Holmes and Watson (Mitchell and Webb Look Series 4)

Holmes has Alzheimers (i,e can't remember anything) and Watson is coming to visit him. The "I know John" means that Holmes realises what is happening to him in moments of clarity but of course he can not stop it. So clearly poor Watson realises his old friend is well aware of his condition but can not help him, hence the crying.

I think the whole scene is expanding on the previous weeks episode where Mitchell and Webb joked about doing a powerful deep last scene...which ended up simply being "sod cancer". So this week they showed how deep they can really be. Considering how Terry Prattchett recently stated he has early Alzheimers people are more willing to face Alzheimers and talk about it and even protray it in the media.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• david
• mitchell
• robert
• web
• sherlock
• holmes
• john
• watson
• moriarty
• detective
• alzheimers
• comedy
• tv

[psmylie]

@SubtleChaotic

Please don't misunderstand, I don't disapprove, and I did see the humor of it at first. Tragedy and comedy are the opposite sides of the same coin, after all.

I just wanted to mention that, at the end, the emotional impact of their performance was incredibly intense to me, especially after they'd been playing for laughs. They really did a fantastic job of demonstrating the fact that these two men, as silly as they can be, really CAN act, and do a damned good job of it as well.

[SubtleChaotic]

@psmylie

Well I am sorry this upset you, but this is perfectly acceptable comedy. -Many of my older relatives suffer/ed from Alzheimer's. The only thing we can do is laugh about it.

[muffinlady18]

I remember the first time I saw this and cried. And the second... And the third... And so on...

[NiftyVlogs]

The most tragic comedy sketch I have ever seen. The two are incredible.

[MrBubbaloo]

great way to end the season

[CeeEm14]

Get's me every time.

[psmylie]

Having had personal experience with someone who had Alzheimer's, I found this to be tragic enough already, even though it was initially being played for laughs.

Then in the last minute... that was like a punch straight to the stomach. Very well done, by both of them. You are bastards for bringing tears to my eyes, but VERY well done. That was an emotional impact entirely unexpected in a comedy show.

[shanefolan93]

Brilliant performance by Webb in this scene

[eveDjakku]

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