Lately my wife and I have been watching ‘Allo ‘Allo! streaming on Netflix. It’s an 80s BBC sitcom which ran for a remarkable nine series, a spoof of the conventions of movies about World War II. It’s actually a lampoon of Secret War, a 70s BBC war drama. It was created and written Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, the same team responsible for Are You Being Served? and Dad’s Army.
Like Are You Being Served? it’s very broad comedy based proudly on stereotypes. It you are offended at stereotypes, you’ll hate ‘Allo ‘Allo!.
Each of the major characters has a catchphrase. For René, owner of a cafe in a small French town and the main character of the series, it’s “You may be wondering…”, followed by a synopsis of how he got into whatever fix he’s in. For Michelle, the head of the Resistance (the Resistance is entirely composed of attractive young women wearing trenchcoats and berets), it’s “Listen very closely;I shall say this only once” which becomes hilarious as the series progresses.
It has one interesting and useful convention. Broad stage accents are used to indicate that a character is speaking in one language or another. Most of the characters speak with a stage French accent to indicate they’re speaking French, the Germans speak with an exaggerated stage German accent, the British flyers with Bertie Wooster-style English accents, the Italian captain with a stage Italian accent, and so on. When Michelle, who normally speaks with a stage French accent, speaks to the English flyers and they can’t understand her she switches to their stage upperclass English accent. The device is used to humorous effect in the case of Officer Crabtree, a British spy disguised as a French policeman, who speaks with a stage French accent, bizarrely mispronouncing words (“Good moaning”), indicating that he speaks broken French.
We’re in Series 6 now. I hope they get around to lampooning Americans.
‘Allo ‘Allo! is possibly the daffiest sitcom I’ve ever watched and I find it a welcome relief from the events of the day. Be aware that it is occasionally coarse, bawdy, and employs stereotypes.
Off topic, but on the subject of comedy (very loosely defined):
https://www.change.org/p/seattle-university-school-of-law-cancel-the-federalist-society-s-social-justice-monday-at-su-law
One can shirk debate, but still practice law according to some fools.
Rebate.