Added: 4 years ago
From: Romanstandrd
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  • Laurie's exhausted capitulation toward the end of the first long scene, and in the last scene his naming of Kate Adie, also Fry's waistcoated space-invasion, and "the substance of which you exhibit a property must exist; where is it?" - just truly beautiful.

    Cheers for the steer, Romanstandrd.

  • "Language is a hulk of a charred Panzer." This, this will stay with me.

  • Happily I've seen all of this in my Philosophy of Language classes but to see it made comic is wonderful. He's just throwing away rich ideas as if they are nothing, it's fascinating to watch.

  • At 5:26, Stephen says 'Hush, tish and vibble.' He said that same thing once on QI, one of my favorite shows ever.

  • I watch Stephen Fry's videos originally to learn something, but I end up being awed and have to watch the video again, that was 3 years ago.

  • I love you, don't go in there, get out, you have no right to say that, stop it, why should I, that hurt, help, Margery is dead.

    XD

  • I lost Stephen near the end!

  • Stephen Fry is my own personal QED for the possibility of re-incarnation.

    Oscar Wilde was taken from us before his time and like Socrates it was reasonable to expect that we would not soon see his like again. But the fates were kind and we got a second chance. Here he is.

    Of course, re-incarnation, by its nature, is typically not into someone so similar and/or generally not quite so soon. But then, this is Wilde we're talking about here, of course he wouldn't do it the conventional way.

  • Stephen could run any rapper into the ground.

  • I can no longer say "extrinsically" a single time.

  • aahhahaa awesome!!

  • Correctly correctington! Stephen Fry still says that on QI!

  • Wow. Just... wow.

  • I totally agree with the comment below about Linguistics students. This clip would have made my Discourse Analysis all the more fascinating while keeping the hard work in perspective! Oh the utterances parsed and pored over! Wonderful video.

  • HOUSE!!!!

  • I find this to be utterly magnificent! It should be indeed included in all university linguistic courses as a kick-up for students, be it general linguistics, discourse analysis etc.

  • why are all the related videos beer commercials with girls in bikinis in them?

  • @puytqiggsgf - why ask?

    

  • I think Wittgenstein said something similar.

  • Looks like Stephen Fry took some phet! LOL

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  • Stephen Fry can make me orgasm by his voice alone.

  • Whoops.

  • They had me at vulva.

  • I love that he calls him Duncan, then Tommy, then Timothy. This is a fantastic sketch.

  • Listen to me, listen to me.

  • Awesome to see Mr Fry is now doing a programme about language.....finally he has found his greatest strength AGAIN!!!! Stop with the crass shows and envelope openings please Stephen....this is your calling in life!

  • ofcourseitisofcourseitisofcour­seitisofcourseitis

    

  • It's scary how I can sound almost exactly like Hugh here, if I try.

  • Is our language, English, Cabaubrubule.

  • Majorie just won't leave them alone.

  • My language is the universal whore that i must make into a virgin!

  • 'Is our language, English, capwbwale'

  • How I love Stephen Fry!

  • Seven people have never felt the warm, wet trusting touch of a leaking nappy.

  • @Lucando One person has never got his dick wet. Ie: you

  • @LightxKira5643 One person, i.e. you, has clearly not understood my original post. And has wrongly assumed that I have a dick. Although if I did, I imagine I could 'get it wet' a great deal more than you, since I have the advantage of not being an idiot.

  • @Lucando Idiots get laid, also the fact is that I get sex so it doesn't matter either way to me.  But I'm smarter than most and I'm in college.

  • @LightxKira5643 Of course you are. That's why you responded to a post that you didn't understand with an uninformed insult about a stranger's sexual prowess. How intelligent. Bravo.

  • @Lucando It's not that I didn't understand it, I just came here with the point of trolling from the get go, only reason I'm here. Also your first comment wasn't to intelligent either btw.

  • @LightxKira5643 You clearly didn't grasp the reference. Besides which, admitting you're a troll removes any right you have to calling yourself 'smart'. Watch the video and you might learn something about both intelligence and humour.

  • @Lucando The true trolls, not the 12 year olds nowadays are smarter than you are simply put. They used to be highly educated people who were just stimulating conversation and starting things up to add comments to a video and or thread that they want to get immense popularity due to arguements. If they are good it will only take one quote and then they can go on their marry ol' way. I was to lazy to think of something overly clever so taking my time with it.

  • @LightxKira5643 Trolling is not intelligent, however you try to spin it. Particularly not the kind you indulge in. Good day, sir.

  • @Lucando Trolling used to be, nowadays 12 year olds come about it and people call them trolls. Real trolls as they were in the past, who used it to stimulate conversation were highly educated and clever. I love it when someone tries to put their words over the facts of history and life.

  • I... think he said vulva

  • Hugh Laurie's look @2:42 is brilliant

  • @mondogoodtimes I also love what he does at 5:35

  • This was written by the Analytic tradition

  • "Mark the difference for me, Mark it, please."

  • As I watch this, friendly milk is countermanding my trousers

  • I wonder who wrote this. Absolutlely wonderful. It has Alan Bennett tune to it.

  • I think this is probably Fry and Laurie humour at its best, thrill at expounding words and their accompanying stupid sounds, as well as their use in over elaborate meanings and justifications, whilst at the same time containing ideas that actually do make you think about the subject. I actually had heard of the theory of abstract absolutes of collective ideas before, in fact it goes back to Plato, but it is brilliantly expressed here!

  • "May I compartmentalise? I hate to but may I? May I?"

    "Demagoguery? Demagoguery. And by demagoguery you mean? By demagoguery I mean demagoguery.."

  • iv watched all of these. hilarious

  • It half makes sense until the second sketch at which point I got totally lost. The irony is that as soon as you get into abstract conversations about what beauty means or what constitutes it, you often DO get into this sort of pseudo-babble. :-)

  • 7 people have never proclaimed that Marjorie is dead

  • "I think he said vulva..." lol :)

  • ..so i can say the following sentence and be utterly sure that nobody has ever said it before in the history of human comunication:

    hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers.

    perfectly ordinary words but never before put in that precise order: a unique child delivered of a unique mother.

    

  • Beauty is duty and duty is beauty o.O

  • It's like drowning in a poorly written philosophy text.

  • capabbule :)

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  • hush tish vibble!

    i find u beautiful but you are not beauty.. woops!!!

  • This clip has intrigued and taught me more than the five months I've spent studying linguistics at university. I wish my teachers were more like Stephen.

  • Mr. Dalliard, I've begun to talk drivel now!

  • Genial, humorous about language and IN the language I deem as the best ever appeared on earth. English language, the best invention Britain has ever made, the least nonsense grammar I always wanted to see in my mother tongue or in other languages. English: the Latin of the modern age, the only idiom capable of unifying the planet linguistically. I love and respect this language to the point that when people ask me: do you speak English? I say: no I speak near-English! :-)

  • Duncan >> Jeffrey >> Philip >> (Lovlet!) >> Anton >> Timothy >> Pure fun!

  • F as F.

  • language in itself seems to be a form of psychological barrier. I feel like we are made to use languages which were developed to be flawed from the very beggining and only restrict us. Its seems they entrap us in one way of thinking.

  • poor marjorie :(

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  • I was the first person to ever say "Purple Elephants grow Extringently under peanut trees in the fall" at the Grand Canyon.

  • These guys are so very good! In all fairness, it is sort of an awkward thing to use language to talk about language-- it's like trying to give yourself a backrub.  When people try it, they're going to come out this froofy and squalubrious. Although the ugly hairdo may not be a requirement.

  • @theRealPlaidRabbit froofy and squalubrious :) That made me smile

  • 425 people were watching a conversation about language

    7 people weren't getting a word of what they were saying

  • This must be one of their BEST and GENIUS sketches.

    It's all so full of information and humor that You can just watch it.. forever.

    I love them so much ♥

  • correctly correctington!!!!

  • 'I think he said vulva...' XD

  • @MegaPepper123

    He recently made a podcast making many of the same points in a not too dissimilar style. He even uses the chess analogy and, if I remember correctly, refers to this sketch.

  • Listen to me Lovelet.

    <3

  • "Hold the news readers nose squarley waiter or friendly milk will countermand my trousers" - nearly passed out laughing. The Master at work. Wonderful clip.

  • i love how hugh gets slowly more and more uncomfortable

    ...

    "I'm going to hold a thought now."

  • The way he says capable kills me every time.

  • Words Fail me!!!! Behold the Master at Work. I have watched this clip over and over again and it never ceases to entertain and amaze me.

  • Pretentiousness at it's finest! LOL

  • frillions!!! i'm gonna use that word as often as possible =P atleast daily

  • @SatoTM3 - I've used it three times today and it's only 10:20 a.m.

    : )

  • I think he said vuval! XD

  • Amazing. Fucking genius.

  • I think he said vulva.

  • Of course it is, of course it is, of course it is, of course it is.

    Haha, that was funny.

  • I'm sure that in 400 years, people will speak of Stephen Fry as we speak of William Shakespeare today; a man who used language in a uniquely brilliant way in a popular medium. In Shakespeare's day it was the theatre, in ours it is television. I doubt there are many ages that can claim a similar talent.

  • OMG this is just how my father in law speaks.

  • Friendly milk may have just countermanded my trousers.

  • @LordFalcar i doubt alot of people will get that. pure genius though

  • @lamestguyintown Glad someone approves =P

  • Take note Horne and Corden. pure class

  • That was brilliant!!! Sheer genius!

  • our language tiger, our language

    LOL

  • EX-trinsicly, EX-trinsicly! Oh, Stephen Fry, how brilliant you are...

  • marjorie is dead...

    it is of course it is of course it is of course...

  • duncan? jeffrey? philip? anton? timothy?

  • "Hush, tish, vibble" Ha :D

  • this has just brightened my day =)

  • Holy shit..and I thought I was a pretty sharp guy. I think watching these guys would boost your IQ.

  • Hahaha, this is just genius.

  • Hold the newsreaders nose squarely waiter or friendly milk will countermand my trousers... was that right?

  • I'm goingto hold a thought now...hahahaha

  • "By demagoguery I mean demagoguery"

  • "...I ...think he said 'vulva'..."

  • The finest sketch show ever conceived. In a class of its own.

  • This is one of my favourite sketches because it fulfills the seemingly impossible task of being both hilariously witty and unquestionably thought-provoking. I'm falling out of my chair laughing and at the same time pondering what precise characteristics define the concept of beauty.

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  • "Marjorie is dead" as a common expression, naturally. ;)

  • if who had been british?

  • @kgdsmile - Hitler

  • Fry is an absolute genius!!! Only he can come up with something as brilliant as this!!!

  • I think Stephen is playing a character similar to the one he played in the Footlights sketch "Shakespeare Master Class", where he's listing all kinds of adjectives for no purpose other than to have a list. I love it when he goes pedantic at full tilt. He's a damn genius.

  • It's like Stephen's doing a parody of himself. He's great at it!

  • @xXpimpleXx

    spot on, he's a genius.

  • @xXpimpleXx when was he ever like that in the slightest?

  • @Georgelangham Woah... die hard fan much? I love Stephen Fry! But have a bit of irony dude.

  • Tiger, Duncan, Geoffrey, Lovelet, Tony, Timothy...

    That, surely, is a thought to take out for a cream tea on a rainy sunny afternoon.

  • They're genius!!! Love you, Hugh Laurie & Stephen Fry!! <3333333333333

  • Science and thirtenetriht multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute. — J. G. Ballard

  • This wonderful British humor certainly makes me wonder what they would have to say about thirtenetriht

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  • This is so funny. And I love that I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about, LOL

  • I'm going to hold a thought now XD

  • This is pretentiously funny. lol

  • "a breath of fruit that drops from the bowels of my imagination"

  • i think it was karl kraus, but it needn't have been, it needn't have been.

  • this has to be one of my favourite Fry & Laurie moments of all time!

    the phrase "Hold the newsreaders nose squarely waiter, or frindly milk will countermand [sic?] my trousers" has come to mind so many times when any discussion of langue is mentioned.

    Or even sat on the bus, watching the dreary world go by ;)

  • Fry is Brilliant - no doubt about it.

  • ... I think he said vulva.

    *lol*

  • Damn Marjory!

  • Beauty is Duty and Duty, Beauty.

  • hugh almost always ends up as the straight man in the sketch... but he does it so well! and he almost always manages to keep a straight face, which is in itself a very impressive task....

  • haha this reminds me of one of my professors. We asked her if she got any valentines, and she said "grammar is my valentine."

  • quine and russel would love these two:)))))))

  • CapaBLe. Ahahaha. Never had there been a more plosive B.

  • lovley!

  • "hold a thought jeffrey, i'm going to give you a thought and i'd like you to hold it for me, would you do that?"

    " i'm going to hold a thought now"

  • So funnny!

  • Learn to write proper English, then you can properly criticize it.

  • To 6Dark6Spirit6: Thethethethethethe.

  • mis acestros hablaban latin, vosotros un idioma barbaro. es la realidad, no hay por qué ofenderse.

  • oh well, just keep telling that to yourself if it makes you feel better about not being able to speak English...I would, however, advise you not to say it out loud, because you're going to get laughed at if you're lucky and punched in the nose if you're not.

  • We get it 6Dark6Spirit6 (by the way, why the english nickname?) you think spanish is a language of nobler origins. I agree, but I also know that contemporary peninsular spanish sounds like vulgar latin with a very serious lisp. Of all spanish speakers, Mexicans are the only ones that approach the sound of medieval spanish, and italian is obviously the language that comes closest to latin. They don't complain on youtube though.

  • FACISTA!

  • Con S de Simio. FaScista. Ahora mejor, Sherlock.

  • jaja pero ke burro yo, bueno al menos me entendeis no? PZ!

  • Cinco votos negativos, y ni una sola respuesta diciendo que he dicho mal. ¿Estos son vuestros argumentos? Imagino que habrán sido panchitos.

  • Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and the supposedly barbarian  Germanic language all come from the same mother language, Indo-European. So, English does indeed have the ancestry of Latin. And if you did a little research, you'd find that Old English has all the flexibility of Spanish. It just lost its cases through centuries. So get off your high horse. Your language isn't any better than mine or anyone else's.

  • They have a common root, that is true. But English haven't Latin ancestry, some of his words come from Latin, but it is not a direct evolution from the Latin as it may be the Spanish or Italian.

    I do not know Old English, so I do not know what is its flexibility. But I doubt that is the same as the Spanish. Then there is the matter of pronunciation, much less poetic, full of consonants, and so on.

  • i took a class on proto-indo-european last year. i don't think i've ever been more confused in my life.

  • Translating what 6Dark6Spirit6 said: "My ancestors spoke latin, but yours spoke a barbarian language. That's the reality, no need to be offended about it."

    Never mind his words guys. That's just one of the reasons why we brazilians don't like spanish speaking people. They tend to make a hassle out of not being the most wide known language around. Plain stupid...

    Oh, and thanks for the video!

  • Tu madre debe estar orgullosa de tu gran intelecto. :D

  • This message is for distortingjack

  • Am I the only one that understood your joke? If you had typed "thethethethe is not dedede" they might have got it as well :)

  • @everyonedoesit2:

    We are the knights who say THE! thethethethe!

    Not so close my friend. It was actually a grammar joke. Latins (I speak for myself too) have some trouble on pronouncing the "the". It's the only english sound we brazilians do not have on our own mother language, portuguese! So we usually try cheating the listener by saying "de" instead of it, which is somehow close anyway :D

    Got it, friend of the round table?

  • Aaaaah hehe. Okay, yeah I get it ^_^ Nice.

  • I watched this episode a while back, and now it is all I can think of when I sit through my linguistic lectures...

    these two are brilliant!!

  • Absolutely brilliant! These two are comedic geniuses!

  • these guys are brilliant!

  • it all makes perfect sense...

  • I'd quite like to hear a non-comedy version of that discussion.

    --

  • That's the point, Fry and Laurie was the high point of clever British comedy which no-one's ever come close to emulating.