This blog’s title is the only way I can think of describing what I have to say is the funniest thing I have watched in a VERY long time! Before I go on, I need to acknowledge and thank Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and Erin at Cracker Crumb Life for leading me to discovering what I am about to write about.
You can find Lisa here:
You can find Erin here:
Both of these bloggers are doing a weekly series entitled “Tis the Season Cinema. Each week they are reviewing a holiday movie or special. As a fan of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, when I saw they were reviewing “A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong” I had to read about it.
The 2017 production is done by the Mischief Theatre, a comedy troupe I have never heard of. They had a show on the BBC called The Goes Wrong Show in which the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society puts on a weekly play. As the play is presented in front of a live audience, whatever can go wrong – does! It is sheer silliness and I laughed like I haven’t laughed in a long time!
I watched this before I went and watched episodes of the show. It is something you can watch and not worry about having seen anything prior. One source describes the episode this way:
Blacklisted by the BBC after ruining Peter Pan, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society do not take their ban lying down and force themselves back on the BBC by hijacking the jewel of the Christmas schedule, a live production of A Christmas Carol, staged by a professional cast. As the Cornley gang try to make the show work on television, they soon realize they are completely out of their depth, with no idea how to direct a live studio or handle the special effects. Worse still, their internal rivalries are revealed on television, while an angry professional cast tries to get back into the studio.
You can watch A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong on YouTube for Free (with ads) here:
After watching this, I had to see more. I believe Lisa from Boondock Ramblings mentioned that they did a series called The Goes Wrong Show and I searched for it on YouTube. I was able to watch the entire first season (like 6 or 7 episodes) for free. I again found myself laughing hysterically. It had all the silly situations from Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the fantastic site gags and dialogue from Airplane.
The cast is simply amazing. The fact that they can keep a straight face amid all the chaos is truly something worth seeing. I can’t recommend this highly enough. Do yourself a favor – check this gang out – and enjoy some laughs!
After Thoughts
My brother watches a lot of British shows. So I asked him if he had ever seen it before. He replied that he had and that he loved it. He also stated that he has watched the shows more than once. Shame on him for not telling me about this sooner!
Johnny Molson, a buddy of mine from radio, often appears in plays in the Springfield, Illinois area. He recently performed in The Play That Goes Wrong. He promoted it on his Facebook page and I remember thinking how cool it would be to see him in the play. I had NO idea that this play was actually written by some of the cast members of The Goes Wrong Show! It was a HUGE hit in London. From Wikipedia:
The Play That Goes Wrong is a 2012 play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre Company. It won Best New Comedy at the 2015 Laurence Olivier Awards. As of September 2021, the show has been running since 2012 in London; since 2014, the play has undertaken five tours of the UK.
This only makes me wish I had been able to see Johnny in this play even more.
Perhaps it will make the rounds again somewhere close by. Until then, I will watch what I can on the internet or streaming. There is a Peter Pan episode I have yet to see. Maybe I will review that for you at a later date.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 