History Series / ABitOfFryAndLaurie

* PreciousPuppies: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZToV6JTujfk Puppy Appeal]]

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: One man (Steven) is forced to listen as another man (Hugh) shows him excruciatingly boring slideshow photos of a holiday, in repayment for the first man sleeping with his daughter. The father warns him if he does it again, there'll be a ''slideshow''.

* MissConception: ** A sketch has Fry as the headmaster of a school and Laurie as Mr. Smear, an ultra-strait-laced parent outraged that his young son had been taught "gutter language" and "lies" about human reproduction in biology class -- specifically, that "sexual intercourse can bring about pregnancy in the adult female," which he claims is "nothing more than a disgusting rumor put about by trendy young people in TheSixties." The baffled headmaster gently points out that Mr. Smear must have had sex with Mrs. Smear at some point to produce little Michael; Mr. Smear is mortally offended and says that Michael is his son "in the normal way," which, when pressed, he describes as getting married, buying a house and some furniture, and just waiting for a bit, making sure to eat three hot meals a day.

* MoralGuardians: A man comes to complain to his son's school about his son being taught about sex in biology. It quickly becomes clear the dad has no idea ''how'' children are born.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment

* TakeThat: Take that, UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, John Major, Rupert Murdoch, MoralGuardians, estate agents, {{Eagleland}}, yuppie culture, critics, psychics, Series/TopGear, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Noel Edmonds]]!

** The "Gelliant Gutfright" sketches parody ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' and its genre, featuring [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]], TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday, and many subverted cliches. ("Goodnight... if you can.")

* [[ClusterFBomb Cluster Bollocks-Bomb]]: "Oh, double balls and bollocks!"

* ItsAWonderfulPlot: A media mogul (a clear AnonymousRinger for UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch) gets this treatment. It turns out that if he had never lived, the world would be a much better place where everyone would be cultured and well-educated, and live in peace and harmony since he wasn't able to create his media empire which would profiteer heavily on create divisions in society through the glorification of violence and spreading bigoted discourses against minorities. This makes him decide to turn his life around -- because the peaceful world is ripe to be exploited by manipulative media. At this point, his guardian angel, realizing that he is a lost cause who will never improve, pushes him off the bridge. And calls him a twat.

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: In "My Dear Boy," Nigel the geeky aeroplane enthusiast answers "Simbold Cleobury's" advert for 'models' (which had indeed been placed in an Airfix enthusiast magazine). Simbold grows more excited and lascivious over Nigel's description of owning a "camel" and starting on modeling at age four and getting covered in glue, and then asks for a photo of his "jumbo" only to be handed a picture of a jet. [[SubvertedTrope And Nigel realizes his mistake and takes out another photo]], after which he cheerfully agrees to be painted nude.

%% AuthorFilibuster

''A Bit of Fry and Laurie'', commonly known as ABOFAL or "Boffle", is a British television series starring former Cambridge Footlights members Creator/StephenFry and Creator/HughLaurie, broadcast on both Creator/{{BBC}}2 and also [=BBC1=] between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series, and totalled 26 episodes, including a 35 minute pilot episode in 1987. Both Fry and Laurie have expressed interest in working together again, but this has not yet taken place, due to both men's busy schedules (the former with various projects, the latter with ''Series/{{House}}'').

* CrazyPrepared: One sketch features Hugh Laurie (in drag) running a greetings card with a range of highly specific messages even down to Stephen Fry's request for a joint birthday and get-well card (as his wife is liable to jealous spasms every time his daughter has a birthday). Sadly, the name on the card is wrong, but fortunately Laurie stocks a sympathy card especially for people who can't get the card they want.

* DuelToTheDeath: Except that when their intermediary offers the choice of "sword or pistol", what he meant is that the second man will get the weapon not chosen-so Hugh has a pointy metal stick while Stephen gets a firearm. After trying to work out a way to make it fair, they settle on something they do have two of and are left to try and kill each other with the intermediary's two ''handkerchiefs'', until they realize he doesn't have anything left to signal with.

* FlairBartending: In the ending cocktail of series 3 and 4 (see GargleBlaster below), Stephen dances, gyrates, and twirls arhythmically as he prepares whatever drink (or not-drink) he or the guests have chosen. His performances get more and more absurd, occasionally resulting in a spill, stuffing the shaker down his trousers and hopping around, or on one occasion ''swinging it like a yo-yo.''

* GargleBlaster: In seasons 3 and 4, the show would end with a cocktail being picked and chosen. These started at the season with the relatively reasonable, such as the Whiskey Thunder, involving whiskey, angostura bitters, lemon juice, a pint of oh-so-fresh dairy cream, two olives, and a peanut.[[note]]This would in fact be pretty disgusting: the whisky would be heavily diluted by all that cream, which in turn would be curdled by the lemon juice, so you'd end up with salty, bitter, mildly alcoholic sour cream.[[/note]] They would then range up to the increasingly absurd, such as the mug of Horlicks (a hot malted milk drink, notably nonalcoholic) all the way up the the finale, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_gYLLK-Yo which cannot be described in fewer than two paragraphs]].

** In the ProductPlacement episode about Tidyman's Carpets, Hugh refers to the titular carpets as [[DoubleEntendre "the deep shag that really satisfies"]]

* GoodOldWays: A duke and duchess wax poetic about how many responsibilities they have for the village, like "the Taking" ceremony at the village festival where the duke selects a pretty young girl to honor... and then takes her to the garden shed to [[BlackComedyRape violate her]].

* IKEAErotica: A fourth-series sketch has Stephen narrating an "improve your lovemaking" cassette. First off, it's Stephen Fry at his mildest, and the lovers take the instructions ''really'' literally and robotically.

* ItsAWonderfulPlot: A media mogul (a clear AnonymousRinger for UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch) gets this treatment. It turns out that if he had never lived, the world would be a much better place where everyone would be cultured and well-educated, and live in peace and harmony since he wasn't able to create his media empire which would profiteer heavily on create divisions in society through the glorification of violence and spreading bigoted discourses against minorities. This makes him decide to turn his life around -- because the peaceful world is ripe to be exploited by manipulative media. At this point, his guardian angel, realizing that he is a lost cause that who will never improve, pushes him off the bridge. And calls him a twat.
* KillItWithFire: A pair of monks soundly denounce and prepare to immolate an object they say to be an instrument of Satan, with all the gravity and drama you'd expect from medieval clerics, and solemnly prepare the "chasting dish" for the offensive item--a plastic creamer cup whose cap tore and spilled on the bishop's vestments.

* NoFourthWall: Fry and Laurie will sometimes break character during sketches to comment on them or apply to the audience. Sometimes the sketch is interrupted by someone ''in'' the audience, like the man (played by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Whitrow Benjamin Whitrow]]) who claims that they've plagiarized his sketches.
* NoLongerWithUs: On learning that Charlotte Bronte is, "I can hardly say I'm surprised. Where can I get in touch with her?"

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: In "My Dear Boy," Nigel the geeky aeroplane enthusiast answers "Simbold Cleobury's" advert for 'models' (which had indeed been placed in an airfix enthusiast magazine). Simbold grows more excited and lascivious over Nigel's description of owning a "camel" and starting on modeling at age four and getting covered in glue, and then asks for a photo of his "jumbo" only to be handed a picture of a jet. [[SubvertedTrope And Nigel realizes his mistake and takes out another photo]], after which he cheerfully agrees to be painted nude.

** The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbGFrIkLEMs Tony of Plymouth]]" sketch parodies {{Swashbuckler}}s with {{Flynning}}, big shirts, [[YouFightLikeACow dueling insults]], and a soundtrack[[note]]later overlaid for copyright reasons[[/note]] lifted directly from an Creator/ErrolFlynn movie... over cigarette tax and means-testing.

** In the ''It's a Wonderful Life'' parody, the Rupert Murdoch expy proclaims "You gotta have tits to sell a newspaper!" after discovering that page 3 was simply more news in a world where he was never born.

* SucksAtDancing: Stephen's attempts to move to a rhythm are truly painful to behold. Just look at the "dancersise" sketch.

* SuicideIsShameful: One guy in the vox pop segment says he has been depressed for 14 years and claims his wife says he should kill himself, but according to him, it's a coward's way out, but he did once try to kill himself.
* SurrealHumor: Part of the humor are the bizarre, not quite right words or elements that have little to do with the actual sketch. E.g., a man eating cornflkes with a knife and fork, or Tony of Plymouth decrying a politician for lining his ''bathroom'' with venison and other fine delicacies.

* TalkativeLoon: The shop assistant in the Mr Dalliard sketches (the same one who prefers the word 'Brothels')

* YourCheatingHeart: In the Australian Soap, Stephen's character confesses, to Hugh, that he's been having an affair with Hugh for some time.

* ItsAWonderfulPlot: A media mogul (a clear AnonymousRinger for UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch) gets this treatment. It turns out that if he had never lived, the world would be a much better place where everyone would live in peace and harmony since he wasn't able to create his media empire which would profiteer heavily on create divisions in society through the glorfication of violence and spreading bigoted discourses against minorities. This makes him decide to turn his life around -- because the peaceful world is ripe to be exploited by manipulative media. At this point, his guardian angel, realizing that he is a lost cause that who will never improve, pushes him off the bridge. And calls him a twat.

** The conservative woman (Hugh) refers to this in two Vox Pops. In one she says that she's been Sectioned by default for having two letters read out on a radio programme. In another she interrupts as the crew attempts to interview another woman (Stephen) to rant about the waste of her license fees and how she's going to write a very stiff letter... [[LiteralMetaphor on cardboard]].

* TakeThat: Take that, MargaretThatcher, John Major, Rupert Murdoch, MoralGuardians, estate agents, {{Eagleland}}, yuppie culture, critics, psychics, Series/TopGear, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Noel Edmonds]]!

* AllNaturalSnakeOil: "Nature's own barbiturates and heroin"

* LawEnforcementInc: They had a sketch about this in their very first episode: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfghLQE3F4 Welcome to the Private Police Force]]. It was a humorous take on privatizations then recently conducted by the Thatcher government, as the episode states not only the police but the UK high roads and ''even the royal family'' have been privatized. ''And'' it implies the police force is now owned by Americans.

* ItsAWonderfulPlot: A media mogul (a clear AnonymousRinger for UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch) gets this treatment. It turns out that if he had never lived, the world would be a much better place where everyone would live in peace and harmony without the influence of his violent media. This makes him decide to turn his life around--because the peaceful world is ripe to be exploited by manipulative media. At this point, his guardian angel, realizing that he is a lost cause that who will never improve, pushes him off the bridge. And calls him a twat.

* SoapWithinAShow: The [[{{Neighbours}} suspiciously familiar]] Australian [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV3tfauw3vQ&feature=related soap opera]]. While it starts as a standard parody of daytime soaps with bad acting, overwrought plots and confusing relationships between the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, it quickly evolves into something downright surreal.

'''''A Bit of Fry and Laurie''''', commonly known as ABOFAL or "Boffle", is a British television series starring former Cambridge Footlights members Creator/StephenFry and Creator/HughLaurie, broadcast on both Creator/{{BBC}}2 and also [=BBC1=] between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series, and totalled 26 episodes, including a 35 minute pilot episode in 1987. Both Fry and Laurie have expressed interest in working together again, but this has not yet taken place, due to both men's busy schedules (the former with various projects, the latter with ''Series/{{House}}'').

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Stuart (Laurie) in the "Gordon and Stuart" sketches, who talks as though he's an expert and puts down his dining partners for "ignorance" when they respond with bemusement--meanwhile, Gordon is demonstrating a mild-mannered but much firmer grasp of the topic, to Stuart's embarassment.

* GargleBlaster: In seasons 3 and 4, the show would end with a cocktail being picked and chosen. These started at the season with the relatively reasonable, such as the Whiskey Thunder, involving whiskey, angostura bitters, lemon juice, a pint of oh-so-fresh dairy cream, two olives, and a peanut. They would then range up to the increasingly absurd, such as the mug of Horlicks (Think broadly similar to hot chocolate, and notably nonalcoholic) all the way up the the finale, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_gYLLK-Yo which cannot be described in fewer than two paragraphs]].

* CompensatingForSomething: One character whose genitals have been removed is offered a doberman, a combat jacket, and a rusty white van, for the dual purpose of restoring his manhood and...