Wednesday, December 06, 2023

Only Fools and Horses & The Office: Worlds Colliding.

A few years ago I wondered if Merchant & Ricky Gervais had based the great scene in Extras with Barry from Eastenders humiliating himself with the craft service table on an exact scene with Del Boy from almost 25 years earlier. So I already had a feeling they were huge fans of the show. - XMASTIME

I just noticed last night that the final final final episodes of Only Fools and Horses and The Office, both of which are generally in the top 3 of any Top 10 Britcoms list along with Fawlty Towers, came within 2 days of each other around Christmas 2003. And I’ve never seen how much of an OFAH fan Gervais is but the final episode of The Office just happens to have ruin use the word “plonker”, a word mostly recognized in England as being popularized by John Sullivan more than once in the opening scene. 🤔🤷‍♂️

And as for Stephen Merchant, he’s VERY clear about his OFAH fandom vis-a-vis this scene from his brilliant The Outlaws (AND I can't find a clip of it but I distinctly remember Merchant pretty much re-creating the Del Boy bar scene at a fitness center vending machine in a scene from his HBO series Hello Ladies.)

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