History Series / FatherTed

* HeroicBSOD: Played for laughs (naturally) in the "Flight of Terror", when Father Ted climbs outside the aeroplane mid-flight to fix a cable. He's fine until the crisis is over...
-->'''Ted:''' AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! What am I doing on this fecking wheel? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA''AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!''

A cult hit in Britain and Ireland, the writers never planned to continue it beyond its third season (due to running out of ideas). Star Creator/DermotMorgan (who played Ted) died from a sudden heart attack one day after he finished filming of the final episode, resulting in the common misconception that the show was ended because of this.

* DoorstopBaby: Subverted and defied in "A Christmassy Ted" when a woman leaves a baby on the doorstep of the parochial house, only to claim it back when she realises she's got the wrong house. Ted then considers [[LampshadeHanging all the hilarious japes they could have had if she had left the baby with them]]. Dougal then points out that it wouldn't [[TakeThat have been THAT funny.]]

At one point, a [[TheMusical musical adaptation]] (''[[TitleTheAdaptation "Pope Ted: The Father Ted Musical"]]'') was planned and written by Linehan and Mathews, but the production was cancelled by its producers after Linehan became a extreme transphobe and bombed his reputation.

At one point, a [[TheMusical musical adaptation]] (''[[TitleTheAdaptation "Pope Ted: The Father Ted Musical"]]'') was planned and written by Linehan and Mathews, but the production was cancelled by its producers after Linehan lost a great deal of reputation after he expressed transphobia.

* BorrowedWithoutPermission: Craggy Island is used by the Church as a sort of penal colony on the edge of Ireland. it houses priests who are morally deficient, or else so embarrassing or inept that they can't be seen in a parish where there are ''people''. Father Ted Crilly is there because of a lingering controversy concerning his stewardship of Church funds. Although he complains that:
-->''That money was only ever '''resting''' in my bank account!''

At one point, a [[TheMusical musical adaptation]] (''[[TitleTheAdaptation "Pope Ted: The Father Ted Musical"]]'') was planned and written by Linehan and Mathews, but the production was cancelled by its producers after Linehan became a raging transphobe and destroyed his reputation.

At one point, a [[TheMusical musical adaptation]] ([[TitleTheAdaptation "Pope Ted: The Father Ted Musical"]]) was planned and written by Linehan and Mathews, but the production was cancelled by its producers after Linehan became a raging transphobe and destroyed his reputation.

Came eleventh in ''Series/BritainsBestSitcom'', and is [[AHeroToHisHometown beloved in Ireland]], regularly repeated on Irish television, and lines from the show are quoted about as often as Brits quote ''Creator/MontyPython''.

-->'''Eugene''': Father, that sermon today... [[BrutalHonesty frankly, it]] --''[[BrutalHonesty bored the arse off me]]!''

* CasualSportsJersey: Father Dougal often wears a soccer jersey for pyjamas, emphasising his characterization as an eccentric manchild.

* BlandNameProduct: Eurosong definitely isn't the Series/EurovisionSongContest. [[BlatantLies No siree.]] (In fact, at one point in the series, Ted actually uses the real name, not the in series one)

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** To non-Catholics, the idea of relics being organised into different tiers of holiness in "Tentacles of Doom" sounds like an amusing setup to the episode's plot. But the Catholic Church really does organise relics by tier, from First-class (directly related to Christ or the body parts of a saint), Second-class (objects owned or used by a saint), and Third-class (objects that have touched First or Second-class relics).
** Ted acts like Dougal is an idiot for thinking that Radio/TerryWogan is a nickname, but in RealLife his name was actually Michael. His mother started calling him Terry to tell him apart from his father, who was also Michael.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Possibly the most unexpected moment in the DVDCommentary is witnessing Linehan and Mathews get hot under the collar about the scene in "Kicking Bishop Brennan Up The Arse" in which Ted blatantly lies about not having kicked the Bishop... with his hand on his heart, swearing "on God, on my religion", and ''while standing right next to a crucifix''. Not only they say that the crucifix wasn't part of the scene as they had written it, but also feel that even by Ted's standards that's incredibly barefaced.

%%* GrumpyBear: Father Jack.

* InterchangeableAsianCultures: Ted, apparently, doesn't seem to know the difference between China and Japan.

* UnitConfusion: Ted drunkenly requests that DOUGAL get two hundred copies of the photo of him kicking Bishop Brennan up the arse for all his friends and a large one "ten by ten" for himself. He likely meant ten inches by ten inches, but Dougal being Dougal, comes back with one ten by ten ''feet''.

An unhinged Anglo-Irish {{sitcom}} (or perhaps more accurately, an Irish sitcom paid for with British money) by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, about a tiny parish on a miserable little island off the coast of Ireland where the Catholic Church has exiled three of its most embarrassing members: the [[{{Schemer}} embezzler]] Father Ted Crilly, the idiotic [[ManChild]] Father Dougal [=McGuire=], and the [[DirtyOldMan drunken, violent, foul-mouthed skirt-chaser]] Father Jack Hackett. Their housekeeper is Mrs. Doyle, who is ''[[SeriousBusiness really]]'' dedicated to [[BritsLoveTea serving tea]]. The majority of episodes were [[FawltyTowersPlot Fawlty Towers Plots]] that involved Ted's efforts to either [[CardboardPrison escape from the island]] or [[GetRichQuickScheme make a nice pile of cash]], neither of which he [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption ever succeeded in doing]].

An unhinged Anglo-Irish {{sitcom}} (or perhaps more accurately, an Irish sitcom paid for with British money) by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, about a tiny parish on a miserable little island off the coast of Ireland where the Catholic Church has exiled three of its most embarrassing members: the embezzler Father Ted Crilly, the idiotic [[ManChild manchild]] Father Dougal [=McGuire=], and the [[DirtyOldMan drunken, violent, foul-mouthed skirt-chaser]] Father Jack Hackett. Their housekeeper is Mrs. Doyle, who is ''[[SeriousBusiness really]]'' dedicated to [[BritsLoveTea serving tea]]. The majority of episodes were [[FawltyTowersPlot Fawlty Towers Plots]] that involved Ted's efforts to either [[CardboardPrison escape from the island]] or [[GetRichQuickScheme make a nice pile of cash]], neither of which he [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption ever succeeded in doing]].

An unhinged Anglo-Irish {{sitcom}} (or perhaps more accurately, an Irish sitcom paid for with British money) by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, about a tiny parish on a miserable little island off the coast of Ireland where the Catholic Church has exiled three of its most embarrassing members: the embezzler Father Ted Crilly, the idiotic [[ManChild manchild]] Father Dougal [=McGuire=], and the drunken, violent, foul-mouthed skirt-chaser Father Jack Hackett. Their housekeeper is Mrs. Doyle, who is ''[[SeriousBusiness really]]'' dedicated to [[BritsLoveTea serving tea]]. The majority of episodes were [[FawltyTowersPlot Fawlty Towers Plots]] that involved Ted's efforts to either [[CardboardPrison escape from the island]] or [[GetRichQuickScheme make a nice pile of cash]], neither of which he [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption ever succeeded in doing]].

* RedOniBlueOni: Zigzagged--at first Ted appears to be the more sensible, level-headed one, until one realises that he cares more about material possessions and wealth than spirituality and is perfect willing to throw away any scruples he might otherwise have in order to pursue some shallow goal (which is sometimes money but may also be beating [[TheRival Dick Byrne]] in some childish challenge), whereas Dougal for all his ditziness at least makes more of an effort to be a good priest or at least a good person (even though Ted knows more about how a good person is normally defined); moreover, he is also calmer and less excitable than Ted.

->''"I'm not a fascist, I'm a priest. Fascists go round dressed in black telling people what to do, whereas priests... er... more drink!".

* CelebrityParadox: Roddy Doyle books are explicitly mentioned to exist in the ''Father Ted'' verse and Dougal even directly references ''Film/TheCommitments''. Maria Doyle Kennedy, who played Natalie in ''The Commitments'' appears as Eoin [=McLove=]'s PA, Patsy in "Night Of The Nearly Dead". Pat Laffan (Pat Mustard), Rynagh O'Grady (Mary O'Leary), and Jimmy Keogh (Father Fay aka "The Monkey Priest) all appeared in ''Film/TheSnapper'', especially with Laffan as a major character.

* {{Confessional}}: Seeing as the protagonists are priests, it's a given. Ted uses it just to get juicy gossip about his parishioners. Some may say that the use of the confessional is [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged]], however, as even though Ted uses it to find out about the affair that Mr. Benson has been having with both his wife's sister [[UpToEleven and his child's babysitter]] in "The Old Grey Whistle Theft", we never actually see the inside of a confessional booth at any point in the series.

* DeadpanSnarker: Father Jessop, said to be the most sarcastic man in the country, naturally takes this UpToEleven. Every sentence that comes out of his mouth is a cutting remark, which has unfortunate consequences when Ted tells Mrs. Doyle to assume he means nothing he says, so that when he pleads with her to get him out of the laundry basket into which Jack has stuffed him, she assumes he's just being snarky as usual.

** Many of the [[OneShotCharacter one shot clergy members]] crank this UpToEleven. Examples include Father Williams, who was caught with a box of machineguns in his house and is shot by the Army over it, Father Billy, "The Spinmaster", a gambling addict who owes some dodgy types a large amount of money and ends up stealing the Craggy Island Parochial House new roof fund, Father "Todd Unctious", who tries to steal Ted's golden cleric award and steals another priest's clothing "because it seemed to be the way things were going", and the thoroughly vile Father Fintan Stack.

* StrawFeminist: Niamh Connolly is an UpToEleven example of this trope, being stridently anti-Catholic - as befits her status as a thinly-veiled parody of Sinead O'Connor:

* TropeCodifier: ''Father Ted'' builds on earlier more mainstream TV sitcoms about priests, religion, and religious hierarchy, taking the themes and settings of earlier shows like ''Series/BlessMeFather'' and ''Oh Brother!'' and taking them UpToEleven and beyond. Without Derek Nimmo's relatively innocuous portrayal of a Church of England vicar in an otherwise anodyne sixties sitcom, there might have been no "Father Ted".

* WeWantOurJerkBack: At first Ted and Dougal are thrilled when Jack gets a contagious disease and has to be sent away. Then it turns out his replacement takes Jack's {{Jerkass}} qualities UpToEleven until they're driven to kidnap him back.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The episode "Kicking Bishop Brennan up the Arse". It builds up to Ted doing just that after losing a bet with Father Dick Byrne.