That's the kind of english and conversations that we learned in school in Germany during english class. THink about our surprise when we realized, that no one really talks like that.
Actually, yes. Maybe instead of clothing, fashion, traveling or some other boring stuff, they will do something that is closer to football factory for listening comprehension exercises that is more realistic.
Exactly the same for me - and I wrote my comment before reading yours. This is how we learned the English language in Portugal when I was a kid. During the first years, they teach you basic expressions and grammar but they don't really emphasize how people actually speak. Fortunately we also had (and still do) subtitles on TV, something which I cannot be more grateful for - watching most of my favourite childhood cartoons from the 80s and early 90s in English with subtitles taught me way more vocabulary and expressions than my English classes ever did.
Same here in Russia. I suppose all learning books in another language look like this. Actually I remember some conversations in German classes when Hans und Emma were discussing a place to chill in a strange manner, and pretty sure Russian books are no less wierd:)
It's a parody of long-form spy-stories, that, instead of showing us the action, has it recapped by dull men, whom the writer simultaneously has explaining facets of their work so the viewer has an inkling what is going on. Presumably Fry and Laurie were not fans of Guiness as George Smiley.
This, my British friends, is exactly how the English school textbooks for kids abroad are written. A few years ago, when I watched A Bit of Fry & Laurie for the first time in my adult years, I immediately associated Tony and Control to the audiotapes of my English school books from when I was 10-12 years old - they spoke exactly like this and the written texts weren't very different. It was a set of three books called Discoveries, they taught us grammatically correct English, they just didn't teach us they way Anglophones actually...well...speak to each other. Very unlikely this was their intention when they wrote these characters but I think it's an additional layer of humor to something whose texts are deliberately written to be funny amidst the lack of any actual jokes. Gotta love these two guys, the world is a much better place thanks to them.
Your right, I write that why but I never speak this way. What I would actuality say if I was speaking here is , "Oh ya I never say that I guess." And not "I write that why but I never speak this way. "
I didn't either, or did I? We would have noticed if there were any comments about your mother, because such comments would be very irritating, wouldn't they? Since I don't feel irritated, I suppose there were not comments about your mother in this thread whatsoever. That is, up to the point when you mentioned your mother. A propos, how is your mother? Is she still visiting that Soviet general that poses as a carpenter in the Ministry of Silly Walks?
I just love this sketch because of how ambiguous it is. There are so many possible interpretations on what the joke really is (this comment section has some really varied and interesting ones) I have a strong feeling that it's meant (at least partly) as a parody but it also works out of that context. In that case it becomes this weird situation where a simple conversation is made just bizarre enough to hold your interest through to the end, without ever rewarding you with any explanation or tension relief. The fact that there is no punchline becomes the punchline (if that makes sense) and you are left scratching your head but giggling at the same time.
If Kostin does not want to talk, probably he is actually a Chinese spy acting as if he was a North Korean spy, but the British counterintelligence mistakenly take him for a Soviet spy because they could not know that a guy named Kim was actually originally from a Kostin family who entered in North Korea in 1835.
I strongly believe that the humor lies in the portrayal of secret agents, which talk unlike they do in any other film: where they would be depicted as secretive and talking in phrases with double and / or hidden meaning. Here they are as exact as possible and going to lengths in order to make it impossible to misunderstand what they say. One of my favorite if not the most favorite Hugh and Laurie skits.
The joke is their anal use of grammatically correct english and how foreign it sounds. Everyone who thinks that Hugh sounds like a soviet agent (because of his manner of speech) is absolutely right. No one should ever speak like this. The other thing is that this is how some authors will actually write characters.
This isn't the joke. There is a lot of broken grammar in here, or contextually inappropriate at least. Paradoxical statements and responses. It's a coded conversation between "Control", a soviet handler, Stephen Fry, and an agent, Hugh Laurie.
Thanks for explaining the joke. You truly are a hero for saving me from my mass confusion. By any chance do u watch rick and morty? It requires quite the intelligence to comprehend. Dumb fuck
I desperately want an entire show of this bland spies premise 😩 focusing only on the banal daily runnings of an office with only oblique references to exciting international intrigue
The sketch is a parody of old spy dramas, where the actors are usually act very simply and obvious as not to confuse to audience, which is weird because they're dealing with matters of national security.
@@markmcelroy1872 I too felt that way, Mark McElroy. I think that Christopher Connolly had an excellent grasp of the situation when he said it reminded him of dialogue written by Tom Clancy.
I've always interpreted the characters of this sketch to be completely deliberate and conscious about their silliness. Much like their actors, Tony is not a stiff robotic simpleton and Control is not a self-amused light-hearted buffoon. These roles just help those characters to cope with the immense stress that they're dealing with as chiefs of the secret service. It's just humorous banter between two friends and colleagues to escape drama and emotions. However, as they immerse themselves more and more in their joke, as the humour becomes dryer and dryer, they unconciously eventually become a part of the joke themselves.
They speak as if they know someone else is listening. Trying to convince the listener they didn't fail by allowing a Soviet spy to operate in their organization, but that instead they suspected him being a spy and working to detect him.
First of all, as far as I am concerned, I think its safe to surmise that in this skit fry and laurie, the two main protagonists of the skit, control and Tony, opt to imitate the non natural and overly formalized speech used in teaching foreigners english. There are many arguments that can support this claim. First of all one of the main facts drawn from the skit that corroborates this, is the stock phrases, expressions and the usage of transitions, a constant in most english textbooks and listening comprehension tests for non native speakers.In addition to that another point that supports that is the analytic way in which both characters talk and resembles the way foreign students of English often feel the need to talk during speaking exams and generally when among native speakers. In conclusion I think that was what Fry and Laurie set out to do in this skit, emulate the way people, teachers, especially non native speakers, and students talk in english cram schools and english lessons in general. Overall i think that the above video is a fine specimen of jargon used by non native speakers of english. Last but not least i d like to add that this video was adequately funny, to anyone with similar experiences, and should be considered good comedy.
Welllllll, reaeaeaealy, the point is this. As a matter of fact, I am a teacher of English, actually. One of the gratifying bonusizz I perceived immediately when embarking on studying English at the university was the opportunity to exhibit with impunity those beautiful phrases, preferably pronounced in perfect RP (received pronunciation) with a melodious voice and pouted lips, imitating an imaginary Oxford don. Comical and obsolete as it may seem today, this way of speaking underpinned at the time a general attitude of decent behaviour, good manners and courtesy in the interaction with other (but no lesser) mortals. A far cry from the crude and crass code of conduct that the young associate with ‘spontaneity’ today.
watch the BBC mini series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starring Alec Guiness as Smiley. While I am a big Le Carre fan, on screen the episodes were extremely verbose full of unnecessary euphemisms that only those who had read the book would get. The 'Control' bit is a definite ref to it as it's the only novel where the chief of SIS was called Control.
Claystead FYI, you don't sound educated when you talk like this. You come across as someone who never learned how the language is spoken. The fact that you think this makes you sound educated only demonstrates the deficiency in your education.
Oh they sound like two kids from an old-fashioned book like the Secret Seven or the Famous Five or something, saying stuff like "oughtn't we ?"... Can't stop laughing !
I really think that the joke is just that they're two innocent simpletons who work in a viper's nest of intrigue. I don't think they're agents at all. The idea of Control interrogating anybody 'on the 9th floor' is so ludicrous that it's funny.
"A lot of people don't get it, Simple, the spy was actually Laurie who framed someone else. " erm..... no. How can you have such a radical misinterpretation of the sketch? the comedy is in their simplistic language and behaviour. "kostin didn't want to tell us anything, but i thought it would be much better if he did..." etc
The idea is almost the opposite to their Peter & John sketches, who act over-dramatic like sort of hard drinking Wall Street characters, but in reality they only run a Gym in Uttoxeter! Tony and Control have a huge responsibilty at British Intelligence, but talk like they're out of a kid's story book or TV show. It's as if Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton wrote together and this was the result.
That was what I was thinking too, but it feels like there was a scene missing that was just before this one or it's a part of an overall story that I've missed entirely.
This is a perfect example of how a script looks on a page vs. how it appears in performance. The script for this probably looks dreadfully boring, but performed by Fry and Laurie, it's hilarious.
If you woudln't know it better (but we all do I guess), you could assume we have here two very bad actors who try to play secret agents ...but... this... dry behaviour about everything xD I mean they even talk about TORTURE? In that very casual and calm and oh-so-happy tone... this is ... it's FUNNY! XD
I always thought the joke was that they're overly polite and nonchalant about everything. I don't get how this could be about non-native speakers, especially when you see the other Tony and Control sketches.
That's the kind of english and conversations that we learned in school in Germany during english class. THink about our surprise when we realized, that no one really talks like that.
CrniWuk
you must of thought us to be so damn cordial
Actually, yes.
Maybe instead of clothing, fashion, traveling or some other boring stuff, they will do something that is closer to football factory for listening comprehension exercises that is more realistic.
CrniWuk I guess the idea is to lay a foundation.
Exactly the same for me - and I wrote my comment before reading yours. This is how we learned the English language in Portugal when I was a kid. During the first years, they teach you basic expressions and grammar but they don't really emphasize how people actually speak.
Fortunately we also had (and still do) subtitles on TV, something which I cannot be more grateful for - watching most of my favourite childhood cartoons from the 80s and early 90s in English with subtitles taught me way more vocabulary and expressions than my English classes ever did.
Same here in Russia. I suppose all learning books in another language look like this. Actually I remember some conversations in German classes when Hans und Emma were discussing a place to chill in a strange manner, and pretty sure Russian books are no less wierd:)
I do enjoy Fry's love of english. It's been a while since I heard "oughtn't we"
And you jolly well ouhgt to, oughtn't you?
It's a parody of long-form spy-stories, that, instead of showing us the action, has it recapped by dull men, whom the writer simultaneously has explaining facets of their work so the viewer has an inkling what is going on. Presumably Fry and Laurie were not fans of Guiness as George Smiley.
Nowadays, modern english films do the same. IMO, this is probably to make it easier for translations.
I thought Guinness was wonderful as Smiley in both series.
But I don't like the stories. All the books are terrible as well.
This, my British friends, is exactly how the English school textbooks for kids abroad are written.
A few years ago, when I watched A Bit of Fry & Laurie for the first time in my adult years, I immediately associated Tony and Control to the audiotapes of my English school books from when I was 10-12 years old - they spoke exactly like this and the written texts weren't very different. It was a set of three books called Discoveries, they taught us grammatically correct English, they just didn't teach us they way Anglophones actually...well...speak to each other.
Very unlikely this was their intention when they wrote these characters but I think it's an additional layer of humor to something whose texts are deliberately written to be funny amidst the lack of any actual jokes. Gotta love these two guys, the world is a much better place thanks to them.
Your right, I write that why but I never speak this way.
What I would actuality say if I was speaking here is , "Oh ya I never say that I guess." And not "I write that why but I never speak this way. "
they talk like 2 people replying each other in a comment section xD
Indeed, I find many of the comments in the comment section to be rather unbelievable.
I didn't either, or did I? We would have noticed if there were any comments about your mother, because such comments would be very irritating, wouldn't they? Since I don't feel irritated, I suppose there were not comments about your mother in this thread whatsoever. That is, up to the point when you mentioned your mother. A propos, how is your mother? Is she still visiting that Soviet general that poses as a carpenter in the Ministry of Silly Walks?
I just love this sketch because of how ambiguous it is. There are so many possible interpretations on what the joke really is (this comment section has some really varied and interesting ones)
I have a strong feeling that it's meant (at least partly) as a parody but it also works out of that context. In that case it becomes this weird situation where a simple conversation is made just bizarre enough to hold your interest through to the end, without ever rewarding you with any explanation or tension relief. The fact that there is no punchline becomes the punchline (if that makes sense) and you are left scratching your head but giggling at the same time.
If Kostin does not want to talk, probably he is actually a Chinese spy acting as if he was a North Korean spy, but the British counterintelligence mistakenly take him for a Soviet spy because they could not know that a guy named Kim was actually originally from a Kostin family who entered in North Korea in 1835.
I strongly believe that the humor lies in the portrayal of secret agents, which talk unlike they do in any other film: where they would be depicted as secretive and talking in phrases with double and / or hidden meaning.
Here they are as exact as possible and going to lengths in order to make it impossible to misunderstand what they say.
One of my favorite if not the most favorite Hugh and Laurie skits.
I get the feeling they are both aware their conversation is being recorded and are being extra careful.
It is like how aliens would try to reconstruct how they imagine human conversation being.
- "Control?"
- "HmMM?"
xD God, I love these two! xD
Enid Blyton's version of a spy thriller.
Blah-blah-blah missing scientists. Blah-blah-blah atom bomb. Blah-blah-blah third world war. Blah-blah-blah top secret!
John Le Carre's finest work to date.
Jack Faulkner huh?
The wait for a punchline is so frustratingly brilliant.
The joke is their anal use of grammatically correct english and how foreign it sounds. Everyone who thinks that Hugh sounds like a soviet agent (because of his manner of speech) is absolutely right. No one should ever speak like this.
The other thing is that this is how some authors will actually write characters.
+Charles Townley (Charlie) I always felt this parodied poorly-written expositional dialogue.
I think Hugh speaks like Richard Ayoade, or maybe Richard Ayoade speaks like Hugh?
This isn't the joke. There is a lot of broken grammar in here, or contextually inappropriate at least. Paradoxical statements and responses. It's a coded conversation between "Control", a soviet handler, Stephen Fry, and an agent, Hugh Laurie.
Charles Townley oohh that's why. didn't find it funny at first, just weird
Thanks for explaining the joke. You truly are a hero for saving me from my mass confusion. By any chance do u watch rick and morty? It requires quite the intelligence to comprehend. Dumb fuck
I desperately want an entire show of this bland spies premise 😩 focusing only on the banal daily runnings of an office with only oblique references to exciting international intrigue
I think the scene is a direct allusion to "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" - that's where "Control" comes from. These two are hilarious - beyond words.
God they are so great! ❤ Such a simple sketch, and they add the perfect spice to bring it to the top! Love their work!
The sketch is a parody of old spy dramas, where the actors are usually act very simply and obvious as not to confuse to audience, which is weird because they're dealing with matters of national security.
Reminds me a bit of Tom Clancy dialogue.
@@markmcelroy1872 I too felt that way, Mark McElroy. I think that Christopher Connolly had an excellent grasp of the situation when he said it reminded him of dialogue written by Tom Clancy.
I've always interpreted the characters of this sketch to be completely deliberate and conscious about their silliness. Much like their actors, Tony is not a stiff robotic simpleton and Control is not a self-amused light-hearted buffoon. These roles just help those characters to cope with the immense stress that they're dealing with as chiefs of the secret service. It's just humorous banter between two friends and colleagues to escape drama and emotions. However, as they immerse themselves more and more in their joke, as the humour becomes dryer and dryer, they unconciously eventually become a part of the joke themselves.
They speak as if they know someone else is listening. Trying to convince the listener they didn't fail by allowing a Soviet spy to operate in their organization, but that instead they suspected him being a spy and working to detect him.
Have you heard of the High Elves, Control?
"... Oughtn'dt'we?"
Sounds more like they've been infiltrated by Oblivion NPCs
The Tony and Control sketches are my absolute favorite. xD
First of all, as far as I am concerned, I think its safe to surmise that in this skit fry and laurie, the two main protagonists of the skit, control and Tony, opt to imitate the non natural and overly formalized speech used in teaching foreigners english.
There are many arguments that can support this claim. First of all one of the main facts drawn from the skit that corroborates this, is the stock phrases, expressions and the usage of transitions, a constant in most english textbooks and listening comprehension tests for non native speakers.In addition to that another point that supports that is the analytic way in which both characters talk and resembles the way foreign students of English often feel the need to talk during speaking exams and generally when among native speakers.
In conclusion I think that was what Fry and Laurie set out to do in this skit, emulate the way people, teachers, especially non native speakers, and students talk in english cram schools and english lessons in general. Overall i think that the above video is a fine specimen of jargon used by non native speakers of english. Last but not least i d like to add that this video was adequately funny, to anyone with similar experiences, and should be considered good comedy.
That's the impression I got. I thought they were supposed to be 2 Russian agents practicing their English.
Welllllll, reaeaeaealy, the point is this. As a matter of fact, I am a teacher of English, actually. One of the gratifying bonusizz I perceived immediately when embarking on studying English at the university was the opportunity to exhibit with impunity those beautiful phrases, preferably pronounced in perfect RP (received pronunciation) with a melodious voice and pouted lips, imitating an imaginary Oxford don. Comical and obsolete as it may seem today, this way of speaking underpinned at the time a general attitude of decent behaviour, good manners and courtesy in the interaction with other (but no lesser) mortals. A far cry from the crude and crass code of conduct that the young associate with ‘spontaneity’ today.
watch the BBC mini series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starring Alec Guiness as Smiley. While I am a big Le Carre fan, on screen the episodes were extremely verbose full of unnecessary euphemisms that only those who had read the book would get.
The 'Control' bit is a definite ref to it as it's the only novel where the chief of SIS was called Control.
first of all, what the hell did i just watch...second of all, what the fuck did i just read!?!?!?
Claystead FYI, you don't sound educated when you talk like this. You come across as someone who never learned how the language is spoken.
The fact that you think this makes you sound educated only demonstrates the deficiency in your education.
Oh they sound like two kids from an old-fashioned book like the Secret Seven or the Famous Five or something, saying stuff like "oughtn't we ?"... Can't stop laughing !
Excellent use of the now very rare contraction "oughtn't" by Fry!
I really think that the joke is just that they're two innocent simpletons who work in a viper's nest of intrigue.
I don't think they're agents at all. The idea of Control interrogating anybody 'on the 9th floor' is so ludicrous that it's funny.
Stephen Fry is wearing a Cherubs tie (dining society at Queens' College, Cambridge).
"A lot of people don't get it, Simple, the spy was actually Laurie who framed someone else. " erm..... no. How can you have such a radical misinterpretation of the sketch? the comedy is in their simplistic language and behaviour.
"kostin didn't want to tell us anything, but i thought it would be much better if he did..."
etc
Often this comes across like the 'acting' found in school plays to me. Probably not what they're making fun of, yet it has that about it.
It indeed has, hasn't it?
Every non-native english speaker had to endure countless conversations identical to these
Ah, the joy of complete, uninterrupted sentences...
This is like one of those look and read programmes i watched in year 2
This sketch reminds me of the AI written stories. The words all work together but are just off and go off the rails
"oblivion music plays in background"
Ah. So it's kind of an esoteric joke about very dry lines delivered very dryly. I gotcha.
A fair way of Putin it.
This was exactly how we used to act out plays during my primary school.😅 Like someone's somewhere telling you what to say.
"You've got three hands there, Control" and "I wasn't counting very carefully, was I?" are things I want to say more often in random situations.
Very funny, very enjoyable.
FYR: "Three hands" is a Chinese expression for a pickpocket.
i see oblivion npc's are getting better
My absolute favorites!
Very kids story-ish from a children's television program presenter. Love it! :D
HAHAHA IT'S SO DULL :D A brilliant sketch.
Can anyone imagine what it would be like to be interrogated by someone like Stephen Fry's control?
Exactly true, my friend, because you could learn such dull dialogs in Soviet textbooks only :)
Wouldn't it be funny if they turned out to be completely wrong about absolutely everything they were so carefully trying to remember?
Yeah, I was waiting for that. Or at least once one of them said smth wrong, the other would call security to lock him up.
Quentin Tarantino approves of this dialogue.
Feels so weird to hear His voice on a younger version
Just seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. One could say this was quite fortuitous timing.
Like kids doing a school play, wonderful :)
Oblivion dialogue in a Nutshell
The idea of bad actors impersonation seems fair, over-politeness too - I kept thinking that it reminds me of the materials for studying English)
2:37 "So, was the minister _PLEASED_ that we caught him at last? 😃"
I'm really glad someone else had the same reaction! It feels so awkward and forced; I think that's exactly what's going on here.
Hugh's character here reminds me a bit of Jezza (Robert Webb) and Stephen Fry's of Mark (David Mitchell)
Man, my head hurts
1:49 The life looks as though it leaves his eyes here. 🤣
No goofy plot twist. Just what you see is what you get on this one.
The idea is almost the opposite to their Peter & John sketches, who act over-dramatic like sort of hard drinking Wall Street characters, but in reality they only run a Gym in Uttoxeter! Tony and Control have a huge responsibilty at British Intelligence, but talk like they're out of a kid's story book or TV show. It's as if Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton wrote together and this was the result.
Two master spies. Each careful to give out only the information that they want and each trying to pry information from the other. lol
I always thought it was supposed to sound like they're talking in code
Speaking exams for Cambridge be like.
It’s like a sketch to teach kids about being a spy….🤣🤣
This certainly explains the cambride five
Very Mitchell and Webb.
They sound like two MGIMO finishers
When two chatbots try to communicate
@Yugan Dali:
I didn't know it meant that I was wondering what they meant.
Is this a parody of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? The BBC version I found to be very confusing at times. XD
Learning english Part 32: The agent
The clock doesn't move in this sketch!
+Chris Harden It is said they had to nail it to the wall to stop its escape attempts.
Hugh Laurie kind of remained me Sheldon Copper on this sketch
I am glad I learned my spoken English by watching Friends .. i could actually use it in my BPO job , hehe
i feel like i watching two men having strokes
Probably not the conversation that came about when Kim Philby or John Walker were caught. Lol
That was what I was thinking too, but it feels like there was a scene missing that was just before this one or it's a part of an overall story that I've missed entirely.
Is this like CSI if it were a British spy procedural instead of an American crime procedural?
Stephen Fry is so lovely.
Hugh's jacket is so bad!
It's supposed to be a play on a style of literature. Some British books are written with language like this however it sounds absurd when spoken!
I'm pretty damn sure that they are both Soviet spies... what a nice folk they are.
That's a lot of head bobbing
THE 14TH OF MAY. IS. MY BIRTHDAY. *happiness*
Too deep for Fry and Laurie! Lol
This is a perfect example of how a script looks on a page vs. how it appears in performance. The script for this probably looks dreadfully boring, but performed by Fry and Laurie, it's hilarious.
They speak like they're in a language lesson.
does steven fry look like drew barrymore to anyone?
Yes! I was thinking that too... I wonder whether they are related?
It's those cheeks, isn't it?
I wonder if everyone in Control and Tony's world is like this, or it's just them...?
with one thing and another
Awesome.
OMG Fry looks soooo good here!
Sounds like one of those SCP
Dr House?
That's exactly what we learn to speak English in China......
@MeonProductions Would you care to explain that water is wet next, please?
May 14 is my birthday as well!
If you woudln't know it better (but we all do I guess), you could assume we have here two very bad actors who try to play secret agents
...but... this... dry behaviour about everything xD I mean they even talk about TORTURE? In that very casual and calm and oh-so-happy tone... this is ... it's FUNNY! XD
I always thought the joke was that they're overly polite and nonchalant about everything. I don't get how this could be about non-native speakers, especially when you see the other Tony and Control sketches.