Friday Funnies 9: World Smile Day

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When I signed off yesterday’s monthly review post I said that I would see you again on Sunday. I then went off to catch up on reading blogs that I follow and a couple of them mentioned that today is World Smile Day. This was a new one on me so I looked it up, and apparently this began in 1999 in Worcester MA, the home of Harvey Ball, the man who is said to have invented the smiley face image. He declared that the first Friday in October should be World Smile Day, and that we should all attempt to do an act of kindness and bring a smile to someone on that day, even if we couldn’t manage it for the rest of the year. There is, of course, a website for it, and you can find it here. It mentions that they have an official song but in all honesty I didn’t attempt to find it! But it gave me the idea that perhaps I should mark the ‘event’ with an additional post, and one of my Friday Funnies series seems a good idea. So I’m hoping to do my bit and bring a smile to your face with this selection.

First up is a brief collection of clips from the final series of Blackadder, one of the best British comedies of recent years. It is somehow frightening to think that it finished its run 35 years ago, but the underlying message of that last series, as shown in this clip, is still as valid as ever. But these are, of course, very funny:

I loved that show, and to this day regret that I missed the final episode: I was stuck on a train for an hour just outside Euston Station in London, coming back from a work meeting up north. With no mobile phones in those days I had no way of asking my wife to set the VCR. And there was no BBC iPlayer back then either! It has since been repeated a few times, though – the BBC is good at recycling.

Another classic BBC sitcom ran at around the same time through the 80s, and it also retains much of its relevance today: some have remarked that it wasn’t so much a comedy as a documentary, so accurate was it. This one seems especially apposite in current circumstance:

Sadly, some things never change.

I’ve shared a couple of posts of tv ads from the 50s, 60s and 70s, so how about a clip from a comedy show taking the piss out of a few:

I remember all of the ads those were parodying, but I think they are funny even if you don’t know them. The clip is from a show called Canned Carrott, which starred the comedian Jasper Carrott, and ran for a couple of series and some one-off specials in the early 90s.

Have you ever seen those videos that people do when they sign up to a dating agency? I’ve never done that, but this seems a good one:

As the video shows, that was from a show called Smack The Pony, which ran on Channel 4 from 1999 to 2003. And you saw Sally Phillips, who was one of its three main actors. This was one of the themes that they often featured.

Everyone loves their pets, don’t they. This next clip is probably bordering on the non-PC but I still think it is very funny, especially the scene with the car:

That is fairly typical of Hale And Pace, who had ten series of their show from 1988 to 1998. Some of their sketches were hysterically funny, and this one is pretty good. Unlike Smack The Pony they had several long running themes, one of which was the two Swedes, Sven and Benny, chatting in the sauna. Here is a little compilation:

I’ll leave you today with a final one which is also not very PC, but the beauty of it is that he knows it isn’t but goes with it anyway. This is the incomparable Billy Connolly:

I hope I’ve done my bit to make you smile today. Enjoy the rest of World Smile Day, and this time I definitely will be seeing you again on Sunday! 🤡

 

42 thoughts on “Friday Funnies 9: World Smile Day”

  1. Pingback: October | Take It Easy

  7. I enjoyed all those comedies and did manage to see the last episode of Black Adder and of course the poignant ending catches you the first time. The guide cat had me laughing out loud!

    The sun was shining today and people were smiling – well we were walking round one of my favourite NT properties enjoying the peaceful setting secluded from the outside world.

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    • I’m glad you enjoyed them, Janet. I had that same reaction when I got to see the final Blackadder episode – very moving and such a strong message. That guide cat is very good isn’t it 😊

      We had sun today too. Glad you managed to enjoy it.

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  13. You can never go wrong with Billy Connally. Love that guy. We watched all the Black Adder series, more than once. Excellent entertainment. And Yes Prime Minister could have been filmed today!

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