"Let's push the button marked 'idiot' and see what comes out."
The Kenny Everett Video Show is a comedy variety series produced by Thames Television, part of ITV . It ran over four seasons from 1978 to 1981, the last season seeing the show re-titled The Kenny Everett Video Cassette.
Originally it was a showcase of musical performances, either by the songs' artists—including The Rolling Stones, The Police, Tina Turner, The Pretenders and David Bowie—or as backing for Fanservice dance troupe Hot Gossip. Radio DJ Kenny Everett provided humorous links between the acts, either as himself or as various characters. As the show progressed, the focus moved to Everett's comedy, with the musical numbers becoming less frequent. A number of musical guests, such as Elton John, Cliff Richard, Rod Stewart and David Essex, would also participate in some of the comedy sketches.
Regular characters and segments include:
- Sid Snot, an aging, leather-clad rocker-turned-hoodlum.
- Marcel Wave, a French Casanova.
- Angry of Mayfair, a snarling, bad-tempered, conservative moral crusader who utterly despises Everett.
- Captain Kremmen, an Animated Adaptation of Everett's radio sci-fi serial, produced by Cosgrove Hall.
- A Cowboy/Gunslinger in a Western-style saloon.
- Spod, a Flying Face alien from the planet Thnnn.
- A talking baby with Helium Speech.
- Brother Lee Love, an gospel choir leader with outsized hands.
- Star Quiz, a segment designed to bring celebrities onto the show and humiliate them.
The following trope list contains...naughty bits!
- Ambiguous Syntax: Kenny announces that one episode will close with Katie Boyle stripping. She proceeds to strip Kenny, who doesn't object for long.
- Animated Actor: The cartoon version of Captain Kremmen closely resembles Kenny.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Sid Snot finks Elton John should be buried in Westminster Abbey. Now!
- Bar Slide: The cowboy never does catch the drinks—or, on one occasion, the literal Pink Lady—slid his way.
- Body Horror: The Mud Men, slaves of the Thargoidians. They've been toiling in radioactive mud mines for so long that their own bodies have turned to mud.
- Brick Joke:
- Kenny throws a ball up in the air and it doesn't come down...until the end of the episode, decking him as he's about to reveal the Secret of Life.
- In one commercial bumper, Kenny takes a camera backstage to give viewers a behind-the-scenes view of the show. The end of the episode sees him roughed up by Lord Thames' goons as punishment.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": When a group of Mud Men assembles, we see six of them with letters on their backs spelling "MUDMEN".
- Camera Abuse:
- Angry of Mayfair regularly thrashes the camera with his umbrella.
- Sid Snot gets into the act, painting the screen black or heaving a custard pie at it.
- Character Tic: Sid Snot flipping cigarettes up into his mouth, where they almost never stay.
- Congestion Speak: Foonman, one of Kremmen's crew, has a chronically congested voice ("duh giadnt badnadna").
- Couch Gag: Each Season Two episode would end with Kenny's attempt to reveal the Secret of Life being thwarted in some way.
- Covered in Gunge: The inevitable fate of the contestants in "Star Quiz" (Kenny even calls the substance "gunge") and its one-off predecessor, "Who Do You Goo?"
- Detachable Lower Half: One commercial bumper has Kenny's lower half rip itself off at the waist and walk off, leaving the rest of him to fall screaming into the unknown.
- Dumbass DJ: The first season intro calls Kenny a "bird-brained disc jockey".
- Effeminate Voice: Tinsel Man, especially in the CSO scenes.
- Everything Is an Instrument: A group of bobbies play "Over the Rainbow" on police sirens.
- Eye Scream: Kremmen, with Carla's help, incapacitates a Thargoidian with a well-aimed mud pie.
- Finger Poke of Doom: Kenny unleashes a devastating new unarmed combat technique - Finger Power!
- The Ghost: Lord Thames, unseen head honcho of the network.
- Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Kremmen's talk to his crew as they prepare to face the giant banana.Kremmen: This assignment will test us to our utmost limits.
Crew: Yes Captain.
Kremmen: It's perhaps our most dangerous mission ever, men.
Crew: Yes Captain.
Kremmen: Anyone want to back out?
Crew: Yes Captain.
Kremmen: I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That. - Hilarious Outtakes: A few make it into the show proper. The commercial for Follicle hair restorer consists mostly of blown takes.Kenny: Bum! The last (bleep)-ing word.
- Hypocritical Humour: Angry of Mayfair rails against "pansies" and other scourges of decent society...while wearing women's underwear.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Sid Snot doesn't get why his new bird says he's bleedin' uncouth.
- Last Note Nightmare: "So let's have fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!"
- Leitmotif: Several characters.
- Sid Snot has the Peter Gunn theme.
- The surfer has "Fun Fun Fun" by The Beach Boys.
- Logo Joke: Kenny loved to mess around with the Thames skyline logo. Sometimes he would have it play again in slow-motion, and on occasions the show ended with reversed footage of Kenny tearing through a paper wall with the Thames logo emblazoned on it. One time, a version where the skyline was replaced with giant breasts was seen!
- Mirror Routine: David Essex and Marcel Wave. It ends with the former punching the latter out.
- My Little Panzer: Action Yob, a toy modeled after Sid Snot. Wind it up, and it headbutts you. Or, as Sid sneakily tells Marcel Wave, it gives you a nut.
- Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Angry of Mayfair storms on, snarls "Hello! Bangs camera!", then slinks off when he realises his mistake.
- Replaced the Theme Tune: Each season uses a different title sequence, bearing little to no resemblance to the others.
- Save the Villain: The giant banana receives an emergency operation after Kremmen's ship blasts it. It survives, but might remain a cabbage.
- Simpleton Voice: Kremmen, when he is zapped with an intelligence-draining ray. "I will not submit!"
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis:
- Several characters mock the host but Angry of Mayfair hates him with a passion. He drives the phone-in campaign to pay Everett's ransom so that the kidnappers won't send him back.
- Wonder Tart exists primarily to talk smack about Carla behind her back.
- Spare Body Parts:
- Extra Knee, as advertised in one commercial.
- The Thargoidians have at least three faces, which appear to be synchronised with each other.
- Stop Trick: Billy the Dancing Bucket's routine.
- Strongly Worded Letter: Angry of Mayfair caricatures the author of one, down to his anonym.
- Sunglasses at Night: Sid Snot is never seen without them.
- Synchro-Vox: Billy the Dancing Bucket speaks with Kenny's mouth.
- Taking You with Me: Non-lethal version. After losing at "Star Quiz" Billy Connolly seizes Kenny so that the gunge drops on them both.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: The recorded instructions for The Bee Gees kit, a couple of times.Tape: Take one pill from bottle A.
[User grabs another bottle]
Tape: Not that one! Bottle A, you waste of space. - Trrrilling Rrrs: Dr Gitfinger ("It's coming over the horrrRRRrrrRRRrizon").
- The Unreveal:
- The Secret of Life, unless you subscribe to Sid Snot's view note .
- One episode has a contest asking viewers to guess the identity of a masked singer. Next episode, Kenny says three viewers answered correctly, but identifies neither the singer nor the contestants who got it right.
- Unwinnable by Design: "Star Quiz". Contestants get three questions worth ten points each, but to win they need thirty-one points, and to guess a completely random secret word (e.g. "theodolite", "anathema") for which they are given no clues.
- Verbal Tic: Everett and a number of his characters often call things "[thing]y-poos", and describe people and objects as "[adjective]y-poo".
- White Void Room: Most sketches take place in one.
- Wingding Eyes: Gitfinger's glasses often display various images and symbols.
- You Can Keep Her!: Inverted. Kenny is kidnapped and if a ransom isn't paid, he'll be sent back. The money is raised and delivered but the kidnappers send him back anyway.
"The secret of life is- [URRK!]"
