Brit-coms in the 1980s: 'Allo 'Allo!

It has been a long-standing practice to mock and poke fun at cultural icons, symbols, public figures, books, colossal movies and celebrities. That’s what a  parody is for. It exists when one imitates and ridicules a serious piece of work, such as literature, music or artwork, for a humorous or satirical effect. It can be used just for fun or as a method of criticism and has been, since its origins in the ancient Greek literature, a very popular means for authors, entertainers and advertisers to communicate a particular message or point of view to the public. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text."[1] Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice."[2] Often, the most satisfying element of a good parody is seeing others mistake it for the genuine article.

It’s impossible to talk about sitcoms and parodies and not to mention ‘Allo ‘Allo![3], a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 from 1982 to 1992.

It is a parody of Secret Army, a television drama series that ran from 1977 to 1979, created by the BBC and then Belgian national broadcaster, the BRT. The series chronicled the history of a Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the Luftwaffe, back to their home country.

 

‘Allo ‘Allo! too is set during World War II, and tells the story of René Artois, a French café owner in the village of Nouvion. Germans have occupied the village and stolen all of its valuable artifacts. These include the first cuckoo clock ever made and the thing around which the whole story rotates: a painting of The Fallen Madonna by Van Clomp, known to those who have seen the show as The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies. The commandant of the town has decided to keep them for himself after the war and forces René to hide the painting in his café. Hitler also wants the painting for himself, and sends Herr Otto Flick of the Gestapo to the town to find it. Flick, in turn, conspires to keep it for himself. The paintings are duplicated by a forger, get mixed-up and put in knackwurst sausages. One is sent to Hitler on an ammunition train, which gets blown up, one is hidden and the other is eaten for dinner by Flick himself.

 

Herr Flick: “I have three fallen Madonnas, with six big boobies. Only one of them is real.”

Helga: “Only one big booby?”

 

At the same time, René is trying to keep his affairs with his two waitresses secret from his wife Edith, who regularly sings in the café, although she is an appallingly bad singer.

 

Edith: “René! What are you doing with your arms around that girl?”

René: “You stupid woman? Can you not see she's suffering from claustrophobia? She accidentally locked herself in the larder.”

Edith: But there is no key!”

René: “Exactly, that's why she couldn't get out.”

Edith: “Oh, the poor child. Oh, it happened to me once. I screamed and screamed, but nobody came.”

René: “We thought you were singing.”

 

In addition to all these complications he is forced to deal with the all-women Communist Resistance members, who are plotting against him for serving Germans in his café. The only reason why they do not shoot René is that their leader is in love with him, a fact he has to hide from both his wife and his waitresses. Meanwhile the café itself is being used as a safe house for two brave but clueless downed British airmen.

One of the main running gags of the series is the constant making plans of the Resistance to get the airmen back to England, plans that always fail miserably due to absurd reasons. As part of these plans, the Resistance have placed a radio in the bedroom of René's mother-in-law. This secret communication device, codenamed “Nighthawk”, between London and the resistance is hidden under the bed, and incoming messages are signaled by triggering the light bulbs concealed in the bed knobs. This  leads to the famous gag that shows the elderly mother-in-law yelling "Ze flashing knobs!" and her son René answering with "'Allo, 'allo, zis is Night'awk, are you receiving me?", hence the title of the show.

Furthermore, Michelle “of the Resistence” Dubois is not the only one is love with René, the seemingly gay German Lieutenant Gruber is also continually flirting with him. These situations are even more humorous by the fact that René is not exactly the best looking man in France[4], is hardly a hero, and is often forced by his wife to do “missions” and “secret operations”.

In an early episode René's death at the hands of a German firing squad was faked, and throughout most of the show's run, he has to pose as his own twin brother, and to convince his wife to marry him again in order to regain ownership of his café. In the meantime, René's wife is wooed by Monsieur Alfonse, the village undertaker, who is torn between his love for her and his admiration for René whom he considers to be a true hero of France.

Unlike many sitcoms where there is a storyline but every episode is almost completely independent, in ‘Allo ‘Allo! each episode builds on the previous ones, often requiring one to have seen the previous ones in order to fully understand the plot. At the start of each subsequent episode, René would summarize the plot to date to the audience in a gag based on the "Previously on…” device commonly used in serials.

With four different languages spoken by the characters, French, German, Italian and English, the show uses the device of representing each language with English spoken in a theatrical foreign accent. An expedient that increases the funny side if going along good jokes and puns.

For example, a dialogue between the English undercover officer Crabtree, in the permanent disguise of a French gendarme who speaks abominable French and Yvette, Edith and Renèe would result in a messy attempt to arrest Madame Fanny that has been spending forged money in the hat shop

 

Crabtree: “Good Moaning, I have come to arost your mither.”

Yvette: “Arrest her mother, why?”

Crabtree: “She has been pissing fudged bank notes in the hot shop.”

Edith: “What does Crabtree say Yvette?”

Yvette: “I think he said "she has been passing forged bank notes in the hat shop.”

Crabtree: “Presoasly”

René (Dressed like Fanny, doing a poor impression of her): “Edith, remind him that he is supposed to be on our side.”

Crabtree: “Who is the ugly old bog in the bid with your mither?”

Fanny: “I have been asking the same question.”

René (takes off his wig): “It is I, Rene.”

Crabtree: “My Gid that was a god disgeese, I was complotely decieved by the wog.”

René: “Edith, give him 500 francs from the till and tell him to pass off.”

Crabtree: “There is no need to be rode.”

 

In one of first episodes of the second series Crabtree arrives by parachute, dressed as a French policeman and the line he come up with sounds like this

 

“I am disgeesed as poloceman so I am oble to move aboot with complate frodom”

 

 

And how can I not mention at least two of the hundreds names mangled by Crabtree

 

Officer Crabtree to Herr Flick and von Smallhausen: “Good moaning, Herr Flock and von Smellhorsen”

The Germans, generally, speak English in a more guttural way than the French. One the funniest characters is perhaps the hard Gestapo officer Herr Flick. In one really amusing scene he tries to organize a romantic date with his lover Helga is his secret headquarters.

 

Helga: “You're looking pensive Herr Flick.”

Herr Flick: “I'm trying to decide vat to do vith you tonight. I might take you to ze movies.”

Helga: “What is showing?”

Herr Flick: “Anything ve like. Or ve could stay here and amuse ourselves. I have a box of sharp needles somevhere…Ah, here they are.”

Helga: “What have you in mind Herr Flick?”

Herr Flick: “I have an excellent gramophone, and many records of Hitler's speeches. They are qvite amusing.”

Helga: “Hitler's speeches, quite amusing?”

Herr Flick: “Played at double speed, he sounds like Donald Duck.”

 

Bertorelli, the Italian captain, speaks English in a nasal tone, generally adding an "-a" at the end of certain words.

 

"What a mistake-a to make-a!"

"We drop-a the bolls"

"I kiss-a your hand-a"

Curiously, in spite of the difficulties in communicating with the English characters, the French, Germans, and Italians all appear to understand each other's languages perfectly. If we stop and think about it this is for sure another funny side of the show.

 

In another episode, not to be confused with an earlier episode in which he infiltrates in the Gestapo headquarters, René is forced to speak German. Curiously he achieves this by simply speaking as he normally would, but noticeably more high-pitched.

 

The last few series of the show introduced a new gag, where Colonel Von Strohm and Lieutenant Gruber are put in situations where they have to speak in a strange manner. In one episode, the two try to learn Spanish, which is basically English spoken with a German accent with a high-pitched voice and mangled consonants. In another, they are forced to wear "suicide teeth" - large bulky dentures containing poison - making them garble their speech to avoid releasing the poison. In yet another episode, Von Strohm and Gruber are posing as Frenchmen, and are forced to speak French: this comes out as another set of non-words sounding like "Woffel woffel, woffel woffel". Another episode features a Swedish art dealer inspecting The Fallen Madonna (With the Big Boobies), who pronounces "Heil Hitler!" as "Oil Arthur!"

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[1] Hutcheon L., A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of 20^th Century Art Forms , University of Illinois Publishing, 1984

[2] Dentith S., Parody, Routledge, 2000

[3] Figure 1 on the Index of Figures

[4] Figure 2 on the Index of Figures