Customer Reviews

Are You Being Served: Best of [VHS]

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This video is composed of snippets of various (considered) funniest parts of the television series of the same name. Holding them together are a series of phone conversations between Mr. Humphries and his "mum" -- she's vacationing in Hollywood and insisting he write a book & screenplay about his Grace Bros. reminiscences, which she thinks she can sell. I didn't enjoy this video as much as the series episodes I've seen, nor as much as "Are You Being Served -- The Movie." I think it's because I really missed the edited-out parts -- the maybe not-as-funny set-ups which illustrate the characters' little foibles, or the not fall-down hilarious but nonetheless fun banter between them, the little cliches, like "I'm free!" and "Ah well, a change is as good as a rest." Also, the newly-taped Mr. Humphries and his mother parts are cute, but not really something you'd want to watch more than once. Thirdly, there was only one joke about Mrs. Slocumb's -- uh, cat -- though it is a doozy.

This is a tape of short clips from the show, ostensibly a "best of" collection. Anyone who has actually watched "Are You Being Served?," or many other British shows for that matter, knows that trying to put together a tape filled with short clips of "best moments" is pure folly.

It's not because there weren't plenty of good moments in the show. There were. But see, here's the thing: Most British humor just doesn't work that way. Whereas American sitcoms are almost all based on "punch lines" and the humor is much more broad and easily excised into short snippets, British shows tend to be more truly situation-based. The humor comes from a series of situational set-ups that happen in the course of the episode. The situations frequently build on one another (sometimes to absurd proportions, but that's the point). So then, with that background, even something simple like a facial expression, or an otherwise benign comment (as opposed to an obvious "punch line" as in American sitcoms), becomes hilarious. It is funny because you know the situation in which it occurs.

All of the best comedy, in my opinion, works like that. It even extends to real-life situations. Think of some of the funniest experiences in your life. I think you'll find that a lot of them were "you had to be there" instances. Trying to relate it to another person, after the fact, doesn't have the same effect because that person wasn't given the whole background, or doesn't know all the personalities of the people involved, or there were visual cues that only made sense within the moment.

I'm an American but I love the way British humor works in this way. But in order to appreciate it, you have to watch the ENTIRE episode. Tapes of short clips just don't cut it for this type of show. Chances are, without knowing anything about the original episodes from which these clips came, a casual viewer will watch this tape and wonder, "What's the big deal? That wasn't very funny."

Hey...this show was FUNNY. Absurd at times, yes, but funny. But it's only funny if you watch the whole episode.

This is the collection for you if you want to get a glimpse of what each character is like.

This is the video for you if you have always wanted to know more about Mrs. Slocombe's pussy. It incorporates almost all of the episodes and gives you a taste of each character's quirks. If you want to witness the quirks and hillarious banter of the staff at Grace Brothers, get this video

This is a nice collection of highlights for the fan who is familiar enough with the episodes to remember the context from which said highlights are taken. As others have noted, however, the humor really works better in context and it's much more fun to watch a couple of the episodes in their entirety that it is to watch these isolated snippets. Furthermore, I find John Inman in drag as Mr. Humphreys' mother to be funny in measured doses, but that act suffers from overexposure here.

In short, this is mediocre at best. To really experience AYBS to the fullest, sit down with a couple of full episodes and prepare for some laughs.