The League of Gentlemen: Season 1, Episode 1 Welcome to Royston Vasey

You were wondering why the audience laughed ahead of the joke. The League Of Gentlemen was a stage show and a radio show before being made for TV, and a lot of the audience for the screening of the TV show would have been aware of some of the characters beforehand. The incompetent vet was definitely one of the original characters from the stage, so chances are some of the audience knew what was coming!

James Aston

aw hell yea

mrtheevilmage

Haven’t seen this in years wonderful comedy and what they do next with shows like ‘Psychoville’ & ‘Inside No. 9’ are absolute class writing and performance. Some real good content on the patreon for you at the moment.

A

I'm a local, the church right at the very start is in the village I grew up in. Have to admit Hadfield is a rum place 🤣

Dave Barratt

The Parrots eat em all joke is a reference to paracetamol which is what we call Tylenol

Kieran B

Never seen this before shockingly enough so I’ll watch along with you here, Josh. Funny start! 😂

Lee

Little Britain Fat Fighter definitly got the idea from the Job Seekers in this one.

Luke Barron

I think the Pauline character accurately highlights the kind of condescending behaviour of Job Centre staff, and the soul destroying nature of being on the dole in general. I hated anything to do with the job centre, and they were never that helpful, and always tried to push me into careers that I didn't want, or didn't have particular skills in (with the reasoning that it doesn't matter, as long as it gets you employed). I found that just signing up to a load of job agencies was far more worthwhile, less demeaning and actually got me full time employment twice.

Jay

It was definitely ahead of its time, and although it’s still funny I don’t think it quite has the impact it did back then

Kieran B

Where I went to college (pre-university in the UK) felt so much like Royston Vasey, but it’s not too far from where Reece and Steve grew up and they based in on the experiences (loosely) so that makes sense in a way

Kieran B

I have to admit the first episode was a LOT funnier than I remember when it came out in 1999. I really didn’t like the series back then. Perhaps my taste in comedy has changed over 20 years, or it was ahead of its time. I was wrong about Derek, I may have been wrong about this. Moral to this story, don’t listen to me... I don’t know what I’m talking about. 😃

Gary Tamblyn

An unreal show. There are three guys playing the majority of the parts but Reece shearsmith (Benjamin/ guy with gun) is so good you wouldn’t know it was him sometimes. The show just keeps getting better and better.

Ferris Booyaa

Loved psychoville. Exactly the same type of humour with a more sophisticated storyline.

Ferris Booyaa

Brilliant. My mother moved to a village in the Peak District in North West England when I was a kid. It was called Hadfield, and that is where they filmed a lot of this. I remember seeing them as a kid. My mum still lives there and I can confirm, it is a rather strange place with a depressing, foreboding atmosphere due to the hills, moors and endless grey skies and rain 😀

JedBullet

Around 1999 when this came out, it was probably THE show that we quoted at school the most. That and the Fast Show. So glad about this! Psychoville is the same people, similar vibe but more horror and more serialised. Also Inside No. 9, which is more like Black Mirror/Tales of the Unexpected/Twilight Zone.

Ian Webster

I had the misfortune to find myself on one of those Jobseeker courses once. I ended up getting sanctioned for going for an interview instead of sitting around applying for 5 jobs a day (which does not take from 9 am to 3 pm) so what happened to Mickey isn't even an exaggeration. Got the job though, so fuck 'em.

Z is for Zed

Awesome man I hope you enjoy it!

After Work Reactions

Lol it is wild!

After Work Reactions

Lol 😆

After Work Reactions

I do have that on my list I want to check it out soon.

After Work Reactions

Thank you I did! I hope you enjoyed as well!

After Work Reactions

I can relate man sometimes I watch older shows and think to myself, "How did I miss this?"

After Work Reactions

Lol the want to binge a show is real!

After Work Reactions

Awesome bud I hope you enjoy it!

After Work Reactions

Awesome bud, I hope you enjoy it this time around!

After Work Reactions

Awesome bud! It was interesting from the start, so looking forward to it getting weirder lol.

After Work Reactions

It is for sure strange but I loved it!

After Work Reactions

Lol I have all of those on my list I do want to check them out for sure.

After Work Reactions

I agree they did a great job with so many different characters.

After Work Reactions

I am excited about that too man!

After Work Reactions

Lol sometimes when a comedy becomes really popular and everyone quotes lines, it can be a bit annoying. I remember when Napoleon Dynamite came out 😑

After Work Reactions

Oh ok lol thanks for clearing that up bud. We of course have similar programs but they are called different names.

After Work Reactions

Thank you, yes I enjoyed it.

After Work Reactions

Lol I can see that, it is very different but I enjoyed it.

After Work Reactions

Awesome man, I think you will enjoy it I have heard food things 😁

After Work Reactions

Thanks bud I have been hearing so many great things about this show I am excited to finally check it out!

After Work Reactions

Im ecstatic that League has won! For a while it looked like Taskmaster (also a great show in its own right) was a dead cert according to the polls at the time and kind of gave up hope for League winning this time around but logged on today to binge the last few days shows & was very happy to see LOG is now being featured on Wednesdays. Im over the moon here- my favourite show of all time right behind Only Fools! Hope you end up enjoying it just as much.

King Bloo

League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse - seems like only recently I went to the cinema to see it but looking back must have been around 2006, brilliant movie adaption!

King Bloo

Glad to see I'm not the only one where this show completely passed me by when it first aired (and I thought I was pretty clued up on comedy in those days!). Looking forward to this!

Adam

Everything these men do is tinged with darkness and weirdness. Love it!!

So glad you like this, I thought you would but you can never be sure. This is going to be fun.

tania P. Bear

Great reaction Josh. Pauline the lady with the pens runs the job centre rework course. If your looking for work for a while in the UK you’ll be sent to a place like this for lessons and to keep claiming benefits while you look. The Dole is slang for money you get while claiming benefits. That’s what Pauline was saying when she said. ‘You work shy dole scum’

james

Please, please Josh... When you get to the last episode of the final series, don't look for outtakes. Check out the subsequent movie instead. You won't be let down. I can't remember what it's called. I was too busy laughing to be paying attention.

Tony Smyth

You're my wife now.

Tony Smyth

Agreed! It keeps on gettting BETTER Bro. It's not a sitcom. It's not a sketch show. It's a horror movie in several parts that keeps on frightening the shit out of you while you're busy laughing.

Tony Smyth

And don't forget... Chubby Brown, the foul-mouthed "comedian" turns up in a later series as a Mayor. His REAL name is Royston Vasey, but he NEVER fucking uses bad fucking language for cheap fucking laughs. He's just a fat bastard.

Tony Smyth

Right after this show started airing while I was in secondary school, I got really wound up by everyone thinking they were SO funny by greeting me with 'Hello Daaave!' in *that* voice. (And I'd only just got over everyone saying 'Alright, Dave?' in Trigger voices!) So I'm a bit unfairly biased against this series. But what the hell, it's been over 20 years so let's give it a fair shot.

David Lyons

Watching this when it first aired and going into school the next day. Only had 4 channels then and so most friends had stumbled across it, totally blew us away as was so insane and hilarious. I'm still greated by those friends with 'hello dave' reference to this day.

David Harman

It's good to see one of the shows with a more insane humour make it back on rotation. Looking forward to this one, I don't think I caught them all previously.

Sean O'Donnell

What I’ve always liked about League of Gentlemen is how easy it is to forget they’re all being played by the same guys. Like all the characters are so unique and have so much life and character

Edward

Oh how dark, strange, uncomfortable, league of gentlemen is....but truly a work of art! Gets stranger, and even more uncomfortable as the series progresses. Just comedy and acting perfection (in my opinion!).

Claire Prowse

it only gets weirder and weirder !! great reaction Josh, I just knew this would be right up your street ! :)

Markos

I wondered why Josh looked a bit confused by that joke. I've always assumed that paracetamol was called the same in all English speaking countries. I've heard Tylenol mentioned loads on US shows, I had no idea they were the same thing.

Chris H

Fortunately haven't watched this for a long time, so I can enjoy it more. It's nice to have a reason to watch something weekly again instead of bingeing it.

Alexander Bond

I am insanely happy about The League of Gentlemen finally winning a poll. It's a truly fantastic, hilarious and often scary ride and I think you'll love it, Josh! :-) The acting League are Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, and Mark Gatiss and they also write the series between them with a fourth (unseen) writer, Jeremy Dyson. I think you got 99.9% of the jokes but there were one or two that fazed you. One was in the Death or Mau Mau sketch when Brian tells Mike the following joke: Why are there no aspirin in the jungle? Because the parrots-eat-em-all. Mike says "I would have said "Parrots-ate-em-ol"" and Brian says, "Well, either way I think it works." This joke is reliant on the British terms for the respective painkillers, which I believe go under a different pharmaceutical name in the USA hence why it wouldn't make much sense! In the UK, we have aspirin and paracetamol. Both analgesics. Paracetamol can be prononunced "para-cee-ta-mol, or Para-cet-amol.... hence the added comment from Mike, and how both "eat and "ate" mean the same thing for the joke. It's not even a funny joke really - haha - but it's baffling if you don't use those words for the respective painkillers in your country. :-) I believe you call paracetamol "acetaminophen" or more commonly, Tylenol after its branding.

Ash Jeffries

Never actually seen this before, only watched Psychoville and Inside Number 9. Looking forward to going through it for the first time

Michael Harrop

I really want to binge watch this, but don’t think I can wait! League of Gentlemen is fantastic.

Brett watson

It only gets weirder as it goes on 😆

Stu 79

This bypassed me when I was younger but friends loved it. Can't remember what was on that rivalled it and I was into that instead.

Ryan Lynch

Can't wait to watch your reaction later. By the way, all the characters are played by three members of the LoG, but there is a fourth member who writes but doesn't appear on the show.

Sam Reeves

Cannot wait to watch this! You're going to love it Josh 😀

BelladonnicHazeyJaneII

I hope this eventually leads on to Inside No9 from the same guys!

Mark McKeown

I've been waiting for this all my life.

Tony Smyth

Yes! This is going to be a fun bizarre ass trip for you. Let's designate this Weird Wednesdays! 🤪

Daryl

Yay can't wait to see this! Never seen the show before but heard great things :-)

Starlight