The Fresh Prince of BELL END News Posted by John Hoare on 10th February 2007, 18:09 Can anyone tell I’m going through old VHSes at the moment? Anyway, from an episode of Fresh Prince, made in 1992: NURSE: Do you have any medical experience? HILARY: Well, not exactly. But I’ve seen every single episode of St. Elsewhere. Seriously, I’m not actually suggesting they nicked a Dwarf joke. But I am amused that it’s pretty much word-for-word identical…
Just by linking from that one i found another funny clip involving Victor Lewis Smith phoning up the Guinness Book Of Records “What’s the name of that woman who looks like she could suck the colour out of a marble? Ah, that’s right, Cheryl Baker” I am in hysterics as I write this, from that line alone, I couldn’t watch any more for laughing… Ooh I needed that, technically I should thank you John. I love a good wheeze.
I guess it’s a reworking of an old joke anyway… The Fresh Prince that is, not Danny posting in the wrong thread of course.. I’ll just add Ha ha ha, by the way…
If that joke was done now people would be wondering why they were mentioning the Gnarls Barkley album. If you think about it, the St Elsewhere joke/reference is much more at home on Fresh Prince (and said by Hilary) than on Dwarf. Sometimes references like this on Dwarf annoy me but I think even if you don’t know what St. Elsewhere is you can pretty much guess. And here you start getting into the discussion/argument of timeless jokes vs pop-culture references, of which I’ll just say one thing, pop-culture references are fine as long as in twenty years’ time when someone’s watching the show it still seems funny because it isn’t too specific or obscure (e.g. in Dwarf, the ‘Androids’ Neighbours parody is something people will always get, even if they didn’t know Neighbours (EXTREMELY unlikely, maybe in 50 years if it’s dead and gone) they’d still get the idea of a cheesy low-budget badly-made soap)
>even if they didn?t know Neighbours (EXTREMELY unlikely, maybe in 50 years if it?s dead and gone) I wouldn’t say extremely unlikely, given the amount of countries that see Dwarf in syndication (and DVD) that have never even had a showing of Neighbors. I had no idea that the Androids segment was a specific send up of any one program, ditto the theme tune. Didn’t stop me from laughing though, because it WAS genuinely funny and, as you say, it works just fine as a joke outside of its own reference.
If you think about it, the St Elsewhere joke/reference is much more at home on Fresh Prince (and said by Hilary) than on Dwarf. I was thinking exactly this, actually. You’re right.
I’m with Phil. I’d not heard of Neighbors when I first saw that episode. I still have never seen Neighbors, nor do I have any particular interest.
> If that joke was done now people would be wondering why they were mentioning the Gnarls Barkley album. If you think about it, the St Elsewhere joke/reference is much more at home on Fresh Prince (and said by Hilary) than on Dwarf. Don’t really agree with that. Just because it’s a US show. It was still pretty well known in the UK around the time of broadcast.
It was well known definitely… but the style of joke and the reference just feels slightly odd to me for Dwarf – but perfect for Fresh Prince. But then, you could isolate a lot of jokes in Dwarf and say they were unrepresentative or a bit odd.
True. I’m usually get quite annoyed by US references in Dwarf but this particular reference for me just fitted in with Lister and his trash TV addiction. That’s not to say St. Elsewhere was trash, simply that I could imagine it being shown late night on Network TV and that being the kind of thing Lister type characters would watch upon rolling in from the pub. “I’ve seen every episode of Casaulty” would have just made me think, as if. Lister in on a saturday night?
Yeah, it’s interesting that St. Elsewhere is a lot more believable than Casualty. I think that’s partly down to what you say – it makes more sense that Lister would watch that rather than something like Casualty. But it’s also that specifically mentioning another BBC show would make the Dwarf universe collapse in on itself…
> But then, you could isolate a lot of jokes in Dwarf and say they were unrepresentative or a bit odd. Like (as the cast point out) that odd microwave bit in Polymorph. More Monty Python than Red Dwarf.
I think John’s right – the St Elsewhere reference DOES work batter than Casualty. But because St Elsewhere was already an ‘old show’ by 1990. It’s like picking Monroe over Pamela Anderson – one already feels ‘classic’, rather than jarringly ‘present’. I’m always off-put by the ‘Spare pair of sneakers in the icebox’ line in Legion. In fact I LOVE the fact it’s redressed in Duct Soup by Kochanski as ‘Trainers in the fridge’.
Yes, that’s an extremely good point. It’s similar to the clock radio in Thanks For The Memory. I’m perfectly used to putting Dwarf into context with its production values – but even I thought that was odd when I first watched it back in 94…
