'Allo 'Allo!: Difference between revisions

A 1980s BBC sitcom, set in Occupied France during [[World War II]]. Lasted from December, 1982 to December, 1992. A total of 85 episodes in nine seasons.

 

 

== This show has its own tropes: ==

* 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 spoken -- several times, a 'French' character overhears a conversation in e.g. a British accent, then tells another 'Frenchman' (in the show's default French-accented English) they have no idea what was said, as they don't speak English.

* Multiple character and actor replacements of various types - [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|Suspiciously Similar Substitutes]] for Leclerc, and various waitresses. [[The Other Darrin]], for the Italian Captain. [[The Nth Doctor]], for Herr Flick in later seasons, whose actor is replaced, and the change explained by [[Magic Plastic Surgery]]. Subverted, inverted, or simply trashed completely by Rene himself, who spent most of the series' run posing as his non-existent twin brother - ie, the same actor playing the same character, posing as a non-existent different character, well-known or undetected in-universe as the plot required....

* A very big [[Story Arc]] involving a painting. (Namely "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies")

* Two very stereotypical British pilots and the Resistance's disastrous plans to get them back to England.

* More [[Double Entendre|double entendres]] than you can (ahem) shake a stick at. See immediately above for one of the milder examples.

 

 

A one-off [[Reunion Show]] was aired in 2007.

 

{{tropelist}}

 

* [[Fan Service]] -- The vibrating ice cream truck for a start. Actually the series is pretty full of fanservice in general, though it admittedly never quite keeps pace with the [[Double Entendre|double entendres]]. Female characters (come to think of it, quite a lot of the male ones, too) are forever baring legs for increasingly spurious reasons, and it's about 30% odds on a pantyshot per episode (again, some of them are male).

** 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).

* [[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.

** 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.

* [[Human Mail]] -- Maria in 'Allo 'Allo! leaves the show this way, getting accidentally mailed to Switzerland. She's replaced by Mimi in the next episode.

* [[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.

** [[Lampshaded]] when Michelle started coming-on to him purely for manipulative reasons. Yvette learned of this and Michelle promised to dump him when the war was over, asking what the hell Yvette saw in him anyway. Yvette began comparing him to many cultural references of the time, from Michelle's reaction she also seemed at a loss as to why Yvette liked those things either.

* [[Insane Admiral]]: Naturally [[Played for Laughs]] with every visiting general and colonel (not to mention the resident ones) falling squarely into this trope.

* [[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..."

*** Not to mention in the play you also get General von Schmelling.

* [[My Card]]: Monsieur Alphonse's "Swiftly and With Style".

* [[National Stereotypes]]: The French, Germans, British and Italians all fit into this trope.

* [[No Fourth Wall]]

** 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]] -- the Nazis.

** 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.

* [[Self-Deprecation]] -- Pretty much all the British characters are presented as complete idiots.

* [[Series Fauxnale]] -- The last episode of the ''second'' season was written as the [[Series Finale]], because the show's producer thought there was zero chance of it being renewed for a third season. As it turned out though, he was quite wrong.

* [[Serious Business]] -- Most of the show, but especially anything Herr Flick does. You might think his excessively serious persona is a facade to make his gestapo work easier, but if it is he has long since [[Becoming the Mask|become the mask]].

* [[Something Else Also Rises]] -- Frequently. With medals, hair, baguettes, policemen's batons, knockwurst sausages... the list goes on.

* [[The Spock]]: Herr Flick.