The Inbetweeners - a UK comedy that is actually funny.

Well, I laughed like a drain through series 1 / ep. 2.

I am rewatching the first series on youtube

The bit where Jay gets a footballing friend nearly made me sick with laughter.

the episode where they cut school is classic from beginning to end

It is amazing that almost the exact same things that made me laugh when I was 15/16 at school 30 years ago are still funny to me. I have not grown up at all.

Three people have recommended this to me in the past week. It's all on 4OD presumably?

I liked Thursday's episode enough that I downloaded the first season... and then watched it all in one go because a) I am a saddo and b) it was really that good. With Skins I only started watching around JJ's episode, which was great, but the other few episodes I watched weren't as good and I'm not overly interested in catching up on the episodes I haven't seen (and also, I moderate E4 on Thursday nights, which during Skins time means reading 200+ messages that essentially ruin it for me anyway. I avoided the show for ages based on the people who post there).

Anyway, a few kids were pretty pissed off about the fish punching scene, which I thought was hilariously absurd. Punching a fish!

Just checked 4OD but there are only two episodes up...

A clip from series 2/episode 2
http://www.e4.com/video/6KvBNIjctV6QzgU0nkmgRr/play.e4

If there's grass on the pitch play ball.

i think this show works mostly because it is, at heart, sweet and affectionate, and doesn't seem too worried about presenting How Kids Live Now, but rather centering on the events and situations that are common to anyone who is or has been that age. its very charmingly played too, even if you sometimes get the sense that the cast have spent a little too long watching Scrubs reruns on E4.

still find it a bit weird that tho these shows centred around teenagers are popular with both people that age and people twice that age, there seems to be less interest in a doing a funny show ft. late 20s/early 30s (which teenagers would surely watch too).

Peep Show, though? which also feels like a clear and present influence on Inbetweeners...

still find it a bit weird that tho these shows centred around teenagers are popular with both people that age and people twice that age,

And even more in my case. I think partly it's because the school seems to be pretty much the same as it was when I was a teenager.

Yeah, this is definitely pretty non-time-specific; I can't remember seeing anyone use a mobile phone, for instance, or an iPod.

I am assuming that the lead character in episode one is so obviously a screaming reminder of a certain Ilxor that everyone else has been too polite to mention it?

I didn't want to say it it's true.

ahahahahahahahahahaha

Just watched the first three episodes in a row and this is fucking funny. Very Peep Show -10years though, but maybe the world was crying out for that.

As much as I like Peep Show, it's never made me laugh as much as the Inbetweeners has.

I've seen a couple of episodes of this show but what I find the most jarring is that both times it's been shown, it's been after Skins. Both have similar subject matter but are so far removed in execution that light-hearted realism of the Inbetweeners feels really wooden when following up Skins' gritty surrealism. Based on its own merit I'm sure I'd have got into it more. The bit where he's sick all over some kid, that was classic!

This show very consistently brings the lols eg. this exchange from season 1:
"you wet your bed until you were 10"
"I wet your mum's bed - with my spunk"

Bumder -

i don't get how the Peep Show comparison goes with this being sweet and affectionate as stevie reckons

you bumder

"This place smells like a brewery and not a nice one"

I much prefer this to Peep Show. Peep Show just got depressing as it went on.

Peep Show is pretty affectionate too, or at least it was at its peak, it loved its characters. This feels sweeter and more affectionate because there are kids involved though.

it loved its characters in the same way Coogan loved Alan Partridge and Gervais loved David Brent, maybe

I think the viewer is meant to self-identify with things that Mark and Jeremy do, same with the characters in the Inbetweeners, whereas David Brent is meant to be remind you of people you've had the misfortune to know. This may be oversimplifying it all slightly.

The Crazy Frog bit had me in tears by the way.

You are definitely meant to self-identify with Mark and Jeremy in the way that they have inappropriate or ignoble thoughts and hidden motivations to their actions but they do seem to make them go down routes that show them as more despicable, weak, petty than I can imagine anyone relating to, and which isn't overly affectionate.

David Brent was definitely someone who was meant to be the acme of annoying low-level authority figure wannabe alpha-male, wannabe cool, showing off to stave-off realisation of their mediocrity, however they did write him a more or less happy ending at the end of the show.

which shows at least a smidgen of affection for the character.

Yeah, this is definitely pretty non-time-specific; I can't remember seeing anyone use a mobile phone, for instance, or an iPod.

Very first episode (which I am watching now thanks to this thread) has bully dudes using their phones to photograph main Will dude on the toilet.

OK, first episode watched, thanks guys, I might have to watch all the rest of them now and it's after midnight already.

They are all on 4oD, by the way.

what is 4oD

channel 4's online video on demand service (presumably not available outside the UK)

4 on Demand - it is Channel 4's equivalent of BBC iPlayer. Probably only available in the UK or via one of those complicated techy ways of pretending you're in the UK.

xpost

4od never used to work on a Mac; any change here?

lmgtfy

www.channel4.com/4od

There are mobile phones throughout the series, not that that would exactly prove alienating to anyone over 30.

I didn't watch all the rest of them last night, but it may prove a distraction from being off sick all day today.

I am assuming that the lead character in episode one is so obviously a screaming reminder of a certain Ilxor that everyone else has been too polite to mention it?

Has anyone pointed this out to him yet :-)

Who was the lead character?

Mrs F and I started watching season one last night, idly ("I think there's a thread on ILX says this is really good" sorta thing). Got two episodes in and stopped because I think I'd ruptured something ...

the episode where they cut school is classic from beginning to end

... seriously, I'll need to watch it again to get the bits I missed from laughing.

It's trailed on 4OD as being "puerile adult humour" and it does exactly what it said on the tin. It's basically 23 minutes of people calling each other "bell-end" and being sick, and that's pretty much all I've ever wanted from a television show.

Am going to attempt to catch up with the rest of season one ASAP and get stuck into the second one before I grow up. (Well, it's got to happen some day.)

As for the Peep Show comparisons: I think one of the writers was in some way involved with the production of PS, so that might explain it slightly.

The bit where Jay couldn't shut the laptop cos his hand was numb nearly made me puke with laughter.

I'm really trying to spread the love with this show, everyone I've forced to watch it so far loves it.

The bit where Jay couldn't shut the laptop cos his hand was numb nearly made me puke with laughter.

I've just watched this and I'm spitting tea over my keyboard just reading the words...it was hilarious. Also "clunge".

also the tank top reveal

I've been watching the first series of this, and it's pretty funny. I liked it when the guy puked on that girl's little brother. I don't quite get the extent of the love shown here though.

The bit where Jay couldn't shut the laptop cos his hand was numb nearly made me puke with laughter.

it was just a genius bit of slapstick, a real set-piece, i was pissing myself on the sofa watching it. and i like that they drew it out a little - not to a ridiculous degree, but a little longer beyond what it took to 'get' the joke, so one could savour it.

is series one on 4od? I can't seem to find it. their interface is so crap

hate to be the bonfire-pisser but i saw this for the first time last night and it was god-fucking-awful.

Thing they've only really cottoned onto with this series is that Simon's very funny indeed when he's having a massive sweary meltdown.

Was going to comment about Simon's comedy tantrums. They have me in stitches.

I really enjoyed this series. Jay and Neil shouting "Waterside!" at Gilbert is one of the many things in this which on the face of it appears totally infantile and not at all funny, but has you laughing out loud and nodding in recognition.

The 'Waterside' bit had me in stitches and also bewilderment as to why it was so funny. This series improved over the last couple of eps, definitely.

only big lol was when they were reading out the text messages they'd sent on each other's phones

they're actively cruel to each other for no discernible reason

kinda agree that they ramped this up a bit too much this series but it's more absurd stupidity than actual cruelty e.g. burning simon's stuff for the campfire, no-one's that dumb.

Oh I don't know, I can think of certain of my friends who would've done that and who did do similar things. I may be 12 years out of my teens but I can remember just how fucking nasty "best mates" could be at times.

Only caught up with this episode this morning after flaking out last night after a long day at work, but it was worth watching on 4od as I ate my shredded wheat. Best episode of the season and a nice way to end; the car drowned, Neil infected, Jay vulnerable, and Carly a tantalising prospect that would, if carried forward on screen, ruin the entire ethos of the show. I gather there is a film in post-production with the boys going to Magaluf or somewhere, which I think will work well and tie things off very nicely indeed.

Totally agreed with Simon's awesomely impotent rage fits being increasingly funny. Sadly he reminds me of myself age about 17 in that respect...

I gather there is a film in post-production with the boys going to Magaluf or somewhere, which I think will work well and tie things off very nicely indeed.

The history of such spinoffs is pretty fucking terrible.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00004YN7I.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

/I gather there is a film in post-production with the boys going to Magaluf or somewhere, which I think will work well and tie things off very nicely indeed. /

The history of such spinoffs is pretty fucking terrible.

It is, indeed, but somehow I still have hope that it will literally just be an 80 minute episode transplanted to an identikit holiday villa rather than a badly spent budget attempt to find a different audience.

I can't see the film being any good, especially as the camping trip took on a lot of the ideas that could have sustained them through a film based on the four of them being away together and finding out that they basically have nothing in common. With the recaps at the end of each episode, they already struggle to fill 20ish minutes, spinning it out for 80+ might stretch it painfully thin, especially since the writers already seem to be running out of credible scenarios. I hope I'm wrong.

I agree that having Carli in the film as Simon's girlfriend would be awful - painful unrequited teenage love is too good a meme to throw away, especially as we've already had a couple of episodes of Simon having a girlfriend (and being rubbish at it) already.

Simon a couple of weeks ago storming off in the huff and not being able to get himself any further than the top of the shed was gold, and exactly the kind of futile rebellious gesture crap I used to pull as a kid.

And I've heard plenty stories from my other half's old schoolfriends to suggest that the insanity of burning your mates' stuff for laughs is more common than you might think.

spinning it out for 80+ might stretch it painfully thin, especially since the writers already seem to be running out of credible scenarios.

20 minute perving on nudist beach - 20 minutes holiday clubbing - 20 minutes of hotel shenanigans possibly involving wanking in the swimming pool - 20 minutes of something embarrassing with a girl one of them nearly gets to shag - wee bit of irritating personal habits in hotel rooms - maybe something about Will trying to get them to go somewhere culturally stimulating - someone pisses/shits themselves and/or throws up on someone. Wrap.

I stopped watching this series after three or four eps as I felt it had become a by-numbers version of itself. I'll probably get round to watching the rest as it seems from reactions here and elsewhere to have improved/regressed to what was actually funny about it.

they didn't burn it for laughs tho it was just out of pure dumbness wasn't it? xp

Would greenlight (x-post)

Would hire onimo as script consultant, aye. Problem I had with this series was the couple of episodes with scenarios like "Will goes on double date with girl he doesn't like just to get laid", "Simon's girlfriend buys him shit clothes" "lol students" etc, which just didn't work at all. Someone earlier said that the writers said they'd run out of things that had happened to them, which is where I thought maybe the underlying recognition factor went AWOL for a bit.

btw, I reckoned by the time they chucked the chair on the fire it was getting to be just continuing burning stuff for laughs, even if they didn't explicitly say as much.

I was at a party in my teens where some friends of the host burnt some of his parents' garden furniture, but that was more out of being dicks than stupidity.

kinda agree that they ramped this up a bit too much this series but it's more absurd stupidity than actual cruelty e.g. burning simon's stuff for the campfire, no-one's that dumb.

― sock lobster (blueski), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 12:27 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

at reading festival we chucked my mate james's tent on the fire on the thursday, as well as his guitar on the friday but he was being an absolute dick so it was both for lols and to spite him.

One of my husband's mates fell asleep on a fire and set fire to HIMSELF once when they were camping. Now *that's* stupidity for you.

i suspect after a couple of beers that the burning of stuff gets funnier and funnier. I, obviously, have never done anything stupid for pointless laughs off my mates when drunk, so I'm just surmising here.

these are all different things to "you said look for stuff to burn" but n/m

and yeah the more unrealistic thing is will refusing the blowjob etc

First trailer for the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAlGUO4el_0

I not expecting too much from this, would've preferred one last series.

I'm pretty excited. I think the guys going to Mallorca is a much more natural show-to-movie evolution than the usual misguided TV show film adaptation thing.

its just kevin and perry go large innit?

2nd trailer - I laughed/chuckled three times which is the exact number of times I laughed during the whole of Kevin and Perry Go Large.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5FshCIq7b4

i showed some chinese students who are going to study in england a couple of episodes of this as part of a preparatory course last week. the episode where jay does the "the stranger" and then, when his mom walks in, tries frantically to close the porn on his computer with his hand asleep had them almost in tears.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8716264/The-Inbetweeners-leaves-the-cowboys-flat-on-their-faces.html

daaaaag

Tom Snood
Today 09:44 AM
Recommended by
8 people
Thank heavens the writers didn't go to the BBC. Four leads, none of whom is female, black or muslim, would never have made it to the screen.

ShogunPete
Today 09:20 AM
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2 people
I watched a part of an "In-betweeners" episode once and if that is an example of humour now-a-days then come back Abbot & Costello. I didn't like them either but at least their humour did not include four letter words every ten seconds or showing their backsides etc. But apparently this is how low comedy has sunk to these days.

zenitruehe
Today 07:50 AM
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5 people
Who still goes to the cinema (or should I say "Nacho Munchers and BO Convention")?

And who is going to rent a DVD of some drunken Brits? Just stick your head out of the window: they're all around us.

ha, "I didn't laugh then either, but at least they didn't swear"

Saw this tonight and was crying with laughter within the first minute.

20 minute perving on nudist beach - 20 minutes holiday clubbing - 20 minutes of hotel shenanigans possibly involving wanking in the swimming pool - 20 minutes of something embarrassing with a girl one of them nearly gets to shag - wee bit of irritating personal habits in hotel rooms - maybe something about Will trying to get them to go somewhere culturally stimulating - someone pisses/shits themselves and/or throws up on someone. Wrap.

― underrated football teams I have owned (onimo), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 12:47 (10 months ago)

So, apart from the nudist beach stuff this was a pretty accurate synopsis. Biggest laugh in the cinema was the continuation of the dance scene from the trailer once Will joins in (although the laughter was pretty strong when Simon started). This was OK, but not nearly as many laughs as there could have been.

Might have been a bit Inbetweeners-meets-Carry-On-Abroad, but a scene based around Will trying to get them to eat something properly ethnically Greek could have been good. They all order gyros and are ead pleased when they end up with kebabs, Will accidentally orders baby octopus then can't face it when it runs up but feels he has to go through with it:
Neil - "Seriously Will, that's disgusting. If you eat that I'm going to be sick."
Will - "Don't be stupid Neil, it'll be me eating it and not you. How could it possibly make you sick?"
<pained face as he puts one in his mouth, which gets worse as he chews once, then again, then twice more before audibly swallowing>
<Neil spews on him>
<Hilarity ensues>

Just realised, the bit in the trailer where Neil gets a tattoo isn't in the film.

Yeah, good film...

Did think one scene should have made the 'deleted scenes' pile, the one where dude selld his clothes and nasty holiday rep pretends to buy them for his mate, including everything he's wearing.

There are other scenes to show rep is nasty person, plus dude hands over clothes willingly.

OK, 'lol dude is stupid', but his smarter mate is with him, they still wait 'all day' for rep to return with money, nah... Scene is wrong.

this wasn't great rly but i don't regret seeing it

not actually offensive or terribly unfunny or unwatchable is a success found myself having to walk out of horrible bosses because it was all of those things and less

i guess one 'real criticism' i wd make is that the show is pretty specific about the four boys' class/backgrounds, but the girls here were all at or above middle-middle class; and they could have tried to give them a character trait separate from their attraction to the boys

Well, the boys went to the same comprehensive school, the implication was that the girls went to the same 'selective' school (none proved to be as 'dumb' as the boys)

this movie has made over £35 million at the UK box office which is kind of insane

urgent news:

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/oddballs/905432-yaya-toure-is-full-of-laughs-as-manchester-city-go-all-inbetweeners

i am watching the US version now, they shouted bus turds wtf

saw the movie on C4 last night, def the pound shop Spring Breakers (wld make a gd dbl bill)

Good lord the ill-fated US version is bad! They chose actors who all have EXACTLY the same performing style. No charisma there whatsoever.

Saw Inbetweeners 2 recently on the other hand and it was quite funny.

I saw the second film recently and you know what would have made it really great? If it had finished with the four of them propped up against the car and nobody turned up.

But if you liked the series and/or he first film this certainly pushed enough buttons to keep the laughs going. Gap yah Home Counties posh kids will never not be funny tbh. The water slide bit felt staged but turning it into a Vietnam movie was inspired.

the second movie was about a million times better than the first and still a thousand times worst than the first two series.

ending in the desert would have been good, but the closing montage seems designed to close off their stories; they're finally not going to be the same stunted doofuses anymore, they've become their own age's version of doofi and can continue to move forward, offscreen.

(I would have rather seen a whole movie of them slightly older and dumb in new ways than this movie of them still being the same but with a lot of pretty unfunny scatology, but it felt like the writers trying to tell the audience they were done.)

Went to see this on Wednesday. Agree with the above - plenty laughs (especially Will's rant at the dreadlock guy, and the pay-off for the early rape alarm set-up) but somehow curiously unsatisfying.

Saw this yesterday. Maybe the thread title needs to be updated to "The Inbetweeners - a UK comedy that isn't actually funny anymore"

I saw this on TV last week, had already seen it around 2011 and thought it was OK, not a favourite but fine.

2023 me hates this show, hates all of the characters, laughed at absolutely nothing.

Plaxico (I know, right?) at 11:47 4 Apr 09

the episode where they cut school is classic from beginning to end

Yeah it's aged very badly indeed.

I've seen it too many times tbh.

lads

lol are you ladsing us for no longer thinking it's funny or for having ever thought it was?

no i was describing the show