I think that Benny Hill might have had the
highest GPM (gags per minute) rate of any TV comic, with a quick lexical or
visual misunderstanding pretty much always on the boil. It makes for quite a
taxing watch. I felt like this had been going on for 75 minutes by the time
that it had finished!
The quick-fire style can be counterproductive. Not every joke is well set-up or executed, and I frequently find it hard to keep track of what's going on. In particular, the context is often weak. For example, there's a sequence with Benny Hill as a clown, but few of the gags have much pertinence to the circus setting. There's a feel of a constant flow of jokes, rather than distinct sections.
Speeded-up videotape always looks much odder than speeded-up film to my eyes.
The only part that feels distinct to its moment is the Hill's Angels routine, 'keep-fit' soft porn cavorting in an Olivia Newton-John's 'Physical' style, performed to the sounds of a hi-energy disco interpretation of Del Shannon's 'Runaway'. Everything else would have been done the same five years earlier.
The quick-fire style can be counterproductive. Not every joke is well set-up or executed, and I frequently find it hard to keep track of what's going on. In particular, the context is often weak. For example, there's a sequence with Benny Hill as a clown, but few of the gags have much pertinence to the circus setting. There's a feel of a constant flow of jokes, rather than distinct sections.
Speeded-up videotape always looks much odder than speeded-up film to my eyes.
The only part that feels distinct to its moment is the Hill's Angels routine, 'keep-fit' soft porn cavorting in an Olivia Newton-John's 'Physical' style, performed to the sounds of a hi-energy disco interpretation of Del Shannon's 'Runaway'. Everything else would have been done the same five years earlier.
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