Historical Texts

1. The 2 Ronnies
2. Dick Emrie and Bennie Hill
3. Laural and Hardy
4. Tommy Cooper
5. Morecambe and Wise

The Two Ronnies
UK, BBC, Sketch, colour, 1971
Starring: Ronnie Corbett, Ronnie Barker

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/t/tworonniesthe_7776575.shtml

This is my historical text. The show was broadcast during the 1970s and had a big impact on its viewers due to its ironic and satirical comedy style. Similar to 'Little Britain' 'The Two Ronnies' were a comedy double act, producing sketches where they'd act out other characters. This style is what possibly lead the comedy stylings of Matt Lucas and David Walliams to adopt and form their ideas from this show. Although many things in television today are very different to what it was then some ideas in the genre still remain but with a lot more material able to be shown. Society has had the biggest impact on the show in my opinion as all the characters are based around real people in Britain, hence the name and the representations to social groups. Where censorship would have blocked a lot of material in the show then, now it seems television has almost no boundaries.

'The Two Ronnies' came from a time when real opinionated shows wouldn't be shown because of the possible effects on the audience, so the sketches could only go so far in the jokes they told that were more rhetorical questioning, said in a sort of statement that gave their audiences intelligent jokes that would have to be understood as to what they were trying to get out without actually saying it with the caution of getting it censored. Now, things can be said almost with no underlying connotations to it that a 10 year old would understand. In a way television could be argued that its been getting 'dumbed down' over the decades and practically spoon feeding its audiences more and more to the stage that we're all passive and taking in ideas like oxygen. 'Little Britain' is the perfect example of this as it is very obvious in the character representations and the ideologies of the show even. Even though they probably do this diliberately they still happen to give the ideas to the audience, preventing them from thinking about what they're trying to say for themselves.

This happens in most aspects of the media though now, like in music. Before it would've been very discrete in its lyrics but now, especially in rap music most people would find too explicit and 'out there' to handle, but this is the society we live in today.