'Allo 'Allo!: Difference between revisions
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Beyond that, however, the show was notable for various things:
* Bad French accents. In fact, all of the accents were bad, [[Beyond the Impossible|including the British ones]]. Whilst all the dialogue was actually in English, comical 'national' accents were used to imply the language being
* Multiple character and actor replacements of various types - [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute
* At least four [[Put on a Bus]] schemes involving various characters leaving Nouvion. (Maria, Hans Geering, the original Leclerc and {{spoiler|eventually, the British Airmen, though they returned for a brief appearance in the finale}})
* A very big [[Story Arc]] involving a painting. (Namely "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies")
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{{tropelist}}
* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: It's the cruelty what arouses Helga in Herr Flick.
* [[Ambiguously Gay]]
* [[As You Know]]
* [[Attending Your Own Funeral]]: René was executed by the Nazis but the Colonel and Hans save him by giving the firing squad fake bullets (and the real bullets as well, but they were lucky). René then poses as his own twin brother and has to organise his own funeral, and pose as the dead body when the undertaker arrives.
* [[Bad Habits]]: One of LeClerc's many disguises, such as when he came to give René and the others a saw to break out of prison. It doesn't help.
** Crabtree was replaced as the priest to marry René and the head of the resistance (who was replaced twice anyway).
* [[Backup Twin]]: An in-universe example, after René stages his death he pretends to be his own twin brother... who's also called René.
* [[The Baroness]]
* [[Becoming the Mask]]: Agent Crabtree. Almost immediately, Crabtree starts to live his assumed role of policeman, practically forgetting that he's supposed to be an undercover agent. Leads to much consternation and hilarity on several occasions as when Crabtree reports Gruber's little tank as missing (Rene and Capt. Geering have 'borrowed' it for a secret task) and bravely confronting Bertorelli's gang trying to break into Secret Gestapo Headquitters, *ahem* Headquarters, and getting knocked out as a reward. In fact, in the reunion special set years after the war, Crabtree is still in Nouvion and still a gendarme.
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]
* [[Break Out the Museum Piece]]: One plan to get rid of the British Airmen evolved around stealing an old plane out of a museum and use the engine for the General's lawnmower.
* [[Breast Expansion]]
* [[Bride and Switch]]
* [[British Brevity]]
* [[The Bus Came Back]] -- {{spoiler|When René and Edith go to England they meet Hans, who has since been brainwashed into working for the British government. Plus, the two airmen reappearing in the final episode after disappearing at the beginning of the 8th season.}}
* [[Catch Phrase]]
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** This show is probably a prime example. Not only does ''every'' character have at least one, but in later episodes, the characters occasionally [[Borrowed Catchphrase|"borrow" them from other characters.]]
*** In fact, [[Harry Enfield and Chums|Harry Enfield]] once claimed that the show had so many catchphrases, all of which appeared at least [[Once an Episode]], that there were only about ten minutes' worth of original dialogue per show. It nonetheless stayed fresh because so many situational spins could be put on the catchphrases.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]
* [[Clark Kenting]]
** Or removing his false moustache to reveal the almost identical real moustache underneath.
{{quote|'''René:''' [[Once an Episode|"I know it is you, you old fool! Just give me the]] <[[MacGuffin]]>!"}}
** As René put it:
{{quote|"He's a man of a thousand disguises... every one the same."}}
* [[The Comically Serious]]
* [[Continuity Lock Out]]: The increasingly complicated plots can lead to this. However, René does [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|recap the events of the previous episode]] to the audience at the start of each new one - though this is done at least partly to [[Lampshade]] how ridiculous the situation he's in is.
* [[The Crime Job]]: The episode "The Bank Job".
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* [[Disguised in Drag]]: Multiple times. Herr Flick and Von Smallhausen pretend to be female German soldiers so they can visit Helga... and they're forced to do gym in their underwear and the obviously fake breasts go flying.
** The British Airmen are disguised as resistance girls once (René also takes on the disguise for one episode) and as nuns when they're in hiding.
* [[Distant Finale]]
* [[Double Entendre]]
* [[Dreadful Musician]]
** Gruber, on the other hand, is very good about it...and seems to get a lot of male attention for it.
* [[During the War]]
* [[Enemy Mine]]
* [[Even the Guys Want Him]]: René, if Gruber counts. One of the German Colonels was found of him as well.
* [[Everybody Did It]]
* [[Everyone Looks Sexier If French]]
* [[Faking the Dead]]: René fakes his own death though he wasn't sure if he was even going to survive. Fortunately he does and returns to be his own twin brother and has to organise his own funeral.
* [[Fan Service]]
** It's difficult to work out if this strictly speaking counts as fan service as such. Were people tuning in to see Helga get undressed? Who can say, but this was a family show... What we do know is that quite a lot of British comedy from the 70's and 80's had girls dancing around in their underwear for no obvious reason and this was more a genre convention than a deliberate attempt by any particular show to boost ratings. Scantily clad young women show up right from the get-go but there was never really a 'demand' from anyone (or any fan interaction as we now know it).
* [[Farce]]
* [[The Fun in Funeral]]: René's funeral. As René isn't dead his coffin is filled with garbage and bombs the resistance need to get rid of. While on the way to the cemetery the cart with the coffin gets away. It explodes when it reaches the end of the road.
* [[Gambit Pileup]] -- '''NINE SEASONS''' of ''three'' different parties trying to steal away '''ONE PAINTING''' and/or return the airmen to Britain, with [[Spanner in the Works|constant foulups]] and [[Xanatos Speed Chess|incredibly hasty improvisations]] ''every single episode''.
** Oh god that's not he half of it. There was also the second painting, the Colonel's gold, the two forgeries of the two paintings each (Because General Klinkerhoffen thought he was getting the original while sending the forgeries to Hitler but they both got forgeries. The real paintings would go to René and the Germans in theory but with everyone trying to short everyone it all got horrible confused.), a whole season focused on getting the Invasion plans, and certain Macguffins that lasted two or three episodes, the forged Gestapo money, the T5 land mines, the exploding Christmas puddings etc. And that's just in one season imagine 9 SEASONS of this mess And enough gambits by the resistance and the Germans to try and liberate France/Get the British Airmen home/ Defeat the communist resistance and the Germans to make some money out of the mess/ not get sent to the Russian front. This is ignoring the bumbling by the Gestapo, Communist resistance and Berterelli.
* [[Giftedly Bad]]: Edith at singing.
* [[Girls with Moustaches]]
* [[Human Mail]]
* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]: Von Smallhausen has a shade of this as he is definitely more level-headed that Herr Flick who usually focuses on [[Rube Goldberg Device|extremely complex plots]] and is oblivious of the most obvious solutions.
* [[Informed Attractiveness]]
** Or a sheer faith in the powers of [[Kavorka Man]].
*** Alternatively, as they are waitresses in the Nazis' favoured watering hole, it may be that they actually have trouble finding Frenchmen who are interested.
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* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: "Ah! Colonel! How nice that you should come into my Cafe at this precise moment!" Also, many of René's opening monologues to camera feature the tendency to lampshade the implausibility of events surrounding him.
** A priceless cuckoo clock is stolen, hidden and used as a MacGuffin for the better part of a season, then apparently [[Aborted Arc|forgotten by the writers]]. When, several seasons later, it's once again included in the list of stolen artifacts, René remarks "I had forgotten about the cuckoo clock..."
* [[La Résistance]]
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: for most of the run the main regular cast comprised eighteen characters, a vast number for a sitcom.
* [[Love Martyr]]: Poor Edith, despite being a clever woman, always falls for René's transparent lies when she catches him cheating on her.
* [[MacGuffin]]
* [[Meaningful Name]]
** The last name of the Gestapo officer Herr Flick comes from
** René's wife Edith has a similar repertoire to Edith Piaf, except that she's a terrible singer, and her middle name Melba is also an ironic reference to a famous singer.
** All of the waitresses have [[Double Entendre]] last
** Many of the German officers, including a meeting which included, among others, a General Stiffenwalken and an Admiral Sinkenquicken. And there's the time Flick's diminutive sidekick von Smallhausen (get it?) tries to pass himself off as Field Marshal von Crackenfart.
*** Not to mention in the play you also get General von Schmelling.
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* [[No Fourth Wall]]
* [[No Indoor Voice]]: Helga, when commanding and announcing.
* [[Noodle Implements]]
* [[No Swastikas]]
** Well, they did mention that the sausage was marked, they just never said what the mark ''was''.
** There are swastikas present in all seasons. They are simply used realistically. Majority of the scenes are shot in and around the Café René and virtually all Germans are either Wehrmacht or Gestapo officers (swastika armbands were worn only by members of the SS). Whenever their presence is required (flags in front of German command post, insignia in Herr Flick's office, authentic photograph of Heinrich Himmler etc.), swastikas are in place. They are prominently displayed during {{spoiler|René's execution}} in the season 1.
** Helga's swastika lingerie?
* [[Not What It Looks Like]]
* [[Oblivious to His Own Description]]: Gruber, reading out the resistance's leaflet mocking the members of the German military staff:
{{quote|"We will show that fat pig colonel, and that queer lieutenant - whoever can that be?"}}
* [[The Other Darrin]]
** subverted, or perhaps inverted, by the fact that for reasons not worth explaining, Rene spent most of the programme's run being passed off as his non-existent twin brother - ie the same actor playing the same character generally believed in-universe to be a non-existent different character.....
* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] -- "It is I, LeClerc!"
** Happens in a different way with Herr Flick and Herr von Smallhausen. Usually their disguises are a lot more convincing than those worn by the French characters, but they undo this by continuing to act like Gestapo officers, regardless of what they're supposed to be disguised as.
** Virtually every single disguise (which are numerous given the nature of the show) is as paper-thin as possible (including moustached nuns) for purely comedic purposes.
* [[Playing Gertrude]]
** Possibly disguised better than usual as Hill spent most of the series almost invisible under her huge night-cap, with her body hidden under blankets.
* [[Punch Clock Villain]]
* [[Put on a Bus]]
** Subverted with the British Airmen: the cast spent the entire series attempting to put them on a bus, but it never stuck.
* [[Queer People Are Funny]]: Gruber. As an example when Captain Bertorelli is introduced to the Colonel, Helga, and Gruber he gives the first 2 kisses on the cheek, then shakes Grubers hand.
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* [[Reassigned to Antarctica]]: Von Strom's usual motivation is that he'll be sent to the Russian front if he fails his superiors.
* [[Replacement Goldfish]]: Gruber feels guilty for executing René but doesn't cry long after him, he falls in love with his "twin brother" instead.
* [[Replacement Scrappy]]
* [[Rube Goldberg Device]]
* [[Running Gag]]
** Apart from the catch phrases René is always embraching Yvette when Edith comes in, yet manages to think up a halfbaked excuse to explain the awkward situation.
** Leclerc always enters in an obvious disguise, yet he still feels the need to explain who he is.
* [[Self-Deprecation]]
* [[Series Fauxnale]]
* [[Series Hiatus]]
* [[Serious Business]]
* [[Shout-Out]]: During the season two Christmas special multiple people were trying to kill General Von Klinkenhoffer during the chicken dinner. Herr Flick was trying to get Helga to kill him with a poison dart and [[Hilarity Ensues|to make a long story short]] Flick got hit with it instead causing him to convulse on the floor. After Rene and Helga give him the antidote and get him back to his meal, Klinkenhoffer asks Helga what was wrong with him. She answers: [[Airplane!|"He had the fish."]]
** During the "escape from the prisoner of war camp" arc there's a number of little shout outs to ''[[The Great Escape]]'', as they put dirt in Rene's trousers so he can dump it around the camp (in the original they had inside pockets that released the dirt).
* [[Sitcom]]
* [[Something Else Also Rises]]
* [[The Spock]]: Herr Flick.
* [[Spock Speak]]
* [[Spy Speak]]
* [[Stealth Pun]]
** The [[MacGuffin]] painting is by an artist named Van Klomp. If the '[[The Von Trope Family|Van]]' part didn't tip you of as to his nationality (and that he is a Van Gogh [[Expy]]), [[Bilingual Bonus|'Klomp' is Dutch word for their famous wooden shoes]].
* [[Story Arc]]
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]
* [[That Came Out Wrong]]
{{quote|'''Rene''': Yes, we are both Nancy boys.}}
* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]
* [[Time Skip]]
* [[Too Soon]]
* [[Translation Convention]]
** Also, an odd syntax is used to help suggest French's different grammar (such as René saying things like "it is the bed of the mother of my wife!" without possessives).
* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]
** And his affairs with his two waitresses have, according to Herr Flick in series 7, given him the nickname "Menage Artois".
* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: Maria or René implies Gruber isn't interested in her but what they brought: and they pull out the sausage...
* [[What Does She See in Him?]]: Even he doesn't understand what the girls find so irresistible in him.
* [[Who Is This Guy Again?]]
{{quote|'''Michelle:''' De Gaulle!
''(Blank looks all around)''
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** This is most likely nodding at how the Brits see De Gaulle compared to the French. While he's a hero and great political leader to the French, he is definitively not the English. Any respect he gained during [[WW 2]] (as a general and organizing the French resistance) immediately began to wane as he continually demanded that France be treated on equal terms with the Great Powers (despite it being full of Germans and lacking any military assets). Furthermore, in the years to follow he vetoed British membership to the European Community twice, withdrew France from NATO command and followed independent foreign policy, which as you might imagine went down quite badly what with the constant worry of soviet invasion and all. While the French, and certainly French nationalist, look upon him fondly, to us across the channel, he will always be "the one with the big 'ooter"
* [[World of Ham]]
* [[Zany Scheme]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Comedy Series]]
[[Category:British Series]]
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