YMMV / The Benny Hill Show

• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Much to the puzzlement of the British (at least at first), many of whom regard Benny Hill with a reaction somewhere between discomfort and disgust, The Benny Hill Show was (and, in some cases, still is) very popular in United States, Canada, Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Argentina), Europe (France, Italy, and even Finland and Romania) and Australia, among other countries. Even today, the show has not aged well in its native Britain, but remains popular overseas. The show was so popular in France, Spain and Italy to the point that when Hill visited those countries for leisure, locals recognized him and wouldn't leave him in peace.
• Memetic Mutation: Setting a chase scene (or anything, really) to the show's theme song by Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax".
• Never Live It Down: Many Americans still associate British humor primarily with Benny Hill (after Monty Python, of course). The Brits definitely do not; his programmes were not re-run on terrestrial television from 1992 (or on cable or satellite from 1999) until 2022, when they quietly began to be aired again, albeit mostly on nostalgia channels a long way down the Freeview channel list. However, that's not to say he's entirely despised:
  • In 2006, Channel 4 aired a documentary called Is Benny Hill Still Funny? in which a cross-section of adults too young to remember the series when it was still on the air watched a half-hour compilation of sketches. Not only did they find them funny (the "Wishing Well" sketch featuring an appearance by David Prowse was the group's favourite), they didn't find them particularly offensive.
  • In the "France" episode of QI (which originally aired in January 2009), Phill Jupitus notes that Stephen Fry's beret and glasses make him look like Hill, and the two plunge into a brief, appreciative retrospective.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Anna Dawson, who would later be best known for playing Violet in Keeping Up Appearances, appeared in 9 episodes between 1975 and 1989.
  • Candy Davis, who would later be best known for playing Miss Belfridge in Are You Being Served? (and later went on to have a career as a novelist under the name Mo Hayder, even winning an Edgar Award), was a Hill's Angel in "Holiday".
  • Derek Royle, who would later be best known for playing the second LeClerc in 'Allo 'Allo!, appeared in two episodes of 1985.
  • Doris Hare, who would later be best known for playing Mrs. Butler in On the Buses, appeared in a 1965 episode.
  • Felix Bowness, who would later be best known for playing Fred Quilley in Hi-de-Hi!, appeared in three episodes in the mid-'60s.
  • June Whitfield, who would later be best known for playing June Fletcher in Happy Ever After, June Medford in Terry and June, and Mother in Absolutely Fabulous, appeared in four episodes throughout The '60s.
  • Moira Foot, who would later be best known for playing Denise Laroque in 'Allo 'Allo!, played various characters in two episodes between 1975 and 1976.
  • Pamela Cundell, who would later be best known for playing Mrs. Fox in Dad's Army, appears in a 1968 episode.
  • Paula Wilcox, who would be best known for playing Chrissy Plummer in Man About the House, appears in a 1972 episode.
  • Penny Irving, who would later be best known for playing Miss Bakewell in Are You Being Served?, appears as an extra in "Show 14".
  • Rikki Howard, who would later be best known for playing Betty Whistler in Hi-de-Hi!, appears as a blonde girl at the beach in "Show 3".
  • Perhaps the most well-known member of the "Hill's Angels" is Jane Leeves, who would later star in Frasier and Hot in Cleveland.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Hill's Asian characters (often wearing thick glasses, and always speaking in a comically exaggerated Chinese accent) were controversial even at the time, and completely cringe-inducing now. ^note  Although it should be pointed out that Hill's Asian characters were never shown to be inferior or dumber to the British characters.
  • Many of the jokes that are judged as sexist today were considered much more acceptable in the seventies. Though even at the time it got quite a few accusations about this, to which Benny's typical response was that it was always the men who looked like idiots and they never succeeded in catching the girls they were chasing.

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