heath, Trisha Noble, Petticoat & Vine, and others.
Almost every episode ends with an extended sketch in which Hill plays almost all of the characters: a This is Your Life parody in which Hill plays all of the surprise guests, for example, or "Opportunity's Knocking," a talent show knockoff with Hill as all of the spectacularly untalented participants AND the vapid, dagger-toothed host. These segments show off his versatility, but inevitably they overstay their welcome. Episode one's "European Song Contest" runs almost twenty minutes. In it, representatives of various European countries compete in a singing/songwriting contest. Naturally, Hill portrays each of the contestants. The song he sings as the English contestant (which details how to solve all of life's problems simply by sticking one's finger in one's ear) is so funny that it alone makes this set a worthy purchase. This level of humor cannot be sustained for twenty minutes, however, so the laughs eventually dry up.
Even though the show has an occasional misfire, one has to admire Hill's prodigious talent. He creates rich characters, can deliver funny lines, is a master of physical humor, and he can sing (in addition to writing the entire show, including the songs). The kind of gleeful stupidity that he specializes in is often underrated. He makes it look too easy. Seeing the wide-faced Hill wearing a women's frock and a wild-eyed look seems naturally funny rather than calculatedly funny.
Hill also lacks the respect of critics because of the source of his laughs. As mentioned earlier, he was anti-P.C. even before the term was coined, not only employing cultural and national stereotypes but sexual ones as well. Many of his sketches involve lecherous men relentlessly pursuing buxom babes, as in "A Tribute to the Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Fire Brigade." In one scene, the male firefighters have their mini-skirted female colleague slide down the firehouse pole after they do so that they have a better view of her descent. Then, for good measure, this is followed by an "Action Replay" of her pole-sliding. Many sketches also revolve around men who get stuck with old crones after failing to land the hot chicks. So the series doesn't exactly advance the cause of feminism - this does not negate the fact that all of this can be damn funny.
All of the episodes are funny, but they are also, by their nature, formulaic. Each episode is made of the same mix of the same types of sketches and gags. Viewing several episodes in a row only highlights this sameness. According to the original broadcast dates included on the packaging, a new episode aired approximately once a month. DVD viewer do not need to wait quite that long between episodes, but spreading them out over time will help prevent the humor from becoming stale.
For a complete listing of the sketches and musical performances included in each episode, visit our Individual Disc Details page.
The eleven episodes included in this set are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in thin keepcases. The front of each case is decorated with a mix-and-match picture of Hill. The top halves features Hill as Fred Scuttle while the bottom halves feature the mismatched legs of other people - a clown, a beachgoer, and a Roman gladiator. The back of each case lists the sketches included in each of the discs' episodes along with their original broadcast dates. The cases slide into an outer cardboard sleeve which continues the mix-and-match photo design. A leaflet in the box includes a brief essay by Robert Ross, author of Benny Hill: The Complete Companion, and a few "Fun Facts." Overall, the design is simple and stylish, if also a bit repetitive.
Upon placing one of the DVDs into a player, viewers are treated to an introductory compilation of Hill clips set to "Yakety Sax." After this brief intro, a static, silent menu (also employing the mismatched photo motif) lists the episode numbers included on the disc. Choosing a number leads to a screen listing that episode's chapter stops (conveniently located at the start of each sketch). Viewers can play the entire episode or jump to a specific sketch.
