So...
what has been on my excuse of my mind of late?
1) Double the Fist is coming back. I honestly lack any ability to discuss this without "squee" (or, in my own enfeebled way "wheeze"). This show is brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Memorably described as The Goodies meet Jackass, this show has a 100% success rate of temporarily dispelling my depression. Not only are there nods to The Young Ones (flying sharks), Doctor Who (space time vortexes), Batman (Mephisto), Trilogy of Terror (cursed Aztec Doll), Die Hard (Alan Rickman) and Gallipoli, it... actually I completely forget where I was going with that. It's just brilliant. No one on this Earth, not even Phillip Martin, can deny that the Fist team would make Creed of the Kromon downright brilliant. This isn't the LONGEST wait I've had for a show, but it is up there. And by that I mean, "next month on ABC, new series!" type wait. The record still stands with Class Act at five years after the coming soon trailers.
2) I give up on Nyder. Alan Stevens. Whatever. Because he has blog, just like me!
http://www.nydersdyner.blogspot.com/
And, well, my final bastion of sympathy and respect melted away as I sped-read through his "recycling watch" on Doctor Who (by the way, my earlier claims he stopped this with Survival are false - he hates that too). Now, while I have no real understanding of why he has to go through every single frame of an episode and scream "rip off rip off rip off", I could forgive some like...
Setup of great big much-trumpeted villain/group of villains, who is/are then promptly killed off, but with a vague exit clause so they can bring him/them back when they start running out of ideas: Aliens of London/World War III; Dalek, The Parting of the Ways, Doomsday, The Age of Steel, The Sound of Drums.
Which is harsh, cynical, but basically fair. But stuff like this?
Pounding on a glass door mouthing words: 42, Partners in Crime.
Testing an ultimate weapon on a convenient stooge: The Daleks' Master Plan
Red Dwarf (character stuck on a single word; character gaining superintelligence at a cost).
Now, I have to step in here. Are we really supposed to damn Journey's End because of these? Are we thinking that RTD was deliberately stealing one scene from a 1965 that no longer exists? I'm surprised Nyder didn't claim it was a rip off of B7: Project Avalon where the exact same scene is used (why, yes, both were by Terry Nation). Donna's 'death scene' is somehow poorer because Alan "You Are All Ignorant Fucktards" Stevens thought it was a bit like Kryten trying to swear? That Mickey and a window was automatically a rip off?
This is just bullshit, especially given the godawful quality of Stevens' OWN work. By the by, even his essays are crumbling before my eyes...
3) The Dalek Master Plan is the pilot for Blake's 7. Um, no. It isn't. For a very simple reason. Terry Nation didn't write it. He scribbled out a lengthy synopsis and threw it from a taxi window at the BBC. Now, that might sound like I'm dissing him, but it's not. It was a fact. He was unable to write more because of prior commitments and all the documentation showed he gave as good as he got (for example, lots of detail about Katarina/Vicki's death scene). But Nyder suggests that the SSS of this story is a forerunner for the Terran Federation and Mavic Chen is some Servalan analogue. Odd considering all the evidence he gives was down to Dennis Spooner - he ignores completely the fact that Nation wanted the yellow peril villain to be called "Banhoong" for Christ's sake. It's also interesting that when John Peel and Terry Nation worked together on novelizing The Dalek Master Plan, they made Mavic Chen a stupid, insane, backstabbing megalomaniac who not only was incapable of thinking up the complicated Carnell strategy Nyder extrapolates from one line of dialogue, but also both turn Karlton into a weak-willed pratt. If you ever watch Counter-Plot, you'll understand why this Uncle Fester/Lady McBeth character is not one you'd target for rewriting. But that's that. Terry Nation intended him to be a useless stooge, nothing deeper.
Oh, and Nyder, you still have to explain how Planet of the Daleks fits into your "Terry Nation - Renaissance Man" pitch of Blake's 7...
4) Cooking is difficult when you're me. Around 2003 I took up the culinary arts (well, more than reheating things in the microwave). I became a master of the spaghetti bolognaise. And when the bolognaise (meat sauce, to put it incredibly crudely), is left over, it gets put on bread, cheese on top and melted. Pizza toast. A delicious and reasonably healthy snack. Anyway, after four days straight of pizza toast, my parents rightly asked for something else.
So, I got the remaining raw mince and tried to turn it into hamburger patties. However, they collapsed into a meat sauce. My attempts to pull it back together turned it into something near-as-bolognaise-as-dammit. So, I go into a kitchen trying to get rid of a meal, and end up tripling it!
5) A lost YOA episode. That's lost as in "never written a single damn word but thought about it a hell of a lot". Now, they always say, write about what you know. And when it comes to aimlessly wandering around a university for days on end and not talking to anyone, or doing much of anything at all, I'm yer man. So my idea was for the gang to visit university and make mischief. I decided to go for a kind of teen slasher flick with our heroes trying incredibly stupid schemes to find a killer they weren't even sure was actually there. Tragically, I read Psi-ence Fiction not too long ago and the big scene where they try to use an ouji board to divine the truth now seems so passe. And how can anything Nigel do beat Leela breaking the thumbs of everyone who assume she's an extra from Xena: Warrior Princess? Damn you, Chris Boucher. Damn you all the way to Gauda Prime.
6) After seeing the Evil Mime Goodies, it strikes me that my favorite 1970s comedy series actually scared me more than it made me laugh. As far back as Snooze, where Graeme and Bill are drugged and wander about the place sleepwalking and refuse to wake up, kinda disturbed me. Or the entirety of Cecily. Huge parts of Goodies and the Beanstalk creep me out now, like the siren song bit or the incredibly dark music that follows Bill... looking at some chickens. So, my top ten terrifying bits from the supposed comedy... in no particular order:
* Bill being chased by an alien on Knutter's Knoll as people are kidnapped, only for Tim to lock the door and leave him trapped outside* When the Goodies are in the stomach of the T-Rex and note that the skeleton in front of them is quite similar to the kinky transvestite who vanished potholing years ago (closely rivaled with the dinosaur bursting out of the ground and killing everyone)
* The Clown Virus
* In Pollution, where the beach is so poisonous everyone has to wear gasmasks and the dog melts in the water
* The Giant Rats smashing into the office
* The bit where they all notice how quiet the countryside is... and then something that isn't a cow screams
* The Baddies - especially when Graeme and Bill turn into robots and strangle Tim to death at the end
* 2001 and a bit where they destroy the whole Earth over a game of cricket
* The End - in particular where the TV switches off and the telephone melts, trapping them
* The western ep where they all kill each other with tomato sauce guns. The bit where a "blood"-drenched Tim falls over dead with a "I donwanna die!" scream is right up there when Vila gets shot in the back
But worst of all is when Bill gets put in charge of a pornography, bondage S&M reality TV series that kills people. The way he keeps screaming, "I LIKE VIOLENCE!" and then machine gunning his cast dead. "THEY love it! I LOVE IT!" and dancing around the place as the bodies stop twitching. "Exploding Vicars: he has twenty minutes to convert ten athiests or BOOM! HAHAHAHAH!"
Also worth noting is the eps that reveal they keep girlfriends in cupboards and take them out as and when necessary. Of course, they only use them to play chess with. Anything else would be creepy.
7) In Maid Marion and her Merry Men, there's a bit where King John - furious the peasants have no idea who he is - hits upon the idea of getting famous for inventing something. Thus, he orders the Sherrif of Nottingham to come up with an idea. The first idea is a parachute, which doesn't work out. But the second is, "I shall invent the electronic foot, my lord!" which King J turns down because inventions have to be FOR something.
But now you can buy electronic feet for disabled and legless Olympians. Wow, another eerily accurate prediction from the people who took the piss out of "Jeffrey the Archer" twice a week for four years.
8) Distantly returning to my spoof of The Chronic Rift, I was listening to the last episode today and I was gobsmacked at how rubbish the ending was. Even though I knew roughly what was going to happen thanks to the Handbook. Basically, the Doctor flies the TARDIS into a time rift which is threatening every universe in existence. There he finds millions of other TARDISes there and suddenly he gets a collect call from the Master who reveals he is a nice, parallel-Master and the Doctor must heroically sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Looking back, it's borderline agony at how unadventerous the story is - they visit every single universe and there's no monsters, old companions, nothing. Just a bunch of boring characters who steal the limelight from the outgoing Doctor (who appears for fourteen seconds in part two). But that scene with the Master was even worse than I was braced for...
Master: Ah, Doctor, no matter what reality, you're still an incompetent fool!
Doctor: Piss off, I'm busy!
Master: I am the Master!
Doctor: I know, I'm busy!
Master: No, I am from another universe.
Doctor: I DON'T CARE! I'M BUSY!
Master: I'm a goodie!
Doctor: A goodie. Called the Master.
Master: Yes. Hohoho. And I fight the evil known as the Doctor.
Doctor: That would be the same incompetent fool from your universe.
Master: Well. If you put it that way...
Doctor: Why are you called the Master if you're so good anyway?
Master: Oh, look! Exploding TARDISes!
Doctor: I want an answer, asshole!
Master: There is no time. You must tell all the other Doctors to leave the rift.
Doctor: Why me?
Master: Because all the rest are TV soundbites. Look!
Doctors: Need more power to defeat Zarbi! Agh, falling into the land of fiction! Reverse the polarity! Oh, god, let us blow up the Cybermen with a Skystriker! I know what I'm doing, Adric! DOES NOTHING PLEASE YOU, PERI?!? This Hand of Omega plan really needs a rethink! By midnight tonight this planet will be pulled inside out!
Doctor: What?! That last one just doesn't make any sense!
Master: I know. Irritating huh. Now send the message.
Doctor: What message?
Master: I dunno. Any message.
Doctor: I'm still not buying you're a good guy who happens to dress in black and steal Trakenite bodies and call yourself the Master you know.
Master: Well, come and visit my universe then.
Doctor: I might do that!
Master: SHIT! RUN AWAY!
Doctor: Ah, it's all fixed. I've saved the entire universe in a single two-hander scene. Am I brilliant or what? Egads, one of Geiger's Xenomorphs is in the control room! Stupid of me not to notice. Bad alien! Down boy!
Bad! ARRGGHHH!
9) How to Tell You're Taking Daleks A Tad Too Seriously:
Sadly my copy lacks the next page which includes -
If you drop a Dalek from low orbit, it will land the right way up
Krakatoa, the sinking of the Titanic and the 1939 stock market crash were all triggered by the Daleks for a laugh
Daleks are so damn bastard hard they're not afraid to take ANYONE outside
A Dalek could pleasure every woman on Earth for a week
A Dalek's mum is bigger than your mum
Suddenly a story revealing the Daleks used pigs to build the Empire State Building to pick up solar flare energy to rewrite the DNA of the Hooverville Community suddenly seems reasonable, doesn't it?
10) How to Tell You're Not Taking Daleks Seriously Enough
11) And This Is When It Just Gets Silly.
And that, boys and girls, is why you do NOT mess with the Nation Estate...
7 comments:
Pizza toast. A delicious and reasonably healthy snack.
Yeah, I know. Have it all the time myself. (Except I have the cheese under)
So, I got the remaining raw mince and tried to turn it into hamburger patties.
You used flour, right?
My dad makes rissoles as hamburger patties by mixing the mince in a bowl with flour, onion, and an egg, then separating into a pattie-sized chunk, coating both sides in flour and putting it in the frying pan. One side till brown (or grey-ish brown, whatever colour they turn I'm not expert) flip them, then put barbecue sauce on the top before a slice of cheese. They're delicious. And if they go wrong they shouldn't taste like bolognaisse at least.
You don't have to be so extravagant, but I'm pretty sure flour is the key to it holding together and sticking to the pan properly.
* When the Goodies are in the stomach of the T-Rex and note that the skeleton in front of them is quite similar to the kinky transvestite who vanished potholing years ago (closely rivaled with the dinosaur bursting out of the ground and killing everyone)
Funny, I never found anything in the T-Rex episode scary. Ooh... maybe the bit when it appeared to be biting Bill, or when he was trapped inside. Wait... actually the bit when they're first trapped in there. But, come on, that episode is piss-funny. One of my faves.
* The Clown Virus
I must admit, I was anxious for them to find a cure..
* The Giant Rats smashing into the office
They make Talons look pretty convincing..
* The Baddies - especially when Graeme and Bill turn into robots and strangle Tim to death at the end
Aww, man, I've never seen that one..
* 2001 and a bit where they destroy the whole Earth over a game of cricket
No, no, no - the MCC survive it! It's just everyone else dies.
* The western ep where they all kill each other with tomato sauce guns. The bit where a "blood"-drenched Tim falls over dead with a "I donwanna die!" scream is right up there when Vila gets shot in the back
Again, never found that scary nor traumatising - and I think that has to be the best episode they ever did.
They died an awful lot in their stories, didn't they?
Also worth noting is the eps that reveal they keep girlfriends in cupboards and take them out as and when necessary. Of course, they only use them to play chess with. Anything else would be creepy.
Yeah.. lost the audience, that bit...
Doctor: I'm still not buying you're a good guy who happens to dress in black and steal Trakenite bodies and call yourself the Master you know.
Master: Well, come and visit my universe then.
Doctor: I might do that!
Master: SHIT! RUN AWAY!
LMAO.
How to Tell You're Taking Daleks A Tad Too Seriously:
..what??? Two-and-a-half pounds? So how come the Doctor doesn't just pick them up and throw them at walls really hard to defeat them?
...what??? Two thousand miles and hour? Two THOUSAND miles an hour? But we only ever see them moving significantly slower than walking speed?
..WHAT?? Power all of London. ALL of London. No single weapon that size could ever use that much power. And generating that much power would mutate the Dalek's cells even further. Hell, I'd be getting all of the Doctor and his male companions checked for testicular cancer after reading that..
..WHAT??? Oh, so they are made to travel at two thousand miles an hour and with a special testicular-warping shield on at all times in their 9 billion giga volt systems but haven't been upgraded to see RED. Oddly, seeing THROUGH red objects. Hey, just like a dog only sees in black-and-white, so see through everything that isn't grey!
HOW CAN DALEKANIUM BE WORTH A HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS IF THERE'S NO MARKET???
THE YETI ARE JUST YETI YOU TWATS!!!
Oh, and now they're fucking Jekyll and Hyde. What a load of wank.
This was written by the father of the guy who invented all those Chuck Norris jokes, surely? I'm expecting any moment to read "Daleks eat rocks and shit lightning bolts. The Daleks let the dogs out and make the world taste good. Another name for 'Daleks' is 'Jesus'. "
Yeah, I know. Have it all the time myself. (Except I have the cheese under)
I've never tried that. I always guess I thought trapping the meat under the cheese aided structural integrity.
You used flour, right?
Heh... eventually. I put in some herbs, egg, worchester sauce, made patties and tried to cook them. Then I added flour and the oil I was cooking turned into a kind of brown sauce...
My dad makes rissoles as hamburger patties by mixing the mince in a bowl with flour, onion, and an egg, then separating into a pattie-sized chunk, coating both sides in flour and putting it in the frying pan. One side till brown (or grey-ish brown, whatever colour they turn I'm not expert) flip them, then put barbecue sauce on the top before a slice of cheese. They're delicious. And if they go wrong they shouldn't taste like bolognaisse at least.
I can honestly saying this entire course of action flashed through my mind after I finished cooking.
Funny, I never found anything in the T-Rex episode scary. Ooh... maybe the bit when it appeared to be biting Bill, or when he was trapped inside. Wait... actually the bit when they're first trapped in there. But, come on, that episode is piss-funny. One of my faves.
Oh yeah. I'm not saying I hated the episode or anything, just that moment - maybe it's the complete silence as they think, not even music - that creeps me out. But it's balanced by the brilliance, like the football scene. I have no idea who Bill's team are, but I pissed myself at Tim's reaction:
"Pelly. Pelly to Yusapio. Yusapio to Haley Mills..."
"HALEEEE MILLLLLLLLLLLLLSSSSS??!?!?!"
I must admit, I was anxious for them to find a cure..
It was the bit where they stopped being able to control their actions and became clown zombies...
They make Talons look pretty convincing..
It's all down to the reactions. They look genuinely scared. Which frankly should earn them all OBEs and acting awards.
Aww, man, I've never seen that one..
Crap. It exists somewhere. It's a brilliant ending though...
Tim, Bill and Graeme are at the office, chatting normally. Pat Troughton in a huge fury cape and long wig rushes in screaming, "I'm nice! I'M REALLY NICE!" and runs out again (it makes sense).
Tim says to the others, "We better get after him," and suddenly the others start talking like Voc robots and start to strangle him. Crash zoom on Tim's screaming mouth.
No, no, no - the MCC survive it! It's just everyone else dies.
Oh. The version I have has Greame/Bill hit the bomb, it explodes, the end...
Again, never found that scary nor traumatising - and I think that has to be the best episode they ever did.
Oh yeah. The mule. The card game with toast. The songs. Pen and Ink, Boom Town! Scownes...
They died an awful lot in their stories, didn't they?
Yeah, but often they got blown up or left in a perilous situation. There were only a couple when they were very definitely dead, like the one about Animal Rights and they all get shot dressed as rabits...
Yeah.. lost the audience, that bit...
I loved it when one of them tells the Goodies about feminism, "You're a loony!" and storms out. Coz locking her in a cupboard was sane. Feminism is stupid...
LMAO.
It's what happens!
..what??? Two-and-a-half pounds? So how come the Doctor doesn't just pick them up and throw them at walls really hard to defeat them?
Because Dalekanium is expensive?!
...what??? Two thousand miles and hour? Two THOUSAND miles an hour? But we only ever see them moving significantly slower than walking speed?
Maybe they need longer corridors to build up speed and slow down?
I just love the idea of Daleks smashing into post boxes at 2000mph...
..WHAT?? Power all of London. ALL of London. No single weapon that size could ever use that much power. And generating that much power would mutate the Dalek's cells even further. Hell, I'd be getting all of the Doctor and his male companions checked for testicular cancer after reading that..
"Shoot me in the face, not the bollocks, I beg thee!"
(I now think the Doctor at the end of The Stolen Earth is going, "On the bright side, now I'm sterile so I can shag Rose with impunity...")
..WHAT??? Oh, so they are made to travel at two thousand miles an hour and with a special testicular-warping shield on at all times in their 9 billion giga volt systems but haven't been upgraded to see RED. Oddly, seeing THROUGH red objects. Hey, just like a dog only sees in black-and-white, so see through everything that isn't grey!
Does that mean the Supreme Dalek is just a disembodied voice to its subjects? A stealth Dalek?
HOW CAN DALEKANIUM BE WORTH A HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS IF THERE'S NO MARKET???
No idea.
THE YETI ARE JUST YETI YOU TWATS!!!
I have never seen any kind of Dalek mutant that in any way could be mistaken for an ape.
Oh, and now they're fucking Jekyll and Hyde. What a load of wank.
Yeah, sorry, I had to share it.
This was written by the father of the guy who invented all those Chuck Norris jokes, surely? I'm expecting any moment to read "Daleks eat rocks and shit lightning bolts. The Daleks let the dogs out and make the world taste good. Another name for 'Daleks' is 'Jesus'."
Well...
Actually it's by David Whittaker. But he was kind of brain damaged when it came to Daleks. And mercury. And static...
I've never tried that. I always guess I thought trapping the meat under the cheese aided structural integrity.
As sandwich artists go I'm a 'cowboy'.
eventually. I put in some herbs, egg, worchester sauce, made patties and tried to cook them. Then I added flour and the oil I was cooking turned into a kind of brown sauce...
Erm, flour BEFORE they go in the pan.
I can honestly saying this entire course of action flashed through my mind after I finished cooking.
Ah, well, that's how we learn..
It was the bit where they stopped being able to control their actions and became clown zombies...
Oh, yeah... Bill can't stop himself from dumping whitewash into Tim's trousers... that is sort of creepy..
Oh. The version I have has Greame/Bill hit the bomb, it explodes, the end...
Ah. The white flash from the bomb goes on for a few seconds, but then after that the smoke clears and we see all the old boys walking through an apocalyptic landscape singing "We are the lads of the MCC, the MCC, the MCC!"
I just love the idea of Daleks smashing into post boxes at 2000mph...
Yeah, and bouncing into orbit because they only weight two-and-a-half pounds..
(I now think the Doctor at the end of The Stolen Earth is going, "On the bright side, now I'm sterile so I can shag Rose with impunity...")
Lol. Course, if figures about electrical over-exposure are accurate Rose was probably barren by then as well. In fact, with that sort of power Daleks would be massively magnetic, interfering with their own instruments and severely dangerous to birdlife..
Does that mean the Supreme Dalek is just a disembodied voice to its subjects?
Yeah, I had wondered about that..
I have never seen any kind of Dalek mutant that in any way could be mistaken for an ape.
If it was the abominable snowjellyfish I might buy it..
Actually it's by David Whittaker. But he was kind of brain damaged when it came to Daleks. And mercury. And static...
Ah. He's also the guy who thought that the TARDIS warning system would hypnotise teenagers in trying to stab people with scissors and make random clocks melt, is he not? If so, it explains quite a bit.
As sandwich artists go I'm a 'cowboy'.
Well, I'm gonna HAVE to try that now...
Ah. The white flash from the bomb goes on for a few seconds, but then after that the smoke clears and we see all the old boys walking through an apocalyptic landscape singing "We are the lads of the MCC, the MCC, the MCC!"
Now, that's a good ending. I thought everyone died like U-Friend UFO...
Yeah, and bouncing into orbit because they only weight two-and-a-half pounds..
Why didn't Jack try to juggle them for crying out loud?
In fact, with that sort of power Daleks would be massively magnetic, interfering with their own instruments and severely dangerous to birdlife..
And the story where the Daleks reveal their hatred for birds was written by... David Whittaker.
Yeah, I had wondered about that..
Maybe when it arrived in the vault, it was thinking, "Hahah! I am INVISIBLE! I CAN KILL THEM ALL! HAHAHAH!" and then Jack blows his head off.
If it was the abominable snowjellyfish I might buy it..
Did you that the stingray that killed Steve Irwin was actually a Dalek mutant out of its casing?!
Ah. He's also the guy who thought that the TARDIS warning system would hypnotise teenagers in trying to stab people with scissors and make random clocks melt, is he not? If so, it explains quite a bit.
Charles Daniels summed it up best:
DOCTOR: My dear Susan even though you are from a highly advanced civilization and know hyperdimensional science and temporal engineering come here so I can explain the inner workings of this flashlight while you stand about looking amazed and in awe.
Why didn't Jack try to juggle them for crying out loud?
...man, that would be awesome. I demand the DVD extra!
And the story where the Daleks reveal their hatred for birds was written by... David Whittaker.
... was there a throw-away line about that in Evil of the Daleks.
Maybe when it arrived in the vault, it was thinking, "Hahah! I am INVISIBLE! I CAN KILL THEM ALL! HAHAHAH!" and then Jack blows his head off.
Lolz.
Charles Daniels summed it up best:
He always does, doesn't he?
My jaw was hanging open when I watched that scene. I imagine a stoned Whitaker having his mind blown as somebody explains the idea of a lightswitch explained to him. Anyone, ANYONE, who says that Who never talked down to children has to watch that scene.
...man, that would be awesome. I demand the DVD extra!
I might draw it when I get my strength back.
... was there a throw-away line about that in Evil of the Daleks.
Well, one of them finds Victoria feeding her breakfast to a pigeon, shoots the pigeon and screams, "YOU WILL NOT FEED THE FLYING PESTS OUTSIDE!!!"
Lolz.
I just love the idea of Red Daleks gliding around the place, thinking they are completely invisible...
He always does, doesn't he?
The curse of a genius.
My jaw was hanging open when I watched that scene. I imagine a stoned Whitaker having his mind blown as somebody explains the idea of a lightswitch explained to him.
I still boggle that he had to explain it to Susan rather than, say, Ian. Of course, I find it ridiculous he had to explain it at all and, am I the only one who goes:
"OK, your time machine runs on springs. That jam. But there isn't some "button jammed" alarm that switches on in these emergencies?"
Anyone, ANYONE, who says that Who never talked down to children has to watch that scene.
You know that scene goes for about twenty minutes?
You are quite right that The Goodies are scary at times. In particular, I remember that the ending of "Baddies" disturbed me as a child (although "strangle to death" is not necessarily what happens), and I don't like any "all die at the end" endings (even though many of those episodes have great moments). Those endings are actually not that many, and mostly appear in the later seasons (a few in season 5, then more frequent in 6 to 8). I can add that I don't like the suicidal themes in "Change of life" and "Cunning Stunts".
But we should remember that the series is closely related to Monty Python, who had very, very much more morbid jokes. When The Goodies get hurt in "Raving Loony Contest", MP have all participants commiting suicide in "Upper-Class Twit Of The Year". They had the same background, similar view on humor and surely looked a lot of each other's shows. Even back then, I found The Goodies to be the "less brutal" branch of MP (without knowing their common background).
In many cases, the final disaster is not shown, you don't know how bad it will be, so you can decide for yourself. We don't know if the tyrannosaurus in "Stone Age" hurts anyone, only that it knocks down the office. We don't know if the rats in "Kitten Kong" is a disaster or not. And the tomato duel is so much a fantasy that we don't have any reason to take it seriously.
Also, fear, agony and death are very good themes in humor. If you don't dare go near them, you also never get that level of humor. That's why MP is great, and The Goodies too. If you compare Goodies to kid's programs, they are quite daring, but compared to MP, they are "the other branch", which makes full 30-minute stories rather than sketches. They should be acknowledges as that, the forgotten branch of the Monty Python tree.
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