History Series / MenBehavingBadly

''Men Behaving Badly'' is a classic BritCom written by Simon Nye, very loosely adapted from a not-particularly-successful novel he wrote in the late 80s. The main cast consists of Creator/MartinClunes as Gary, Caroline Quentin as his girlfriend Dorothy and Leslie Ash as Deborah, who lives in the flat above; the first season had [[Series/HarryEnfieldAndChums Harry Enfield]] playing Gary's flatmate Dermot, while all the subsequent ones replaced him with Neil Morrissey as Tony. It's generally acknowledged that this second season was the moment when the show [[GrowingTheBeard grew its beard]]. There are several reasons for this - Tony was a more interesting character than Dermot and there was better chemistry between him and Gary; the show moved from ITV to [=BBC1=] and the lack of adverts meant that Nye had a few more minutes to play with, and it hit a moment of zeitgeist as the late 80s/early 90s New Man was being brushed aside by a resurgence of laddish masculinity.

* EngineeredHeroics: Gary hides behind a paper when his girlfriend is being threatened while driving and spends the whole episode worried about his reputation. So he rings up an agency to send over a big bloke in a leather jacket to his local pub for him to beat up. He finds a big bloke in a leather jacket who he quickly beats up. Then a much smaller, skinnier guy in a leather jacket appears wanting to fight Gary. He runs away shortly after.

* ForeignRemake: ''It's A Man's World'', starring Creator/RobSchneider.

* BlackComedyAnimalCruelty: "Sofa" shows us that Gary had a pet tortoise. In the ensuing flashback, we see a young Gary preparing to kick the tortoise-like a football.

* BlackComedyAnimalCruelty: "Sofa" shows us that Gary had a pet tortoise. In the ensuing flashback, we see a young Gary preparing to kick the tortoise-like a football. It's made unclear whether the tortoise actually died or not.

* BedmateReveal: Tony and Dorothy...
* BlackComedyAnimalCruelty: "Sofa" shows us that Gary had a pet tortoise. In the ensuing flashback, we see a young Gary preparing to kick the tortoise-like a football. It's made unclear whether the tortoise actually died or not.
* TheCasanova: Tony, until he falls for Deborah, having slept with fifty women and at one point having three girlfriends at once. Gary wants to be one, but is more of a CasanovaWannabe.

* TheCouch: Or rather sofa

* BlackComedyAnimalAbuse: "Sofa" shows us that Gary had a pet tortoise. In the ensuing flashback, we see a young Gary preparing to kick the tortoise-like a football. It's made unclear whether the tortoise actually died or not.

* DIYDentistry: One episode has Tony tries to relieve a toothache by tying a string to a doorknob and hitting the string with a chair. His throwing of the chair is not successful at first but he is able to (very bloodily) remove the tooth in the end.

* DaydreamSurprise: "Babies" begins with Gary seemingly about to marry Deborah. It's not until the marriage gets weird (culminating with both of them becoming pregnant) that it becomes apparent that it is a dream.

* DIYDentistry: One episode has Tony tries to relieve a toothache by tying a string to a doorknob and hitting the string with a chair. His throwing of the chair is not successful.

* HoYay:[[invoked]]
** There always seemed to be ''something'' between Tony and Gary, for all they talked about girls. WordOfGod [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/oct/21/broadcasting.tvandradio confirms it]] saying "Men Behaving Badly was about a same-sex relationship. Everyone latched on to the lad thing, but to me there was always a significant homoerotic content in the relationship between Gary and Tony. You always got the impression that they'd rather be left alone together, but that was something that they could never admit to themselves."
** When Gary is soon to be married (later called off):
--->'''Tony:''' Gary... if ''I'' was a girl... with a girl's bottom and everything... would you marry me?\\
'''Gary:''' ''[stares at him for a moment in an awkward silence, then answers instantly]'' Course mate!\\
'''Tony:''' Cheers mate!

* DaydreamSequence: "Babies" begins with Gary seemingly about to marry Deborah. It's not until the marriage gets weird (culminating with both of them becoming pregnant) that it becomes apparent that it is a dream.