1998-2001
Sketch Comedy show performed by British Indians Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir and Nina Wadia. Most sketches were self-parody of British Asians and Asian culture, the reaction of white British people to Asians, or Indian-styled spoofs of western TV shows.
Began as a radio series, then became a TV adaption on
BBC 1.
Regular characters included:
- Cheque Please - A tactless playboy who drives his dates away with insensitive behaviour or comments.
- Bhangra Muffins - Two "street" teenage boys with attitude.
- Everything Comes From India - A man who believes that everything from shampoo * to Superman is Indian *
Except God, who clearly cannot be Indian as he works a six-day week, no Sundays, and Michaelangelo's David because no man with an organ that small could ever be Indian
or was invented by Indians. - Minx Twins - Gossipy teenage girls.
- Chunky Lafanga - Bollywood superstar.
- Smeeta Smitten Showbiz Kitten - A Bollywood reporter whose presenting style leaves a lot to be desired.
- The Coopers - Snobbish nouveau riche couple in denial that they are Indian.
- Bhangra Man - A superhero who saves people through the power of bhangra dance.
- Guru Maharishi Yogi - A spiritual "guru" who likes to con money out of his followers.
- The Competitive Mothers: Exactly What It Says on the Tin
The best remembered sketch from the show, which has won several awards, was "Going for an English" - a parody of the behaviour of drunken Brits in Indian restaurants.
Tropes used in the show include:
- Berserk Button - Try suggesting that the Kapoors and Rabindranaths - er, Coopers and Robinsons - are anything but 100% English ...
- The B Grade - "My son got a B!"
- Catch Phrase - "Kiss my chuddies!", "Cheque please!", "In your dreams, buddy!", "I can make it at home for nothing!", "Chaakde phaate!", "Yes, but how big is his danda?", etc.
- Catchphrase Interruptus
- Cloud Cuckoolander - The Bhangra Muffins
- Gag Dub - The "Skipinder the Punjabi Kangaroo" sketch.
- Gay Bar
- Large Ham - Chunky Lafanga
- My Beloved Smother
- Running Gag
- Sound to Screen Adaptation
- The Jimmy Hart Version - All the song parodies on the show.
- The Unintelligible - Bhangra Man speaks only in Punjabi but is always perfectly understood by English-speaking characters.
- Truth in Television - The cast based some the characters on the show on people they knew and didn't exaggerate when portraying them, offending those people greatly while doing it.
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