Best of NOT The 9 O'CLOCK News, The

Not the 9 O'Clock News aired on the BBC between 1979 and 1982, producing 27 episodes. Poking fun at, well, pretty much everything - politics, music, art, the royal family, Belgium, you name it, the actors seemed to be having as much fun as the audience. Indeed the leads were a collection of young comic geniuses who went on to greatness - Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, a very skinny Rowan Atkinson, and Pamela Stephenson. Although some of the sketches featured on this collection are dated, okay, it was making fun of the news, many are dated (there are quite a few Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan jokes), but still many are not. The scene where the fancy cappuccino machine hides the proprietor adding instant coffee to hot water from a kettle, mixing in the milk, and then blowing into the cup with a straw to froth the drink had me laughing hysterically. The songs are sheer genius (including Headbanger which makes fun of Heavy Metal music, and the Abba spoofing Supa Dupa which is completely on the mark).Although the humor is very British, and the number of UK politicians named and mocked will be alien to American audiences, this is still a brilliant show that can be appreciated across the pond. Watching on my iPad, I can't count the number of times I laughed out loud when I was exercising on the orbital trainer. I was just glad the gym was fairly empty at the time, or people would think me insane.I suppose if you did not live through the 80's, you would miss much of the humor (for example the song "Nice Video, Shame about the Song" would probably only get quizzical looks). But if you are of a certain age and like your humor edgy, you will love these sketches.

I admit I am a little puzzled by the negative reviews. For one, like Monty Python (as others have noted) "Not the 9 o'Clock News" was originally a 30 minute broadcast featuring quick sketches. As I watched this DVD I enjoyed the vast majority of the offerings. Some skits last but a few seconds, others are longer. I did not detect any evidence of a sketch being edited of content.Second, I agree that some of the references are dated, such as those referring to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan.I admit, I knew very little of Rowan Atkinson. I have never seen his "Mr. Bean" shows, although I did enjoy him in the Blackadder series. He is very funny in this 2-disc DVD, as are his co-stars. Indeed, these people appear in some many disguises that I have a hard time telling whom is whom.Last note: I have a two-cassette version of The Best of Not the 9 O'Clock News. I have enjoyed listening to it for years, and I am delighted that I am now able to see the skits (indeed, some of the audio skits did not make sense since you could not see what the audience was viewing).If you are a fan of British humor, you will enjoy this DVD.

There are many Brit TV comedies for sale, all trying to compare themselves with Monty Python. I've ordered a few, and while some are funny in spots, most don't measure up. And many are the old school Brit humor, with high-pitched voices and funny noises and everybody acting silly, but without any comedy teeth, in my opinion.So, I'm not an easy audience, but I highly recommend this set. All the skits are of the fake news variety, and if that's your cup of tea (sorry), I think you'll find a great majority of the skits laugh-out-loud, rib-hurting funny. Very early Rowan Atkinson stuff is especially good, but the writing is uniformly top notch, and so are all the cast members. This is the sophisticated new guard of Brit comedy, post-Python, targeting every sector of society with barbed humor, which hits the mark almost every time.Two discs full of very funny stuff, the best I've found since "Fry & Laurie." A great set... I wish they'd release more. Be careful, if you're watching on a computer, you might just spew your coffee all over your keyboard. It's that kind of funny.

"Not The 9 O'clock News" took the baton from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in the world of British comedy in the early 1980s. Like "Python," the show features fast paced sketch comedy intermixed with real footage and musical numbers, and blends them into an amalgam that is sometimes very original, yet occasionally noticeably derivative of earlier work (notably of "Python" and Peter Cook.) Of the four principals involved here, Rowan Atkinson, of course, became the standout, and in fact already was even at this early stage. Atkinson excels at quirky roles, and is a wonderfully visual performer. His portrayal of the performance artist mime "Alternative Car Park" is the funniest single sketch of the series by far.I find the quality of the segments to vary dramatically. I recall watching this many years ago and thinking it was hilarious: while I still think most of it is funny, it has not aged as well as "Python," largely because so much of the humor revolves around then-current governmental affairs in England. I generally found most of the musical numbers to be repetitive, with the only true standout being the song "Nice Video, Shame About The Song" by "Lufthansa Terminal," in a hilarious satire of early 1980s art-videos. The trucking sketch, while not especially creative musically, opened up Pandora's box of complaints with the squished hedgehog gag (giving rise to the hilarious "Hedgehogs: An Apology," and "We Want to Know Who Stuffs Hedgehogs.")Students of Atkinson can find traces of the future Mr. Bean in some of the sketches, particularly where he orders a bathroom from an architect with a rather excessive number of toilets. Stock footage is liberally used (generally with added sound effects) in what is an equivalent linking device as Terry Gilliam's animation in "Python." I found some of it amusing, but not nearly as funny as it seemed twenty-five years ago. Once again, the reason seems to be watching multiple episodes in proximity to one another on the DVD set (versus weekly on television) where repetition becomes more obvious, and also because much of the humor was very specific to people and events that were topical twenty-five years ago. This time I found the show to be much more biased to the left, although one sketch did mock the Social Democratic Party (SDP.) I also found some of the religious pieces to be in poor taste.Having detailed all the pros and cons, I still recommend this two DVD set to Anglophiles and lovers of anarchist humor. While I definitely think that "Python's" place at the head of the comedy table is assured, this is still a worthwhile venture, and while many of the gags will pass you by if you aren't familiar with the government and economy of Great Britain in the 1980s, the majority of this material is still funny after all these years.

What do we need to do to get a complete works of "Not the 9 O'Clock News"?I remember seeing this show as a youngster and being mesmerized by the sheer zaniness of the material. Rowan Atkinson was a standout but everybody else was talented in their own right. I've searched high and low for a complete DVD set of this but the only thing I've been able to find is this best of collection.I hear that part of the reason they never put one out was it wasn't selling. Well of course not. This has always been a very expensive set. While I finally broke down and purchased it I wouldn't be above paying $200.00 for a complete set of the entire works. But until that day comes, I'll try to be satisfied with this.

I have been a fan of this show since i first saw it in syndication on public television here in the mid 1980's. I wished the set was more than a two discs, but with over 3 hours of material it's still great to have. it features some of their best skits including their musical spoofs (Headbanger and Abba's Super trouper) as well as their infamous show introductions picking on Margaret Thatcher, Tories and the Royals. If you like Mony Python and that quick witted short skits then you might indeed love this program! You can see how Rowan Atkinson started the Blackadder, Mr Bean talent he later became.