Added: 3 years ago
From: frogandpeach1
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  • Can't believe this was 17 years ago

  • It's good to see a erudite felloe like Fry set the death of a comic legend in the proper perspective and rescue a friend from tabloid bilge. Well done!

  • @dutchgoing, utter utter rubbish; Fry has simply realised that, as many have noted, comedy is a young man's game. Fry's output remains prodigious and frequently fascinating. By the way, I'd say Cook was the great writer, but Moore was a far far better comic actor, and is very unfairly remembered.

  • I love wanking and puking in ash trays

  • Fry was wrong about Cook not being bitter. Many people have said that he resented Dudley Moore for his Hollywood success and you can hear it on the last Derek and Clive recording.

  • @chairmanmeow1973

    I think he was just perplexed at the fact that dudley was seduced by hollywood. He was not jelous, but he did feel discarded by dudley

  • I think Peter Cook didn't want to be on what John Cleese called "The Sausage Grinder" of having to make a series year after year which takes up so much time that you are unable to do other things, such as living a life of your own choosing.

  • I'd like to have heard Peter Cook covering his own funeral..would have been funny.

  • where's the sound ya fucking cunt??!!!

  • @longdonginafatthong

    sure sure, you fool.

  • My God.. I want stephen to eulogise ME while I'm alive

  • my left ear is sad

  • @spashieee you had your headphones the wrong way round!

  • What a brilliant epitath

  • This was just before Stephen Fry did his luvvie diasappearing act to France because the play he was in wasn't doing too well. Fry was an utterly sane very very funny man who sadly went of the rails like Cook did in a way. The trouble is that Fry stopped being funny and sharp and is reduced to appearing in docos where he contributes nothing of value or the nerd-fest QI. I think it is tragic what has happened to him, a lot like Peter Cook.

  • @dutchgoing have you actually watched QI? stephen is quite funny to this day

  • @HookahMan99 Yes I have and by his standards it is very very mediocre. I know it has its following but is not as good as his output pre 1995. It is a cult show, you either love it or hate it which means it must have merit.

  • people will always be attacked by ignorance.....especially those who are gifted and peter was most definately one of them...The legacy he leaves behind is what counts,.its seems that it is always the gifted that are tortured by those who are jealous.critics are usually failed artists,musicians,comedians.an­­d the media is full of such people who wanted to be in the lime light. but were not gifted as those they criticise.peter inspired other comics just like van gogh inspired other artists

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  • As long as Peter was happy, that's all that counts. He achieved so much, and should be judged on the legacy he left.

    Stephen is right, we are *all* flawed, each and every one of us.

  • I cannot imagine anyone could be as right as Stephen Fry is in this tribute.

  • If Peter Cook was the Master and Stephen Fry the Apprentice, then the Master would be happy with the tranisition of his apprentice to Master a job well done.

  • I find the ending picture extremely beautiful and extremely disturbing. In other words, it's perfect.

  • Peter Cook was an amazing man and Stephen Fry an equal. A fitting tribute for one of intellectual comedies first heroes and an existing maverick and scholar. An amazing piece.

  • Well said

  • A brilliant brilliant tribute.

  • well said Stephen. and this goes for the "sententious hogwash" that one reads about Amy Winehouse these days, that she "struggled" with addiction... the girl was hardly ever sober, how's that for a "struggle"??? :)) R.I.P. my distant friends.

  • Just a few days before he ran away and disappeared x love you peter and stephen xx PS: Glad you came back Stephen xx

  • Did he say "sententious hogwash"?

  • I think you are all missing the point here....The whole point of this is stephen fry's attack at the media and how they slagged a complete comical genius off...Peter cook was influenced by spike miligan and the goons....i walked past him on the super girl set back in the eightiesat lunch time...and to this day I wishe i had turned round and said something to him....When i was a child in the sixties..peter cook and dudley moore were my comical heroes....along with spike miligan and monty python.

  • @avolitekitesvara awww two tragedies there. 1. you missed an opportunity to speak to Peter cook and 2. you probably had to watch several retakes of bad scenes in that crappy Supergirl movie. :D

  • @tehf00n @tehf00n why would i want to watch the bad scenes in supergirl,if i was in the film?..I know how crap it was....but it paid well..so cant really complain there..wouldnt really say its a trajedy....I never really bothered famous people..because they get it all the time....:C

  • Well said Mr Fry. Cook was and is a legend!

  • I think Steven Fry has over exposed himself for the past few years.He doesnt seem to have any great creative output anymore,merely reactive-but the credit card thing was a bit low.We have all done things in our past We are not proud of,especially when We were young.

  • what a loser you are swearing at someone , because in real life you wouldnt have the balls to say such things to people because in reality you are a small coward of a man who has no balls and hides behind a computer screen

  • JEALOUS? i hardly think so, im certainly not jealous of a man who went to prison for cheque fraud

  • @future21st Shut up you cunt. Shove your collective moral input up your arrogant ass. Go read some ethical philosophy and come back with a valid argument. Until then, shut your fucking trap.

  • @savoirjoker Gratuitous swearing is the sign of a feeble mind.

  • @edj66 Well I'll be fucked, I never knew that.

  • @edj66 Not a fan of Peter Cooke then? Cunt.

  • @savoirjoker Fail. I happen to like him. Idiot. 

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  • @edj66 So you're fully aware that he said cunt a lot then? Stop trying so hard to be pseudo intellectual and just shut the fuck up.

  • @savoirjoker Why would I try to be 'pseudo intellectual'? Why would anyone? Surely you'd just try to be intellectual, not fake intellectual. In any case, I wasn't.

    I stand by what I said; swearing is useful in context. Using profanity too much, however, just shows a lack of being able to express yourself properly in any other way. Clearly in Peter Cooke's case the swearing was used properly to humorous effect. In yours, it's simply gratuitous and useless. Good day.

  • When you see that Americans are now considered as being the most humorous in the world, you have to ask yourself: Lord, where have we gone to?

  • WELL I THINK STEVEN IS A BLOODY HERO, THE WORLD WOULD BE A DARK AND COLD PLACE WITHOUT HIM....SIR?

  • Stephen fry is such a prat, in fact i suspect that he is Proffessor of Pratology at Prat university, i think he sits in front of a mirror everyday telling himself how wonderful he is, for man who says he hates the limelite why does he continue to plague the TV with his comments on everything like some giant know it all,

  • @future21st You do know he suffers from manic depression? He's hardly happy about himself all the time. And when he's happy, why should he not feel good about himself? Your just jealous.

  • Well said stephen fry, rip peter cook.

  • Stephen Fry "wriggling with bliss" ?? Out damn image !!

  • Lovely

  • Fry has a way of being sentimental that doesn't arouse my cynicism. I could listen to him all day.

  • I'd care about this a lot more if I wasn't convinced by his every word, expression, and verbal tic that the thing Stephen Fry loves above all else is Stephen Fry.

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  • @jackal59 Jealous fackin cunt

  • my right ear enjoyed this

  • @rayads786 Hahaha if you told me Cook had said this I would of believed you.

  • @Timeofflux How can you tell if a donkey is pompous? Surely farmyard animals don't have human emotions?

  • @TheFragile89 Wry fools, nuff said.

  • media 0, fry 1. you got pwned!!!

  • Peter Cooke kicked ass but in a gentle way. He and Dud were the Morecombe and Wise of humour.

  • @ronneesam Rubbish. Peter never abused a donkey. That's a slanderous comment! Shame on you!

  • Stephen Fry, just a few weeks before he did his disappearing act and stopped being funny or entertaining forever. QI do me a bloody favour!

  • Nice jab at Scientology at 3:19.

  • Well at least we still have Stephen what a wonderful tribute!

  • Stephen Fry is an assassin with words brilliant!

  • @TheFragile89 He is brilliant an assassin with words.

  • @Timeofflux  ur the ass

  • 12 people lack eye-hand coordination. ;-p

  • RIP Pete and Dud

  • A fricken genius, thanks Stephen Fry for this

  • Stephen Fry is amazing.

  • Why is he going on about the Tour de France?

  • ... and a lucky Britain (and world) that has Stephen Fry in it, too.

  • how can something such a heartful tribute be so downright hilarious?

  • Stephen Fry is all class from head to toe.

  • Peter cook was not funny :( Funny is not a strong enough word. He oozed laughter. He oozed happyness. Infact ill make up a new word to describe the type of comedian peter was.. philwog. Peter was a philwog....Not even philwog is a strong enough word :(

  • I hope Stephen Fry has as beautiful a tribute as that when he's passed on

  • @robbiefoxohyes

    totally agree, hope we have to wait a few years though

  • Looking at this, it's almost like I'm looking at an inadvertent passing of the torch...

  • Peter Cook was a very funny man. There will never be another Peter Cook.

  • Kind of a pity there's no sound....

  • @random007nadir If you're listening through headphones the sound should be coming from the right.

  • @EKS511 Ah, thanks, that would explain it. Thanks. Thanks for the upload.

  • steven fry. Damn proud to be british

  • Derek & Clive..... the most outrageouse comedy duo britain has ever made.... and we should be damn proud of it too

  • dave dont you mean peter cook stephen fry is gay

  • I've never seen this before. Thank you for posting - it's wonderful.

  • Haha! Never knew Fry had such good impersonation skills.

  • that stephen fry is a sad sight to behold, when will he fufill his potential. he has so much tallent. Too much boozing and womenising

  • Gah.. I lived in blissful ignorance thinking that Peter Cook was still alive... I feel so sad now; a huge part of my childhood has been chopped to pieces

  • I'm sure Cook didn't want a knighthood. I bet Fry gets one though; even though he ridiculed Frost and the Royal engagement invitation sent to Cook. Fry hangs around with Princes Charles. I'm sure Fry won't be watching TV on the day Prince Charles' son is married this year.

  • I saw Peter Cook and Dudley moore live in Picadilly circus when I was 7. In a show called "beyond the fringe" ...laughed quite hard at "piss off" being said a few times...

    repeated the line for years i think...

  • Lucky old Heaven.

    Yes, this wouldn't be the same Stephen Fry who was guest at Prince Edward's stag night? The same Stephen Fry who took the piss out of Countdown on Fry and Laurie then appeared a few years later on Countdown in Dictionary Corner.

    Oh, and the same Stephen Fry who did a sketch about the Late Show in which it was called the 'Not Quite Late Enough Show' now appearing on The Late Show.

    Hmmmmm, just asking.

  • Christ! didn't realise h'ed been gone that long. truly one of the 20th centurys funniest brits.

  • Wonderful tribute to a man who truly deserves it. I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Cook a few years before he passed...my boyfriend's mother and I had just returned to the Bel Age hotel here in LA after tending to a rather upsetting family matter and had gone into the Brassiere Restaurant for breakfast. This was when smoking was still allowed in bars and eateries and the waitress had seated us at a table that was the dividing mark between smoking and non smoking.

  • @Loshia2002 The way she'd explained it as we sat down that since this was the table that separated the two sections one end was for smoking and the other for non. Ridiculous I know, but as the waitress left, the gentleman across the way suddenly got up, wandered over and asked if he could help explain further. I immediately recognised that it was Peter Cook and he proceed to go into " an elementary explanation of the rules regarding smoking and non smoking areas in Los Angeles Restaurants.

  • @Loshia2002  Tall, elegantly dressed and quite drunk, he set down his Bloody Mary and scooped up the knives and forks and began to arrange them in a straight line across the width of the table. "It seems to me," he said "that we seem to have a clear lack of understanding as to the perimeters of what has been designated the smoking and non smoking areas of this restaurant." He paused a moment , no doubt for effect then went on. " On this side, we have what has been designated as non smoking"

  • @Loshia2002 He proceeded to lean over and arrange the glasses, the napkins and everything else on our table to further his point." And, on this side is what has been designated for smoking he said, placing his hands flat on the tabel, "Smoking....and nonsmoking." He paused again then patted the table once more." Please abide by the policy of this fine establishment that if you proceed with the partaking of tobacco in cylindrical form known as cigarettes, please remain on the side designated."

  • @Loshia2002 With that, he straightened up proceeded down his beverage in one go and casually walked out of the place. I sat there absolutely stunned, my boyfriend's mother and the waitress having no idea who that was, the waitress apologising profusely for the man's behaviour. "Are you KIDDING?" I said " I just got a private Beyond the Fringe routine and you think I'm upset??? " Indeed, it was an honor and during the whole matter it took every bit of strength to keep from laughing. RIP, Cook.

  • @Loshia2002 What a wonderful life story to have. The best stories are the strange moments we get, like that. Thanks for telling it. And RIP, Mr. Cook.

  • @Loshia2002 Tall, elegantly dressed and quite drunk, he set down his Bloody Mary and scooped up the knives and forks and began to arrange them in a straight line across the width of the table. "It seems to me," he said "that we seem to have a clear lack of understanding as to the perimeters of what has been designated the smoking and non smoking areas of this restaurant." He paused a moment , no doubt for effect then went on. " On this side, we have what has been designated as non smoking"

  • "Benevelantly to oversee". Swoon. (Don't think I spelled that right. Oh well.)

  • My goodness!.

    I came here to watch this elegy for a great,original British comedian,and instead fell entranced by Stephen Fry.

    I nearly forgot about how brilliant Peter was,and was reminded how good Stephen is,which I'm sure was not the intent.

    I want this man to speak at my funeral!.

    Except he's a lot older than me,so I hope he dies first!.

  • I just had a mental image of Stephen wriggling with bliss.

  • Why do new words you learn suddenly start appearing everywhere and you hear them twice a day when before you had never heard it before?

  • @Kan2209 That happens to me ALL THE TIME. Glad it isn't just me.

  • @Kan2209 You tend to only want to learn a new word when the need to do so reaches "critical mass". That means, it becomes impossible or strongly undesirable to ignore what a word means any longer. If that is the case, it must be in circulation just enough to cause that pressing need, but not enough so that you would know its meaning. So when you learn it, you stop screening it out, because now you know it. Beforehand, your mind actually blocked it out, without you realising it.

  • @avidalocan That might be true. I have realized, that upon hearing an exact same speech for a second time, and on the second time owning a better set of vocabulary, that I had previously not even noticed how some words seemed to be completely missing from my memory of the speech.

  • @Kan2209 It's the same as if you heard the speech in a foreign language that you only understood partially. You would not technically actually "hear" the words you didn't already know or believed/guessed you knew for that very reason - to you they fit no known word, so they can't be useful information to you.

  • @avidalocan Well, interesting, and I'm quite sure that's the case.

  • @Kan2209 you should read arthur koestler

  • @Kan2209 Haha so true! Probably part of the zeitgeist. You come across the word because others have started using it frequently. Then you start using it. Then even more start to use it. Etc etc

  • @Kan2209 its called the baader-meinhof syndrome. google it

  • Thank you, Stephen.

  • I have to

  • No audio for me ><

  • @cantytoofly Mono audio for me but still listenable to.

    Stephen is so right, whenever a 'journolist' has to write an obitury they always feel the need to include a load of rubbish that isn't required. You know for a fact when Mr Fry has to leave us all behind the obitury will begin 'Manic Depresive Quizmaster Stephen Fry' as if that's all he is! It makes me so angry and sad.

  • @Stump2502 What you said is true. If Stephen Fry died tomorrow the media would try selling papers with drug use, suicide & overdose accusations with a soupy twist.. I'm happy for Stephen that hes inspired enough people that the queue for his defence would be a mile long. The fact he's a Manic Depresive just makes what he has achieved so much more awesome. I hope he's with us a long time yet.

    Live in peace Stephen & RIP Peter!

  • Well said stephen fry. Peter cook was a fully fullfilled individual who lived life how he wanted to live it.

    ATVmidlands UK

  • Is it just me that's not getting audio for this vid.?

  • I want a clone of stephen fry :'(

  • Is that Fintan O'Toole?

  • Proof, if proof be needed, that Stephen Fry should be cloned and unleashed at every significant cultural event from now to 2100.

  • @hudstar if he was cloned he would be nothing special..... that is a horrible idea

  • i love 4 people cook ustinov and stephen fry

    and peter sellers

  • Peter Cook's sketches remain unsurpassed but it's hardly unreasonable to have wanted much more of the same. If he had drunk less, he might have had a longer career.

    It's also a bit much to hear Fry dissing those who seek fame and fortune in the US. He's fairly keen on that kind of thing himself these days.

  • @4Cranleigh You could say that, and you have already...I noticed. But if he had drunk less he may not have been as funny.

    This is a response in the time honoured tradition of Derek and clive, i'm sure you'll get it, kunt!

  • @4Cranleigh

    We would have had more if the BBC hadn't erased most of the "Not Only But Also" shows just to reuse the tape. By being too cheap to buy new ones they cost themselves so much more potential income from home video and DVDs. Cook offered to buy the shows and even to buy them new tapes for the BBC to use but they still refused!

  • I adored Peter Cook. Stephen Fry is brilliant and I miss Dudley Moore's genius dreadfully. Thanks for posting this.

  • Wonderful. Beautiful slap in the face to the "critics".

  • By God/god: that's extraordinarily deep felt writing. Glorious eulogy.

  • i almost found myself cheering Stephen on, Bravo Mr Fry you did the old boy proud

  • I've refernced this to the wiki page on Peter Cook.

  • My Kiwi accent rules! Aye bro. She'll be right my mates!

  • Respeck to all.

  • I want this man to write me eulogy.

  • @MichaelPalinFan2008

    mine too!

    Stephen Fry is so full of WIN!

  • can anyone help me find the sketch where moore is a school master and fry is rawlings... funniest one ever... i could almost quote most of it, want it for a friend, best regards to all, Adam

  • "Life was good to him and he was good to life" just gold^^

  • I find I'm watching the television that evening. Priceless.

  • I particularly enjoyed it when Stephen Fry compared journalist's work to school essays. Bravo Stephen

  • A tremendous talent. Thank goodness Steven Fry was on call to send him off with dignity.

  • no knob gags?

  • You can't help thinking Fry is being a touch pompous here. The photo of Cook leering behind him is more apt than intended. It's not that Fry is wrong: it's that he comes across as Mr. Didactic ponce.  That is NOT Cook's style. Cook would have made fun of the critics less directly, and wouldn't have cared anyway.

  • @Prospro8 So you knew him did you?

  • @Prospro8 Well, you can't. All I see is a grieving friend setting the record straight about a much maligned and misunderstood comedic genius.

  • The sad fact is that what Stephen says would be true if Cook had really felt that way when in fact, as laid out in Harry Thompsons excellant bography of Peter Cook, he did want transatlantic success and more or less resigned himself to being unfufilled and drinks and drug dependant. However, because he was Peter Cook, he could do this funnier and better than anyone else. He did feel immensely competative towards Dudley Moore, and his American success in the eighties did rankle.

  • Amazing video!

  • @johnsammyanfal 'his tortured gay adolescence, bipolar disorder, gassed relatives - to win appeal.' - except none of those were known until well after he was already famous and well-loved. Or are you a Time Lord, and have been experiencing his career out of sequence? Logic clearly isn't your strong point.

  • I really dislike people who use Youtube comments to insult others, and so for the following I heartily pre-apologize, but I do rather feel that some of the recent comments below have epitomized the adage that the trouble with mediocrity is that it cannot recognize anything better than itself.

  • @USDFR2 @USDFR2 Do you?

    Or is it that it [mediocrity] does just that!

    And that is the problem, that then gets projected?

    I feel it would be funny to end on an insult now. :D

  • @johnsammyanfal seems to me you missed the whole point about "success", as valid in the Fry/Laurie case as the Cook/Moore case. America as the proof of success? Gimme a break.

  • This would have made Cook's toes curl.

  • Aw thanks for sharing this gem frogandpeach!

    Beautiful, beautiful Peter. I grew up in love with him and spent the 70's being jealous of Dudley Moore because he was able to enjoy so much of his company.

    I wonder if England's most stately homo, Stephen Fry, realises that for many people, HE is the one who enriches our world.

    My kids could not imagine a world without Stephen. Finding out that he was gay nipped their homophobia right in the bud. I don't know anyone that doesn't ADORE him.

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  • Fry’s anecdote about Cook shows all the ingenuousness of an Establishment snob. Cocking a snoot to party organised David Frost for the Royals – how joyously democratic! The fact Cook had an invite is surely the more revealing point. Fry actually has a lot more in common with Frost than either do with Cook. Both are “Michael Rimmer” style outsiders who have successfully marketed themselves into fame and fortune with a modicum of prosaic talent and relentless toadying.

  • @johnsammyanfal I think the expression is 'cocking a snook'; but what do I know? (not even sure what ingenuous means....)

  • Fair play Mr. Fry.....Peter Cook is a legend

  • A toe curling eulogy to a comedic television performer. In real life Cook always aspired to movie stardom, which proved elusive because or his inveterate bad acting ability. The great film success of his erstwhile partner, the short petit bourgeois Dudley Moore must have been a cruel endurance. Much of Cooks humour flows from a typical public schoolboys burlesque of the uneducated proletariat and grammar school class of repressed officialdom he despised and looked down on.

  • Such a brilliant and heart felt speach on behalf of a brilliant man.

  • How can one be that brilliant as Stephen Fry is beyond me.

  • Well said.

  • Very well said Stephen.

  • very true words spoken there. .not unfulillled genius. .simply genius

  • brilliant!