Forging Steel – Influences Part 1

This is the first in a series of occasional posts that will highlight the influences of my life.  Today’s episode: YES!  It’s

I truly hope all of you youngsters have been able to, at some point in your lives, watch a sketch or an episode of The Benny Hill Show.  It originally aired in the UK, but was shown here in the US in a variety of places.  I remember the first time I saw it was on PBS.  For me, it was as groundbreaking and awesome as today’s Sherlock must be to a lot of people.

Benny’s show combined various elements into a delicious stew that left you wanting for more after each episode: double entendres, sexual innuendo, clever song lyrics, misdirection, dirty limericks, and, of course, sexy sexy ladies in revealing outfits.

My words are not good enough to describe how great this show was.  So, let me show you some of my favorite clips/bits.  In this first one, Benny plays a recurring character, the lusty bumbling news anchor:

Oh, the outfits:

The Lady Godiva sketch:

The Swedish sketch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnkPhK7tmhw

The metaphors are perfect.

Occasionally, you caught a glimpse of actual boobies! (1:15 mark)

Finally, the ending credits that predicted Ben Roethlisberger and the song that everyone knows by heart and associates with Benny:

You can see Benny’s influence everywhere with Top Gear and Flight of the Conchords just a couple of examples. If you want to spend a few hours down the rabbithole with me, here is a good place to start:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrCc8UUF-DY

Thank you, Benny Hill, wherever you are.  You truly shaped Lil’ Balls of Steel into the perverted dirty-minded occasionally-funny BoS here today!