Thirteen comedy duos

Hope you’re ready to burn up the next two hours of your life with YouTube videos (each one personally screened by yours truly).

Edited to add . . .

I guess I’ll finish this later tonight, but I thought I’d give you something to chew on in the meantime. Here we go.

1. Fry and Laurie. Thanks to House, a whole generation thinks Hugh Laurie is an American dramatic actor and not a British comic. Good heavens, when will people learn: if you can do comedy, you can do anything. Anyway, this snip is from A Bit of Fry and Laurie. I could have nabbed any number of Black Adder clips, but that would be less in keeping with today’s theme. Oh, and here’s a personal Fry and Laurie recommendation from the sxKitten.

2. French and Saunders. I’m more of an AbFab man, but that Star Wars sketch cracks me up. This one‘s not half bad, either.

3. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Yeah, by now you’ve figured it out: I like Brits. This clip is from Bedazzled, a gem of a comedy (with, among other delights, Raquel Welch as Lust). Here’s the setup: Stanley (Moore) loves Margaret (the horsey Eleanor Bron), but Margaret doesn’t love Stanley. Stanley is willing to sell his soul to the devil (Peter Cook) in exchange for wishes (three?), all of which he uses to win Margaret. In this clip, he specifies that he should be married to Margaret, he wants to be rich and powerful, and he wants Margaret to be . . . PHYSICAL! But alas, he forgets one minor detail, which the devil happily exploits.

4. Cheech and Chong. Don’t you miss drug humor? (It gets old after about two minutes, but for those two minutes, you’ll be powerful lonesome for the 70s.)

5. Bob and Ray. They’re before my time, but I can still appreciate two funny old geezers.

6. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the Tappet Brothers — after listening to them for the last couple decades on NPR’s Car Talk, it was fun to finally see them.

7. Penn and Teller. We saw them in Vegas a few years ago, and Jake got to talk to them after the show. Yes, Teller will talk, provided he’s not in front of an audience.

8. Dan Ackroyd and Steve Martin, the Czech Brothers. Don’t miss John Belushi in drag at the end of this clip.

9. The Tick and Arthur. Somewhere in this room, I have a DVD holding every episode from the live action series, The Tick. I watched the first twenty minutes and never went back. Cartoon Tick is TEH TICK! Anyway, that clip doesn’t provide much Arthur, so here’s another. And another. Spoon!

My favorite Tick moment comes from the episode in which Arthur’s sister is getting married. The Tick sits in front of a mirror, primping in a tuxedo. As Arthur walks in, the Tick is saying, “Shalom! Shaaaa-LOM!”

“Tick,” says Arthur, “what are you doing?”

“Arthur! I just found out we’re Jewish.”

“No, Tick. Dot and I are Jewish. You’re . . . you’re bluish.”

Tickles me every time.

10. Elaine May and Mike Nichols, because Jim asked for ’em. Sadly, that’s their only clip on YouTube. They look stunning together, don’t they?

From Wikipedia:

Elaine May (born Elaine Berlin on April 21, 1932 in Philadelphia) is a two-times Academy Award nominated director, screenwriter, and actress. She achieved her greatest fame, in the 1950s, from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols.

Elaine May wrote and directed Ishtar, but let’s not dwell on that. She also co-wrote Heaven Can Wait. Mike Nichols, on the other hand, is THE Mike Nichols who directed The Graduate, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and lots of other hits. He also directed Spamalot on Broadway.

Neat. I’ve learned something tonight!

11. Wayland Flowers and Madame, for Da Nator, of course. This clip is over way too fast, but I think it proves Da Nator’s point: these two were nasty. Wait, there’s more, and if you look on YouTube, there’s a part 3, too. Yeah, Madame’s a lot funnier here than she ever was on Hollywood Squares. Go figure.

12. Diana Rigg and her leather catsuit. OH. MY. F. G. There are a whole bunch of “Diana Rigg and her leather catsuit” videos on YouTube. Clearly, I’ve been wasting my time on YouPorn.

You’re right. That’s not her leather catsuit, that’s her Queen of Sin suit. I know it’s not her catsuit because this one makes me say Woof.

13. John Cleese and Prunella Scales — Basil and Sybil Fawlty, loves! I’d have picked Monty Python, but they’re not exactly a duo, now, are they?

I think I’ve figured out what I like about Basil Fawlty. He reminds me of me at my worst — in the office or at home. Poor, poor Basil. And now I’m off to watch Parts 2 and 3 of that clip.

It’s never too early for linky lurve.

Googlers say the darnedest things about the Velvet Blog

From Pat, a cool Thirteen for wordsmiths

and I’m delighted to link to these photos of sxKitten & her lovely fam

I’m not sure I understand the connection between vibrators and eco-friendliness, but I’m sure Lyvvie can explain all

Over at Carrie’s place, Ilsa’s lion sure does pack some hardware

Rella has some interesting info on Waardenburg Syndrome

Ishbadiddle’s Odds and Ends (seriously — follow the link to the condom story!)

Darla has Thirteen Movie Trailer Mashups

Kate’s Thirteen Things about Rob Preece. Excuse me. PREEEEEECE.

Kris wants to be warmer. Go figure.

TEN things to worry about at Mauigirl’s medical blog

D.

Her legs keep going, and going, and going . . .