first of all, my congratulations go out to LehmannS and ScheelerD and i send approximately one billion thanks to the 61 of you who played my one-day. i had a lot of fun coming up with these questions and reminiscing on all of these great shows – and they are great shows, so if you haven’t seen them or haven’t heard of them, then consider firing up the pal player or queuing the netflix whatnot because you are currently missing out.

here are the criteria i tried to stick to when coming up with my question stack: (a) the show referenced in the question should have been quantifiably popular in the u.k.; (b) the show should have been aired at some point on u.s. television; and (c) the question should not directly regard the show’s impact in america (e.g., man about the house (u.k.) --> three’s company (u.s.a.)).

so why no questions about monty python’s flying circus? because monty python’s flying circus was a sketch comedy show, not a situation comedy.

and now, the britcom one-day post-mortem clip show.

1. i’ve heard the american version of this question (answer: the series finale of m*a*s*h) in nearly every trivia situation i’ve found myself in: pub trivia in michigan, pub trivia in boston, pub trivia in san francisco, pub trivia somewhere else in san francisco, trivial pursuit (in at least 3 editions) -- even while competing in an event on a cruise ship. so this question seemed like a reasonable one to ask, even though, by including it, i went against one of my own criteria: as far as i know, only fools and horses was never broadcast in the u.s. still and all, i think it’s a fair question, though 79% of you may disagree.

2. i love the inbetweeners. it’s funny, mean, and for the most part, realistic. plus, outstanding soundtrack.

3. and speaking, as we just were, about outstanding soundtracks, we come to the question about graham linehan’s collaboration with the divine comedy (neil hannon). this is, i think, it crowd’s second appearance in a learned league match (the first being “comedy” ml, md12 q10). please enjoy maybe this clip, in which i/t guys moss and roy help their technologically ignorant manager jen to prepare her speech on the subject of information and technology.



here’s neil hannon, the central (and sometimes only) member of the divine comedy, performing an acoustic-guitar version of “songs of love”, a piece of which went on to become the theme song of another graham linehan series, father ted.



and here, for good measure, are the divine comedy performing “tonight we fly”.



4. judging by the number of players who answered this question correctly, the majority of you already know about the truly excellent blackadder. outstanding. blackadder is the genesis of my infatuation with britcoms. although i had seen british situation comedies before, i’d never cared about them too particularly. then one day, at the end of the 1980s, one of the local stations began airing series one: the black adder and i was instantly smitten.

hey – here’s a fact for you: “goodbyeee”, blackadder’s final episode, is the greatest series finale in the history of television. that’s a fact, okay? of the stone-cold variety. i mean, you could probably make an argument for the series finales of newhart or king of the hill or cheers, or even for that of the sainted m*a*s*h, but deep down, you’d know that you were just arguing for the sake of arguing, and that’s called being contrarian. but it’s not vocabulary lesson time – it’s history lesson time, so here’s captain blackadder to explain trench warfare:



and how exactly did world war 1 begin?



5. howard moon and vince noir of the mighty boosh are so outstandingly awesome that even an inventory of their cupboard is interesting:



here’s a clip featuring the answer to question 5, cheekbone magazine:



furthermore, i’ll put a move on you.



6. if you’re somewhere and you see this teddy bear, leave immediately.



7. back in the pre-cable days, if you were watching a british situation comedy on american tv, then it was are you being served? on pbs. your generous donations made that possible.

8. i’m guessing that there’s always a slowdown at the interchange between the freelove freeway and the hot-love highway.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1462197/t ... way_uncut/

dig that 3-part harmony.

9. i was actually kinda surprised that more people didn’t get this one right – wasn’t there even a LLama using this picture as an avatar in the message boards? in any case, the very scary picture is from an episode of look around you. unfortunately, i can't find a clip on youtube featuring the slimby slimming picture, but i can send you here. (follow through to the scary picture using the "look at the scary picture" link.)


i can’t recommend this program (or, for that matter, its website – the periodic table is comedy gold, i tell ya!) more highly.



10. in a way, i guess i included some monty python after all. evidently, john cleese’s favorite fawlty towers episode was “basil the rat”, so here’s a clip from that episode. as far as i’m concerned, basil fawlty’s mortification and subsequent delivery of the line, “w-w- would you w-would you care for rat?” is one of the funniest things ever televised.



11. although i’ve enjoyed all the alan partridge shows – probably i’m alan partridge best of all, i actually prefer steve coogan’s “tommy saxondale” character. maybe it’s because he’s more eloquent and less desperate than alan partridge; maybe it’s just that self-satisfied squint-and-lip-smack combo move.



12. the thin blue line plus saffron (yellow) monsoon (from absolutely fabulous) = green.
green is the complementary color of the red dwarf.

so that’s that. again, thanks to all of you who played. and now, i leave you with one of my favorite intros ever:

The only reason I didn't play was because for the life of me I couldn't make my feeble, feeble brain spit out the name Saxondale. It's a show recommended to me by Adolphus. I watched at least three episodes. I watched Jeremy Clarkson talk to Coogan about it on Top Gear. I felt so frustrated and impotent that I didn't think it would be worthwhile to play. The only other question I would've answered correctly - and it was pretty much a guess - was The Inbetweeners, which is a stupendously enjoyable show. There's no doubt I would've moneyed both questions. Little did I know that I would've scored in the middle rather than last. I mean, even without getting Saxondale. I am sometimes a little sorry when I play a 1D or a ML, but it seems I am always, but always, sorry when I don't. Great questions and theme. Looking forward to sampling the shows.

adolphus has good taste. and so do you -- the inbetweeners is a fantastic show.

i thoroughly enjoyed playing this one-day! it's a good thing that i was alone in the house because i was giggling like a crazy person while i read the questions.
i love, love, LOVE all things steve coogan, even that craptacular remake of around the world in 80 days. love.
the first dvd i ever bought was the full blackadder collection. i didn't even have a dvd player at the time. that is how much i love that show. i also tend to say "inconwenience" a lot, and quote lord flashheart when i'm feeling especially sassy.
i've not nearly seen enough of the inbetweeners, but the few episodes i've seen made me laugh so hard.
i must confess, though, i have watched only one episode of the mighty boosh... guess which episode!

i'm very glad that you enjoyed the question set. and i'm with you: the lord flashheart episodes of blackadder tended to be my favorites. woof!

again, congratulations on the win. may all your britcom dvds be delivered by ninja.

I would also like to offer my thanks to PaceK for an excellent quiz, perhaps the only time this LLama will ever get to display his Only Fools and Horses knowledge short of getting on a British quiz show.

I would also like to anonymously apologize to those groups of people I offended in my (incorrect) answer to question 6. Thanks to Commissioner Integrity for not posting best wrong answers for that question.

i call shenanigans all over this post because now i have a deep, perhaps medical, need to know what your wrong answer was.