Fry and Laurie - Maximum Security Poetry

Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie's "Maximum Security Poetry" sketch from 1986.

[@lelmdrWHO]

'it was a blustering july afternoon in mid-december of 1929' how was evernone not cracking up???

[@dantevandeva7493]

HAHAHA. I didn't even notice the first time, hilarious

[@DomCombatVids]

Because in English culture you don't laugh at poetry

[@CDash162]

You know I think people don't crack up laughing because they are taking in every word. Fry and Laurie do the pompous intellects so well I could listen to them all day. It's just pure class

[@kahwigulum]

later on he refers to "Julember"

[@InvisiblerApple]

@@kahwigulum the 90th!

[@Vojife]

"London layed sprawled out like some vast capital city and majour commercial centre" Hahaha, genius! :D

[@CreativoErratico]

I was born on Julember the 90th.

[@D4K44R1]

+zerosonico That's my second favourite day of the year

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

D4K44R1 I've only forgotten your birthday twice.

[@NxDoyle]

zerosonico It's alwise mine binthdate.

[@Agamemnon2]

What's beautiful about this is that their explanation of "The Waste Land" being about the state of postwar despair into which society had been flung-flung is essentially correct.

[@MsZiDu]

I love both of their looks! They look so cute and handsome. Their subtle jokes are the best. "July afternoon in mid december", "Julember the 90th", "Douglas picked a buttercup/buttock up".

[@wickedfeylady]

Once again, Wilde's spirit takes over Stephen's mind and body, emanating forth as if Oscar had never left this mortal coil. At least Stephen doesn't mind...

[@user-vg6ym5xy2r]

Stephen Fry was wonderful as Oscar Wilde. He was born to play that role. Well done!

[@mildryfrr9970]

Everybody's saying Hugh looks like Kevin Bacon here, but can we talk about Steven's Oscar Wilde getup for a sec?

[@auntiecarol]

No.

[@InvisiblerApple]

Yes.

[@samvidas9599]

Yes

[@WyattRyeSway]

He played him in a movie so....I mean, with good reason.

[@uadevojka]

He always looks like Oscar Wilde to me🙂

[@Jeremyramone]

I love the vocabulary in the first poem stephen reads. so hypnotyzing.

[@lastofthelapras]

"The screws are very agreeable" LOL

[@SmokeRzzzz]

That was on point haha

[@deborahcrawford9079]

'flung, flung...'

[@HerEyesWereWild]

This is better than anything we had to study for GCSE! :D I love watching Stephen Fry in his younger days, it's so strange how he hasn't changed much! Also, I wasn't around for the period they were doing sketches, so it's like a great comedy mine for me to be able to watch these clips! Utterly amazing, these two.

[@iOnlySignIn]

Hide your noose the hangman. The hangman. The hangman. The hangman. The hang. The. Th.

[@CreativoErratico]

iOnlySignIn .

[@AgentAsh]

T

[@Jordan781]

Laurie's hair is looking awefully mad scientist-ish here. :D

[@ViceCityDJ]

fry trying not to burst into laughter

[@CreativoErratico]

The webbing spanned and floated free Her mance, her mance contained A moment loved, a moment dead The Lord is kind das echtzentekind Stapling, stopling, melted cheese Chaplin, Choplin squares of lust Awassa, Awassa, dreg, dreg Hide your noose the hangman Hide your noose the hangman The hangman The hangman The hangman The hang The hang The Th T

[@rareram]

Das echtzentekind

[@FinalFirebrand]

Buttock up. I love that line more than maybe I should, but it's just too clever not to.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

FinalFirebrand I heard that line at the very same second that I read your comment.

[@leishayoung4124]

Oh god I loved it when these two took the piss out of England's insufferable upper classes. An an Aussie, it was just hilarious to watch. As I'm sure they have both run into such types many times over their respective careers.

[@Ghoddal]

They sure have encountered these types as both of them are members of the English upper class. Laurie attended Eaton, the most exclusive public school in the UK and both of them went to Cambridge.

[@vulgarpurity]

He does, doesn't he? Stephen Fry has said in an interview how he's admired Hugh Laurie's looks. They're fantastic together.

[@imabookfreak]

It's possible that was worse than "Ode to a lump of green putty I found in my armpit one midsummer's morning". LOL!

[@ChestersonJack]

Possible, possible, perhaps. But certainly not. Or to put it another way, not certainly.

[@myshepspud1]

A Douglas Adam's reader I see. :)

[@HulloKat]

Fry and Laurie together like this is infinitely more humourous than America's Saturday Night Live and nearly every programme and film on television. I do wish more youngsters nowaday had this sort of wit.

[@Alresu]

Now _that's_ a captive audience.

[@BelleWonder14]

hugh looks a bit like a mad scientist with that hair style

[@SabineBeauchamp7]

I thought the same thing 😂

[@girl43]

God .. how cute are they both ! I wasn't even born in 1986 .. I feel awfully young.

[@em.1633]

Still feel young?

[@girl43]

@@em.1633 nope 🙈

[@GeorgeBaily]

There is no way this level of prolix intellectual comedy will ever be written again.

[@TheBlondiesNr1]

George Baily have you heard of bo burnham

[@Hithere-ek4qt]

@@TheBlondiesNr1 Nope, but I'm sure he is a far cry from Fry and Laurie

[@jonathanlee6660]

Dont judge it till you see it

[@roberto8650]

@@jonathanlee6660 Not even close. He's good, but these are in a different league of their own.

[@benodaboy]

@@roberto8650 not a different league, just a different generation.

[@Czechness]

I just love Hugh's hair

[@merdufer]

such a good introduction to Tommy Elliot. "the post-war state of despair into which the society had been... did he say thrown or flung?"

[@sprite22ify]

If Fry and Laurie are underrated, people need to work on their taste :)

[@YamixYuugi]

Stephen is SO ADORABLE in this. :)

[@atomosvrial1708]

that buttercup bit cracked me up.

[@blu3j4yw4y]

Hahaha "Skip that bit..." This is hilarious, dunno why I've never watched it before :D

[@HighKingTurgon]

THE MOMENT THEY SAID ELIOT'S POEMS SET TO ROUGH MUSIC I SHAT MYSELF

[@Philrc]

that's unfortunate. I hope you were at home and alone

[@juhiazha9600]

Khasab what an underrated comment.

[@sjoes]

They're so perfectly at ease with each other and so on the same wavelength, it will be such a shame if they don't decide to start working together again soon. Unfortunately FOX owns HL for at least 3 more years.

[@ms.rstake_1211]

I love them. I can't believe this is before the show began.

[@allanfmarsden]

As perfect a critique of Eliot's obscurantism and blatant class bias as I've heard.

[@logos47]

Mr. Laurie's hair is wickedly done. Makes him look very mischievous.

[@whomustnotbenamed5]

Love Hugh's hair and Hugh's funny faces!!!!!

[@SilverWynterSpirit]

I wish fry and laurie would get back together and do this kind of stuff more...I miss it

[@lyadmilo]

The "The Hangman" part was actually a very brilliant parody of Eliot. Also, fucking hilarious, all throughout.

[@iwanabana]

enlighten me! As a non-native speaker and not a very devoted student of English literature, there must be plenty of things I miss out.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

I love Eliot's poetry to such a degree that I completely agree & second your emotion.

[@guidad542]

@@iwanabana I'm a non-native speaker too so I'm sure I miss some stuff. Anyway, Eliot was one of the forefathers of modernist poetry and he favoured a very experimental prose (think disjointed structure, no adherance to aliterative rules etc). He also used a technique called enjabment, where no line is syntactically complete, creating a sense of continuous flow throughout the text. Moreover, he mostly dealt with themes of desolation and dejection, using repetition to instill a sense of despair. Take for example this: For thine is the Kingdom For Thine is Life is For Thine is the Pretty close to "the Hangman" huh? Of course, Eliot's genious wasn't limited to this, but it's a pretty fun and accurate parody nonetheless.

[@PedroGonzalez-pd6vw]

3:44 "Thursday Julember the 90th" 😂😂

[@starwarsfreak1111]

Did you notice Hugh said at 3:45 First Day Julember the 90th? =))

[@tregnier279]

4:00 And this was before Fry came out of the closet. Quite interesting.

[@elvancor]

Is that so? Pray tell, when exactly did he come out?

[@katiedid1851]

And , so what ? Always a genius ! No one quite like him or ever will be.

[@breaneainn]

lol! '...small rubber nodule..'

[@NausicaaLeGuin]

"why people leave buttocks lying around, I've no idea..."

[@monkeyfiona]

"Oh the screws are very agreeable" :-P

[@celestialnav]

i love it!

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

T.S. Eliot is my favourite poet. This is funny.

[@Alex-jg2bc]

I’m oddly attracted to Stephen in this video

[@Plethorality]

I've always been oddly attracted...

[@MsGrinny]

Timeless!

[@Liusila]

Aaah, and I love their hair!

[@Stryker1207]

"It was a blustering July afternoon in mid December of 1929"

[@InvisiblerApple]

The clocks will be striking 13 any minute! (probably on the hour)

[@Tracker77]

The hangman The hangman The hangman The hang The Th T

[@Skeew1]

they stole their own joke! Stephen says the "buttercup" joke in "the day i forgot my legs"!!!!

[@Philrc]

they repeated it, not stole it

[@vaclav_fejt]

Also in some versions of "The Letter".

[@weirdgetsaround]

he's a legend thats for sure

[@KAT65]

The hair went up even higher on Fry and Laurie!

[@narekm]

@JapeUK Hmmm I'd say they are very much appreciated. I live in Armenia and even here people know them although the show never aired here. Only thing shown on TV was Jeeves & Wooster yet theres internet thank God )))

[@GerardHammond]

more of this. Can we get them both back?

[@Tropicaliak]

so much the greattttttttt.

[@Gorboduc]

"Already I sense he is growing apart from us."

[@LilyLylaLolaLucy]

I LOVE HUGH'S HAIR!!!!

[@tineblondine]

Well, as you say - it's UP :-)

[@gaara6189]

"It was a blustering July afternoon in mid December of 1929".........hahahaha

[@ShonaLavellan]

Great hair.

[@PaperbackWizard]

I was thinking about this sketch while watching the movie version of "Cats".

[@mrtheobromine]

And here we have Stephen openly admitting his sexuality but in a manner where no one would realize he was being genuine. My poor closeted boy.

[@Philrc]

? Fry had no special problem coming out as gay

[@kahwigulum]

I have to wonder if Bruce McCullough of Kids In The Hall stole this joke for his "The Moon Laughs" sketch. "The moon laughs knowingly. The moon laughs." The moon. The."

[@ulfurinnn]

god i wish these shows where on tv. ish there any place you can like buy a cd or sumthing? reply please

[@HEV29]

Yay!!! Crazy English men xxx How I loved Stephen Fry and still do - and Hugh is so aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargggghhhhhhhh (phwoooooooooooooooooor) now! xxx

[@66nylorac]

What's not to love...sigh!

[@nhmooytis7058]

Brilliant especially if you know Eliot’s poetry....

[@mrlucasftw42]

Some Vogon poetry to start!

[@bindiyay]

Damn I've spent so much time thinking that meself too! A mixture of Kevin Bacon and Steve McQueen, depending on what you're watching :)

[@SarahLeia]

The buttercup line...they reused it! LOL

[@finehomemadewine]

:-) Almost! :-) :-)

[@yllidiah]

haha, BEST imagery of london

[@TrulyStucker]

0:19 Laurie looks like Kevin Bacon! lol

[@Mihoshika]

Sounds more like summoning rituals.

[@merdufer]

I didn't get the "the screws are very agreeable" part..

[@aptaylor75]

Prison guards in the US in the first half of the 20th century were usually called "screws".

[@allerdyce]

yeah 27 and 28 actually but seriously, thats so weird how this was just a lifetime ago.

[@tahsinsabah833]

3:31 “I didn’t know that I didn’t know that I didn’t I didn’t I didn’t know that I didn’t”

[@awesomecat26]

the hangman. the hang. the. th. t.

[@tineblondine]

Thank you! :-D I've got two funny bones.

[@tineblondine]

Like you say: It's up :-D

[@TophxAang]

Wow! Fry's hair makes him look sexy here ^_^ like he put gell in it or something, and of course Hugh looks sexy as always! I love these two!

[@GRAHAMAUS]

@Thesmorphia No, it sounds liek: O, frettled grunt-buggley! How thy micturations are to thee As purdled gabble-blodgits inner lurgid be Groop, I implore thee, Thy footing turlingdromes, and hoopsiously thrangle me with crinkly bingle wurdles. For otherwise I will rend thee in the gogglewarts with my burdlecudgeon. See if I dont!

[@JohnFoley1701]

Damn vogons

[@Hydroculator]

Fry's jaw looks absolutely enormous here. It scares me a little.

[@StavroginNikolai]

...and in 2015, hipsters unironically write pieces like these excerpts and consider themselves prodigiously talented and wise beyond their years as they perform bombastically in slam poetry contests for audiences consisting of their parents, a group of drunken college students and that one friend that's secretly in love with them.

[@outeast999]

Ever it was thus. You think F&L worked in a vacuum?

[@MatrixAran]

This describes most of poetry for over 1200 years...

[@andreasbuehler1821]

At most poetry slams I've been, the crowds have been pretty brutal.

[@Auriflamme]

This is bad pastiche of TS Eliot, which is the whole point of the skit. In slams they tend to pastiche Ginsburg or some feminists.

[@Mlog1]

That's not true at all!!! (The friend told me she loves me)

[@VladBlok28]

1st day Julember the 90th

[@CF1975]

Is this also taken from Friday Night Live? I am pretty sure this is not from ABOFAL.

[@boneappletea3858]

3:43 julember the 90th lol

[@theoNGfirst]

MI6!

[@ahtaimo]

Oscar and Bosie!

[@AgentArchangel83]

Is he reading Vogon poetry?

[@AnnabellaRedwood]

Bahahaha!!!!!

[@dude3049]

The irony of Fry actually being gay.

[@TraiIerpark]

yeah, hugh looks like 18 years old in this video...sweeet xDDD

[@tpfang56]

Hey, I wasn't born til after Lion king came out.

[@KryzMasta]

@JapeUK I don't think they are underrated at all. Maybe less people know their sketch comedy than they deserve, and maybe they're more known for their recent work, but that doesn't make their sketch comedy underrated.

[@inspectorspinda]

Does anyone else think they're like Louis Carol characters?

[@carlabryant6210]

Lewis Carroll?

[@Philrc]

no

[@Jagerbomber]

So…. They had to have rehearsed, right? It just seemed crazy to me what they can do/remember.

[@thechaos44]

QI !! =D