The Major is a legendary piece of comedy character writing, delivered perfectly by Ballard Berkeley. Good comedy stands or falls by its characters, even incidental ones. Beautifully crafted.
@joeoak8181 yes he was too. He was also in the archers on bbc radio 4 at one time too as many will know I am sure. But fawlty towers was his best known role for sure.
@@duffman7065Really? You're right, on its own, it is wonderful, but what about the stolen/lost £75 ; broken vase and the winning bet on the Horse race? The Colonel comes in and finishes Fawlty by remembering the money was from a Horse race. For me, that épisode, Communication Problems, was close to being perfect.
Yes but she has a vagina that leaks every month and men dont 🤷♂️ . . Well....... its 2024 and society has gone insane so men can have vaginas that leak every month now according to what this society accepts as "normal" . .
@@alanhayward8237 no ones ever rated this clip or any dialogues with the Major as comedy gold, the guy is an NPC we could put faulty towers as a whole in the top 30 or 50 best comedies sure
@ibrahim-sj2cr Anyone viewing this objectively realises that the joke was on the Major and at the time his antiquated views. It was the same with the Germans (krouts and bad eggs) and formed the basis of many of Cleese's Python skits and The Life of Brian - in that case the C of E misreading it entirely. Berkeley was portraying a man bordering on senility living in the past and was not to be taken seriously by the time Farty Owls or Twats was released. The series was and remains an icon in British comedy.
@@alanhayward8237 100% agree with everything in that comment. it was already my own opinion. however this very forgetable dialogue where cleese listens to Majors ramblings (racist or not) is a bad example of the shows comedy genius
Laughing AT racism was what brought about the DEMISE of actual racism in this country. Until the left reintroduced it with all the Critical Theory toxicity
Calling this racist actually demeans the what racism is. This is nothing more than excellent comedy. If you're offended by it, then that is your problem, you need to deal with it.
Well it was and it wasn’t, given that this was the seventies and the fact that someone of the Major’s and the actor that played him generation were for the most part “racist” That’s the part you have to deal with, and yes it’s funny and it was comedy and it is now, in the context of then! My dad spoke like that, no filter, no awareness of what he was saying when other people were around, yes it used to make me cringe and in later life he realized and knocked it off. It was a generational thing!
@@michaelsandford1015Yes, you can. BBC dvds are available, repeats are shown on BritBox, owned by BBC Studios, and elsewhere. Dad's Army also aired on BBC1 last Christmas. There's nothing much to be done about stupidity. But laziness is a choice.
THE best joke on Fawlty Towers. The audience are about to cringe and tut-tut at his racism then they are relieved that he pulled back from the brink....only for him to go back into it even worse. A joke on the audience in my view, and a brilliant one. If you are in any doubt Cleese then shows the Major to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
One of the most important Fawlty Towers sketches - thank-you for sharing. Too often this part is censored because of it's overt racism. But that was the point - we are meant to be comically horrified at the Major's (and Basil's) laughably outdated attitudes (even when it was first broadcast, which was when I first saw it). My laughs were from the unbelieving of the characters commitment to their terrible attitudes with no semblance of doubt. Unfortunately this is comedy of subtlety and the modern media does not publicly admit to getting it - it is apparently not commercially astute to do so... Thus rather than confronting and evolving from these issues, we sink backwards into ignorance, censorship and fear.
Hardly outdated attitude. Look at Israel. And to think that seeing such comedy is a form of educating confontration that leads to improvement (evolution is in itself neither towards the good nor the bad) is as clichéd as the claim that history teaches us not to repeat our mistakes.
'winnie, i said - i called her that because that's who she looked like' 'black, was she major ?!' 'black !?, churchill wasnt black, old boy' comedy genius
The major was a fantastic character, as was the builder and Manuel, all brilliantly cast. A show of it's time, a very different England, Elderly folks living out there days in Eastbourne, Torquay, Brighton, having done their industrial grind/ whack, fought for king and country, earned their retirement. Today's all walking sticks, notability cars, sick note and mental health, goodness knows how this is all affordable .😬😬😬
I lived and worked in hotels in Eastbourne in the late 1970s, I agree with your observation 100%. It was a lovely time with manners charm and respect. I really miss that.
One of the best comedies ever.Still love watching it to this day,as it keeps me going in this sad,disappointing PC/Woke world.Back then,you could have a really good laugh, not now sadly.
Priceless Of course India had and still has dozens of castes and nicknames for different types. I can picture the Major sitting in an hotel in Alexandria with a whiskey and soda , talking about the latest troubles in the soukh. Or reading the riot act in a pith helmet and with a platoon of sepoys to the mob in India. Spiffing. I recall Churchill referring to Ghandhi as a half naked Faqir. I of course couldn’t possibly comment.
No one can gainsay that Gandhi was a half-naked fakir, nor can one gainsay that Churchill also greatly admired the Indians. To pick isolated utterances by the man in moments of annoyance, while ignoring what he said in times of sobriety, is petty and self-serving.
Churchill was the right man in the right place. Great amongst hundred dies not a genius make. Neither was Gandhi incidentally. Both are very mortal men - not Einsteins or Shakespeares or Aretha Franklins
I believe those old episodes were filmed ' live ' ? I may be wrong but if true then the chemistry between Cleese and Berkeley was sensational . Not any room for error and non taken !
They got on very well because they were both big cricket fans. While Cleese was performing Berkeley would often mime the latest Test score for him from behind the scenes. The cricket references are a bit of a private joke between them.
Yes, they were filmed in front of a live studio audience, like most UK sitcoms of the day. However, you can find bloopers and outtakes on RU-vid, so it's not entirely the case that there was no room for error.
hhhhmm, not sure there was that sort of censorship in those days. Today you would only get away with it by putting it on the History Channel and claiming it was a documentary! No one of today's generation would recognise the element of humour in it so they would be quite prepared to believe it is a documentary of Britain's Colonial Past!
I assume everyone recognises that the sketch (much like the show itself) was making fun of the stereotypical characters - the Major being a representative of a certain class of Englishman who were instinctively and perhaps unwittingly racist/sexist - and therefore slightly ridiculous characters. Fawlty himself was a send-up of a certain breed of ultra-repressed Englishman who was either fawning over the upper-class guests while despising everyone else. Of course, given the time it was made, there were inevitable stereotypes which would be unacceptable today - Manuel and the Irish builder being but two examples. Ironically, Manuel became probably one of the most loved characters on TV - probably due to the genius of Andrew Sachs
@@grahamkirk5974Yu found it hilarious without even getting what the joke was, and you objected to this comment as a "rant" without even understanding that it was saying that the show is funny. Right Wing simpleton.
I once did a work experience attachment at Sky TV in Osterley from Liverpool John Moores University . One of the technicians on Fawlty Towers was a chap called Tony Guyan he was a Production Assistant on Series 1 (1975). Tony works at Sky on Premier Plus Football Channel in Studio 7 as a Floor Manager. The televised event was a football match between Man Utd and Aston Villa. The final score was a 1-1 draw on 26th August 2001. The pundit in the studio was ex Aston Villa and Arsenal Manager George Graham. I have George Graham’s autograph as well! Thanks to Tony Guyan
Cringe if you like, but understand what is going on. It is the Major who has the old attitudes that are satirized here. Faulty seems not to, but later he gets hit on the head, and we see he has too. So? Funny. The war impacted people deeply. Feelings were/are even stronger in once-occupied Europe. This does not come out of nowhere. Cleese, commenting on anti-Japanese protests when the emperor visited, said something like ‘ I can’t tell the Pacific veterans what to feel, but the rest of us can let it go’. Keeping in mind we can afford to, because of those veterans. Glad to report, I saw this on tv last month.
Pure art in acting timing and script writing. Sadly missing from the screen today.. So many different people nationalities professions age groups and both sexes this comedy pokes fun at, mostly the English, it is always this sketch that is brought to everyones attention
Fawlty Towers, in my opinion was a throwback to an older type of humour known as farce and perfected in the UK by Brian Rix, It relied more on the physical side of comedy (which Cleese was perfectly suited to) it's dialogue was secondary, that said, there are many memorable lines that will never be forgotten.
The Major's role was to be a bit lost...confused...."passed it" (as the Brit's would say).This part wasn't meant to be racist...it was meant to show,yet again,that he was an old guy whose brain doesn't work very well.
@@reddwarfer999 Better still...why don't you try to imagine The Major debating The Big Guy (Biden). In that debate The Major would be the lucid one...the cogent one. Also note that while The Major hates Germans The Big Guy surely doesn't have the same hatred for the Red Chinese...at least not the ones from whom he receives his 10%.
@@Mattywatty65 It just occurred to me...couldn't it be "past" *or* "passed"...meaning his best days have passed or are in the past? I'm a Yank and I've heard the phrase used but have never seen it spelled out.
The Major was off his rocker but then so are racists. Deciding the character and nature of people based on skin colour or location is insane and would be funny if it wasn't so bloody evil too. The clever way Cleese wrote the Major's racism allowed us to laugh and be aware of how uncomfortable his views make us at the same time.
I’m certainly not uncomfortable about it. Those types are the professionally offended melts. Great comedy, still talked about fondly today. We will never agree with other cultures, because we are different, always will be, so there will be jokes always going back and forth.
I'm surprised the timid BBC have not surrendered to the loony lefties who want such racist comedy cut out or a warning given before the programme of offensive content. We thought nothing of it at the time of transmission and laughed, and nowadays we should not get hung up about the language from the 1970s.We need a few more doddery majors to speak their mind as my dear old dad did,RIP. He was not in the army by the way but was a teenager during WWII. I wish I had met a retired major type in real life whose views would have expressed mine but mine have been stifled by the do good hippy sock in sandal brigade. A smart suit, pressed trousers and a tie I say.
They won't put up with people like you who only care about themselves. The BBC play to ALL NATIONALITIES as they have to. Stop your right wing entitled personality moaning.
I have German friends and they love Fawlty Towers. Also Dad's Army. Perfect examples of the Brits being self-deprecating and able to laugh at themselves
Fawlty Towers was arguably the funniest TV sitcom of all time, but it probably wouldn't be aired today for PC reasons. Same with Laurel and Hardy. Their films would probably be banned for poking fun at people who weren't that bright.
They did show The Germans episode on the BBC recently from which this clip is from, the BBC just cut this scene so nobody saw the exchange take place. I also love Laurel and Hardy don't see anything racist in any of their movies, this generation don't know what their missing when it comes to comedy and old Hollywood when stars were real stars and they shone brightest.
Of course it's racist. The fact that the Major is an ignorant old racist is the joke. I don't even know what you think is going on if you think it's not racist.
For those that think this is terrible. The joke is in the context of the Major's behaviour. He is a sad old boy who can't really look after himself so is spending his declining years living in a seaside hotel ( as are a couple of the other elderly guests) He has dementia and is still in his head living in the days of empire so he keeps coming out with unacceptable and embarrassing misogynistic/racist rants (even for the 1970s) . The thing is, he's a long term paying guest with nowhere else to go, so Basil has to put up with him and humour him. The comedy is in how he completely fails to keep him under control , partly because he secretly sympathises with some of it.
The first I time I watched this was on TV when I was 14 yrs old .... Funny? Yes, extremely. Overtly racist? Yes, but only the intensely stupid are not laughing AT the Major. My father was an Allied WW2 Combat Major, he was on D Day, Battle of Caen, the Falaise Pocket and so forth. Eventually he was one of the very first officers into Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp. My father had zero racism, he was a highly educated and intelligent man. He didn't much like the fighting the SchutzStaffel because in his words "They were no fun, it's no fun fighting people who want to die for their cause ... I didn't mind the ordinary Germans, they were OK, just trying to live like th erest of us"
@@reddwarfer999 I have changed quite a few of my attitudes a number of times in my life, I am 63 years old. I like to think that these I have now are definitive.
The trouble is that we who used to be able to laugh at ourselves are dying off....literally. Pretty soon, once all we baby boomers are dead and gone, even showing this sort of thing on YT will be illegal. I'm glad I won't be around to see that day.
Brilliant piece of writing. It illustrated a man who had served in the British Army and had spent time in India clearly adopting these very outdated and racist views but to the major they were and the point of the conversation with Basil Fawlty quite normal.
The Major simply uses out-dated language when talking about different races - the joke is that he's a silly old duffer who doesn't know any better. We all instinctively understand that if an Indian woman in a sari or a West Indian woman in a quadrille dress, had arrived at Fawlty Towers, then the Major's first instinct would be to behave as an English gentleman and be on his best behaviour to make them feel at home. (Of course, in the process, he'd probably completely baffle them by talking about cricket: "I say - I don't suppose you happen to know Ranjitsinhji do you? Or Gary Sobers?") Never occurred to me until just now - was "the Major" based on Naunton Wayne of the cricket-obsessed English duo "Charters and Caldicott" who popped-up in several old British b/w films - most notably "The Lady Vanishes" ? They are first seen trying to get back to England from the Continent on the eve of the outbreak of war; they eventually manage to get a telephone line from their Swiss hotel, and anxiously demand to know how things are going for England. You then find that it's not an imminent invasion that concerns them, but how well the English cricket team are doing in the Test match...LOL. (Ballard Berkeley achieved national prominence playing TWO retired British Army officers: for years he was also sports-car driving "Colonel Freddie Danby" in "The Archers". )
Even though he called them names, he respected the Indians enough to see them play. Presumably also the Windies, who were great then. That's what I like about cricket, it's almost a pure meritocracy. Of course, Cleese is a big cricket fan
