I had been considering a Goon Show segment, but the tides of my own personal caprices changed my mind when I stumbled upon this little video: Eddie Monsoon, A Life from Britain's Channel 4's Comic Strip Presents in 1984.
It was produced as a reaction to Channel 4's decision to scrap an episode called Back To Normal With Eddie Monsoon, during the show's first series. The script, about a rude, obnoxious TV host, had been written in collaboration by the regular Comic Strip Presents cast (Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson, Jeniffer Saunders, and Dawn French) but was deemed to offensive even for the "edgy" Channel 4. So when a second series was commissioned, they did an episode about that same rude obnoxious TV host, played by Edmondson (Eddie Monsoon being a play on his name) having his career collapse, yet again, because of that cancellation.
I picked not so much because of the humour, which is a little dated and silly, but because this show from 1983-84 pretty much predicted the shameless "I'll Do Anything" style fame-whoring of today's "reality TV" stars decades before they became so dominant in pop culture.
It was produced as a reaction to Channel 4's decision to scrap an episode called Back To Normal With Eddie Monsoon, during the show's first series. The script, about a rude, obnoxious TV host, had been written in collaboration by the regular Comic Strip Presents cast (Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson, Jeniffer Saunders, and Dawn French) but was deemed to offensive even for the "edgy" Channel 4. So when a second series was commissioned, they did an episode about that same rude obnoxious TV host, played by Edmondson (Eddie Monsoon being a play on his name) having his career collapse, yet again, because of that cancellation.
I picked not so much because of the humour, which is a little dated and silly, but because this show from 1983-84 pretty much predicted the shameless "I'll Do Anything" style fame-whoring of today's "reality TV" stars decades before they became so dominant in pop culture.
*Trivia note, Jennifer Saunders, wife of Adrian Edmondson, used the Eddie Monsoon name again for Edwina Monsoon in her hit show Absolutely Fabulous.
Alan Partridge clearly owes a debt to Eddie Monsoon.
ReplyDeleteAnd incidentally, pretty much everything Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall have done together has been comedy gold. Check out "Bottom" on DVD -- it's like Waiting for Godot meets Beavis and Butthead.
Was that the show where they tried to steal a veteran's wooden leg in one episode?
ReplyDeleteI think that may be it... The preceding scene shows Rik trying to bullshit his way through a conversation with the vet in question, unsuccessfully trying to convince him that he, too, was in the Falklands.
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