Going for an English | Goodness Gracious Me | BBC Comedy Greats

In this iconic sketch, a group of Indian friends "go for an English" in Bombay, because it wouldn't be a Friday night without an English would it?
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#Comedy #GoodnessGraciousMe

[@ryanpierce3986]

“What’s the blandest thing on the menu?” “I’ll have that, eh bring a folk & knife” 🤣🤣

[@TheIkaraCult]

I remember seeing this sketch with my parents as a kid, I didn't understand why it was so funny but they were dying laughing because it was a reversal of how drunk English people would behave at Indian restaurants.

[@arcanaa8696]

I watched it when I was a kid with my parents too but I did get the vast majority of it the only thing I didn't get was the ladies about the "SiZE" if you know what I mean. This was a sketch that stuck in my mind since I was like 7 and i'm now 32. LOL.

[@JasonHarrison-og5pw]

Cos they are ram jams

[@raftonpounder6696]

You don’t say.

[@kevincassidy1983]

Thank God you're here to explain the joke

[@JoeyDNo3]

​@@kevincassidy1983 there's always 1 eh pal 🤣😂

[@chrisbirch4150]

Love that 24 plates of chips line. You think the sketch can't really go anywhere else but it is a funny finish. Every time youre at an Indian restaurant there's always about 8 naans and 40 poppodums on the table when everyone is done 😂

[@Simbabhebhe]

I always need 5 poppadoms though lol

[@groundcontrol-888]

@@equalityforall9902 whats your point mate ?

[@equalityforall9902]

@@groundcontrol-888 u know the point.

[@h.j7469]

Ironically perhaps, there will be in the kitchens some downtrodden looking Indian chefs serving english food for wealthy indians, delivered by english waiters

[@Arianddu]

@@equalityforall9902 Get over yourself, you're talking rubbish.

[@bodrulali5673]

The strength of 'Goodness Gracious Me' was that it appealed to a wide audience - not squarely Asian or White British, but to everyone

[@ZeranZeran]

I'm American and I really would prefer this show over the ones we have now. SNL our "Saturday Night Live" comedy shows have become just awful. THIS is hilarious!

[@kishennandha9127]

Exactly

[@crazyfishmonster459]

Who are we if we can't laugh at each other? Stereotypes are great fun when they're not just going in one direction. That's what I loved about this era of comedy. It was a complete free-for-all and in that indescribably human way nobody felt left out.

[@kc4276]

I’m an older millennial from India, and I grew up watching this show along with The Kumars at No. 42 (this was back when there weren’t too many British/American shows available to us - ofcourse now things are very different). It helped bridge the gap between our countries, for which I’m thankful to the diaspora as well as the broadcasters. Unfortunately, nothing of this sort exists today and most likely never will. Despite the advancements in technology, I feel the distances are increasing between different nations.

[@davemc6887]

Every joke (and there's a lot of them) still works as well in 2023 as on it's original release date. Quite probably the finest sketch ever written..

[@deathcrunch9020]

Its just rascist nonsense.

[@Ironside-fz9vd]

"12 Bread rolls" that cracked me up. Hilarious.

[@eleanorferguson3421]

‘Actually I think that’s how you’re supposed to eat this sort of food…’ I only just noticed this but it’s so accurate 😂

[@tooshlong]

"oi! Clive of Bloody India, who bloody asked you hey?" 😂😂😂

[@royw-g3120]

My favourite bit too!😂

[@davidwiltoncymru]

always been my favourite bit

[@EdJonesVideos]

Fun fact: the waiter is Neil Newbon, who much later played Astarion in the widely acclaimed 2023 video game Baldur's Gate III

[@arcanaa8696]

Can gamers here give some praise for James' actor, Neil Newbon - he's now a prominent VA and mocap performer.

[@missellaneous5142]

Now the waiter might just eat you 🧛

[@SessVlogs]

@@missellaneous5142And I’d let him.

[@felinefurkin4275]

Came back to see him, didn’t know him back then, but loving him in Baldur’s Gate 3.

[@mimma904]

glad to see people went down the rabbit hole like me, legit came to see neil he was also so cute, like baby astarion

[@arcanaa8696]

i didn't know him back then either but finding out so mych stuff i watched as a kid or teen and Neil was apparently there.@@felinefurkin4275 He was great as Heisenberg in RE Village too

[@jakethegsd]

So pleased this clip has resurfaced, it's an absolute classic and the original disappeared for a long time.

[@bizarresysy]

I can't beleive the waiter is a vampire

[@sanchoodell6789]

This is 'Goodness Gracious Me's equivalent of the Fawlty Towers' 'The Germans' episode. It has attained classic status and is one of the most memorable sketches.

[@EfftupSmith]

not really. It's closer to Rowan Atkinson's Indian Waiter sketch.

[@pauljordan4452]

​@@EfftupSmith That was genius.

[@alexevansuk]

Hardly!

[@mr0perator]

‘I think that is how you are supposed to eat this food’ Subtle line. Very funny

[@Ck.R.G]

“ Fancy stuff, Butter” 🤣🤣

[@AnP865]

the 'what is the blandest thing on the menu' line has been in my head since I first heard this on the radio back in the 90s - it should be a meme with wide contemporary applications

[@jimcapel328]

Absolute classic! “What’s the blandest thing on the menu?” 😂😂

[@Sameer-Mustafah-Raza1-2-1]

“Steak & Kidney Pea 🫛!!” 😂😂😂

[@woodjoewood]

Love the little dance the guy in the green does after he says something 😂

[@Splendiferous42]

Fun fact for Baldur's Gate 3 fans: waiter Ja-mes is played by Neil Newbon, who plays Astarion

[@jimb9063]

Loved this show. Funny, clever, and sometimes profoundly brilliant. "What's the blandest thing on the menu?" Priceless! I hope this sketch changed a lot of peoples behaviour. It would be somewhat ironic if in 100 years time British folk flocked to India for better prospects, and eventually made India's national dish fish and chips.

[@helenchelmicka7894]

😂😂😂

[@carltonlambert7608]

I believe people from here will head east so your prediction may have legs yet. India is the super of the future. I has the population.

[@Bozebo]

To be fair a load of Indian food is British empire influenced already, new world ingredients from trade. But... India was the biggest component of the British empire itself so there is that. English food influence however, there's not much of that.

[@jimb9063]

@@Bozebo Yes, probably true of a lot of things. The approximate date of contact between peoples tends to be pushed further back in time as new evidence emerges too. Asia without chillies would seem as strange as Britain without chipped potatoes. There was a time when people probably thought they wouldn't catch on!

[@simonmcmanus3639]

"What is the blandest thing on the menu ?" 🤭

[@ejayman]

"Hey Jemas, what have you got that is not totally tasteless?" is one of the funniest lines I've ever heard

[@C---M]

@@equalityforall9902 nice way of making your name a joke."Equality for all: prepare to close down libraries and churches." You do know christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world due to China right? Not to mention the Christian population in India and obviously Islam which is not much more than advanced version.

[@equalityforall9902]

@@C---M we are talking about Britain. Not your fat east China. You are be 1.4 billion. I am taking about preserving Britishness in the traditional sense. Diversity has altered the very composition, and tolerance and decline from our own complacency has allowed the displacement of the host.

[@Arianddu]

@@equalityforall9902 troll.

[@Moondog-wc4vm]

@@equalityforall9902 You completely missed the subtle point behind this show didn't you? Maybe your vision was obscured by the frantically waving St George's flag of little england. Get your sense of humour bypass reversed and go watch all the episodes of the show, then come back on youtube and humbly apologise for your foolishness.

[@eric113]

This show was so ahead of its time, so funny..great comedy!!!

[@aigtban]

At its best, sketch comedy can nail a concept so perfectly, nobody ever needs to address it again, they can just refer to the sketch. Mitchell and Webb's "Are we the baddies?" is one of those, so is Monty Python's Parrot Sketch. In the case of "Going for an English", it may be literally unnecessary for anyone to ever say or write another word on the subject of boorish, drunken British people in Indian restaurants, because this is all you need. Note the round of appreciative applause after the "butter" line, when the audience fully grasps what's going on. They know they're witnessing something epochal, in its own way.

[@stuartbowden4735]

Very well said!

[@computer_toucher]

I see Astarion also had to wait tables in his younger days

[@timetochronicle]

Thats because ASTARION IS INDIAN!

[@andrewmunro5780]

Still one of my favourite ever sketches

[@joegrimes9232]

I think about this everytime I go out for a curry. My mate orders 4 naan breads.

[@frankiesalmon7545]

FOUR NAANS?

[@HighTen_Melanie]

24 Nanns?

[@rowandavis2061]

"that's insane"

[@chriscurtain1816]

When I was younger it was not unheard of to go for an Indian, smash poppadums over each others heads and throw them around like Frisbees (after a few beers of course). I would say GGM got this about right. I first saw this in the mid 90's and laughed my head off. It was so true to life, funny, very well observed and with no malice intended or taken. It couldn't be written today because so much has changed in what we are allowed to do and what TV is allowed to show. In fact the way things are going this post of mine will probably be used in the future to convict me of historic Indian restaurant crimes.

[@Simbabhebhe]

It’s comedy as it should be

[@TerryWinchcombe]

Kulvinder Ghir is a much underrated actor, he's played some fantastic roles. My first memory of him was in a channel 4 short film called Lucky Sunil, its hilarious

[@holnrew]

He was fantastic in that Bruce Springsteen one

[@keithsimpson4618]

“ Oi ! Clive of India ! Who bloody asked you ? Eh ? “ Classic .

[@eleanorferguson3421]

‘Clive of India’ gets me every single time 😂

[@cattt0202]

Hey 😊 that's the one part I didn't get 🙈🙈 what does it mean/refer to?

[@Braham21]

​@@cattt0202It's like calling someone Lawrence of Arabia

[@cattt0202]

@Braham21 thank u. I live in arabia so that makes much more sense to me

[@alicequayle4625]

​@@cattt0202 I think Clive of India invaded part of India for the Empire.

[@cattt0202]

@alicequayle4625 ahh, thanks Alice 🙏

[@AlastorWilliam]

Why yes that is the actor who plays Astarion in BG3, thanks for asking! 🤯

[@dilibau]

"Kidney pee" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@chriscurtain1816]

One of the all-time classic comedy sketches. Like Del Boy falling over at the bar, or the chandelier falling down. Or pretty much anything from Fawlty Towers. From the days when there was something worth watching on telly.

[@cdname47]

When this was on the telly people were still saying it was rubbish and the things you mentioned was the golden age That's life, you life through various golden ages, not appreciating when you're in one because you're too busy looking back at the last one

[@Doppelfrog]

Nostalgia's not what it used to be.

[@romainsavioz5466]

@@Doppelfrog 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@romainsavioz5466]

I agre but you shouldn't mention the war

[@PP-kp4dd]

I love this sketch, having lived just off, and worked at the end of Brick Lane London in the 80's. I remember hearing the same people do another version of this sketch, maybe a radio version, where everyone ended up ordering the latest English Cusine Fad.....chicken in a basket !

[@ZeranZeran]

I am NEVER going to eat at an Indian restaurant for fear of being humiliated now Kidding. This is hilarious. "Yeah, Jamus, that's what I said"

[@ZeranZeran]

Also they need to just remove SNL from American tv and play this show instead.

[@PianoFish]

Had to show this to someone today who'd never seen it before and so was very confused when my wife called me "Jah-mez" 😂

[@TheBT]

@@ZeranZeran I have a feeling a lot of the show would be lost in translation in the US given how its driven by that British Asian culture cues. Though don't worry, 'Indian' restaurants are very much built for a British clientèle as 90% of them are Bangladeshi who run them for that purpose. I do recommend going to an Indian Indian restaurant if you can too (one where the customer base is also mainly Indian) as its a different experience

[@kme]

​@@TheBTyeah, we tried to get my parents (white(ish; my mum has first nations heritage too) Canadian) to watch this, but my dad was just like... Isn't this racist? I don't get it, it's not funny. All while me and hubby are cracking up all over the place. My brothers did like Blackadder tho.

[@bodrulali5673]

This show is brilliant - a top quality comedy with a wonderfully talented cast. With a mixture of sketches and songs to suit all ages, Goodness Gracious Me dares to poke fun at English and Asian people alike

[@ninadsheth8422]

"😂Clive of India"

[@Emma_Rosa]

"There you go Nina steak and kidney pee!" 😭😭😭😭😭

[@ejayman]

"Hey Jemas, what have you got that is not totally tasteless?" is such a good line

[@TheSandyKale]

Love how the steak and kidney pie metamorphoses to steak and kidley pee. 😜

[@nigelfaulkner5449]

The blandest thing on the menu always gets me, so funny.

[@petermutua9838]

Hadn't ever heard of this before; can't believe how hilarious it is...

[@ZeranZeran]

This is way better than Saturday Night Live.. they should just air this instead. This is really good, ahead of its time.

[@haruyasumi616]

it was really well observed. this is their most famous sketch, and it deserves to be remembered fondly. it's my generation's 'parrot sketch'. i low key had a girl crush on nina wadia.

[@rottenheavenly6245]

24 plates of chips ...you might have ordered too much sir...then a riot breaks out lol

[@gewglesux]

"fancy stuff" "oh butter"

[@watiflappynounou3302]

Meera Syal and Nina Wadia are so funny 😂😂😂

[@pauljordan4452]

Because they're Indian!

[@AcornElectron]

I wish we could still have comedy like this.

[@djalexdunne]

"aLriigHt miite" gets me every time 😂😂

[@raymasraymas]

So glad to see this back on KZbin after years

[@JonnyGTi180]

This is how i see english food and im english 😂😂

[@arianaajbeaverhausen8175]

One of the best sketches in comedy ever written, I still quote the phrase "I'll have the blandest thing on the menu!" to this day. 😂 Mum and I also joke amongst ourselves about other jokes in the show. "Ah, but how big is his danda?" (Spelling?) "Like a smaaaaall aubergine!" 🤏🍆 😂❤🥰

[@Littlebrum73]

Still one of the funniest sketches ever, up there with harry Enfields old arsenal v new Liverpool and Kevin n Perry Manchester scene

[@jimjoelliejack]

I came across this fantastic comedy sketch again after watching Sanjeev Bhaskar in Unforgotton, this was a comedy classic there with the two Ronnies fork handles and pythons dead parrot, absolutely brilliant.😅😂🤣

[@degaulle30]

This show, for a while, was the greatest show on tv

[@DiamandaHagan]

If any Baldur's Gate nerds read this: that waiter is Astarion.

[@RazorEdge2006]

Baldur's Gate? Does that reference this show?

[@DiamandaHagan]

@@RazorEdge2006 Alas no.

[@eucera1]

I thought that was Neil!! 😀

[@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa69]

"jammes" lmao

[@MrSunnyBhoy]

I know lmao!

[@kavcherry4010]

J mas steak & kidney pea

[@richl6966]

Glad this has appeared here. Cracking sketch with some fine actors. I call my close friend and former flatmate "Jam-ez" due to this (we only met in 2005) and I often say "what is the blandest thing on the menu" in restaurants to my family.

[@PhilRead80]

One of my favourite sketches of all time. Absolutely superb.

[@AMFL3116]

This is pure comedy gold.

[@ruthharvey4158]

Why am I suddenly seeing neil newbon everywhere though

[@jen6893]

Fun fact, the waiter is the voice actor for Astarion in BG3

[@Threemore650]

Absolutely brilliant show.

[@yabeenbamboozled5067]

" What's the blandest thing on the menu ?! " 🤣

[@raychaudhuri6217]

absolute genius and still so comic but unreally real

[@ocdmusic]

24 plates of chips 😂😂😂😂 I loved this show when it was on and its still funny to this day, definitely need to watch some more :)

[@kalicunningham9139]

Love this show.

[@cloudstrife1983]

Used to love this show.

[@DungeonsandRoses]

Fun fact: the waiter is Neil Newbon (Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3)

[@orlandoboom9018]

ASTARION IS THE WAITER!!!

[@mrhob6355]

Absolutely spot on only other people can show us the absurdity , I remember this from years ago .

[@GalidorDimension]

I just found out that the waiter James is Neil Newbon who voices Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 and Heisenberg in Resident Evil Village 😮

[@Livikyu]

Like this sketch, Neil Newbon has also aged like a very very very fine wine

[@spngled8654]

one of the greatest skits ever made, brilliant

[@georgemorley1029]

They nailed it.

[@joshtherahrah]

This was peak comedy!

[@karenbautista3077]

This is satirical gold! 😂🤣

[@Mntgmry19]

Absolutely brilliant.

[@leswilcock7327]

Incredible. So true !

[@keyfeatures]

I've been looking for this sketch for a few years. Thanks for uploading.

[@martinyeomans3319]

Brilliant, genius, hilarious 😂😂😂

[@andywood7784]

Just so many clever gags in here

[@willb4552]

Absolute classic 🤣🤣.

[@Indienheld]

Yes! Finally, it's on KZbin!!!

[@stevewiles7132]

Laughed my socks off when I first saw this...

[@Reggiec727]

Hilarious! Lovin' the English accents.

[@kitharrison8799]

One of the great sketches of all time.

[@potdog1000]

absolute classic

[@Captainflake99]

Omg😂 how have I never seen this before

[@Hertog_von_Berkshire]

First performed on Radio 4 and later adapted for TV. I still prefer the radio version.

[@azapro911]

"Oh go on, have something bland!"

[@freshnas1]

Realising the waiter is Neil newbon is mad, as soon as I saw this I remembered this exact scene!! To think this guy is an amazing motion capture/voice/actor!

[@ianhand5006]

Excellent!

[@jkent9915]

Gold!!!

[@kgm1000uk]

Can't see what's wrong with 24 plates of chips though.

[@C---M]

There is 6 of them, it's not enough!

[@carmel3613]

Oh my gosh, this is so hilarious!! 🤣🤣

[@niazpetkar53]

Chunky Lafunga 😂

[@laurallama73]

💯😁Good humor requires that we relax and drop the chip we’re carrying on our shoulder.

[@simpleNomadUK]

into one of the 24 plates they just ordered

[@josephclift3662]

@@simpleNomadUK I had this very thought. Lol

[@pauljordan4452]

Or simply, eat it.

[@MissyASTB]

Omg legendary

[@Emeraldkyber]

Damn cazador had astarion doing wild things

[@timetochronicle]

Yeah like going up against Clive of India. Poor Astarion

[@amylouise6646]

24 plates of chips lmao

[@paullannon8280]

Steak and Kiddley pea.

[@stevetaylor7403]

Watch the GGM sketch where a white police recruit has his first tour of duty in an Indian Police Station. Priceless.

[@laurallama73]

I’m no Liam Neeson, but I WILL find that sketch!!! 😂Sounds hilarious.😂😂😂

[@pauljordan4452]

Dave Lamb plays all the Anglo characters.

[@neilfrench6639]

Brilliant 🤣🤣🤣👍

[@nat90957.]

I've been married to a Filipina for 15 years and we very rarely eat English food. Filipino food is much tastier. 😊

[@IsaacWale2004]

Most English people would agree. I'm pretty sure that most restaurants in the UK are Asian restaurants or fast food places. (source: Primary research of living here for 19 years)