The Benny Hill Show



The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy series that cemented the career of one Benny Hill.

"Lead woman: You can't come in here! Benny: Why not? Woman: This place is haunted! Benny: (dismissive) Who by? Woman: YOU!"
 * Accidental Pervert: At least when it isn't on purpose.
 * Affectionate Pickpocket:
 * In one sketch, three men break out of prison; they reunite and give each other hugs, each of them robbing the others.
 * In another sketch Robin Hood (Hill) has become the new Sheriff of Nottingham -- Friar Tuck and Will Scarlet come to congratulate him and he lifts their money pouches as he hugs them, then sics the guards on them.
 * An Astral Projection, Not a Ghost: In one sketch, Benny plays a man who literally dreams of going out partying at night, getting away from his harridan of a wife. Then one day he's out in the daytime he happens by the very same place he goes in his dreams. Amazed, he knocks on the door. A bunch of women answer.


 * Awful Wedded Life: About anytime a married couple is shown.
 * Backwards-Firing Gun: Happened in a skit that spoofed The A-Team.
 * Begone Bribe: Benny is sitting in the park reading a book called "How to Get Rich". A young boy comes along with a toy trumpet blaring away. Benny buys the trumpet from the boy, then throws it away. Along comes a bunch of kids each with his/her own instrument (led by the trumpet boy, now with a new toy). Benny buys all their instruments, then realizes how much he just spent. He throws the book away and calls trumpet boy over, talking to him and taking notes on how to get rich.
 * Big Little Man: Benny and Jackie Wright (a small man, under 5 feet tall) see a pair of wallflowers sitting at a dance. They decide to ask the girls to dance: Benny will ask the tall one and Jackie will ask the short one. The girls accept and stand up, revealing that -- due to how the chairs they were sitting on were designed -- the "tall one" is short and the "short one" is tall.
 * The Chase: There's typically a pattern -- Hill makes an innocent mistake and a guy wants revenge. Guy chases Hill. As Hill runs away, he stumbles and pulls off a girl's bikini top (but the audience never gets to see her boobs) so she chases him. Next guy they run past is the girl's boyfriend, so he chases Hill. Another two guys carry a window across the road, and Hilarity Ensues. The final guy is bald, and as Hill and the chasers pass him they pat his bald head for luck.
 * The Chew Toy: Jackie Wright's character (the small, bald old man) is put to constant, hilarious abuse throughout the show.
 * Delayed Reaction: Henry Magee asks Question #1, but Benny is silent. Magee asks Question #2, then Benny answers Question #1.
 * Distracted by the Sexy: A very common gag.
 * In one sketch set in WWII, Benny plays a sniper tasked to shoot Hitler. However, as he's testing the sights, he spots a Fraulein in skimpy dress by a window. He keeps ogling while distractedly putting together his sniper riffle, which ends up in a twisted, useless shape.
 * Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): Well, maybe not abuse, technically, but most of the time when Benny or someone else on the show pawed at a woman (or she was convinced they just had), they got belted for it. Lechery was frequently indulged in and just as frequently punished on this show. This kind of thing was Hill's go-to defense when people accused the show of sexism.
 * Ear Trumpet: Several. In the sketch "Benny Kelly, Son of Ned Kelly", Benny pours some alcohol into someone's ear horn and the fluid comes out the man's mouth.
 * The Eponymous Show
 * Fan Service: LOTS of scantily-clad, beautiful ladies.
 * Groin Attack: A Running Gag.
 * Laugh Track
 * Never Mess with Granny: "Wonder Gran"
 * Pan and Scan: Spoofed in one skit where the movie "Deep in My Heart" is rendered in fullscreen as "Deep in My Ear," and then we repeatedly hear suggestive dialogue before the scene pans over to reveal an innocent context.
 * The Peeping Tom: In one episode, Benny is peeping through a beautiful woman's window when a policeman grabs him by the shoulder and says, "You are under arrest for being a Peeping...". At this point the woman starts undressing and both Benny and the policeman can only stand there, entranced by the view. Once the woman is down to bra and panties she draws the shades (still unaware that she was being watched) and the policeman grabs Benny again and finishes his arrest by saying, "Tom!"
 * Plank Gag: Used with frequency.
 * Scooby-Dooby Doors
 * Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Many a lady singer would do this, and at times, Benny himself would do this, too.
 * Six Is Nine:
 * Benny as a jealous husband breaks into a hotel room and shoots the man & woman in the bed. Then he takes another look at them, looks at the room number, rotates the 6 to a 9, and sheepishly exits.
 * Another sketch did the same gag with The Lower Tidwell Fire Brigade chopping their way into a home while on a fire call, which as the mistress of the house angrily pointed out was three doors down.
 * Special Effect Failure: Usually quite intentional. The most common of it is replacing a falling character with a dummy.
 * Standard Snippet: Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax" for chase scenes. This show went a long way toward making it a Standard Snippet in the first place.
 * Tablecloth Yank: In one of the episodes, Benny Hill does that to several tables, leaves and comes back with new ones to preform an inversion of this trope.
 * Thanks for the Mammary: A common gag.
 * Theme Tune: "Yakety Sax" is also used as the final theme music. Fitting, since the final credits always run over a chase scene.
 * Under Crank: Standard procedure for the obligatory chase scenes with speedy albeit hilarious results.
 * The Unintelligible: A frequent bit; Hill would play the part of an foreigner with an utterly incomprehensible accent or dialect being interviewed. Hilarity resulted as the host attempted to make sense of what he said, with many hilarious and often off-color misunderstandings.
 * Vocal Dissonance: Often male singers would sing in feminine registers, and vice versa. Alternatively, Hill would play a child or woman speaking sweetly, until a "blooper" occurred and the director yelled at him. Hill's voice would then change to a gruff, throaty EastEnder accent as he complained.
 * Wardrobe Malfunction: A staple of the show. However contrived, you can bet that every sort of freak accidents possible will happen to the clothes of any sexy woman in most sketches (usually with a very exaggerated ripping sound) and leave her in her underwear. Though the males of the cast aren't entirely spared either, but there it's purely for humor and never fanservice.