One Leg Too Few - Cook and Moore

Jonathan Miller watches Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in the sketch 'One Leg Too Few.' Jonathan Miller worked with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in the stage revue 'Beyond The Fringe.'

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Peter
• Cook
• Dudley
• Moore
• sketch
• one
• leg
• too
• few
• jonathan
• miller
• beyond
• the
• fringe
• not
• only
• but
• also
• british
• tarzan
• comedy

[turnipfield]

Brilliant sketch - but why is Miller in it! Opportunist.

[lemonpiefirefly]

I just finished watching "The Hound of the Baskervilles" 1978 Cook/Moore spoof movie of the old Sherlock Holmes classic, elsewhere on YouTube. It had some funny moments, but the best was the "application for a one-legged runner" by a "Mr. Spigot" that was the funniest. It was a longer version of this scene, with Moore in a slightly different character, and Cook as Holmes. It is at 47:15 and on for a few minutes in that movie.

[WeeWyllie]

When I first heard a recording of Beyond The Fringe 40 years ago, I almost made myself sick laughing over it, particularly over 4 of the skits: One Leg Too Few, Experiences Down The Mine, The Great Train Robbery, and The End of The World. Also on that album were Take a Pew and a skit on a philosophical exchange with "the then-young G. E. Moore". Without any question, this is the funniest stuff I have ever heard in my life! It has no competition! Cook was a remarkable comic genius!

[karmalevel]

lol

[billicks]

I once heard cook interviewed and he said he wrote this at the age of 18 and didn't think he had ever topped it. I beg to differ..But it is a genius sketch.

[blokeinthekitchen]

My favourite comedy sketch ever. Can't seem to find the full version unfortunately. Very funny.

[TCTC68]

@Brichi60 Forgive me if I’m wrong, I watched this analysis years ago, and I thought Miller’s explanation was far more complex than that: wasn’t it that laughter was an automatic biological response to tell a fellow member of the species that they were endangering themselves / the gene pool. A survival mechanism yes, but a little more complex. It also accounts for why we can't help laughing when we shouldn't - i.e. old lady falling over in street

Is there a link to the original Miller lecture?

[Fluffski2006]

@jrgboy i could see kenneth play the roll as the agent in that sketch hehe.Classic sketch.

[Brichi60]

Yes, I was never convinced by Miller's explanation as to why we laugh – because we are confronted with something we don't understand, some kind of survival mechanism. A joke explained is a joke destroyed.

[jrgboy]

A great sketch, originally written for Kenneth Williams for a revue in 1961.