clarabellen Yes. I love these guys. There is something so surprisingly, desperately, tragically human about this sketch, and the run at the end is... We've all encountered something that demands we run from it, not walk. And, even worse, we have all been in a place we can't run from, though we know we should.
clarabellen Mitchell and Webb sometimes really get to me, their poignancy and pain catch me unawares from time to time. I find myself thinking about this sketch and some others long after I've seen them, and I don't laugh. I suppose this hits me in another personal sense because I was in a seminary some time ago, and though I want to say I was an emotionally healthy person at the time, the truth is I just wasn't. I'm only glad I recognized it earlier rather than later.
"He's gone, sir. They've all gone, and we're back." "Who?" "The incredibly creepy and sexually-repressed people who are still, unaccountably, priests."
+666deadman1988 you obviously don't know any priests, I know lots and they're the happiest people I know. Truth is they're probably much freer than you sexually, because they can control their will-power while others are slaves, they crawl in submission when porn or masturbation beckons. Even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to stop, and they're addicts. The priest is free because passions are beneath his reason.
sarcastic bowl of cornflakes Rubbish, teachers, parents, and relatives also abuse children. The problem is rotten adults who work with children, and not the vocation. When was the last time you said to a parent 'oh hi, when have you last abused your child?' Because statistically, parents and relatives abuse their children much more than priests.
sarcastic bowl of cornflakes ugh, I knew I shouldn't have got into an argument with an internet atheist. Suffice it to say that some of the brightest minds in science (from Lemaitre to Mendel to Paschal to Copernicus) were devout Catholics, and some of the brightest genius in the arts, from painting, sculpture and architecture to philosophy, law, and every single science you can imagine, were Catholic. It takes 7-12 years study at university to become a priest, please don't think too highly of yourself. Anyway, you're probably the brightest guy in the world and nothing I say can change that, so goodbye. Just out of interest though; try and abstain from masturbation for seven days. Go on, try it; let's see who the slave is. Anyway, ciao.
Absolutely fucking brilliant. No laugh track to point out obvious jokes; just a thoughtfully deep monologue in a darkly comic scenario. This is comedic brilliance. Simple, but effective. Granted it's not laugh out loud funny, but man, this is by far my favourite kind of comedy.
@@ShootMeMovieReviews BBC sketch shows don't use laughter tracks. They're shown to a live TV audience and the laughter is genuine, thankfully. It's not plastered on top - like I believe US studios tend to do.
@@Ron-Ayres They are often added. There's no doubt about this. Not only can you hear the same identical laugh sounds re-used in different sketches, but also many of the sketches are clearly not shot with an audience, yet feature obvious laugh tracks. I've seen lots of Mitchell & Webb videos both with and without the laugh tracks.
I mean, they're both great, but David Mitchell's acting in this (especially the end) is off the chain. Makes me think how good, in a weird way, he'd be in a theatre show in something by Shakespeare or Beckett.
Yeah right? Especially at the end because he raises his voice and people like you that dont know a thing about acting that means good acting. Screaming is even better.
New theory when rewatching this bit: this is actually the best priest ever, making you feel like you are normal and there is nothing wrong with you. Could it have gone any better for the guy played by Webb in this case? He is completely motivated and is not stuck anymore in feeling sad.
This might be one of my favourite Mitchell and Webb sketches ever. It is so beautifully acted and shot. With extra points for David's acting, which is just amazing.
I think it's amazing how many emotions this clip brought up in such a short time. At first it just seems like a normal sketch, then it tugs at your heart strings, then it tugs even more. It starts to get creepy, then that uncomforable-funny-creepy and at the end it's really sad. And I'm left feeling somewhat confused (emotionally speaking) and somewhat uneasy. Absolutely brilliant.
Gosh, I love Mitchell and Webb. They manage to make Comedy as well as Tragedy. Has anyone seen the Sherlock Holmes suffering from Alzheimer act ? Really brings a tear to my eye.
And actually, in a strange way, this sort of sums up love and the mad turbulance of it all. Especially when the vicar is just sort of left alone at the end.
Thank You provident divine Universe for the gift of Mitchell and Webb, the pain of my laughter is well worth every heaving breath. Thank You oh Thank You Thank You Thank You..oh and thanks rob amd dave for putting up with so much crappe
The humor in The Mitchell and Webb Situation is darker and grittier than anything. This particular sketch deals with subject matter that may make the audience uncomfortable, i.e. unrequited love. It pokes fun at certain feelings that society writ large isn't really at ease dealing with. The humor is more in their presentation than content. The contents are quite painful as you said, but the fact that a priest is saying it is ironic and the bluntness of it makes it even more unexpected.
agree... except for red dwarf, when they did the 3 episode special it had no laugh track and i was so used to it from the original series' it just felt a little empty xD
That's what people mean these days when they say 'laugh track'. Everyone knows it's a studio audience, that it's not literally a separately added recorded laugh. But people who say 'I hate laugh tracks' really don't care how it's made. They just don't like hearing the laughter while they're watching a show.
That's the same chapel as the one in Monty Python's the meaning of life where the choir sings 'O Lord please don't burn us'. Please don't rub linseed oil into the school cormorant.
I'm so used to the laugh track, I actually missed it somewhat in this sketch. I had become accustomed to waiting for the studio audience to let me know it was okay to laugh.
I thought at the beginning when he was saying how it's horrible to love someone but get nothing in return, that he was going to say that's how God feels
I thought I hated the overuse of laughter lines in comedy shows, however during this skit it felt very quiet without them, and i felt it hard to laugh....
@666deadman1988 Actually he said "chapel," and therefore he's a chaplain. The exchange indicates that the setting is the chapel of an Oxbridge college.
