The Best Comedy Shows Should Make Us Cry As Well As Laugh

Escapism is an important part of life, particularly in these times of uncertainty, and for the vast majority of people one of the best forms of escapism is comedy television shows. Whether they’re sketch shows, sitcoms or stand-up comedians, shows that make people laugh will always be a critical cornerstone in the televised entertainment industry. I grew up watching shows like Red Dwarf, Spaced, Mock the Week and Monty Python, so these comedy shows are as much a part of the pantheon of my favourite shows as Doctor Who, TNG and Voyager are.

Something that sets a comedy show up above all the rest is when the writers and creative minds behind the scenes understand that their audience is as much attached to the characters in the program as they are to the jokes that they tell, and often the most memorable and emotional moments in TV come from comedy shows that will briefly lift the levity that cloaks the story and deliver a scene that, although not designed to make you laugh, is every bit as integral to the program as any of its funniest jokes.

Perhaps the most famous example of what I am talking about is the final few scenes from the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, the Fourth Blackadder series that is set in the trenches during World War 1. It is understandable that some might find the setting of this series to be somewhat distasteful – after all, making light of the senseless slaughter of entire generations that took place during that conflict is difficult without coming across as callous, and the creators of the show clearly understood this.

Throughout the course of the series, Captain Blackadder desperately tries to come up with cunning plans to avoid going over the top, and his rival Captain Darling (who for the majority of the show holds a position behind the front lines in the safety of the General’s office) often attempts to outwit him. In the show’s final moments, we see that Captain Darling has been reassigned to the front line just as the order to go over the top has been given, and the four main characters of the series share a poignant scene together in which they discuss their predicament.

There are several lines here that hit hard. The usually upbeat George confesses his fear of what is about to happen, lamenting that he is the last of his schoolfriends left alive. We get a rare insight into Darling’s character, who tells us for the first time that he had a sweetheart back home. Baldrick and Blackadder share one final exchange about cunning plans before Blackadder, in a sobering moment of genuine compassion, wishes his friends luck. Then, they all go over the top and they don’t get very far. This sequence makes the entire series worthwhile – the true horror of the conflict is reflected in this episode, as these characters that we have come to know and love do their duty and die in the process, as so many brave people did during WW1. Such is the power of this scene that the episode famously once aired on Remembrance Day – and it received not one single complaint.

This is not the only example of a comedy series taking a serious approach to a topic that demands it – another great one hits us at the very of the sketch show That Mitchell and Webb look. At the last moment of this usually light-hearted and jocular series, Robert Webb and David Mitchell deliver an incredibly poignant and emotional scene in what is perhaps now their most infamous sketch, known simply as ‘Old Holmes’. The premise is simple. Sherlock Holmes is now an old man living in a care home, suffering from dementia. John Watson pays him a visit and, with the help of Chief Inspector Lestrade, they create a simple fake mystery for him to ‘solve’.

As it deals with the topic of dementia, this sketch can come across as facetious, but it is only when the other characters have gone and Holmes and Watson are alone together that this scene suddenly takes a turn. Holmes admits to Watson in a moment of lucidity that he in fact knows what Watson is trying to do for him, and that he is aware of his situation and that there is nothing he can do about it. What sells this scene is Robert Webb’s phenomenal acting, Watson’s face as he realises what is happening, you can see that he desperately wants to say something to his friend but he just cannot find the words.

Opinions on this sketch may differ. Unlike the previous example, there is not a clear-cut consensus on it, as although many agree that it delivers a heavy-hitting moment there are those who are less comfortable with the concept of making light of a serious condition like dementia. Early in the sketch the studio audience seem to take the sketch at face-value, laughing at the depiction of Holmes as a sick old man. However, the laugher soon dies as the audience realise what this scene represents. Whilst I would never condone making light of dementia, and I would seriously advise against any attempts to make a comedy sketch dealing with this topic, the sincerity of the final scene of That Mitchell and Webb Look combined with the fantastic line delivery from the actors means that, in spite of everything, it works.

The final scene we will discuss today comes from one of my favourite science fiction series of all time – Red Dwarf. A classic sitcom set on a mining ship stranded 3 million years away from Earth, Red Dwarf has always dealt with serious themes of depression, loneliness and self-worth, and nothing illustrates this better than the interactions between Lister and Rimmer. The friendship between these two characters is one of the most interesting ever put to screen, as although they loathe each other and appear to be polar opposites the underlying truth of their situation is that they both need each other and depend on each other for emotional support, even if it clothed in insults and petty banter.

There are half a dozen exceptional scenes that I will mention here – the scene in the Observation Dome after Rimmer discovers that his father died in Thanks for the Memory, the conversation between the two about their friendship in The Promised Land, and the short scene that they share talking about Kryten in The Last Day. But the moment that never fails to bring a tear to my eye is the final sequence of the last episode of Series 6, Out of Time. In this story, the Dwarfers discover a time machine, and are soon confronted by versions of themselves from the future who want to copy elements from the time machine to repair their own damaged drive. Unfortunately, the crew discover that their future selves are twisted versions of themselves who use the time machine to socialise with some of the most evil figures in history, and they are soon forced into an epic showdown with their future selves.

This scene is incredible for many reasons. For a start, the Dwarfers each individually commit to fighting a battle that they cannot win, even the cowardly Rimmer declares his intent to fight with the iconic line “Better Dead Than Smeg.” What follows is a great sequence in which the main characters are killed one by one as Starbug is ripped apart – Lister dies locking weapons onto the enemy ship, Cat dies because he takes the time to check to see if Lister is alright, and Kryten dies attempting to tell Rimmer what he needs to do to get them out of the situation. Then, in a climactic moment that represents the pinnacle of Rimmer’s subtle character development, he grabs a mining laser and rushes to the cargo hold.

The music, sound effects and set design emphasise the desperation as Rimmer charges heroically through the disintegrating ship to destroy the time machine and save the day. You can actually sense the live studio audience hold their breath as they witness this sequence, and although the episode ends with Starbug being destroyed and an infamous ‘To Be Continued…’, this episode could have been a satisfactory end to the series. This scene is less about words and more about the actions of a character, and admittedly it does perhaps lack the emotional depth of the other two scenes listed here if you haven’t seen Red Dwarf and so don’t know the characters, but at the very least it is a moving depiction of a coward facing his fear and bravely saving his friends.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about three of my favourite moving scenes from comedy shows – are there any other poignant, emotional or moving scenes from comedy shows that you like, feel free to post them down in the comments below as well as any opinions you might have about these three scenes. Thank you very much for reading my thoughts on why comedy shows should make you cry as well as laugh, follow our blog to see more content like this!

Top Ten Sci-Fi Spaceships

The Science-Fiction genre is replete with examples of iconic spaceships, often used as transports and even mobile homes for the characters in science fiction. As such, the ship almost becomes a character in itself, developing its own quirks and technicalities that give it its personality. But the question remains – which ship is the best? For this list we will be judging based on how useful the ship would be, and the extent of its powers. To begin:

10 – Red Dwarf – Red Dwarf

Despite being a slow, unwieldy, ancient mining ship that is peppered with meteorite impacts, Red Dwarf always pulls though and provides a home for its disparate band of occupants. Also, it comes packaged with Holly, the transgender eighth generation ‘hologrammic’ computer with an IQ that supposedly exceeds 6,000. Depending on the day, Holly might be sane or totally senile, and the ship seems to attract trouble on a near-daily basis. Don’t look forward to speedy travel with the Dwarf, however, since it trundles along at a snail’s pace. You do, however, get Starbug, but its up to you whether or not that’s a good thing.

9 – High Charity – Halo

The Covenant Holy City-ship of High Charity serves as the cultural, political and military headquarters of the alliance, and mobilises the Covenant assault force against Humanity. The best thing about High Charity is its environments, which you explore during the Halo 2 levels Gravemind and High Charity. The curved purple interiors and modular architectural design demonstrate the alien nature of the Covenant, and in terms of power it boasts a slipspace drive for instant transportation and a vast array of destructive weapons, with docking structures that can contain and transport hundreds of capital ships. So whether you like strolling through botanical gardens or invading planets with huge fleets of warships, High Charity is for you.

8 – Thunderbird 3 – Thunderbirds

The ultimate classic rocket design, Thunderbird 3 might not have weapons but it is extraordinarily fast – able to make it halfway around the world in a matter of minutes, in some cases. Overall, the red rocket tops any other rocket-type ship in sci-fi, and the best part about it is that you might even get Tracy Island thrown in, as well as the ability to travel to and dock with Thunderbird 5, an orbital space station. Designed to launch as an SSTO (single-stage-to-orbit) rocket, the ship can be re-used unlike contemporary rockets used by NASA, and it even runs on the same fuel,

7 – Ebon Hawk – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The spiritual predecessor to the Millenium Falcon, the Ebon Hawk serves as the home for the traveling circus cast of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This ship was constructed over 1,000 years before the Falcon, so it isn’t as fast but it does seem to be more heavily armoured. However, featuring dual engines, the Ebon Hawk was certainly fast for its era, and could certainly hold its own against more powerful ships like the Leviathan. After all, this was Darth Revan’s ship for a reason.

6 – Serenity – Firefly

Similar to the Ebon Hawk, Serenity is a freighter primarily, designed to haul cargo from planet to planet. Thanks to heavy modifications, however, she serves as the vessel of Mal Reynolds and his crew, a band of vagrants and smugglers who partake in various illegal activities. The ship was described by Firefly creator Joss Whedon as the ‘tenth character’ of the series, and she has character indeed – fans have likened Serenity to freighters like the Millenium Falcon. The biggest strength of Firefly-class ships is their durability and ease of repair, and Serenity is no exception.

5 – USS Enterprise-D – Star Trek: The Next Generation

The USS Enterprise is a fantastic ship in its own right, but the USS Enterprise-D surpasses it in almost every conceivable way. For one, it is essentially just a more powerful version of the original Enterprise, and it also has much more advanced technology aboard like the Holodeck and the Saucer Separation. Not only that, but the ship is also more luxurious, with more space and better living conditions – the original Enterprise was built with practicality in mind, with dull grey bulkheads and no inch of space wasted, whereas the Enterprise-D has a warm beige interior design with the occasional appearance of wood paneling. With the addition of the crew, particularly Data, the Enterprise-D is equipped to deal with any obstacle, whilst also providing a comfortable environment.

4 – Millenium Falcon – Star Wars

Allegedly the fastest piece of junk in the Galaxy, the Millenium Falcon is certainly a go-to starship if speed is a priority. Han Solo boasts in A New Hope that the Falcon ‘made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs’, which sounds like he made it up on the spot but will undoubtedly be extrapolated to the Nth degree in the upcoming Solo Movie, but the general jist of what he is saying stands – the Falcon is a fast ship. Able to outrun any Imperial starship, this unassuming-looking freighter has gone on to become one of the most famous ships in the Galaxy, and aided in the destruction of not one but two Death Stars. The only real downside of the Millenium Falcon is its amenities – it is essentially a grotty smuggling vessel, with very few forms of entertainment to pass the time during the long hyperspace jumps (unless you count a dodgy holographic chess set and a flying ball.) The ship would be handy in a pinch, but for long-distance travel the Falcon falls short of the best ‘conventional’ starship in Sci-Fi, which is:

3 – USS Voyager – Star Trek: Voyager

The Intrepid-class starship won the top spot for Top 10 Federation Starship Classes, and the most famous ship of its class is at least half of the reason why. The exploits of the USS Voyager top any starship of this dimensional plane, and its already advanced and reliable design is augmented by many modifications that the crew picked up during the ship’s time in the Delta Quadrant, including some Borg technology and a massively improved warp drive. With the Voyager also comes the Delta Flyer, a greatly upgraded and improved redesign of the standard Federation Shuttlecraft for ship-to-surface transport or even ship-to-ship dogfights, an innovation that other Federation starships lack. Despite the greater focus on tactical systems and speed, the Voyager still features the entertainment systems available on the Enterprise like the Holodeck, and is sleeker, faster and comes with a holographic medic.

2 – Heart of Gold – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Heart of Gold is powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive, a wonderful new method of crossing interstellar distances in a mere nothingth of a second, without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace. This incredible propulsion system temporarily launches the ship through every part of conceivable space simultaneously, and the only payoff is a temporary bout of extremely high improbability, which can cause hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, or a complete rewrite of the ships entire internal environment at a molecular level. Known effects have included the creation, and spontaneous upending, of a million-gallon vat of custard, marrying Michael Saunders, the transformation of a pair of guided nuclear missiles into a whale and a bowl of petunias, and transforming one of its crew into a penguin.

1 – The TARDIS – Doctor Who

The TARDIS may not look like much of a spaceship, but its abilities exceed all of the other ships on this list combined. Capable of traveling anywhere in time and space, the TARDIS can quite literally take its crew anywhere in any time period, and even other dimensions under the right conditions. If that were not enough, the ship is dimensionally transcendental, meaning the interior exists in a separate dimension to the exterior, creating the illusion that it is bigger on the inside, and the interior of the TARDIS is so vast that after over 2,000 years of owning the ship the Doctor has still not managed to fully map the floor plan. The TARDIS is alive, in a sense, and can alter and reshape its interior to suit the needs of its occupants, as well as allowing for a huge amount of internal systems such as a karaoke bar, a cinema, a library and a swimming pool, all of which occasionally move, change, or in rare cases fuse (causing the swimming pool to sometimes appear in the library). The ship is shielded to the extent that Dalek missiles – of which less than 10 are needed to eradicate a planet – don’t even scratch the blue box. Undoubtedly, no other spaceship in Sci-Fi even comes close to beating the TARDIS.

And that’s our list of the Top 10 Sci-Fi spaceships. If you enjoyed, be sure to leave a like, and you can follow us and like us on Facebook for more content like this. If you have your own list of Top 10 Sci-Fi spaceships, be sure to leave it down in the comments below!

Red Dwarf: Is Holly faking Senility?

————–Spoilers for certain episodes of Red Dwarf ahead————–

Red Dwarf is one of those shows that you can’t stop coming back to. Kind of like Star Trek: The Next Generation or The Simpsons, if you haven’t watched any episodes for months or even over a year, coming back to the show feels like you can take a fresh look at every episode, particularly if you’re like me and take a strongly critical approach to TV shows and movies. I have been watching Red Dwarf since I was a child, I was so young when I first started watching this show that I didn’t even get any of the jokes, I just liked the fact that it was set on a spaceship with a robot and a toaster that talks.

Regardless, coming back to Red Dwarf after a prolonged period of watching Doctor Who non-stop made me think to myself – is Holly actually senile or is he/she just putting it on? This is a question that can take the show in a whole new direction if you watch certain key episodes while considering the idea that Holly is in fact simply pretending to be senile as part of an elaborate act to help keep Lister sane. But first, I have to actually prove this.

To start with, I will discuss possibly the most telling piece of evidence that Holly isn’t actually senile – the Queeg prank. This prank which Holly plays on the crew during the episode Queeg essentially forms the plot of the entire episode, which is telling of the elaborate nature of the jape. Basically, Holly doesn’t take too kindly to the crew badmouthing his competency after a meteor hits the ship and Lister is injured mixing the damage. To get back at them, Holly pretends that another AI, Queeg, is attempting to take over Red Dwarf on the grounds that he is the ship’s backup computer. Holly, deemed by Queeg to be useless, is put on guard duty and Queeg takes over. This is the important part, and when considering this next part, remember that Queeg is Holly all along

After Holly is ‘demoted’ and Queeg starts running the ship, Rimmer is initially very impressed. He mentions how Queeg has managed to repair many of the ship’s broken equipment, such as the fire extinguishers, and how the skutters are ‘charging up and down the corridors’ performing tasks such as sweeping the floors. This takes a turn for the worst, however, when Queeg informs Rimmer that he will have to perform ‘holographic exercises’ in order to stay alive, and takes control of his body to get him to do a run. In the meantime, Lister and the Cat are forced to work to earn food, and this situation continues until Holly steps in and ‘challenges’ Queeg for Red Dwarf. What is interesting is that Holly is able to not only control his own TV body, Queeg and Rimmer all at the same time, he is also apparently capable of managing Red Dwarf to a capacity beyond that of any senile computer.

So the question remains – why does Holly ‘pretend’ to be senile?
There are a few potential answers. The first, and most simple, is that the events of the episode Queeg are simply depicting a ‘one-off’ event that doesn’t really impact the rest of the show as a whole. The same can be said of the ending scene of Timeslides, in which Rimmer is alive but it is never explained how. Or, the aftermath of the episode DNA, which is never shown to us, we are left to assume that Kryten and Lister get their proper bodies back, but it is never explained.
The issue with this hand-wave assumption, however, is the fact that Queeg isn’t the only time that Holly shows unexplained feats of intelligence. In Parallel Universe, he builds a functioning dimension-hopping device, allegedly ‘by accident’, in Quarantine she is able to dispose of the Despair Squid with ‘Limpet Mines’ in order to save the crew, and also figures out how to prevent them from committing suicide. Holly also gets certain scenes in which he/she explains certain scientific elements of the plot to the crew. Although these were mostly given to Kryten after Series III, notable examples include Future Echoes and Polymorph.

However, this does not explain the myriad of examples of Holly certainly showing signs of computer senility, which are common throughout the show (as this is the common assumption). Holly does on occasion perform acts of such monstrous stupidity that it could be said to genuinely put the crew at risk. Notable examples include Bodyswap, in which she allows Lister to go through with the entire risky ‘bodyswap’ operation that could have wiped out his mind rather than simply tell the crew that they are in no danger. In Marooned, Holly thinks she can see multiple black holes approaching, and so send the crew out of the ship for their own safety (which leads Rimmer and Lister to crash on a snowy planet) only to realise that there were no black holes, it was grit on the monitor. Also, so that it cannot be said that only female Holly is guilty of this, in Confidence and Paranoia Holly sits idly by while Lister romps about the ship with the potentially dangerous Confidence.

Despite this evidence seeming to prove my theory wrong, if the fact that Holly clearly shows that he is not computer senile in Queeg also applies to all the other episodes, it is possible that another explanation can be found for Holly’s apparent stupidity. The most likely theory is that Holly is merely pretending to be stupid in an elaborate gambit to keep Lister sane. Holly knows that Lister relies on him/her to survive, and so pretends to be stupid in order to allow Lister some sense of superiority. As explained in the Red Dwarf novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Lister always found the concept of Holly a tad creepy – not overtly, but it is obvious by his reaction that it at least unnerves him. After awakening from stasis, in the novel Lister spends days wandering around the ship drunk, hurling ‘abuse’ at Holly’s face. Perhaps, then, when Holly revives Rimmer, he makes the decision to put on an act – perhaps his 3,000,000 years alone did impact on his IQ somewhat, explaining his/her occasionally irrational behaviour, but not to the extent that it renders him/her as incompetent as he/she claims to be.