User reviews

I'm surprised to many people think you can only find this funny if you are from Glasgow. I think they are selling this program short. Yes, the accents are thick and, at times, difficult to understand, even with the subtitles on. And, yes, there are a lot of local jokes that we won't get. But we still laugh our butts off! My husband and I have been making a point of watching Chewing the Fat on Netflix and we've really enjoyed it. So much of the humor translates better than the Glaswegians think, ... or wish. Many of the recurring sketch taglines have become part of our own jokes. No one we know watches the show so no one gets us on this, but that's OK. Funny is funny, whatever the language.

Comedy is in the eye of the beholder. Have read some of the comments about Chewin' The Fat and can't believe people who laugh at Bottom or The Young Ones feel qualified to put this brilliant show down.

The Scots are capable of laughing at themselves and if the English or Americans don't get it then all the better.

Not every piece of work is created for an international market and you have to wonder at people who only produce work for the Americans. After all there is nothing funnier out of America than their President!!

Chewin' The Fat is a refreshing and often strangely realistic interpretation of some of the finer points of Scotlands society. I don't laugh all the way through it, nor would i expect to, but I have laughed heartily at a good bit of the show. Thats enough to keep me happy.

Just got turned on to Chewin the fat. Absolutely brilliant Glaswegian comedy. Burned through every Still Game episodes and found this precursor. Though not from Scotland, having been multiples of times to Bonhill and Islay, found this one piece that made it all make sense. Laugh out loud comedy, crude or not. For those with tender mercies on their sleeves, leave this be. For others, like me, who found the comedic locale of Glasgow forbidding and hilarious, this hit the spot. Indeed, not for everyone. Yet, if you want to peer into the Glaswegian wit and lack of sensibility, this is the ticket. Give it a go if you have the patience for not so mainline sketch comedy. Worth every minute.

Aye, yer gonnae sh**e yerself from laughin!

Take a bit of Monty Python, add The League of Gentlemen, then scrap all the bad stuff and give it a real edge and a heavy Scottish accent and you have Chewin' The Fat, a marvelous show from the brains of Ford Keirnan and Greg Hemphill (plus Paul, Karen, Julie and the rest). With recurring characters and a few story lines, this sketch comedy series is as brilliant as it is sometimes rude and crude. You need to have a good ear for the accents, and there are a few references that may go over your head, but the three 6-episode series (plus the Live! show and their "Still Game" stage play on DVD) are about the best thing to come along in years. And a fourth series is due in November 2001!

This is not for kids. And I'd recommend that anyone who gets upset by mothers proudly telling their friends that they "need to do more laundry these days because their 14 year old son has just started mastrubating" stay clear. A solid 5 of 5 points.

I've lived in one of the rougher areas of Glasgow all my life and grew up with such comedies as Rab C Nesbit and Naked Video, and i can honestly say that Chewin' the Fat is a near perfect representation of real life in this part of the dear green city! The characters portrayed in the show are people i see in every day life - there's a Jack and Victor on most Glaswegian buses at any given point in the day! And an earlier comment made about the school teacher and her pupils being disrespectful, well thats exactly what happened when i was at school and i have it on good authority from my younger brother that the case is still the same today. If you don't 'get it' then fair enough but no show on TV has annoyed me enough to make me feel like logging on here and going off on a multi-page rant about it. Basically if you don't like it - then its probably not been aimed at you in the first place, so get over it.

Before "Still Game", there was "Chewin' The Fat", a hilarious sketch show which amongst its umpteen characters indeed introduced the long-running Jack and Victor to the viewer. For my money though, they're not even in the top 10 of the numerous comedy creations that Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill foist on us here.

I suppose it is fair to say that all non-Scots should abandon hope and not enter here, not only as they're unlikely to understand the plain-talking broad Scottish accents on show, never mind share much sense of identity with the characters displayed. There's no doubt though that for me and most of my fellow countrymen and women, it was a riotous, must-watch show, employing catch-phrases which are still recalled today like "Gonnae no dae that", "Good guy / w*#k", "I'm on the night shift", "M'oan the fishes", "Taxi for Saracen Street", "Ya couple of f*nnies", "Individual fruit trifle" "I smell sh*te" and loads more.

I grew up in Dennistoun, a district of Glasgow, like Ford Kiernan, almost at the same time as him in fact so I particularly get the Glasgow strain to much of the humour. Of course there were occasional misses, for example the too-crude lifeboat sketches, but as for the rest, they're laugh-out-loud funny and as humorous to watch today as when first aired.

Just from memory, my favourite characters would comprise "The Big Man", inept actor Ronald De Villiers, Rab McGlinchey interpreting for the Neds, the work-shy painter and decorators, Big Jock, the golf club bore and the forever-fleeing party-girl doing the walk of shame. Favourite sketches, well how about the Tayside "Star Trek" ("Phasers to Malky!"), "Do you come for the bounce?" and the substitute court-room sketch artist amongst many others.

Kiernan and Hemphill take most of the parts in various guises, ably supported by Karen Dunbar and it's all great knockabout stuff. There are so many really funny characters and situations here that could maybe have been developed further that I think it's something of a shame that the F and G pair locked onto the Jack and Victor characters ever since at the exclusion of some of the gems here.

I've read reviews to say it's not for non-Scots due to the culture etc. I'm Welsh and I've loved every minute, so much more than the 'valley' culture that infests our shows. I'm a city boy so I cannot identify with the Welsh sitcoms/sketch shows (fact I don't speak Welsh is a factor too)

Roland Villiers, The lighthouse men, the crazy shop lady, the camp banter boys - it's brilliant.

Some say to avoid this and watch Little Britain instead. For me that ran out after 2 series but they kept going and was much more crude - only Tom Baker's linking bits were worth it.

Half way through this (finished S2), two more to go and it's great to see the origin of Jack and Victor from Still Game - plus regular guest roles from Paul and Mark who played Winston and Tam.

Like so may other sketch shows before it this one is spotty. When its good then it is very good and I wiped many a tear away watching it. But I also just sat there a lot waiting for something funny and often even thru an entire show there was nothing. Compared to other sketch shows like Saturday Night Live and Python and Dave Chappelle it has about the same hit-miss ratio but only occasionally does it do anything new whereas the aforementioned have all broken their own particular patches of fresh ground. I like the way they kept the thick Scottish accents tho'. I think that made the jokes all the more rewarding when I could understand them. Definitely not for everybody, but I did manage to find a bunch of downloads out there about 18 months back.

I love the fact that there's so many comedy critics bemoaning the fact that Scottish comedy is "outdated" and scandalously unfunny. Hmmm, interesting that they're all from places that has produced far worse (After all, England has the dire 'All about me' and 'My Hero' amongst other hideous offerings, whilst the good old USA has given us such tripe as 'Will and Grace'.)

As far as Chewin' the Fat goes, its decent, solid comedy that more often or not hits the spot straight on. OK, it may not pack the mirth ratio of the Fast Show, but when it stumbles it doesn't do so as pathetically ("Hi! I'm Ed Winchester." anybody?). I think the problem is that, unless you've actually spent any time in Scotland and realised that's exactly what its like, you just won't get it. You're not clued into the language, slang or the general ambiance of the country, so you've got nothing to base the series on and just slag it for being what you perceive to be "unfunny". I hate to tell you, but theres more than a million Scots that would probably disagree and hail both Chewin the Fat and Still Game as the best comedy shows to come out of the country since Naked Video. And why? Because believe it or not, both are actually very, very funny if you know what you're meant to be laughing at. (perhaps its a little unfair, but the Scots don't tend to make it very easy for outsiders to get in on the joke. Maybe its all those years of wearing woad on their faces and yelling "Freedom!", eh?)

Rab C Nesbitt was similarly criticised when it made the trasition to mainsteam UK screens - primarily because southernised Englanders couldn't understand the Glaswegian dialect and missed the humour. And to suggest that Scotland hasn't had any decent comedians to come out of it....Billy Connolly anyone? Ronnie Corbett? Phil Kay, Fred McCauley or Rhona Cameron? This little country isn't quite as stagnant as you think - you just need to open your eyes a little and try to understand the humour a little better.

OK the series that was broadcast nationally was by far their worst, I gave up watchin it but the rest of it was brilliant. It represents stereotypes of the scots, ie the ponces from edinburgh (oh! the banter), the weegies. there were other great characters such as the 2 old men, jack and victor [featured in the spin off still game]. the kind of characters u see around Scotland. before u slag off a show u shld get a good idea of what ur slagging. u cant just brand all Scottish comedy rubbish... I'm too young for Rab C Nesbitt but i do know that chewing the fat was a great show and its spin off, Still Game is the best Scottish comedy ever

Personally, I think that part of the genius of Chewin' the Fat is that it doesn't need to be prestigious or live up to any kind of predecessor to be quality entertainment.

There're countless jokes in the show which can simply be described as plainly silly, but its this naïvety and disregard for intellect makes these sketches hysterical on even the most primitive of levels.

Chewin' the Fat is more orientated (and, indeed, is prone to subjectiveness) around the Glasgow way of life as opposed to that of Scotland in general; hence it's likely to appeal to an even more limited audience than anticipated.

It's unjust to write of this show as a failure to amuse due to its skin-deep lack of precision, but this programme has mair baws than is widely concievable because the creators were aware that it didn't need to live up to any bygone acts.

Top-notch; just don't watch it too many times :)

Chewin the fat is brilliant!! An so is still game!! A can imagine it must b hard for ppl tht r no from scotland to understand the accent! A cannie wait for them both 2 come bak on! Coz they r so funny! Did ne one c the episode were the ned's dog jump over the edge of the flat?

The BBC must have been drunk when they approved this show. 20 years ago people might of found it funny and I suppose some 8 year olds today probably do. These guys should stick to Christmas panto. The "humour is seriously dated. Long sketches that end with the weakest punchlines since sooty threw a cream pie at sweep are given ridiculous canned laughter. I was initially looking forward to this programme as I had heard it compared to the great Scottish sketch show "naked video". a comment I find insulting to the naked video team.

i found this shire comedy quaint and back from the good IL' days of earlier times--- I don't know why they picked such awful material--- I find that the Scottish people have a great sense of humor but the unfairly represents this. There was a bit too much repetition of characters and jokes--- the skits got a little too 'hammy' and reminded me of things that children do to make you laugh as opposed to a frightful wretch in your gut because you can't breath and you are laughing too hard--- i didn't not find this--- it was more of a bizarre cultural product and not so much a comedy. ---Meanwhile 'Little Britian'--- I'm not sure what these sketch comedies have in common--- they can both be a bit borderline 'shireish' and lose touch of the greatness of all cultures--- but that't the UK for you.

Scottish sketch comedy has never made it to the worldwide market. However, we have had many talented comedians such as Billy Connolly, Rikki Fulton, Francie and Josie and The Krankies. Nowadays the only Scottish comedy series left is "Chewin the Fat" which consists of a series of vulgar gags primarily based on modern Glasweigan slum culture.

Unfortunately, instead of laughing at the eccentricities of the'neds' and 'slags' who inhabit the graffiti-decorated tenements of Castlemilk and Easterhouse, the producers have decided to join the neds and to laugh with them. After all, its just 'good banter' isn't it?

I have noticed that the show has covered almost every possible kind of underclass vulgarity and criminal behaviour. It is reverse snobbery. If someone says a 'posh' word, then they are laughed at - this is part of the 'Chewin the Fat' routine.

The upper class stereotypes from Edinburgh are supposedly 'amusing' because they take interest in the 'Glasgow banter' - which consists of incomprehensible and vulgar dialogue, crime and deviance, and unmannerly and undignified eccentric behaviour. And the countrymen, who just because they endorse Scotlands cultural heritage(or what is left of it)they are the subject to pranks from juvenile delinquents. Finally, an 'old-fashioned' teacher (because she has a rural accent, and is fairly strict - something that is unusual nowadays) is mocked and overpowered by her class of irresponsible and disrespectful children. Why should we find the detritus who spoil much of our country funny? Is this comedy? For what reason is this the most popular comedy series in Scotland? Perhaps because it is the only comedy series.

In sum, Chewin the Fat is a Glasweigan self-indulgent, crude and unintelligent disaster of a television programme. If you happen to be from Glasgow, and be a member of the underclass, you may indeed enjoy this series, because it is made by filthy minds, to cater for filthy minds all over Scotland. Scotland must grow up mentally, our culture is dwindling down the toilet pan. May intelligence be our saviour.