What is with the British and their insults to their greatest comedian, Benny Hill? It's bad enough that during his life, Benny's ITV series was canceled because it wasn't "politically correct," but twenty years later, they're denying him an honor for the same reason.
Great Britain's Royal Mail service has rejected a stamp honoring Benny Hill to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ITV.
The series ran on ITV for 20 years and featured classic and slapstick and burlesque sketches, blackouts, sight gags, song parody, pioneering use of "undercranking" sped-up footage and double entendre humour-- always suitable for the entire family and always hilarious. The series was packaged and ran for decades in the United States, where it became a major influence on the development of tabloid television, not to mention generations of comedians to come (its importance is covered in the book Tabloid Baby, which this month is celebrating its tenth anniversary).
Great Britain's Royal Mail service has rejected a stamp honoring Benny Hill to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ITV.
The series ran on ITV for 20 years and featured classic and slapstick and burlesque sketches, blackouts, sight gags, song parody, pioneering use of "undercranking" sped-up footage and double entendre humour-- always suitable for the entire family and always hilarious. The series was packaged and ran for decades in the United States, where it became a major influence on the development of tabloid television, not to mention generations of comedians to come (its importance is covered in the book Tabloid Baby, which this month is celebrating its tenth anniversary).
Despite its success, Thames Television dropped The Benny Hill Show in 1989, admittedly as part of the trend of political correctness that was prevalent at the time: some had accused the shows as being sexist and racist.
Twenty years later, the country that spewed out the likes of Sacha Baron Cohen and Russell Brand, continues to be imprisoned by political correctness. Even the Daily Telegraph, in reporting the stamp insult, says the Benny Hill Show "is best remembered for the closing credits in which Hill chased an assortment of scantily-clad women."
Sad.
8 comments:
Quite simply, Benny Hill was reactionary shite, and the decision to sack him was one of the best ever made.
Incredible and sad. I didn't even know 'till now that the Benny Hill Show was cancelled due to political reasons. I grew up watching the Benny Hill Show in the 80's and it was my first knowledge of Britain and British people. I remember the show as being a very nice and hilarious one, even my father watched it. It was a little blue at times, but such thing was harmless enough and nothing compared to the flagrant immorality that television broadcasts nowadays! There are today on TV lots of programmes diffusing negative values that influence people--mainly youth--in a negative manner, and nobody thinks about cancelling them. Strange thing, isn't it?
Regards from Spain.
Some people can only have a laugh in a cellar or graveyard, they find comedians like Benny Hill "shit". Sad, that some otherwise useless, frustrated spinsters had enough influence to cancel the Benny Hill Show. That shows how undemocratic Political Correctness truely is.
The B.H. Show was the one of the funniest and most harmless shows produced in the UK, who cares about what people like Sean or other political correct persons at Royal Mail think. Let them go laughing to the cellar that's where they belong to.
It was no accident, the timing of when this was brought up - to draw attention away from the 40th anniversary of the original airing of his first Thames show which was transmitted on 19 November 1969.
But it is obvious that there is a politically-motivated blacklist at work here, and that excluding Hill from the Royal Mail tribute was historical revisionism at its worst, comparable to the airbrushing of political dissidents in Stalin-era Soviet Russia.
I know of only two groups that would think Benny's humor is so atrocious that it deserves expunging his name and memory from the public consciousness. Let's just say it has to do with the particular political elites that have further tightened their tentacles into the power structure since the 1980's.
Yet a show like Monty Python whose "humor" has bordered onto the mean-spirited and strident, is considered "harmless" by the same group that hates Benny. The hypocritical double standard reeks.
Benny Hill has left an indelible mark of good humour on my life. I am now 66 and grew up with his shows.There are some people without humour that have said he was smutty, well, they should take a good look at the rubbish that passes for humour these days.At least Benny didnt use swear words to get his laughs. His undressing of his female actors was always in good taste and one can see much more of the female form at the beach these days. No one seems to object to G strings, so why Bennies girls. I recently showed my grandchildren one of his shows, and they thought he was the funniest man they had ever seen. The children are 13, and 11 years. "Out of the mouths of babes". Benny would have been proud. All you that would put him down I say DONT WATCH HIS SHOWS. We shall enjoy him. Bless you Benny for lighting up our lives with laughter.
Benny Hill was the man!!! My dad introduced me to his genius when I was a kid in the 1970's. He was Hill-arious!!! I can't believe he's not considered a national treasure. Shame on whom ever won't give him recognition. By today's standard the Benny Hill Show would be on a childrens network. Get with the times!
I fully match with whatever thing you have written.
I had never heard this, but consider it comedy blasphemy. So much of what is on TV is so obviously influenced by Benny Hill, his estate should be filing copyright or plagiarism actions. As a foreigner, I go out of my way to purchase any Benny Hill stamp and raise a glass to the Brits once again. This is just sad.
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