Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Middle Names WTF?

One peculiarity of BBC sitcoms is the trope that during a big wedding, the middle name of the bride or groom will be revealed to be incredibly embarrassing. Not only did I notice this years ago in both Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Only Fools and Horses, but both in fact used the middle name of “Charlton”. Was this a pure coincidence? Surely John Sullivan knew about the joke from 15 years earlier in WHTTLL, or somebody would’ve alerted him to AT LEAST change the actual name if you’re going to do that gag?


Then yesterday wile re-watching the final episode of The Vicar of Dubly in honor of the death of Gary Waldhorn, I was reminded they did the same joke!! This time Geraldine’s middle name was revealed to be "Geraldine Julie Andrews Dick van Dyke Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius Chim-Chiminey Chim-Chiminey Chim-Chim-Cheree Granger" due to her mother's favorite book being Mary Poppins and the fact that the film was released the year of her birth, 1964. But what the hell is it about British sitcoms that they keep doing this riff again and again? Is this a thing in actual British society?

Also this seems like a good time to remind everybody that Mister Rogers' middle name was...McFeely?!?!?!!?!  Dafuck?

No comments: