NOT The Two Ronnies

It’s wonderful to be back?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge Two Ronnies fan and love them as much as the next person. As well as being a very versatile actor, Ronnie Barker was a fantastic wordsmith and has written some of British comedy’s stand out sketches and phrases.

I also give Ronnie Corbett more credit than a lot of people, as an actor he had great timing, and Sorry! is one of my favourite shows.

But I’m also a great fan of parody and satire, even when the target happens to be some of my favourite shows and performers. The two can co-exist to give a well-rounded approach to what is, uniquely, British comedy.

Kinda Lingers

By the late 1970’s ‘alternative’ comedy was starting to appear on TV, breaking away from tradition stand-up and predictable sketches, with more satire and parody at its core.

Nothing epitomised this more than Not The Nine O’Clock News (NTNON). A topical sketch show featuring new performers such as Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson. Chris Langham was also a regular in the first series.

There are too many great sketches (and musical parodies) to mention which will get their own full articles, as it were, in due course. One famous sketch was this Two Ronnies spoof, “The Two Ninnies”, written in part by a regular writer on the real Two Ronnies show, who legend has it, was somewhat disgruntled by RB’s dismissal of the anarchic content on NTNON.

Spousands of Thoonerisms

The sketch starts with a parody of their “news” segment and features Rhys Jones as RC and Mel Smith as RB. After some not-so-subtle but mild innuendo, we move on to a musical piece with the two dressed as beefeaters (I believe that the Two Ronnies donned similar costumes for a sketch on their show around this time) with lyrics that can be best described as a constant stream of full-on innuendo!

A Pain in the Balkans

Ronnie Barker was upset by the upstart new comedians taking the piss, although Ronnie Corbett wasn’t – or was depending on what you read. As perhaps demonstrated years later by his appearances on Little Britain and Extras in some rather edgy comedy sequences.