Friday, February 28, 2014

Case Study No. 1271: Unnamed Female Librarian (The Mary Whitehouse Experience)

The Mary Whitehouse Experience - The Library Experience
2:05
Sketches from the 1992 series of the fantastic British comedy show "The Mary Whitehouse Experience". The clip starts off with a parody of Edward Scissorhands ("Edward Colinderhands") and then David describes what happens to him in libraries. Incredibly funny.
WARNING: Contains exploding Barry Whites.
Tags: Rob Robert Newman David Baddiel Steve Punt Hugh Dennis Mary Whitehouse Experience british comedy
Added: 7 years ago
From: zoot91
Views: 46,866

["The Library Experience" appears on screen, as David gets up on stage and speaks with the audience]
DAVID BADDIEL: I don't go into libraries, because I've discovered that it is impossible for me to be sat in a library for more than 45 seconds without developing a non-negotiable hard-on. I think it's not just me. I reckon that when he goes into a library, even Bernard Levin must feel his preen withered-on-the-vine, austerity-years genitals stirring across and up the left hand side of his grey worsted pants. Alternatively, Barry White must explode ...
[cut to the inside of a library, where an elderly female librarian is sorting books when "Barry White" walks in and subsequently explodes (which the librarian barely reacts to as she continues sorting her books), then cut back to David on stage]
DAVID BADDIEL: I thought so ... The libido is like a character in "The Beano"; whenever it's most supposed to stay clean, tidy and quiet, you know, that's when it's going to get dirty. It's the silence and those "quiet please" signs. They just make it worse.
[cut back to the library, as a group of patrons are sitting at a table with the signs hanging above them which read "Tense Sexual Atmosphere Please," "Furrowed Guilt in the Air at All Times," and "No Standing on the Desk and Shouting 'Hey Everybody Let's F**k!'", then cut back to David on stage]
DAVID BADDIEL: There is another train of thought as to why you get the horn in the library and it's based on how anti-sexual a library is obviously meant to be. It maintains that the libido sets up deliberate antagonism in response to this bold attempt of the super-ego to put it on ice for a while. It senses conscious attempt to banish it from the action and, like a spoilt child in the hands of an unauthoritive parent, responds by showing off even louder than usual.

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From wikipedia.org:

The Mary Whitehouse Experience was a British topical sketch comedy show produced by the BBC in association with Spitting Image Productions. It starred two comedy double acts - David Baddiel and Rob Newman, and also Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, all of whom had graduated from Cambridge University. It was broadcast on both radio and television in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A television pilot aired on BBC2 shortly before the fourth and final radio series, on 3 October 1990. The series proper started on 3 January 1991 and ran for six episodes, with a second set of six episodes in 1992.

The television series was a mix of surreal sketches and monologues, in a format similar to shows such as Mr. Show and The Kids in the Hall. The show featured a lot of satirical takes on famous people, films and TV shows of the day along with original character material.

Each show was made up of sections usually headed by a caption related to the topic about to be discussed. The caption took the form of 'The [topic] Experience'. One of the performers would begin talking about the topic in monologue form, sometimes with input from another performer who appeared in character. The monologue would make reference to a humorous scenario which would be played out in sketch form, returning either to the same topic or moving on to a different or loosely related one. Lines or characters from sketches might recur throughout the show either as a continuation of the original sketch or an invasion of another one.

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