Line #44 Series/GrandmasHouse


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_grandmashousecast_9909.jpg]]
2
3	->'''Tanya:''' How can you lie to your mother? You came from my womb!\
4	'''Simon:''' Yes, but... I live in Hampstead now.
5
6	''Grandma's House'' (2010–12) is a [[BritCom British]] DomCom following Simon Amstell AsHimself, fresh from quitting his job as host of ''Series/NevermindTheBuzzcocks'' and [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife desperately seeking a new purpose in life]].
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8	Retreating to the bosom of his family and their get-togethers in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin his grandma's house]], he finds they are less than sympathetic when he tells them he's leaving behind fame and fortune. In turn he struggles to deal with his mother Tanya's impending marriage to a rich but deathly dull man, his sex-obsessed cousin Adam, and his death-obsessed grandfather. The first series ran from August to September 2010, and a second series ran from April to May 2012.
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10	[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] the [[DuelingShows similar "dysfunctional Jewish family meets for a meal" sitcom]] ''Series/FridayNightDinner''.
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12	----
13	!!Provides Examples Of:
14	* TheAlcoholic: Clive. [[spoiler: Inevitably he falls OffTheWagon.]]
15	* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: All over the place.
16	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Simon's list of Clive's flaws.
17	-->'''Simon:''' You're OK with that? A history of alcoholism, murder and child-staining?
18	* BeliefMakesYouStupid: "We just need to treat religious people with kindness and love, in the same way you'd treat a child running around saying: ''I'm a helicopter''!"
19	** Combined with an element of HypocriticalHumor - as he criticises religion, Simon starts taking up New Age "YourMindMakesItReal" beliefs, which inspire him to back the truly disasterous decision of inviting his divorced father over to his grandma's.
20	* BrattyHalfPint: Adam.
21	* ChildrenAreInnocent: Subverted with Adam: [[spoiler:"Adam's finally raped someone!"]]
22	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Simon writes a play in which the characters discuss a "bad egg, with a controlling yolk" who "fell on a penniless egg and killed him". Clive, who Simon sees as a KarmaHoudini for getting away with running over a homeless man while drunk, isn't impressed... because he thinks the play attacks Liz.
23	* CringeComedy
24	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Clive, played for laughs. Well, ''mostly''.
25	* DeadpanSnarker: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] by Simon. He's very popular as the host of ''Series/NevermindTheBuzzcocks'' for his cruel wit and snappy comebacks... but being praised for meanness just depresses him (learning that a guest attempted suicide after the show makes him feel worse, even if it is almost certainly a publicity stunt), and [[TheSnarkKnight he can't turn it off when talking to his family]], which doesn't endear him to anyone.
26	* DisappearedDad: Simon's father.
27	* DistractedByTheLuxury: Tanya's reason for glossing over the unpleasant aspects of Clive's personality.
28	--> '''Tanya:''' [[BlatantLies He's very kind to me]]. And he's got Sky HD. And a 47-inch plasma screen. You can see every single hair in Noel Edmonds' beard! What more do you want from life?
29	--> '''Simon:''' Love? [[MarryForLove True love]]?
30	-->'''Tanya:''' Don't be odd.
31	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The season two finale ends with Simon, still living in his Grandma's spare room, single and miserable, eating junk food while watching old videos of himself on Youtube.]]
32	* DysfunctionalFamily
33	* EmbarrassingOldPhoto: Tanya's collection of videos showing Simon's early attempts at acting.
34	* FreudianExcuse: Rather than just admit to her fiance that her son doesn't like him, Tanya claims that Simon's antagonistic behaviour is because his father abused him[[note]][[PokeThePoodle with a cheese-grater]][[/note]]. HilarityEnsues when Simon's dad then turns up.
35	* GranolaGirl: Simon with his various plans to "find himself", such as becoming a Buddhist monk and taking part in dubious self-improvement programmes.
36	* {{Hipster}}: Zazzie, and sometimes Simon.
37	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each episode title begins with "The Day Simon..." (for example, "The Day Simon Announced He Was in Control of the Universe").
38	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: Inverted. Simon calls his aunt something like "unfunny, irritating and racist." She protests that she's not unfunny or irritating.
39	* InsaneTrollLogic: Liz claims that Simon's parents getting divorced caused Grandad's diabetes.
40	* JewsLoveToArgue: The episodes all revolve around this trope.
41	* LoveMartyr. Simon. Why else would he dote on Ben, the emotionally distant, pretentious [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mumbler]]?
42	* ManChild: Simon. In the first episode, when his grandfather confides that he might have cancer, Simon (who's 30) looks incredibly awkward and asks "should I go and get a grown-up?"
43	* MeatVersusVeggies: Clive and Simon, respectively in the first episode.
44	* MirrorMonologue: Simon does this in the bathroom before going out to meet Ben.
45	-->'''Simon:''' Okay. You can do this. You're a person who can exist in real life. [acting cool and restrained] 'Hey. How are you? How funny to see you here. You okay? Hi.'
46	-->[''cut to Simon walking into the living room'']
47	-->'''Simon:''' BEN THEODORE?!
48	* MyBelovedSmother: Tanya and Liz are both this (and [[JewishMother Jewish mothers]] to boot) to their respective sons. Slightly more justifiable in Liz's case as Adam ''is'' still a child, whereas Simon is a fully-grown adult.
49	* NoAccountingForTaste: Tanya and her plans to marry Clive, which Simon suspects have more to do with his big house and well-paid job than any actual love she may feel for him. [[spoiler:He turns out to be right]].
50	* OlderThanTheyLook: Amstell himself looks uncannily like a young Creator/MichaelCera, who he's ten years older than.
51	* PerformanceArtist: Simon again.
52	* PornStash: Bernie's old Playboys up in the loft. See TakingTheHeat.
53	* SeinfeldianConversation.
54	* SelfDeprecation: In the second series, Simon is going to start acting in a play. The other characters routinely warn him that he can't act.
55	* ShirtlessScene: Simon in his underwear at the start of the first episode of series two. He's so very ''thin''.
56	* StalkerWithACrush: Simon is this to Ben Theodore, the actor he follows around, convinced he's in a relationship with him.
57	** Come season two, they actually are in a relationship. Sort of.
58	* StripperCopConfusion: It takes grandma a long time to work out that the fireman waiting patiently in the kitchen during Tanya's birthday party isn't there to check the smoke alarm.
59	* StylisticSuck: Simon's "abstract" play about two eggs questioning their existence.
60	* TakingTheHeat: A minor version. When Adam is discovered in the bathroom, surrounded by his late grandfather's porn mags which he'd just been masturbating to, Clive claims that they were his in order to save embarrassment for both Adam and Grandma. He says that he had been masturbating to them in the loft and that they fell through the hole in the ceiling he'd just accidentally made.
61	--> '''Tanya:''' Clive is a generous and kind man. Let him have a wank in the loft!
62	* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: "Grandma's House, its storyline and all associated characters are entirely fictional. So let's not make a whole business."
63	* TheUnfavourite: Liz seems to be this to her parents.
64	* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Simon Amstell, [[SelfDeprecation sending himself up]].
65	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Simon wakes up confused, in bed with someone [[spoiler: (who turns out to be sixteen)]], convinced he had only been drinking water the previous night. Turns out he was drugged.
66	* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: Mostly Grandpa and his habit of calling people ''schmocks''.

Context Series / GrandmasHouse