The Comedy Couch - Not Only But Also Review

Before Little Britain and The Young Ones was Not Only…But Also, a little gem of surreal British sketch comedy that set the standard for the genre. Fans of new British sketch would do well to check out the recently released DVD The Best of What's Left of Not Only… But Also to better understand what makes modern day Britcom great. Created by and starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, N.O.B.A. ran for 2 years in the sixties, and a revival series in the seventies also ran for two years.

In an introductory sketch a man on a bicycle approaches a highway worker and dismounts. "Excuse me," the cyclist inquires "Have you seen 300 men on bikes ride through here?" Realizing that the rider has clearly become separated from his race, he offers him instructions on how to make it to the finish line. "What you want to do is head straight on down until you hit the Great wall of China, turn left and carry on straight until you see Landau, through the roundabout and straight on to Mandalay." The cyclist thanks him and remounts his bicycle and heads on down the highway. The camera pulls back until we realize that the entire scene has taken place on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Splayed across the hull in 100 foot letters is the title of the show "Not Only… But Also ".

After watching such a grandiose opening sequence, one has to wonder if they could be funny on a smaller, more intimate scale. They could. Their most famous bits were also their simplest, involving two low class Cockneys discussing world issues from a series of different venues including the pub, the zoo, London's National Gallery where they muse on how unfunny Michelangelo's "cartoons" were and whether these naked women were painted at the exact moment a piece of gauze just happened to float by to cover up their privates. "Why I'll bet there's thousands of paintings that we're not allowed to see that were painted when the gauze didn't float by on time," waxes Dud.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore met in 1964 when Dudley Moore, already an established act, invited Cook to join him in a television appearance. The act was a hit and the two went on to create Not Only But Also, originally titled "Not Only Dudley Moore & Peter Cook…But Also Their Guests". In the late 70s both men went their separate ways and onto careers that never matched the success of their breakthrough series.

Dudley Moore was called to Hollywood where he made a series of lucrative but artistically disappointing films including Arthur, Arthur 2 On the Rocks, 10, and Crazy People.

Peter Cook, while never matching the fame of Dudley Moore, maintained a level of artistic consistency matched by few other comedians. He appeared in a number of films including The Princess Bride, and the iconic The Secret Policeman's… specials as well as the television series Blackadder, among many others. In a 2005 survey of over 300 comedians, critics, producers and writers entitled "The Comedians' Comedian", Peter Cook placed first out of fifty, beating out Groucho Marx, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin. In his final recording, the sublimely irreverent Why Bother? was an improvised interview conducted by Chris Morris as he recounted the life of Cook's masterpiece creation Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, an alcoholic ex-servicemen with an uncanny ability to ramble on endlessly about nothing in particular. My favourite moment involves Streeb-Greebling recounting his days of community service following an arrest earlier in his career: "I was sentenced to six months teaching tennis to Tatum O'Neil. It was dreadful." He rambles between sips of his drink.

The Best of What's Left of Not Only… But Also is a collection of Pete and Dud's early ‘60's work (in black & white) and their significantly better funded early ‘70's series (in colour).

As the series evolved, they began delving into genre-based satire including a brilliant spoof of a travel documentary espousing the cultural highlights of a low-class East London roadway, a variety show entitled "Ludwig" perfectly mocking Liberace's shamelessly decadent television series, only starring Ludwig Van Beethoven and William Wordsworth, who recites poetry while go-go girls dressed as tulips gyrate behind him, and most famously their version of "Thunderbirds" featuring real actors in the place of marionettes (done decades before Trey Parker and Matt Stone got their teeth into it. Moore's impression of Brains is creepily accurate).

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore not only set the standard for unconventional sketch comedy, but also were brave enough to progress the genre in ways never before developed in a popular comedy program.

Long live Pete and Dud.

The Best of What's Left of Not Only… But Also is available at most Vancouver video stores, except crappy ones like Blockbuster and Rogers.

Dylan Rhymer is a Vancouver-based stand-up comic and actor.
www.dylanrhymer.com