Children's Live-Action TV comedy centred on the wholly inept Paul and Barry Chuckle. Debuted in 1987.
Nearly every episode sees the Chuckle Brothers being given a simple task to do. Hilarity Ensues when they fail to do it with any degree of competence. Series 14 broke the trend for Stand Alone Episodes by having a continuous arc, and series after that also saw multi-part stories being used.
Chucklevision had a total of 21 series with 292 episodes, aired between 1987 to 2009.
This show is an example of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Paul, the self-appointed leader. Incompetent, lazy and self-serving. Expect Barry to bail him out.
- Beast in the Building: In "No Pets Allowed", the premiere of Series 12 the Chuckle Brothers are to perform a conjuring set in a hotel that pets are banned from by the allergic landlady, only to find that their rabbit is missing and appears to have been replaced with a rhinoceros. The Chuckles now have to lure it out of the building and into a safari park before the landlady finds out.
- Big Little Brother: Barry is the older of the two, but Paul is much taller.
- Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game: The Chuckles played golf in three different episodes: "Goofy Golfers" from Series 4, "Cousins at War" from Series 13, and "Driving Ambition" from Series 19.
- Butt-Monkey:
- No Slacking can get the short end of the stick a lot.
- Depending on the Writer Paul or Barry can have their fair share of comical incidents happening to them.
- The Cameo: In "The Final Frontier" from Series 7, Barry is watching Postman Pat on the TV.
- Catch Phrases:
- "To me!" "To you!"
- "Silly me!" (Often reinforced with "Silly you!")
- "Oh dear." "Oh dear oh dear." "Oh dear oh dear oh dear."
- "No slacking!"
- "Get out of it!"
- Clothing Damage: No Slacking ends up being victim of this in some episodes. For example, after being apparently attacked by a escaped lion halfway through the Series 10 episode "Safari Park Keepers".
- Cowboy Episode: The Series 12 episode "The Good, the Bad, and the Chuckles" has the brothers go to the American western town of Rotheridge and have a showdown with a notorious outlaw known as "Big Jake".
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the Series 20 episode Mind Your Manors, the brothers end up meeting Beethoven due to a time travelling spell. They help him tune his piano in preparation for a meeting with some music critics, the tuning turning Beethoven's 5th Symphony into the Chucklevision theme.
- Ditto Aliens: Lampshaded in the Series 18 episode "Alien Antics" involving a "Freaky Friday" Flip (see below). Paul gets his brain swapped with an alien and Barry notices the Commander looks the same. Paul then impersonates the commander and tells the alien to switch the minds back.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The show started out in The '80s as "Chucklehounds", with Paul and Barry in dog costumes, before quickly changing to the format we all know and love.
- The first and second series of Chucklevision proper were studio-based with Paul and Barry as presenters. It also featured Liverpool actor Billy Butler telling stories in a segment called "Armchair Theatre". (As Mersey Tales, this segment later became a show in its own right).
- '80s Hair: Paul was still sporting a dyed brown mullet in 2009.
- Everyone Chasing You: A big chunk of the episodes would end with the Chuckles being chased by people who they were only trying to help.
- Expy: It's easy to see Paul as this to Moe Howard of The Three Stooges. Both clearly think of themselves as being much smarter than they actually are, would rather put all the work on their respective sidekicks and generally put the blame on said sidekicks when they mess up.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: In the Series 18 episode "Alien Antics", because of the aliens' mind-swapping device, Paul gets Freaky Friday'd with an alien. Then this happens with the brothers and tomatoes.
- Glad I Thought of It: Paul often takes Barry's ideas and claims them as his own – Barry doesn't usually notice.
- Haunted House: The premise of the Series 5 episode "Spooks & Gardens", notable for being written by Russell T Davies.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Dan the Van. He's frequently ordering the Chuckle brothers about, but we never see him. Often members of his family act as his representative, and on the rare occasions he shows up his face isn't visible, hidden under bandages or the like.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- No Slacking may be rather cantankerous and jerk-ish but he still can be caring towards Paul and Barry and get along with them.
- Paul may be quite self-centered himself but he still cares deeply for his brother Barry.
- Impact Silhouette: Happens a little often throughout the series. One example of this from a episode "Split Milk" where Paul accidentally catapults Barry into a wall of the building in the milk depot.
- Long-Runners: For over 22 years from 1987 to 2009! In fact, it was the UK's longest running comedy show.
- Meaningful Name: Dan the Van and his friends.
- Never My Fault: Whenever Paul messes up, he manages to shift the blame to Barry.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Whenever paired up, Barry is polite and sensible (nice), No Slacking is cantankerous and ill-tempered (mean), and Paul is self-centered and lazy but can still be caring towards his brother (in-between).
- Oop North: Both Paul and Barry speak with Rotherham accents. (It's rather surreal how similar the brutal mercenary Bronn from Game of Thrones sounds to the Chuckles.)
- Pantomime: The brothers often do panto, transposing their act into the show and usually sharing a Buttons-type role normally played by one person.
- Pun-Based Title: "Bowl-Derdash", a cricket episode; "Shore Thing", on a beach; "King of the Mill", set in a windmill; "On Your Pike", fishing, and so on.
- "Rashomon"-Style: The premise of "See How They Run". Paul and Barry find a trophy from a fun run they took part in when they were kids. In between the flashbacks, they argue over who won as they take the trophy to be cleaned. It’s revealed that Martin Short, the trophy cleaner and the PE teacher's son, actually won the race while the brothers were arguing over who'd claim the prize.
- Recurring Character: Known by his Catchphase, "No Slacking" will often give the Chuckle brothers their episode task.
- Reverse Psychology: Often used by Paul to con Barry into doing the difficult tasks.
- Slapstick: A lot of the comedy.
- Plank Gag: Happens basically Once an Episode.
- Secret Pet Plot: In the premiere of Series 12, the Chuckle Brothers are trying to do a conjuring trick with a rabbit in Mrs Hepplewhite's hotel, only to find that she doesn't allow animals on the premises because she's allergic. Which means they have to make sure she doesn't find the rabbit — and it doesn't help when the rabbit appears to have been replaced by a rhinoceros in the bath...
- Silence Is Golden: This Trope is the actual title of a Series 13 episode, which is notable for being the only Chucklevision episode to date to have no dialogue, just music. The reason for this is because the brothers are working as hospital porters so they must be as quiet as possible.
- Status Quo Is God: The show has a high Season Fluidity, with the only difference between an episode from 1995 and one from 2005 is how old the Chuckle Brothers look.
- Stock Ness Monster: In the episode "Another Fine Ness".
- Superhero Episode: "Super Heroes, Super Zeroes" from Series 20 is about Barry's favourite superhero, Beetleman.
- Taken for Granite: In the episode "Et Tu Chuckle" Paul and Barry along with the emperor cover themselves in cement and at the end of the episode the cement dries, leaving them stuck. It then shows the statues in modern times, implying that they are most likely stuck like that forever.
- Tandem Parasite: Taken to extremes. The 'Chucklemobile' only seems to even have pedals on Barry's side.
- Thememobile: The Chucklemobile.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: A few episodes where Paul and Barry meet their Scottish cousins, Dougal and Douglas McChuckle.
- Then there are their grandfathers. And their mad uncle.
- The Unintelligible: Dan the Van only ever speaks with murmurs and mumbling. One episode lampshades this detail.Paul: Oh no, what would Dan the Van say?Barry: Mumble mumble.
- Unrelated Brothers: Inverted with "No Slacking" and "Get Out of It", who are Paul And Barry's older brothers Jimmy and Brian Elliott. Their own comedy pairing "The Patton Brothers" actually preceded The Chuckle Brothers by 13 years.
