Steven Frye and Hugh Laurie have been a favorite comedy team at our house since the Jeeves and Wooster series first aired on Masterpiece Theater in the 1990s. Our kids grew up watching the dramatizations of P.G. Wodehouse’s comic novels about life in upper class English society between the two wars. In each episode, savvy butler Jeeves, impeccably brought to life by Steven Frye, extricates Hugh Laurie’s character, the empty-headed yet thoroughly likable Bertie Wooster, from whatever predicament he’d gotten himself into.
The two actors were a matched pair, playing off one another with the kind of timing born from years of performing together. But I didn’t know they’d been a comedy team before their Jeeves and Wooster days until my son told me about them. “You should watch them, Mom. They’re hilarious.”
Taking his advice, I decided to check out A Bit of Frye and Laurie, Season 3 to watch with my daughter and her fiance over spring break. The three of us snickered and sniggered, giggled and guffawed for an entire evening, delighted by their humor which is as funny today as when the show aired in the 1980s.
Between Laurie’s rubber face and Frye’s quiet understatement, the men are a delight to watch. They do mostly solo man (or woman) on the street bits and two-man sketches, bringing in bit players when necessary. They alter their looks with wigs, glasses and costumes with skill reminiscent of The Carol Burnett Show. The duo takes advantage of Laurie’s musical ability, working a piano or guitar into at least one sketch in each episode.
The sexual content in their humor increases with each season of the show, so be forewarned and have the remote handy to skip ahead to the comedy gems. Just be sure to relieve yourself before you start watching. It’s embarrassing to laugh so hard you wet your pants. When these two perform at their best, it just might happen!
