This is a discussion on Benny Hill, statue campaign within the Miscellaneous Chat forums, part of the Men's talk category; Benny Hill Statue Campaign
Benny Hill was Britain's biggest ever comedy export, shown in more than 100 countries and adored ...
Benny Hill was Britain's biggest ever comedy export, shown in more than 100 countries and adored the world over; especially in the USA. Benny's comedy was marinated in the honest vulgarity of English popular humour. This shy, modest man was genuinely a people's comic, loved by millions but strangely detested by the likes of Ben Elton and other chattering class snipers. To them, Benny was “sexist”. The sanctimonious Elton denounced him as “a dirty old man.” Women are getting raped, he said, and there’s Benny Hill tearing the clothes off nubile girls while chasing them round a park. But hold up, on Benny’s show the girls always ended up chasing HIM. If anything his jokes were anti-men. It was the blokes who walked into lamp-posts. The blokes were always the losers. Especially if they were small and bald and slappable. Women on Benny’s shows fared far better than say Carol Cleveland on Monty Python who was wheeled on in stockings and suspenders and a bit of eye-candy. Besides there was far more to Hill’s comedy than bawdy seaside postcard smut (not that there’s anything wrong with that). He was the first comedian of the television age, and the first to use the medium as a target. A typical Benny Hill show mixed parodies of TV hits with visual comedy, clever mime work, comic songs and character comedy. Lisping Fred Scuttle, Ernie the Milkman and Chow Mein are remembered with affection to this day. But the facts were neither here not there. In 1989 the gutless trendies at ITV shamefully caved in to these joyless PC obsessed prudes (all now thoroughly discredited) who you have to suspect had probably never even watched the show to begin with. Benny was summoned to Thames TV and sacked in a humiliating ten minute meeting. He had generated millions of pounds for the company and yet they treated him like a cloakroom attendant who’d been caught with his hand in someone’s jacket pocket. The great man was devastated. There is little doubt that Benny’s sacking hastened his death in 1991.
Since then, not one of the fashionable comedians who TV has invested millions in have had a quarter of Hill's success, although Little Britain, whose stars cite Benny and Dick Emery as influences, has done best. The dead-hand of Political Correctness, coupled with the desire to be seen as hip and commissions inspired by the phoney god of demographics, have managed to drive all the laughs out of prime time television. (Harry Hill’s inspired TV Burp is about the only comedy show left that transmits between 6pm and 9pm). It's also worth noting that fashionable TV types had it in for the Carry On films in the '80s too for the same feeble-minded reasons (alleged "sexism") and now they happily screen them all. Even Carry On Henry where Sid James as the monarch actually did go looking for a wench to rape…
The Benny Hill show remains a ratings smash wherever it is broadcast. It was number one on BBC America in 2005, but so far the Beeb has shied away from repeating the shows here. Apparently there is too much “stigma” attached to his name. At Christmas 2006, however, Objective Productions made a documentary for Channel 4 where they tested Benny's humour on a young audience. To nobody's surprise but theirs he went down a treat. Benny Hill enthusiasts range from Barry Humphries to Tom Wolfe via Greta Garbo, Clint Eastwood and Snoop Dog. Every big US act seems to love our Benny. Even the Black-eyed Peas are fans. It is a national scandal that Benny's legacy is unrecognised in his own country. Which is why I'm leading a campaign for a statue to be raised to honour his memory. We have the backing of the Heritage Foundation, Graeme Ibbeson, who sculpted the excellent Eric Morecambe bronze at Morecambe) has the design and a platoon of stars are ready to drum up the cash. We even have various councils fighting for the statue to be located in their town. Stump up some of the cost, chaps, and he’s yours…..
* Anyone donating £100 or more to the Benny Hill statue will have their name permanently linked to Benny's splendid erection. Please make cheques out to the Arts & Entertainment Charitable Trust (registered charity 1031027) and post c/o the Heritage Foundation, Green Acres, 3 Birchwood Chase, Great Kingshill, Bucks HP15 6EH . Payments can be accepted under Gift Aid. All Benny fans can now buy a handsome 11-inch cold-cast bronze version. They cost £95 (plus £10 p&p) – and money from each sale goes towards the statue's construction. Buy online at http://www.morecambe.co.uk/bennyhill.
* The odd thing about po-faced eighties ‘alternative’ comics is that they couldn’t abide any alternative to their kind of humour. Benny’s honest vulgarity was unlike to play well with hectoring professor’s son Ben Elton. Curiously, of the two Bens, Elton is now more detested on the stand-up scene. Mark Steel put him in Room 101. Stewart Lee reckoned he is more despised than Bin Laden who “at least lived his life according to a consistent set of ethical principles.” Toby Young put it best, saying Ben Elton “started out as an alternative comedian railing against Thatcherism and now earns a fortune writing librettos for truly awful West End musicals. His name has become a by-word for shameless hackery. He’s the biggest sell-out of his generation.”
April 23, 2006: Brian Conley headlined a benefit show with great performances from Neville Staples, John Bardon, Right Said Fred, Rick Wakeman and a host of others. £5,000 was raised towards the statue on the night. My thanks to the Artful Dodger, Mike Osman, Secret Affair, the Cockney Rejects, Mickey Pugh, Seani T, Max Splodge, Hilary O'Neil, the OddBalls, Dexter, Eddie Piller and everyone else who made the night a success.
* All Benny fans can now buy a handsome 11-inch cold-cast bronze version. They’re a bit pricey, but you can get them for £5 off - £90 (plus £10 p&p) – and money from each sale goes towards the statue's construction. Buy online at www.morecambe.co.uk/bennyhill.
For my next trick, how about an Ian Dury statue at Upminster? The grand old raspberry surely deserves it...
Oh boy, that line I put in bold - cracked me up! LOL
Here's some BH to keep it up... Your smile, I meant!!!
A man who brought many belly laughs and epitomised that strange yet delightfully irreverend British humour.
He wasn't the first to go down as a victim of the new-born feminasty PC. Before Benny was Max Wall. Everyone marvelled at Max, the last but one great vaudeville comedian on stage. He was bawdy and rude with that English smuttiness we all love but never swore. He was sacked to for just one joke.
The joke? He was describing how he was crossing a narrow rope bridge over a ravine in the jungle and from the other side came a gorgeous woman. They met in the middle. "I didn't know whether to block her passage or toss myself off", was the punch line.
For that, he was banned from TV forever.
I have tried all my life to leave the place better than I found it.
But there are 6 billion other buggers out there messing it up.
"I didn't know whether to block her passage or toss myself off", was the punch line.
That was fuckin' funny!
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Out of the gloom a voice spake unto me. 'Smile and be happy, Things could get worse."
So I smiled and was happy, and behold... Things did get worse.
Delighted to see the great Benny being recognised for the comic genius he was. His humour was often described as "British seaside postcard" type - cheeky but harmless. Except to the po-faces of course.
I always thought that he was an extremely clever wordsmith - he could find humour and subtle meaning in language where everyone else had missed it. A true original.
29th-July-2008
