Line #29 Series/MrsBrownsBoys


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mrsbrownsboys_2358.jpg]]
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3	Mrs Brown's Boys is a DomCom about an Irish Catholic housewife with a [[DirtyOldWoman dirty mind]] and [[ClusterFBomb equally dirty mouth]] and little shame about using it. She is the matriarch of her family, having four sons and one daughter (many of whom live in her small working class house as they aren't able to afford to move out yet) as well as with her senile father-in-law. The show was created and written by Irish comedian Brendan O'Carroll -- who also plays Mrs Agnes Brown herself by [[CrosscastRole dressing in drag]].
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5	Originally airing on [[Creator/{{RTE}} RTÉ One]] in Ireland, and broadcast shortly after on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC One]], [[note]]Although set in {{UsefulNotes/Dublin}}, the show is made at the BBC's Glasgow studios[[/note]] it has had very mixed reception on either side of the Irish Sea, with criticism about its cliché plots and the fact that the idea of a man pretending to be a dirty-mouthed old lady is considered outdated humour. However it has received high ratings on both channels, and aside from the predictable plots there is a certain irreverence to the series which centres on how harsh Mrs Brown can act towards her family and friends as well as having fair amount of [[MetaFiction "meta" humour]] and jokes which [[BreakingTheFourthWall break the fourth wall]], with Brendan O'Carroll occasionally going wildly off-script just to see what the rest of the cast will do.
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7	[[TheFilmOfTheSeries A movie]] was produced by Universal Studios and was released June 27th 2014.
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9	There's also a stage version, released on DVD, which the TV scripts are based on, but has [[DarkerAndEdgier more swearing]].
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11	There is also a French-Canadian version called ''Mme Lebrun''.
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14	!!Tropes associated with Mrs Brown's Boys:
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16	* AnimatedCreditsOpening: A very brief one of Agnes Brown hanging polaroid photographs of her relatives out on her washing line.
17	* AttendingYourOwnFuneral: In the season one finale, Granddad gets suspicious about what people will say about him at his funeral, so he [[FakingTheDead fakes his death]] with the help of the family to have an old-fashioned Irish wake. When the call for people [[DueToTheDead to say something positive about the deceased]] is made and leads to an awkward silence, he breaks character as the corpse in outrage.
18	* BadJobWorseUniform: Dermot Brown has a string of these for all the different crappy jobs he's held over the course of the series, including a giant penguin when he was selling [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_%28biscuit%29 Penguin Biscuits]] and a giant cigarette butt when he was part of a stop smoking campaign.
19	* BaitAndSwitchComparison: Frequently. Lampshaded once;
20	-->'''Agnes:''' I still remember the first time he held the baby. The little red face, all wrinkly and covered in drool ... and then there was the baby.\
21	'''Winnie:''' ''[laughing]'' I knew you were gonna say that.\
22	'''Agnes:''' Winnie... ''everyone'' knew I was gonna say that. ''[{{aside glance}}]''
23	* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: In the stage version -- the front door is at the edge of the set, logically enough. The problem is that the staircase leads up to a door that's set into the ''same wall'' as the front door -- in other words, the upstairs floor must be hanging over the street!
24	%%* BewareTheNiceOnes: Grandad, especially around Christmas, but only if you're Agnes.
25	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Always done at the start and end of each episode, as well as numerous times throughout, usually with hilarious results.
26	* BrickJoke: Early in one episode, Agnes is tricked into believing that Jesus is speaking to her through the portrait-with-electric-cross she keeps in the kitchen. Later in the episode, a similar circumstance has her angrily ask her washing machine if it's going to start talking too.
27	* BritishBrevity: Has made three series with six episodes each, and two annual specials every Christmas holiday, a tradition still held after the ongoing series stopped. It currently totals to 39 episodes (plus a theatrical movie) over a decade.
28	* ButtMonkey: Grandad and Buster Brady are often the butt of Agnes' dry wit. Agnes herself takes a lot of slapstick throughout the series.
29	* CameraAbuse:
30	** Notable instances include a camera crashing in through the kitchen window and when Agnes is cleaning the windows she is struck by one.
31	** In the 2012 Christmas specials, Agnes gets a magnet for horses stuck on her wrist. After she pulls it away from the kitchen sink, it gets stuck on one of the cameras.
32	* CampGay: Rory Brown and even more so his boyfriend Dino Doyle. So much so that it takes a surprisingly long time for Agnes to catch on.
33	%%* CarMeetsHouse Agnes didn't like the remodeled kitchen anyway.
34	* CharacterisationMarchesOn: In the early episodes of the first series, Winnie wasn't as much of TheDitz as she is from the second series onwards.
35	%%* ClusterFBomb: Whenever Agnes Brown speaks.
36	%%* CloudCuckooLander: Winnie [=McGoogan=]
37	* CrosscastRole: Mrs. Agnes Brown, played by series creator and writer Brendan O'Carroll.
38	%%* CurseCutShort: To the point of being a minor running gag, most notably between Agnes and Cathy.
39	%%* DeadpanSnarker: Agnes Brown, in spades.
40	%%* DirtyOldWoman: Both Agnes Brown and her best friend Winnie [=McGoogan=].
41	* TheDitz: Winnie, to the point where her thoughts during a tense poker game are just birdsong.%%Buster Brady to a lesser extent.
42	%%* DomCom
43	* DomesticAbuse: Agnes often comically mistreats her elderly father-in-law. Grandad gets revenge in the Christmas specials.
44	* FamilyThemeNaming: The four Brown grandsons are all named for famous singers; [[Music/U2 Bono]] Brown from Mark and Betty, and the triplets [[Music/TheBeatles John, George, and Ringo]] Brown from Dermot and Maria.
45	* FlashStep: Agnes pulls one off in "Mammy Swings" when Dermot tries to tell her from another room that [[spoiler: Rory and Dino got married in private.]]
46	-->'''Dermot:''' Mammy... Mammy? ''Looks through the partition window.'' Where did she go?\
47	''Winnie shrugs. Dermot turns round to find Agnes right behind him.''\
48	'''Dermot:''' Jesus! Well, Mammy, I- [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Out of the way, Cathy, move!]]
49	* GenreSavvy:
50	** The viewers.
51	--->'''Winnie''': I knew you were going to say that.\
52	'''Agnes''' ''(with a nod to the audience)'' Winnie -- ''everyone'' knew I was gonna say that!
53	** Eventually the cast as well, becoming aware when Brendan O'Carroll is about to [[ScriptBreaking go off script to make them laugh]]. The end of the episode where [[spoiler:Agnes' dog dies]] has Agnes make a BaitAndSwitchComparison that Cathy and Dermot see coming a mile off -- yet still laugh at -- and then holding back Dermot for a second, who has this priceless "Oh God, what's he gonna make me do?" grin on his face. What does she ask him to do? [[spoiler:Perform "I'm a Little Teapot". [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere He legs it out of there]].]]
54	* GiftShake: In "Mammy's Memories?", after Winnie drops off a gift envelope for Cathy's birthday, Agnes holds it up to the light, shakes it next to her ear, and sniffs it for good measure.
55	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Most of the Brown boys are quite tall, and tower over their female partners. Even Cathy's boyfriend Mick is OneHeadTaller than her.
56	%%* {{Jerkass}}: Hilary and Sharon.
57	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mrs Brown pretty much epitomizes this trope. Maria like her mother can be quite snooty.
58	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn:
59	** Cathy says that due to a fraudulent death certificate, Mrs Brown could go to prison. Cue the PsychoStrings... until she darts out into the garden to yell at the random string quartet standing there.
60	---> '''Agnes Brown:''' FUCK OFF THE LOT OF YEH!
61	** After an ''Series/EastEnders'' drum-beat (after Cathy's ex-boyfriend returns), Cathy looks out the door to find Buster Brady turning it into a full drum solo.
62	* MediumAwareness:
63	** They know they're in a TV show and will often interact with the cameras, crew or mention the fact it's a TV show. If any actors laugh, as they frequently do, it is left in.
64	--->'''Agnes:''' What are you doing here? \
65	'''Buster:''' It's in the script.
66	** They're also aware of who broadcasts the programme.
67	--->'''Agnes:''' What's with the black tape on the side of the box? \
68	'''Buster:''' Oh, to cover up the name. [[Creator/TheBBC BBC rules]]. \
69	'''Agnes:''' [[spoiler:Although it's very obvious from the box that it's an iPhone 4S]].
70	** From the first season:
71	--->'''Dermot:''' Mrs Nicholson's dead posh, Ma.\
72	'''Agnes:''' And so are we! We have a show on the BBC, I don't think she has!
73	** From the third Christmas Special:
74	---> '''Agnes:''' An exploding cracker. It must be the Christmas episode.
75	** From the second Christmas Special:
76	--->'''Winnie:''' I used to get that a lot with Jacko. It's called Wa-\
77	'''Agnes:''' Winnie! It's the Christmas episode! mouths to audience I'm sorry.
78	%%* MetaFiction:
79	* NoFourthWall: Mrs Brown frequently talks to the audience, and has been known to drop character and comment on the surrealism of the situation, or point out that they are on a studio set.
80	--> '''Studio Audience:''' Awwwwww.... (at a sad situation which upsets Mrs Brown) \
81	'''Brendan O'Carroll / Mrs Brown:''' It's a man in a fuckin' dress!
82	** Also:
83	--->'''Mrs Brown''' ''(Getting up and walking from the living room to the kitchen)'' Come on, Ciarán. ''(To audience, as the camera follows her)'' Ciarán the cameraman.
84	*** And yes, according to the closing credits one of the camera crew ''is'' named Ciarán.
85	*** In another episode the phone in the Browns house rings and Mrs Brown declares that it's for Ciarán before handing it off to a camera man... twice.
86	** The show may as well be called The Fourth Wall Demolition Crew. In one episode from the third season, Mrs Brown walks out of the kitchen, stopping as the camera is about to pass the set partition, and immediately steps back. She does this twice, giving a glance to the camera.
87	** At the end of the second season, they acknowledge that it's the end of the season, "but it can't be, we've no song!"
88	** In one episode, Mrs. Brown walks outside the set, only for one of the camera men to knock into him/her. Brendan O'Carroll/Mrs. Brown laughed as the camera man moved away, and O'Carroll/Mrs. Brown wiped his head with a dish cloth before the episode went back underway.
89	** Taken up to eleven in ''Mammy's Gamble'': Agnes runs around the living room wall to join Dermot in the kitchen briefly ''in a scene where she's trapped in the living room with Buster.''
90	** In one episode, a camera man breaks the kitchen window, something that Agnes comments on.
91	** In another, one of the cameras accidentally appears in shot whilst moving to its next position. Agnes calls out, "Dermot! The man's here about the wedding video!"
92	* PsychoStrings: Appears to appear after Mrs Brown says something shocking and ominous in one episode in one episode, but is subverted (see LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn).
93	%%* ReallyGetsAround: [=Sharon McGoogan=].
94	* RunningGag: "That's nice." [[note]] In one episode, Agnes explains that she once took elocution lessons where she learned to say "that's nice" instead of "fuck off".[[/note]]
95	* RefugeInAudacity: Most of the time. One example is when Mrs Brown goes out to the pub wearing a bra that increases your breast size. She shows it to Winnie, but then it won’t stop getting bigger. While they’re both panicking about her chest size, which is growing to ridiculous proportions, the local priest comes over and starts chatting to them. He finally decided to comment on the bra(“Mrs Brown, are your tits swelling?”) and Winnie just bites Mrs Brown’s breasts, to burst the bra.
96	* ScriptBreaking: Constantly. Brendan O'Carroll usually says/does things that the other actors don't expect. One particular example [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmLv-Iv0bw&feature=bf_prev&list=SPB45CC9BA4B4A72BC&lf=list_related causes one of the actors to burst out laughing]]
97	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij5zYe3UGn8 Hell! Brendan himself sometimes screws up.]]
98	** In an extended scene on the series one DVD, the actors go so far off the rails O'Carrol breaks character to ask the camera crew "if you hear ''anything'' I wrote, fuckin' say bingo, will you?"
99	* ShoutOut: Mrs Brown tries to set a booby trap with [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner Acme branded products]]
100	* SirSwearsALot: Though not continuously swearing, she has no shame in doing so if she feels the situation requires it. (She sometimes substitutes the less obscene "feck", although the hard-of-hearing subtitlers don't always get it right.)
101	* SitcomArchnemesis: Agnes and Hilary in the majority of series 2-3.
102	* SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness: In the Christmas specials for Agnes' friends and family. Buster is unsettled by Agnes randomly giving a PSA, while Mark and Cathy end the episode for Agnes in the first special.
103	** In the first episode of the third season, Winnie refers to Agnes's opening monologue being in the local pub as "talking to yersel'."
104	---> '''Winnie:''' You usually do that in your kitchen.
105	** The end-of-season songs count as well.
106	* StudioAudience: Occasionally included in shot, as well as [[BreakingTheFourthWall addressed]].
107	* UnexplainedRecovery: After [[spoiler: Rory crashed his car through the remodelled kitchen]], the original returns in the next episode with no explanation.
108	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Agnes frequently mentions having six children, but only five ever appear.
109	** For those curious, the sixth child, Simon, only appeared in the radio show. He was Rory's twin brother, and spoke with a stutter.

Context Series / MrsBrownsBoys