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CS
Weekly Archive > DVD
of the Day > 10/13/06
A Cambridge Degree in Funny
by jason davis
A Bit of Fry and Laurie: Seasons One & Two
Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie
 
Following in the footsteps of Monty Python, writer/performers Stephen Fry (Wilde) and Hugh Laurie (yes, House, M.D. is actually a Brit) combined their university educations with a keen sense of the absurd to create a unique sketch comedy experience. Trading in deliciously complicated wordplay and rapier-sharp satire, A Bit of Fry and Laurie consists of recurring segments featuring trademarked characters like the perversely straightforward MI-5 supervisor "Control" (Fry) and his tediously banal subordinate Tony Murchison (Laurie) interspersed with "man on the street" interviews rendered hilarious by a complete lack of context. Officious critics (Fry and Laurie) are quick to offer over-analytical assessments of sketches before finding themselves analyzed by yet another meta-fictional layer of TV commentators as Fry and Laurie ruthlessly lampoon everyone from the ignorant to the overly educated in sketches that encompass every aspect of popular culture. The energetic first season gives way to a more considered second wherein the stars often address the audience at the top and bottom of shows, using the opportunity to make fun of themselves and the image they created in the first year. Season one includes as a bonus the pilot episode that launched the series two years before the first season was taped, while the second season set offers the BBC's film of the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue highlighting early work by Fry and Laurie, as well as notables like Emma Thompson.
A Bit of Fry and Laurie: Seasons One & Two
BBC Video
Not rated; 389 min.
$49.98
Buy it now
Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly, a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.
A Bit of Fry and Laurie: Seasons One and Two courtesy BBC Home Video
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