YMMV / Fawlty Towers S1E6 "The Germans"

• Aluminium Christmas Trees: At the time, cutting an ingrown toenail really was a major surgical procedure requiring a stay in hospital.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The Major's cheerfully casual racism really shouldn't be funny, but... yeah.
  I took her to see India at the Oval... and the strange thing was that throughout the morning she kept referring to the Indians as 'niggers'! No, no, no, I said. Niggers are the West Indians. These people are WOGS! No, no, no, no, she said, all cricketeers are niggers!
• Harsher in Hindsight: One of the best scenes in the whole series is where Manuel sets fire to the kitchen during a fire drill. The real building (for exteriors, anyway) burned down in 1991.
• Memetic Mutation: "Don't mention the war!"
• Misaimed Fandom: The climax and indeed most of the show is actually making fun of racist attitudes. Hasn't stopped the former from being popular among people with those views, which alarms John Cleese.
• Retroactive Recognition: The Sister is played by Brenda Cowling, who would later be best known for playing Mrs. Lipton in You Rang, M'Lord?.
• Signature Scene: The climax with concussed Basil encountering the German guests, above all his "silly walk" impression of Adolf Hitler. This is not just the signature scene for this episode, but one for Fawlty Towers as a whole.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Basil keeps talking about how "we're all in this together now," as the UK had just joined the European Common Market.
• Values Dissonance: The Major's conversation with Basil about explaining the difference between "wogs" and "niggers" to his ex-girlfriend. These slurs are seen as far more inappropriate than they were when the show first aired and would probably never fly on any modern show. Indeed, by 2013, the BBC started censoring the scene on re-airs, causing some backlash from purists. They're uncensored on the DVD and on Netflix though, fortunately. Even in-universe the fact he's so matter-of-fact about it is the entire joke.

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