Funny / Are You Being Served?

• As bad as sexual harassment is, the sexual harassment scene in "Shoulder to Shoulder" Crosses the Line Twice purely on account of Rule of Three, among other reasons. The sequence of events: first, Miss Brahms is harassed by a cleaner who looks like Tom Jones. Mrs. Slocombe isn't as "lucky", as a cleaner who looks like Steptoe beats him to her. Finally, Captain Peacock goes in to chew out the cleaners... and promptly gets similarly harassed by a cleaner who looks like Larry Grayson.
• The Ballet of the Toys sequence from the episode "Happy Returns" is a treasure trove of comedy gold. Some choice moments:
  • When Mr. Tebbs shows up in his teddy bear costume, he is shown wearing the head piece sideways as a result of him not being able to hear through the ear piece.
  • Due to how small his Little Boy Blue costume is in terms of the tights and smock, Mr. Lucas initially wearing a plastic mac over his costume, resulting in a Running Gag where reveals the issues he has with his costume to the others a la a flasher exposing his privates.
  Mr. Humphries: You've done that before, haven't you?
  • What finally causes Mr. Lucas to finally take off the plastic mac is him seeing Mr. Humphries in his Fairy Prince outfit.
  • As Captain Peacock, dresses as a toy soldier, pulls the reigns of a prop horse that was offered for him to ride on during during the dance number, its tail lifts and hits Mr. Lucas in the crotch.
  • Mr. Lucas asking Mr. Humphries (at great length) about the Fridge Logic of how Humpty Dumpty is already awake before the Fairy Prince (or, as Mr. Lucas calls him, the Fairy Queen) sprinkles his magic dust on Little Alice, Age 4.
  • The reveal at the end that the professional cabaret troupe that young Mr. Grace hired to perform at his birthday celebration had already planned to do The Ballet of the Toys themselves.
• In "The Father Christmas Affair", the store plans to have electric Father Christmas models in every department during the holidays. When one of the models is demonstrated to staff at Mr. Rumbold's floor, it ends up acting more like a flasher as a result of the hands being sewn onto the jacket.
• As part of her Faking Amnesia routine in "Memories are Made of These", Mrs. Slocombe, while acting like a little girl, steals a golf cart that was installed on Mr. Rumbold's floor (as a result of the floor serving as a temporary spot for the sports department while most of its employees are sick) and precedes to crash it through the walls of Mr. Rumbold's office.
• Captain Peacock shows the staff an old army procedure for expressing their dissatisfaction with the (lack of) canteen service in "Anything You Can Do":
  All: (to the tune of "Adeste Fideles")
  WHY are we WAITing,
  WHYYY are we WAIIITing...
  • Then the manager shows up, and everyone goes silent... except for Mr. Goldberg (whom she's standing behind). When he sees her, he sheepishly switches to singing, "Oh come, let us adore him..." and tries to kiss her hand, apparently as some kind of apology.
• One of the most famous wisecracks was during a staff meeting in "German Week:"
  Mrs. Slocombe: I haven't forgetten being thrown flat on me back on Clapham Common by a landmine. And the German Air Force was responsible!
  Mr. Lucas: All the other times she was flat on her back, the American Air Force was responsible.
  • A short time later...
    Mr. Rumbold: Oh, where are we in our conference?
    Mr. Humphries: Mrs. Slocombe was remembering being flat on her back on Clapham Conmmon.
    Mrs. Slocombe: Can we knock it off, please?
    Mr. Lucas: She even remembers what she said!
• In "The Club", the staff is charged with redecorating a room in the basement to turn into a new social club. Several attempts to hang wallpaper culminate in many torn wallpaper rolls, many spilt cups of tea, a running gag ("Save that, it'll do for the bit over the door!") and, finally, a paste fight amongst the staff. Mr. Rumbold enters to put a stop to things, only for everyone else to attack him with brushes and buckets.

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