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''Welcome to '''Royston Vasey'''. You'll never leave.''
 
British [[Sketch Comedy]]/[[Sit ComSitcom]], with a very dark tone of humour, and plenty of [[Horror Tropes|horror trappings]].
 
Set in the town of Royston Vasey (or Spent, in the original radio version), the show focuses on the very strange lives of the inhabitants: their warped obsessions, quirks and relationships. Also notable in that almost all characters are played by one of only three actors: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, and [[Mark Gatiss]].
 
Came forty-first in ''[[Britains Best Sitcom (TV)|BritainsBritain's Best Sitcom]]''.
 
Not to be confused with;
* ''[[The League of Gentlemen (Filmfilm)|The League of Gentlemen]]'', a classic [[The Caper|Caper]] movie from 1960, after which the show was named.
* The short lived band started by guitarist Robert Fripp that, through some excessively odd reason, share many qualities with this show...
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''
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{{tropelist}}
=== Contains examples of: ===
* [[Actor Allusion]] - the Mayor is played by [[Refuge in Vulgarity]] standup Roy "Chubby" Brown, whose real name is... Royston Vasey.
* [[Aerith and Bob]]: Chloe & Radclyffe.
* [[Affably Evil]] - Hilary Briss
* [[All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks]] - Parodied with Mr. Lisgoe and [[Surrounded Byby Idiots|his incompetent collectors.]]
* [[And I Must Scream]] - {{spoiler|The animals in Papa Lazarou's circus, who are really his human victims.}} They do scream, actually, but no one can hear them...
* [[Animal Motifs]] - Harvey Denton is obsessed with toads, and collects them. He also greatly resembles one, and the interior of the Denton home has a sort of a dull green colour scheme, like a lily pond.
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* [[The Butcher]] - Hilary Briss, a literal butcher who sells some kind of very illegal and hideously immoral "special stuff".
* [[Bilingual Bonus]] - Dialogue between Herr Lipp, Lotte and Justin at the climax of Lipp's attempts to seduce the schoolboy. Lotte tries to warn Justin about Lipp in German:
{{quote| '''Herr Lipp''' "Er konnt kein Deutsch. Er ist ''meine'' junge."<ref>"He knows no German. He is ''my'' boy."</ref><br />
'''Lotte''' "Denn Gott hilfe ihn."<ref>"Then God help him."</ref> }}
* [[Buried Alive]] - The fate of {{spoiler|Justin Smart}}, although he is given a funnel through which to breathe.
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** Alvin: "Home is the hunter!"
* [[Cats Are Mean]] - Cat enthusiast Dougall Siepp is a scary guy.
* [[Caught Withwith Your Pants Down]] - Parodied and inverted. Harvey Denton has a peculiar paranoia about walking in on his nephew, Benjamin, and has an entire, [[Spit Take]]-inducing collection of [[Unusual Euphemism|Unusual Euphemisms]] ready. There has never been any concrete evidence of Benjamin actually masturbating.
* [[Celebrity Paradox]] - Mick McNamara claims that an episode of Tom Baker-era ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' was filmed at the Stump Hole caverns. So why does Mick, and approximately one third of the town, look exactly like that guy who played Dr. Lazarus in "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S3 E6S29/E06 The Lazarus Experiment|The Lazarus Experiment]]" and wrote the episode "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S2 E7S28/E07 The IdiotsIdiot's Lantern|The Idiot's Lantern]]"? And why does another third of the town so greatly resemble the guy who played Strackman Lux in "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S4 E8S30/E08 Silence in Thethe Library|Silence in the Library]]" and "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S4 E9S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|Forest of the Dead]]?" And why {{spoiler|does Dougal Siepp so greatly resemble the Ninth Doctor?}}
* [[Characterization Marches On]] - In Series 2, Herr Lipp was essentially a creep and a sociopath; in the Christmas Special, though still a nasty pederast, he at least shows some compassion and sacrifices himself to save Matthew. By the time we get to the Movie, he is a kind and caring guy (even his turn to violence is intended to save the locals from what he believes to be endless misery) who is incidentally campy, a far cry from the selfish date-rapist he originally was.
* [[Cheshire Cat Grin]] - Hilary Briss gives these a lot.
* [[Chess Withwith Death]] - The stage show has a man gambling his soul against an [[Louis Cypher|ambiguously diabolical]] figure. However, the [[Deal Withwith the Devil|devil figure]] doesn't want to play chess; he wants to play {{spoiler|"Go Johnny Go Go Go Go"}}.
* [[Christmas Special]], complete with [[Bad Santa]]
* [[Corpsing]] - Shearsmith, with Pauline, during the live show.
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* [[Comic Trio]] - Most of the characters are divided into groups of three, mirroring the actors themselves.
* [[Continuity Nod]] - At the end of Season 2 {{spoiler|Hilary Briss}} escapes to the Caribbean. During Season 3, a newspaper headline can be seen declaring ''"Mysterious Nosebleed Outbreak In Carribean!"''
* [[Corrupt Hick]] - Edward and Tubbs Tattsyrup who also supply some [[Brother -Sister Incest]]
* [[Cult]] - Solutions, Inc. in the [[Christmas Special]].
* [[A Day in Thethe Limelight]] - Most episodes of Season 3 focus on previously-minor characters.
* [[Dirty Old Man]] - Pop
* [[The Ditz]] - Mickey, who is clearly mentally handicapped.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] - In the [[Christmas Special]], Matthew Parker's denouncement of [[Camp Gay|Herr Lip]] [[Depraved Homosexual|as a vampire]] uses the phrase "I know what you are! You're trying to turn me into one of you!" {{spoiler|Lip, who isn't a vampire ("I am just a queen!"), is understandably hurt by this.}}
* [[Dumb Is Good]] - Tubbs is shown to be not entirely responsible for the crimes she commits with Edward, because she is obviously mentally unsound. It's probably genetic.
* [[Easily Forgiven]] - In the stage show, {{spoiler|Tubbs is forgiven by [[God]] and welcomed into the Kingdom of Swansea (long story), but Edward has to go to Hell.}}
* [[Emotionally Tongue -Tied]] - Harvey Denton refuses to say "The F word", which is, of course, {{spoiler|"frog"}}.
* [[Erotic Asphyxiation]] - {{spoiler|[[Gone Horribly Wrong|Goes horribly wrong]] and everybody involved dies.}}
* [[Evil Hand]] - {{spoiler|Turns out to be [[Heroic Sacrifice|good]]}}.
* [[Exposition of Immortality]]: When Papa Lazarou is going through his Book of Wives in Season Three, some of the photos are clearly old, sepia ones that heavily imply that he's a lot older than he appears. There are more on the wall of his room, too.
* [[Eye Scream]] - Hilary Briss is seen scaring children with a pair of sheep's eyes, which he then eats.
* [[Fag Hag]] - [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] with Tish, who unintentionally offends the hell out of all her fairly [[StraightInvisible Gayto Gaydar]] friends. Mark Gatiss (who is gay) was probably very angry when he wrote her scenes.
* [[Fan Disservice]] - Tubbs torturing the construction men while dancing around nude "The Road to Royston Vasey."
* [[Fat Idiot]] - Barry Baggs, the debt collector. Also a [[Big Eater]]. In the live show "The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You", his idiot status is subverted--and may even have been [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]--when he outwits and (in the epilogue) replaces his boss.
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* [[Generation Xerox]] - In The [[Christmas Special]], we see a bit of Royston Vasey in the 1890s, including Victorian versions of Harvey, Barbara, Chinnery, Pauline, Mickey, and Ross
* [[Gender Bender]] - Barbara the transgendered cab driver.
{{quote| '''Barbara''': Have you heard what they're saying about the Beast of Royston Vasey?<br />
'''Mrs. Levinson''': Now, Barbara, people can be very cruel. }}
* [[Grotesque Gallery]] - Because almost all of the characters are played by the same three actors, a variety of prosthetics are used, some of which are profoundly hideous. Of particular note are Edward, Tubbs, Iris, Harvey, Bernice, Mickey, Stella, Vinnie & Reenie, Ally, and Herr Lipp.
* [[Have You Told Anyone Else?]] - Subverted in the Job Center storyline, when Ross admits no one else knows about his report on Pauline, even adding that all the information is within a single folder he has right there--but Pauline accepts defeat anyway.
** In the original radio series, this trope was played straight, but the writers gave it a more creative spin for the TV version.
* [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]] - "that Merrill." Frequently mentioned by Vinnie and Reenie, but never actually appears.
** David Tattsyrup becomes a [[The Voice]] variant after Tubbs and Edward take him back in.
* [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]] - Harvey--or rather hoist by his own {{spoiler|pet toad}}.
* [[Homage]] - Edward frequently references ''[[The Wicker Man]]'', and Chloe & Radclyffe obviously parody ''[[The Shining]]''. Papa Lazarou's introductory episode features a few quotes from ''[[Freaks]]'', and Geoff's subplot in Season 2 parodied ''[[Deliverance]]''. In fact, at least one [[horror Movie]] gets referenced per episode.
* [[Hospital Hottie]] - One of the few times an actual woman appeared on the show was when Al brought home a nurse named Patricia as a date. Unfortunately, Pop ruined everything by loudly talking about how great the film version of ''[[Watership Down]]'' is, discussing porn, and trying to steal Patricia.
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* [[Kubrick Stare]] - Both Hilary and Papa Lazarou give these a lot.
* [[Lamarck Was Right]] - Mr. Chinnery inherits his ancestor's curse.
* [[Laser -Guided Karma]] - after awful restart officer Pauline is sacked, she has to sit through restart sessions of her own, with an even ''worse'' one.
{{quote| '''[[The Chew Toy|Mickey:]]''' Pauline... she's worse than ''you''!}}
* [[Laughably Evil]] - All of the villainous characters. It is a comedy, after all.
* [[Little People Are Surreal]] - Papa Lazarou's circus.
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* [[No Dead Body Poops]]: [[Squick|Then again, considering the nature of the film, it's probably for the best.]]
* [[Not a Mask]] - Papa Lazarou's face. That's his natural skintone.
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] - Papa Lazarou uses this frequently, calling people by the wrong name and flat-out ignoring what people say to him. This is his way of confusing them enough to hand over their personal items [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|(which can sometimes overlap with marriage)]].
* [[Only Sane Man]] - Benjamin Denton is the only sane man in the Denton home. Ross is the only sane man at the Job Centre, {{spoiler|although he goes nuts in Season 3.}}
* [[Oop North]]
** Parodied in ''Live at Drury Lane'' with Legz Akimbo's openly exploitative foray into grown-up theatre.
* [[Paper -Thin Disguise]] - Except even the audience is fooled, due to [[Economy Cast|Economy Casting]]. We know that the two characters are played by the same actor, but we think nothing of it.
* [[Parental Incest]] - Hinted at with "a son as well as daughters"/"a daughter as well as sons" in series two.
* [[Punny Name]] - Herr Lipp.
* [[Precision F -Strike]] - "Yeah... cunt."
* [[Psychotic Smirk]] - Hilary Briss does this from time to time.
* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]] - Papa Lazarou.
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* [[Scary Scarecrows]]
* [[Serial Killer]] - The Tattsyrups
* [[She Is's All Grown Up]] - In the wrongest way possible.
* [[Shout -Out]]
** [[Mark Gatiss]] based his performance of Mr. Chinnery on [[Peter Davison]]'s as Tristan Farnan in the BBC production of ''[[All Creatures Great and Small (TV)|All Creatures Great and Small]]''.
** In episode two of Season 1 ''The Road To Royston Vasey,'' two construction workers visit the Local Shop and end up being abducted by Tubbs and Edward. Their names? [[Diamonds Are Forever (Film)|Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd.]]
** "Royston Vasey" is the real name of comedian Roy "Chubby" Brown, who appears in a [[Cameo]] as [[Actor Allusion|the mayor]]. The mayor's name is Larry Vaughn, which is also the name of the mayor in ''[[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]]''. Recursive [[Shout -Out]]!
* [[Show Within a Show]] - The plays of the Legz Akimbo theatre troupe...
** [[Stylistic Suck]] - ...are awful.
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* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]] - "We didn't burn him!"
* [[Take Our Word for It]] - We never find out what is in Hilary Briss's "special stuff". His surname [[Meaningful Name|may be a clue...]]
* [[TheresThere's No B in Movie]] - [[Meaningful Name|Meaningfully named]] Harry Portrait and Ally Welles, who are obsessed with horror movies. However, some of the films they watch are quite good, such as ''[[The Shining]]'', ''[[Alien]]'', and Stephen Loncraine's version of ''[[Richard III]]'', starring Sir Ian McKellen. As long as it has killin's, they're happy.
* [[Throw the Dog Aa Bone]] - The end of Season 3 has, among other things, Geoff Tipps finally able to make people laugh. Similarly, the stage show gives Les McQueen a successful solo career, {{spoiler|but then he gets electrocuted to death by a microphone before he can sing a word.}}
* [[Tomato Surprise]] - {{spoiler|Iris and Mrs. Levinson are actually mother and daughter. The stage show ups the ante by revealing that they're really father and son.}}
* [[Too Dumb to Live]] - Basically the premise of the "crime-fighting supercar" skit.
* [[Too Much Information]] - Much of Barbara's shtick is telling people all the details of her operation. Similiarly, Iris tells a few too many things about her and Ron's sex life.
* [[Torches and Pitchforks]] - {{spoiler|An angry mob burns down the Local Shop at the end of the second season.}}
* [[Town Withwith a Dark Secret]] - Several secrets.
* [[Transparent Closet]] - Herr Lip reveals to Justin that "I am a queen." Justin pretends to be astounded out of politeness.
* [[The Twink]] - In Season 2, Herr Lip has a crush on a not-quite-legal schoolboy named Justin Smart. In the [[Christmas Special]], he has a similiar crush on a boy named Matthew Parker.
* [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not Awesome?]] - The entire Job Centre plot thread. Includes [[Internal Affairs]], [[The Mole]], [[Heel Face Turn]], [[Becoming the Mask]], and other things you'd expect to see in a spy movie. Except it's about unemployment.
* [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not Heinous?]] - Pop [[I Have No Son|disowns his son Richie]] for failing to prevent a handful of Maverick bars from being stolen from the news stand.
* [[Write Who You Know]] - The Legz Akimbo theatre troupe are based on the League members' experiences in community theatre, and Pauline is based on an actual restart officer Reece Shearsmith had. Papa Lazarou and Pop are Shearsmith's and Pemberton's respective reinterpretations of Peter Papalazarou, a Greek landlord they once shared, who was always unwilling to speak to Reece and would always demand to talk to Steve, even when he wasn't there, hence Papa Lazarou's eternal quest to speak to Dave.
* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]] - Cathy Carter-Smith, who is even crueller to the jobseekers than Pauline was.
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* [[Unusual Euphemism]] - Harvey Denton has a wide variety of euphemisms for masturbation.
* [[Urine Trouble]] - Tubbs is able to power a van with her urine.
* [[Yank the DogsDog's Chain]] - Any scenes with Chinnery.
* [[You Are Not Ready]]: Hilary Briss' house special.
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* [[Redemption Equals Death]] - {{spoiler|Poor Hilary}}
* [[Road Apples]] - "Edward, I've made a little brown fish!"
* [[Shout -Out]] - "The League of Gentlemen? [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen|Extraordinary!]]"
** Also, Mr. Pea looks a ''lot'' like [[Vincent Price]] in ''[[Witchfinder General]]''.
** The king thanks the guys for saving him from a "[[Doctor Who (TV)|deadly assassin]]".
*** The two maids who secretly mother/daughter/employer/men are a reference to the film "The Maids".
** The King's Evil is pretty much a parody of every film Ken Russell made in the seventies and eighties.
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* [[Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror]]
* [[Sorry I Left the BGM On]] - Used as a [[Running Gag]] when the ''League'' theme music is repeatedly revealed to be [[Cell Phone|mobile phone]] ringtones.
* [[Special Guest]] - David Warner (aka [[Time Bandits|Evil]], aka [[Tron|Dillinger/Sark]],[[Batman: theThe Animated Series|Ra's al Ghul]], aka [[BaldursBaldur's Gate|Jon Irenicus]], aka [[Discworld|Lord Downey]], aka [[Freakazoid!|The Lobe]]) as Mr. Pea.
* [[Talking to Himself]] - There's one scene where Geoff, Edward, and Papa Lazarou all discuss the fact that they are played by the same actor.
* [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|Throwing Your Bardiche Always Works]]
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{{reflist}}
{{BAFTA TV Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series)}}
[[Category:British Series]]
[[Category:Britains Best Sitcom (TV)]]▼
[[Category:Sketch Comedy]]
[[Category:The League Ofof Gentlemen]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
▲[[Category:BritainsBritain's Best Sitcom (TV)]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:League of Gentlemen (TV series), The}}
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