The Comic Strip, Part 22 - It seemed the taste was not so sweet

"The Yob" - March 12, 1988

I love reading travel guidebooks. One of the thing that I enjoy is the little moments where in the middle of packs of dry information, you get a hint of what sort of trip the author had, and what sort of prism the book was written through. One travel guide for Britain offered advice that went roughly like this: "If, when you are in an Indian restaurant, a group of young men enter and order a large amount of food, particularly chicken vindaloo, it is best for you to pay your bill and leave as fast as you can." (The same book advised men to never wear striped ties, particularly to pubs, as doing so can lead to a fistfight. I've often worried about the gentleman who wrote the book and exactly what happened on his "getting beat up tour of the greater British Isles." I regret to mention that I have lost track of the book.)

A few years after I came across the guidebook, we were at an Indian restaurant somewhere in England and in walk three guys, drunk as all get out. The one who was most capable of speech starts ordering and must have racked up ten entrees plus all the appetizers and breads everything else he could think of. And lager. When the loads of food started showing up, some of it was eaten, some of it was sent back. And more lager was ordered. As we were gathering up our coats, I heard the one who did all the ordering say, "do you have any money? I don't have any money."

I felt like a birdwatcher. I had seen my first yob. One more for the life list.

So we come to another bit of yob-spotting. To sum up, this episode is a spoof of The Fly, the twist being that instead of being about a scientist getting his DNA blended with a fly, it's an artsy music video director getting his DNA blended with a "yob."


I believe that the term of art is "high concept."

UB40 pops up for an extended cameo. Pity there's no reason for it. I would suspect that in the hands of lesser talent, the concept driving this episode would amount to perhaps a half-decent two minute sketch, or more likely a tedious five minute one. The Yob manages to go for about 55 minutes, and only seems like about ten to fifteen minutes too long.

I believe that the term of art is "faint praise."