Beyond the Fringe on Oxford Philosophy 

The most humourous thing is that most of what they say is entirely accurate and valid philosophical discourse.

Jonathan Miller is amazing in this. My first year tutors took on exactly this sort of ridiculous tone of voice and attitude. I love this sketch.

I know why i prefer Python more than fringe cause fringe is mainly upper class toffs and their culture and comedy of the wealthy and upper class is never as funnier as the lower classes. Rick Mayall realized this as bottom was his best and the statesman and filthy rich and catflap and other toff roles he did was never as funny as bottom or young ones.

The fact that this black and white clip is blue and green all over at the same time is an example of a no-sense data. Brilliant.

"Not exactly hilarious" I disagree, its the all-time funniest lampoon of Oxbridge philosopher, imho.

What a loss to society, the irreplaceable Jonathan Miller. An inspirational mind who made high level thinking accessible especially to a working class generation with little hope of a university education: Just by going about his business, Jonathan Miller was a champion of distance learning. And now the culture has plummeted so low that not even the BBC realises what's been lost.

I saw Beyond the Fringe on Broadway in the early 60s. It was sensational. Every skit was brilliant. More than a decade later I saw AJ Ayer give a lecture at Colgate. Well, I laughed out loud in a crowded lecture hall. Ayer so reminded me of Miller, when he went through Moore common sense realism “This is a chair” routine. Ayer looked straight at me. I was embarrassed. Still, Miller got Ayer perfectly right. Fond if uncomfortable memories

You can tell that Bennett and Miller where the most unconcerned about the whole show biz thing...they just went on and did what they wanted rather than having some regard for catering to the audiance like Cook and Moore. I am always surprised, given his notorious and much vaunted shy demeanor, how good Alan Bennett actually is on stage. Brilliant pseudo verbiage and non-sequiteuring digression. Most people talk like that...but they just use smaller words

Can't understand a word they're saying. Any chance of subtitles?

Not exactly hilarious? I'd say--rather haphazardly mind you--(with the qualifier that the game of hilarity is in fact a game of language, quid pro quo), that this sketch is exactly within the set (which may in fact be a fuzzy set, rather than the typical precise non-fuzzy set which we normally think of) of things which may be (or at least often are) considered hilarious.

"They were in rather a hurry" very deep, resonates with many societies throughout history in many ways

This will always be one of my favourite things ever

Absolute brilliance.

Imagine learning this script! Perfect execution..

Farewell you phenomenal genius.

After all the why and how debate, I love the joke really landing with WHERE (re Eliot's teeth) 😂

@Israel Socratus - I'm a great fan of the Big Band theory. Though I can't decide between Ellington and Goodman. Of course, one should always consider Buddy Rich.

there's too much tuesday in my beetroot salad! hehe

Although obviously if you want into a philosophy department nowadays you won't see anything resembling this performance, it's hilarious if you're at all familiar with the kind of personas and dialogues being parodied. Just look up something as benign as Strawson and Evan's interviews and chats and it strikes one's funny bone. (I love both of those philosophers, btw. Some of the greatest of the 20th century.)

and extinct also is an audience's ability to appreciate it.