American Reacts A Bit of Fry & Laurie Concerning Language REACTION

[@thomassbowmann]

Just here to say that Stephen Fry is now Sir Stephen Fry! And has been honoured with a knighthood in the new years honours!

[@BradleyTemperley]

And not before bloody time!

[@joelippl3]

I can't decide whether I think Fry is reciting a script from memory, or improvising it as he goes along, or which would impress me more if I knew.

[@jamesdignanmusic2765]

That first part is one of my all-time favourite sketches. The amazing thing about it is that from a lingustics point of view it makes perfect sense, but it's presented in such a way as to be hilarious.

[@dogbot555]

As a resident of Dorset born and bred I would have to say. "Not especially"🤣

[@chayeso1319]

don't you have lovely cows and cheese?

[@danpearce4547]

You must be from Bournemouth.

[@thomaslutro5560]

I'd suggest Robert Fripp once and for all made Dorset guitar country. 🙂

[@danpearce4547]

@@thomaslutro5560 Think Andy Summers was from Bournemouth as well.

[@paulmahoney594]

It’s got Boscombe.

[@jimdaw65]

Why this is funny is that at the time there really were shows like this on the telly in which two people would just talk about a subject and give the audience credit for a bit of intelligence; it's parodying that. Yes, just talking ... not baking cakes or dancing and being voted off one by one, just talking.

[@Kraakesolv]

Had those in Norway too, it really is on point

[@Roronoa2zoro]

And clearly the people yearned for that sort of content because podcasts are incredibly popular. Just listening to interesting people talk about interesting topics is evergreen entertainment.

[@jimdaw65]

@@Roronoa2zoro A very good point. The trouble is that not everyone at work watched a podcast the day before, and so you can't talk about it with them. When there were only 3 channels and no internet the question "Did you see that thing on the telly last night?" had a chance of setting off some sort of discussion.

[@Roronoa2zoro]

@@jimdaw65 That's true, but as you alluded to, that kind of went away by the time everyone had 500 tv channels anyway.

[@philrob1978]

It would be easy to dismiss this as an ex-University English MA posho discussion at the exclusion of everyone else, but it's clearly taking the piss out of that. Pricking the pomposity of it all. Look, I didn't go to University, I left school at 16 and moved straight into an apprenticeship to forge the career I still have to this day at the age of 46 - but I understood this. And it's funny. (Which, of course, is always subjective). Also KB, I too have a few issues with short term memory, but that is not a measure of intelligence. You are clearly a smart guy with a curious nature about the world and its history that will always serve you well. Never change, my man.

[@stewartmackay]

Pickling, or prickling? Those are two different charges, it seems.

[@philrob1978]

@@stewartmackay You've misread. Dunno where you got pickling from. Pricking, as in popping a balloon. Exploding it for the nonsense it is, thus nullifying it. That sort of Pricking. Oh, unless you are continuing the sketch, in which case - bravo, otherwise. well original comment stands (?) I do believe the great poet William Smuthers once wrote about such, and there was a great prickling going on. His ideas would make apples cry, which disavowed all around him. He hated apples forever more, but because horrible knickers that surrounded his poor writhing body he would need nothing more than a frenetic apparition around him that would, and I think you may agree, completely spooked him. Via many authoritarians , thrustly, and wherefore, mighty, his backside was destroyed yet equally validated. He was whole. And so was his...

[@GeraldH-ln4dv]

Stephen Fry displayed his very deep English education unintentionally once on an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway. One of the improv skits involved "talking like a Roman" and instead of talking about things Roman in English, Fry started it right off by asking a question of his teammate in Latin. Funny and erudite.

[@barry8ie]

Romanes eunt domus!!!

[@GeraldH-ln4dv]

@@barry8ie No, no. It's Romani ite domum.

[@andymerrett]

The irony of not having seen Fry looking so young is that A Bit of Fry and Laurie didn't air until most of the Blackadder series had aired. Except in Blackadder Fry often looked older because he was made up with beards and moustaches and so on. :)

[@alpine_newt]

I think the main cast of Blackadder, with the exeption of Tony Robinson, were all still under 30 while filming Blackadder Goes Fourth.

[@daniellowenna3342]

Not quite. Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry and Tim McInnerny were over 30 whilst filming. Rowan was the oldest of the three.

[@R3ED3R]

Wasn't Laurie, Fry's room mate in University or something? sure i heard that somewhere?

[@kernowchris]

You would certainly enjoy your fellow American Rich Hall. He's the funniest cleverest most watchable American on TV and his Documentaries (mostly about your beloved US of A) are all excellent.

[@JackNap1er14]

Oh the philosophy, I guess it's like something me & my mother used to say about things, like colours, she would point at the sofa and ask "is that sofa red?" when I agreed she would then go on to say "I say it's red, you say it's red, but how do we know that you are seeing the same colour I am seeing?"

[@anitahargreaves9526]

Mum in her 90s, bought me a new kindle. 🇬🇧🎄😅

[@Soggyoldsock]

Could you imagine if this wasn't a skit, but Hugh just casually recording an everyday conversation with Fry

[@lilymarinovic1644]

Probably is knowing (now).Sir Stephen 😂 And he and Hugh did share a house so who knows?

[@SimonRobertElder]

The weird thing is we used to have odd little discussion shows like this on British T, often late in the evening just before broadcasts for the day ended.

[@pauljohnson1664]

Do you remember the time Oliver Reed was inebriated and on a late-night talk show with a bunch of feminists and academics? That was the funniest thing that was ever on TV. Bet it’s on KZbin somewhere.

[@gojiramonkey2112]

​@pauljohnson1664 yep, it was magnificent. Ollie ran rings around them anyway, but when he returned from having a piss and climbed over the sofa and kissed that feminist, I frakking died laughing. I believe the show was called After Dark and to this day, Oliie is my hero and I'm so glad I never used to go to bed before the wee hours!!

[@Varksterable]

Good reaction. It is so enjoyable to see someone not from the UK appreciating this humour. Hugh Laurie's role in this is harder than it seems. Coordinating his movements with Fry is a bit impressive. But just being the straight man and not totally cracking up into laughter is surely harder? I'd love to see the outtakes. But yes; this is Stephen in his prime. Which happily lasted for decades for both of them.

[@ivarvanderheijden]

Correctly correctington... Oh, this is pure genius, thank you for reacting. 😂

[@Cleow33]

A lifetime ago I read Theoretical Linguistics at university. I can’t tell you how many of these completely unfathomable conversations I was party to.

[@anitahargreaves9526]

My Dorset Uncle went away his favourite dog.died, they didn't know how to tell him? The budgie said as he went through the door, Tinas dead! 👵🙏😂🇬🇧🎄

[@informedchoice2249]

It's a beautiful composition and it's underpinned by a really serious and quite dark concept but also really interesting one about the nature of language and the nature of the British language in itself. It's really interesting as I was being quite funny.

[@PHILD0]

Listen to me lovelet, I can't exaggerate enough how much this sketch inspired in me a love for what can be done with the English language.

[@kenpudsey6435]

'A Bit of Fry +Laurie' was a brilliant comedy show

[@MarkMcLT]

This is one of my favorite F&L bits, along with Berwhale the Destroyer. :)

[@chayeso1319]

that was beautiful by Stephen Fry what a beauty

[@uniauther13]

He's the spitting image of Michael Jackson.

[@barryfeatherstone1616]

Berwhale the Destroyer? Who knew!!?

[@yzolakitchi]

Just wonderful whimsy! You MUST check out The Hedge Sketch they performed live. "Secret Policeman's Ball: Stephen Fry introduces his favourite clip 'The Hedge' with Hugh Laurie"

[@jamesrowe3606]

America just elected a demogogue who uses nothing but inflammatory rhetoric, so the short answer is YES.

[@eadweard.]

I think these are more your own ideological preoccupations than anything else.

[@jamesrowe3606]

@eadweard. Do you? Despite not knowing a single thing about me? Well thanks for your input anyway.

[@jamesrowe3606]

@@medievalladybird394 Some people believe it's OK to make smart-arse comments to strangers, although they never do it in person for some reason. 😏 Frohes neues Jahr!

[@eadweard.]

@@jamesrowe3606 Does such a assessment really require knowing much about you personally?

[@jamesrowe3606]

@eadweard. Go and assess someone who cares.

[@AgentOccam]

Hope you had a great Christmas as well, Boomer. Really enjoying your videos. Cheers.

[@saltech3444]

3:12 Many years ago I heard a British radio show of Fatherland by Robert Harris. At the end, a very posh British actor playing a Propaganda announcer said that "now the Fuehrer is approaching the stage...." Then he started shrieking "Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!" It just sounded totally ludicrous in a posh British accent. I was definitely reminded of that when I saw this sketch years later. I wonder if the British have been shielded from all manner of political and religious fashions simply because their accents won't allow them to join in properly. This sketch was also my first ever exposure to Fry and Laurie, when two of the more nerdy students at my school did it live on stage. I had no idea what the fuck was going on.

[@ib9rt]

Dorset is associated with cream teas, which is curious, since cream teas were mentioned later in the monologue.

[@paddyl0]

My wife loves this show, obsessed. She showed me a few episodes and I’ll be honest I didn’t really think much of it but it grew on me after a while

[@DadgeCity]

Can I marry your wife?

[@mkrmkr3805]

In my view Fry was taking the piss out of himself perhaps?

[@jamesmatthews291]

I can recommend 'Rutland Weekend Television - Gibberish'. Truly insane 😅

[@Hogsfoot44]

Have you seen any episodes of the British sitcom Bottom, with Rik Mayall? I would strongly recommend it. Absolute genius.

[@seijika46]

I always loved their 'Bishop and the Warlord' sketches - particularly the US court one.

[@garethjamesplunkett]

George Carlin was genius mate. He put pictures into your mind that related to hidden thoughts and opinions but created a movie in sound. Legend

[@thadtuiol1717]

Greatest stand up comic of all time. Really wish he was still with us.

[@col4022]

Love George Carling, but I never thought his vocabulary was particularly intricate or sophisticated.

[@samgeller1967]

Stephen Fry is like a professor of words

[@BigAlCapwn]

A Bit of Fry & Laurie - Michael Jackson

[@bertalach]

I have the most cutting edge way to keep all my books in one place it’s called a “shelf” I have ten of them!

[@Payne2view]

I can only imagine there was an eccentric English Literature Professor in a University Mr Fry attended.

[@lilymarinovic1644]

Or a similarly zany talking head on TV at the time.

[@livb6945]

Yay!! Was gonna suggest this very one 😁😁😁

[@nathanakers45]

I think you'd love their police station sketch ("Derek Nipple"). Especially after watching this it shows how varied (but hilarious) their humor could be. The whole show is just brilliant.

[@jondavies2583]

Stephen Fry , now Sir Stephen - nobody understands any of this , Dorset is completely random . A brilliant take off of the late night ‘educational’ programming put on the BBC late night in the 70s. Thank God for the Open University.

[@ChloeAndBetty]

I live in Dorset a county on the South coast of England with about 800k people, I don't think that it is particularly associated with piano compositions.

[@langermain]

So you've *really* never heard the fourth piano concerto, in A major, of Wurzel Giles?

[@ChloeAndBetty]

@@langermain Yes it is a masterpiece but sadly it is a Somerset classic. 🤣🤣🤣

[@thescrewfly]

@@ChloeAndBetty I believe it was actually by Ernie Giles. From Barrow Gurney if I recall correctly.

[@danielking6950]

Hale and pace.you have to look 😂

[@matthewbutson1061]

Hugh Laurie had some solo sketches on ABOFAL: one about his ex girlfriends and another about his previous jobs and they are both hilarious

[@suzanking5625]

Boomer, you would really enjoy reviewing Fry and Laurie in the British television show: Jeeves and Wooster. Three seasons of the Wodehouse books . Devilishly clever !!!

[@Paul_1971]

This one F&L sketch that I always remember, so funny.

[@alisonlinnell8943]

Language definitely shapes outlooks. Just consider those occasions in any language where a concept expressed in a single word requires an entire sentence and/or explanation in another language.

[@lilymarinovic1644]

Or quite simply can't be precisely defined at all in another language - there are some words and phrases in other tongues that quite literally don't have a precise equivalent in English and the sense of which can only approximately be conveyed in our language.

[@HeeBeeGeeBee392]

Ah, young mister Fry is, I believe, alluding to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - aka linguistic relativity - the notion that a language has a big influence on the speaker's experience and comprehension of the world.

[@langermain]

I would rather tend to say that one's comprehension of the world is what develops the vulva of the development of one's language.

[@rlawrence9838]

I think people are forgetting that if not many people are using a kindles its because people are reading on tablets which is the exact same experience. I read on a tablet occasionally though I prefer a real book....but people were surprised someone could read on a phone very easily I think that's why it became a bit of a discussion.

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

Oh dear, how positively primordial you make me feel if Kindle is viewed as ancient. I still read from things once called books. 👴🤔

[@enchantededition6879]

Fry is playing the brains behind Laurie. Your right though Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson are all up there on the smartOmeter hence why Slack Bladder was so brilliant. Comedy geniuses all of them.

[@rlawrence9838]

The mentioning of Dorset is completely random and means literally nothing.

[@chrishall7915]

0:52 - If you do a lot of reading then a Kindle is much better for your eyes

[@timranachan3224]

Yeah it's amazing how Hitler's rhetoric sounds so ridiculous in English. Right. Who's going to tell Trump.

[@stewartmackay]

Trump is too stupid to understand that.

[@vinsgraphics]

lol. Thinking Trump is Hitler is like thinking Uranus is a body part.

[@timranachan3224]

@vinsgraphics I simply said his rhetoric is ridiculous. As was Hitler's. And Mussolini's. All wannabe dictators are ridiculous and deserving of our contempt.

[@thadtuiol1717]

@@timranachan3224 Does that also apply to the rants of Che Guevara, Castro, Stalin and Mao?

[@timranachan3224]

@thadtuiol1717 Not being privy to these people's outpourings can't really comment however I don't believe Guevara was a dictator? And I have neither Mandarin nor Cantonese so haven't heard Mao. Castro, well again I've not listened to him. Stalin was an animal. Hope that satisfies.

[@andywhitfield79]

Stephen Fry is a very intelligent man, as is Rown Atkinson as you say. Have you ever done a reaction of "THE YOUNG ONES" ? You will find stephen Fry in the Universiuty challenge one which goes back to the early 80's

[@davidedwards504]

We made up a song about him only having one ball so we wouldn't have let him become our dictator.

[@eadweard.]

I think the song only came about because we were at war with him, didn't it?

[@Steve.M]

Armstrong and Miller (the WWII pilots, etc.) do a fine sketch about how the song came to be written.

[@johnloony68]

11:27 Kate Adie was a journalist who often reported from war zones

[@WIDGI]

A great lady, Kate Adie

[@danpearce4547]

05:55 No, Dorset is famous for being the home of Legends!

[@leedsalex]

Ever thought about reacting to all the short Wallace & Gromit films?

[@enchantededition6879]

This where Ricky Gervais got the idea from!

[@johnloony68]

The whale is not actually a fish at all. It’s an insect. Bananas are marsupials. Salmon live in trees and eat pencils.

[@lewisjones-r9o]

Modelled on John Cleese and Graham Chapman

[@wesbanderson664]

stephen is an extremely capabububolorator.

[@FrancesThompson-e3m]

Don’t put yourself down, these two gentlemen are extremely talented and highly educated and would probably run rings around most people. As you so rightly say Rosen Atkinson is another one. The previous generation produced the likes of John Cleese and Michael Paylin and likes Peter Cooke.

[@ondrejvasak1054]

If you like Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese, you should react to the beekeeping sketch. It's brilliant.

[@brianmcdonald1776]

Stephen Fry.....one of our National Treasures here in UK...... If you want to see a very serious side of Stephen then check out his debates with Christopher Hitchens on some very controversial issues

[@SirHilaryManfat]

The debate on Catholicism with Fry and Hitchens was brilliant.

[@Digginjim]

I still use ‘correctly correctington’ to this day…

[@vinnycochrane5139]

The funny thing is - in Oxford there are people who talk like this in the pub, and ESPECIALLY in the Union Bar. But they tend to be unaffiliated to the University. The properly brainy people I knew were anarchic libertines with warped and twisted appetites, and wouldn’t be caught dead having a twee, effete salon like this, when they could be running around a garden naked, shouting sonnets in pursuit of some boy or other. I loved Oxford.

[@James-md8ph]

Hey, check out Fry & Laurie in "Dinner With Digby" 😄

[@SirHilaryManfat]

I visited a pub in Oxford (near the university colleges) a few years ago, and overheard a conversation between students that was a perfect representation of this type of pompous intellectualistic discussion. Considering both Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie attended Cambridge University, I'm sure they've been witness to many of these types of conversation.

[@eadweard.]

Well... what did they say?

[@SirHilaryManfat]

@@eadweard. 🤣

[@eadweard.]

​@@SirHilaryManfatNot sure what you mean.

[@paulknox505]

How on earth did he memorise this, lol

[@mikemoore4033]

He only went and introduced a leveret! Bloody nerve.

[@ParanormalFun-i1i]

You need to look at their Dammit John sketches on the show

[@dexstewart2450]

If you want to see a real-life Fry-character in this - Slavoj Žižek

[@bloodyliar]

He does look so young, and yet he'd already been in Prison at this point

[@jimdaw65]

If you like this you might also like "Borrowing a Fiver Off" ... where they mock other shows on UK telly broadcast at the time, for a UK audience familiar with said shows. Who knew there'd be "The Internet" decades later, with a thing called "KZbin", showing clips baffling even to young Brits who weren't even born at the time. You had to be there, as the saying goes 🙂 "Borrowing" is probably in one of the compilations, by the way, but I can't be arsed to trawl through all of them to find it. The set-up is that "This week, I'll be borrowing a fiver off ..." and then Hugh borrows a fiver and that's the end. Not even famous people, just some bloke, which made it even funnier.

[@mariuscheek]

The Kindle was a bit rubbish, needing some other light source and the page never looked like white paper, always a bit dull. That is until the first 'Paperwhite' came along, which I still have now. It's the best thing to read to go to sleep, as it looks pretty natural, an turns itself off after a couple of minutes if you fall asleep. The new Kindle Paperwhites are really superb, much better than my original paperwhite in terms of just looking like printed text in a book. The technology has come so far! And always remember, if you read on a phone screen, you're depleting your phone battery markedly, but a Kindle can have several weeks of intensive reading on one charge. My 12 yr old one does about 2 hrs/day for me, and still only needs charging once a fortnight.

[@jakedee4117]

This is the sort of sketch that happens when you stay in university for too long. Monty Python were often the same. Check out Monty Python's "The constitutional peasant" from The Holy Grail to see what I mean.

[@ilesalmo7724]

Fry is bipolar, and I can see him having a bit of a manic episode in this

[@mrlegend-xw7hb]

Oswald Mosley did reasonably well before ww2. There were protests of course so doubt he would have ever been successful even without the war.

[@mkrmkr3805]

Born again Kindleist eh...

[@misolgit69]

don't forget in 1938 in American cities there were uniformed American Nazis marching in the streets here in UK we had Oswald Mosley part of the upper class es organising his 'Blackshirts' but here there were riots and punch ups in the street whenever they appeared

[@eadweard.]

Not sure of your point.

[@misolgit69]

Boomer talked about Hitler's speech in English would it sway anyone, well it did

[@eadweard.]

@@misolgit69 Oh yes thank you.

[@informedchoice2249]

Please watch the Michael Jackson sketch and the in the police station giving his name sketch and many others the The Vox Pop Street interviews are brilliant as well there are collections of those. Some really crazy stuff on Fry and Laurie and but yeah a lot of really grey stuff. The American songs are quite good the kicking ass song is quite good as well i'm sure you'll appreciate that.

[@johnloony68]

Invisible green sheep sleep furiously.

[@eadweard.]

Colourless green ideas...

[@johnloony68]

…warble decadently in the wabe

[@eadweard.]

@@johnloony68 I mean it's "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously".

[@johnloony68]

Frenziedly lugubrious eels jump hierarchically through the eye of a noodle until the ostriches confess.

[@billyboy123ish]

Unfortunately we had Moseley

[@thadtuiol1717]

Meh, he never got much traction. And what little traction he got was halted at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936.

[@harrisonhoulden6752]

I’ve been watching ur reactions to Friday Night dinner from last year. Can u react to the last season they made a few years back it’s season 6 if u can

[@AndyCallaway]

Have you seen any Ronnie Barker?

[@mattwhorlow9900]

Do you think Stephen Fry scripted all that ... or did the script just say "Fry ad-libs for half an hour"

[@donalonzo63]

Your reaction on this - The Two Ronnies, Fork Handles would be great to see. Truley a world class comedy sketch, the bar is set high here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnTQkn-drbF3e5Isi=JH-ZkMIY-jnAk_-m

[@bristolgareth1]

Attraction

[@DavidNeal-mf9ky]

This is what they should have done with Karl Pilkington

[@ParanormalFun-i1i]

I read actual books

[@PurpleHatGames1]

King boomer can you please react to Vic and Bob - Geordie Astronauts Compilation please? it is so funny

[@rogerlundstrom6926]

Btw; I have some thoughts that is probably not relevant for this channel.. but I AM curious about the comment King boomer made around the 4 minute mark (and if you read to the END of my comment I will at least start off such conversation.. Stop reading whenever you feel like).. Where he talked about AI translating Hitler's speech to English and it not resonating with him. This is a conversation I would be glad to partake in, but it is the wrong one for a reaction channel. but.. I will say two things: 1. I really want to hear that speech (I haven't come across it yet, and since I WILL think of this channel and what he said when I hear it I REALLY want to be sure it is the SAME I hear, so I WANT to ask for a link for the SPECIFIC AI rendering that King Boomer heard).. and.. 2... No.. You WOULDN'T feel enticed by it today.. NOT because of what language it is expressed in but simply because.. history.. You are NOT in a vaccuum.. Knowledge is passed down..Tone of voice, arguments, rhetorical elements, and other things.. alters over time.. more exactly: They may fall out of favoure.. so.. ABSOLUTELY!! because of the very lessons learned back then.. we have altered our socio-cultural conditioning to.. "react negatively" to the very things that people USED to find appealing. So.. BECAUSE!!!! Hitler fell out of favour as strongly as he did.. and about 80 years of rhetorics and people using specific ways to express yourself as negative, and so on.. you WOULDN'T find it appealing.. it's not about the language used (English versus German).. it's about.. historical events/context.. (BEFORE we learned that Hitler was bad so we literally used Hitler's way of expressing himself as a way to define people as bad).. ·.... This is why modern world makes people so extremely fearful.. Because.. if you ACTUALLY know history.. if you learned about propaganda.. what arguments were good or bad.. how specific viewpoints could make you think a certain way.. be more attracted to specific ideas, and reject others.. and so on.. THEN you'll know that what Trump is sharing is literally the SAME crap as Hitler was saying.. using the SAME flawed logic, the SAME flawed propaganda, the same hatred/fear/selfishness based concepts.. as Hitler did. The ONLY difference is that he expresses his views in a different mode.. SAME views.. but in a different tone.

[@DenUitvreter]

Fry is in his early 30s here. Yes, he is extremely smart and intellectually playfull as so many, he's a great novelist too allthough not consistently imho. As someone who is comfortable in both German and English and native speaker of neither, I don't appreciate the underlying thought of this sketch that mach as it's just British exceptionalism. Yes, language does shape thought, no, English is not special in that.

[@benedictnothing]

Being smart is about logic and working things out for yourself. A lot of people who seem really smart actually only have a good memory, especially for language. A lot of people who seem quite dim only come across like that because they struggle with language, and are actually logically very clever. Sportsmen are often a good example of that. Being smart is about being able to mentally connect things together and using that information to make reliable predictions.

[@dianapeek6936]

Am trying to find someone who is prepared to sell a Kindle. No luck so far? Dec 2024.

[@jonathanjeffreys3007]

"Just a muppet in a chair"? I don't think so. You are obviously very well informed and much better educated than you pretend to be, and (thank goodness) you know a lot more about many out-of-the-way subjects than most of your fellow American commentators, some of whose birdbrained remarks and lack of elementary knowledge leave me gasping in disbelief. If this was not the case, you wouldn't find Fry and Lauries' kind of esoteric humour funny. You would look puzzled and mutter something like "I missed that", or "Help me out in the comments" - neither of which you ever do.