lesbiassparrow: (Default)
lesbiassparrow ([personal profile] lesbiassparrow) wrote2006-05-10 10:09 pm
Entry tags:

Father Ted: the Greatest Comedy Ever. No, Seriously.

I am very grumpy this evening despite my team winning at the hockey (when that cannot cheer me up I must be extra grumpy). I think it has something to do with my mad insomnia which means I am currently getting
about four hours sleep a night. Not even copious consumption of gin and tonic (the cure that fixes all that hot whiskies cannot) is solving this problem. And there seems to be much grumpiness on LJ when I look at it, which is not improving the mood.

So I decided to cheer myself up by posting about Father Ted, which is my all time favourite comedy show ever. The plot is simple: three priests stuck together on Craggy Island, led by Ted, exiled there for doing something dodgy with money destined for Lourdes. The other two are Father Dougal, who may have joined the priesthood by collecting crisp packets, and Father Jack, who likes to imbibe toilet duck when there is no alcohol available.

Sample quotations:

Polly Clarke: My husband. Now there was a man who really was afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Father Ted: Why? Was she... following him or something?

And now on BBC1: Jurassic Park. The Director's Cut. With extra dinosaurs.

Father Dougal: It's nice to have a nun around. Gives the place a bit of glamour.

Father Ted: What was it he used to say about the needy? He had a term for them...
Father Dougal: A shower of bastards.

Father Dougal: It's like a big tide of jam coming toward us, but jam made out of old women.



This is the bunch of them. Aren't they a wonderful advertisement for the church?
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

This is Ted. Trying hard to look holy and not think about fiddling with money that does not belong to him.
He may be saying "It's fabulous being a priest - think of all that comfort you bring to the sick and
dying. They love it, they can't get enough of it!"
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Here is Tom, one of the inhabitants of Craggy Island. He killed someone and likes to talk about it and terrify visiting TV crews.
I suspect he may be the mastermind behind the tunnel of goats at Craggy Island's funfair.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
"Tom: Father! I've killed a man.
Father Ted: Er, well, we'll talk about that later, Tom. Right now, I'm going to be on the telly!"


Occassionally Father Jack passes out from the over indulgence in toilet cleaners and is left for dead, but then he comes back to life.
This is him "risen from the dead like that fella...ET"
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Ted is here is trying to reason with Jack about not doing that sort of thing again.
Jack is probably saying "Drink! Feck! Arse! Girls!"
which all he can say apart from "that would be an ecumenical matter."
(This handy phrase is something I use myself from time to time.)
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Sometimes Ted makes the mistake of telling Dougal scary stories which is not a difficult task.
This is awkward because then Dougal tries to share his bed.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
"Father Ted: It's not as if everyone's going to go off and join some mad religious cult just
because we go off for a picnic for a couple of hours.
Father Dougal: God, Ted, I heard about those cults.
Everyone dressing in black and saying our Lord's gonna come back and judge us all!
Father Ted: No... No, Dougal, that's us. That's Catholicism."

Ted's arch nemisis, Father Dick Byrne (as Ted says "As priests go... he's a really bad priest".)
Sometimes him and Ted have bets together for as much as five quid.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The competition really heats up when Ted and Dougal enter the Eurovision song contest, with their song
'My Lovely Horse." (lyrics below)
This is the very lovely horse which Dougal and Ted use in their video.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Lyrics:
My lovely horse, running through the field
Where are you going, with your fetlocks blowing in the wind?
I want to shower you with sugar lumps, and ride you over fences
Polish your hooves every single day, and bring you to the horse dentist
My lovely horse, you’re a pony no more
Running around with a man on your back, like a train in the night...


Evil Father Fintan Stack who, according to Ted, is worse than Hitler.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Father Fintan Stack: I want to listen to some music.
Father Ted: Oh, that's fine, you go ahead there.
Father Fintan Stack: I wasn't asking for permission

Occasionally as part of the price of being under the tyranny of Bishop Brennan Ted and Dougal have to protest films, like the 'Passion of St Tibulus."
Unfortunately this results in the film being the most successful in Craggy Island History.
Also Dougal sees a naked saint.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Ted taking revenge. Actually he lost a bet with Father Byrne and has to kick Bishop Brenan up the arse.
He lures him to lean down by convincing him Jesus has appeared on the skirting board.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

And what priest's household would be complete without the housekeeper? Here is the lovely and tea obsessed Mrs. Doyle.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[identity profile] k-julia.livejournal.com 2006-05-10 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
No... No, Dougal, that's us. That's Catholicism.

Eee, I love Father Ted. I haven't seen the ep that's in! (And Father Jack is still the grossest thing that ever grossed me out.)

Excellent picspam. :-)

[identity profile] lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com 2006-05-10 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! Though Mrs. Doyle is terrifyingly large I have just realised. But perhaps that's as it should be.

Father Ted...it will cheer me up everytime I watch it.

[identity profile] melata-fic.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
Father Jack also says "Brick" on the one occasion, I think. The one with the milk truck that can't go below five miles an hour once it's gone over it? The one with the brick, anyway. :D

There should be more Father Ted picspam, I feel.

[identity profile] lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
Oh yes! He does manage to say 'I love my brick!' shortly before hitting Ted with it.

That's in 'Speed 3.' Which also has the randy milkman.

[identity profile] melata-fic.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 08:41 am (UTC)(link)
*beams* Love.

Speed 3. I knew it had something to do with that. Hee.

I have seen the early episodes, but they haven't shown it on TV for ages. :(

[identity profile] ehab-it.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 07:16 am (UTC)(link)
Father Ted! I watched the whole series over the Christmas Holidays! And loved it.

Though the crud around Father Jack's mouth was just terrifying. As was the singing church group (well really just their leader) they ran into in that tiny caravan on holiday. Shiver.

Father Dougal was a treasure!

(Anonymous) 2006-05-11 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
The mad church group was excellent - especially when they run into them in the caves and the priest keeps on singing even when he is covered in a rock slide. And all the young people book tickets to South America to get away from him.

[identity profile] dangermousie.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 07:37 am (UTC)(link)
Oh Good Lord. Must see this now. Faintly heard of it before...

[identity profile] lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
It is great. Honestly, no matter how often I watch it I find it howlingly funny.

[identity profile] munchkin62.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 10:13 am (UTC)(link)
Please see icon for my favorite quote from Father Dougal.

OMG best quote. Hee!

[identity profile] lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com 2006-05-11 10:16 am (UTC)(link)
I have icon love and mad envy.

I must actually learn how to make them so I can one which reads 'Oasis or Blur?'...