Comedy gold. Brilliant how they (Rob, Jimmy, Bill and Alan) just took it and ran with it, instantly playing off to each other and just instinctively know what to say at the right moment for maximum comic effect🤣
I am just in the middle of watching the new BBC documentary 'Who the Greeks were' and couldn't figure out for a bit why I was laughing to myself when the narrator talks of the Acropolis. Then I remembered and had to come back and find it and watch it yet again :D
Bare minimum, gets my cheeks hurting. I've seen this portion of the episode a few times before yet for some reason my eyes are watering from laughing. Incredible, I'd like to hear John Cleese's opinion on why this is so damn funny :P
Probably for the same reasons the legendary "Spam" is funny? When you repeat something a thousand times, especially with the same intonation and rhythm, it loses its meaning and sounds sillier and sillier... This is why actors in blooper reels keep messing up their lines multiple times over, too. (I'm no Cleese, but still)
I think it already starts with the fact it rhymes so that makes the spontaneous transition into song seem perfectly natural. And yet you know this whole thing was _genuinely_ spontaneous. It's brilliant.
I'd say it's so funny, because Stephen is always so authoritative and controlled that seeing him corpse this heavily has this surprising but deeply humanizing and relatable quality to it. The other guests finding new and innovative ways to bully him over it and enjoying the moment as much as we do makes it even funnier...
My face hurts, I need to blow my nose and dry my eyes from tears but at least I know what they say about the Acropolis where the Parthenon is !!! :D One of the funniest things ever, and that's no joke!!!
