Harry And Paul - The Polish Cafe

[andy-hughes]

Are the actresses speaking Polish, or is it gibberish?

If it is Polish, what are they saying?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Rb9zJphEc

[Buenchico]

My Polish isn't good enough for a translation ('cos I gave up after a year at evening classes) but I can pick up enough Polish words in what they're saying to suggest that it's genuine Polish throughout.

[vernonk]

In the 2007 Harry Enfield Paul Whitehouse BBC sketch show Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul a series of sketches were set in a cafe staffed by two Polish women. Harry Enfield’s character visits the cafe everyday to buy a coffee because he’s in love with the younger Polish girl, but can never bring himself to say anything to her directly. Both women are played by British actresses and speak what sounds like genuine Polish (I wouldn’t know) badly pronounced. They are polite and helpful to Harry’s character but make fun of his awkwardness when he leave the shop. I guess the idea of the joke is that Polish girls are sexy and exotic for English men, who don’t know how to approach them, but tend to laugh at the British behind their backs. Neither are things that have ever struck me as particularly true, but it wasn’t a very good series anyway.

[mikey4444]

I'm a great fan of Harry and Paul, but I can't really see what is funny about this sketch. Its poignant but thats all.

[andy-hughes]

Mikey - comedy and poignancy are a potent mix, and I always enjoy that if it is done correctly.

The pathos in the relationship between the Steptoes, manacled together by mutual dependency, is comedy at its highest and deepest level.

John Cleese said, of writing Fawlty Towers with Connie Booth - "We laughed so much over Bail, but we ached for him as well ..."

That is what it's all about.

[andy-hughes]

vernonck - you should check out the following series - where they dropped the first two words of the title.

The running sketches about The Scaffolders, and especially The Surgeons, are comedy characterisation at its height.

[Tilly2]

[mikey4444]

Yes, I like the Surgeons as well !