It’s been twenty years today since Peter Cook left us, and a group of people from Tumblr, myself included, rewatched a lot of his material, including both sketches and the 1967 film Bedazzled, in his honor. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on how brilliant his writing actually was again and just how influential his material was for generations of comedians afterwards.
I figured this would be a great time to reflect on it all with those people he influenced, as well as some of his compatriots, so here’s this lovely documentary someone posted on YouTube in six parts to watch and enjoy. I figure it’s better to watch funny things instead of spend the entire day crying.
The World's Funniest Dissertation 
Thank you very much for sharing this information with us. I hadn’t even realized the anniversary of Peter’s death was upon us.
Hello Steph 🙂 I’ve stumbled across your very interesting blog whilst researching Stan & Ollie for a script I’m trying to put together for a youth drama group (ages 6-16). We’re doing a variety show with lots of songs & dances but I’m in charge of the comedy sketches and I plan to compose a short piece for a couple of lads involving moving a piano (it’s a cardboard one wot I made for our last show – see my blog for how I did it) and I’m trying to pin down all the subtle (and not-so-subtle) moves, catchphrases and body language of L&H. We were inspired to insert this into the show because we recently spent a few days in the Lake District and visited the Laurel & Hardy museum in Ulverston. I used to watch them on UK kids’ TV back in the 70s and own Way Out West on DVD, but any tips you can fire my way would be much appreciated!
You may be interested in the other sketches: a modified version of “Four Yorkshiremen” (popularised by Monty Python, but due to having many girls in our group it has become “Four Grannies” and begins slightly differently); a modified version of the Saturday Night Live TRAAAPD teen driving sketch; Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition; a short scene where Richard III’s ghost ‘wakes up’ in his new tomb (our group is in Leicester, where the king’s grave was found under a car park); and (most pertinently for your blog) a modified version of Pete & Dud’s “One Leg Too Few”, aka the Tarzan sketch. The first time I saw it I almost cried with laughter 🙂 but it’s interesting how various versions on YouTube cut the scene straight after “neither do you”. The final part of the sketch struggles to the end (essentially getting Dud out of the door) so my modified version gives Mr Spigott a bit of a comeback, wishing the agents (I’ve split Pete’s role into 2) good luck in finding an actor with more than the average number of legs (this is a mathematics joke) and then hops off practising his Tarzan call. 😉