Least fiery
Ronnie and Also Ronnie was a smash on UK screens for many years. There was a small Ronnie and a larger Ronnie. The larger Ronnie retired first, leaving the small Ronnie to perform one final festive special with Bruce Forsyth. Both Brucie and the small Ronnie appeared briefly in NEMS. You don’t need to go and find them. This is a debut for the larger Ronnie.
Awww. This is nice.
I assume from the yellow eyes that the heat pump is pumping the heat from the future, when the planet’s warmer.
Nemulaircon
… or maybe it’s pumping the heat from the past to the present, and that’s why it’s hotter than it used to be…
Claire would probably get into more trouble for having matches in the house than the condom she somehow acquired.
Condoms are kept next to all the faucets in the Little household, just in case anyone needs to improvise a water balloon to extinguish a small fire at distance.
Indeed. Claire’s pyromania really makes more sense now as her form of psychological rebellion from her family.
Why on Earth would she get in trouble for having a condom?! As a parent I would certainly hope my kids used protection!
Well then that just makes Donutbarn’s statement even more true, doesn’t it
You’d think condoms would be pretty trivial to enquire but Mafness’ “House of Fun” has convinced me that in England this isn’t so.
To the contrary, you can go down the road any time you want and walk into Harry’s and hold your head up high and say in a loud, steady voice, ‘Harry, I want you to sell me a condom. In fact, today, I think I’ll have a French Tickler, for I am a Protestant.’
Keep in mind that in some places, you need to prove it by showing your copy of the Book of Common Prayer or excoriating the Pope.
You should only excoriate the Pope if he has become claggy.
There are surprisingly few tik tok videos on how to do this, I think it’s becoming a lost art
“Claggy”, hm?
Thank you for introducing me to another wonderful word!
But always remember that every sperm is sacred.
They sell them in shops, you know
That may have been the last of the Solvers’ operating budget.
Keeping one’s matches in the refrigerator strikes me (sorry) as next-level fire prevention.
I’m imagining the matchbox is normally stored in the freezer, shielded between the hollowed-out halves of a big block of ice, maybe wrapped in in a fireproof blanket as well. Cant be too careful.
Won’t they get freezer burn?
The Two Ronnies’ “Fork Handles” and “Mastermind” are still absolutely top-of-class in sketch comedy
A while ago I broke the handle of a garden fork and I kind of regret not taking the opportunity to visit my local hardware shop and ask if they sold “‘andles for forks”
Many moons ago I needed a similar garden tool and went into a hardware store (on Valentines Day no less) and found the hoe I needed, declaring at the checkout that today was the perfect day to get myself a cheap hoe!
Only one of the two checkout staff laughed, the other was not impressed…
Hassocks.
I remember Ronnie and Also Ronnie best for their famous catchphrase “I wish you a good night” followed by the other one saying “And I also wish you a good night on his behalf.” And how they made the little one sit in a chair that was too large for him while he struggled to remember how stories went. It’s no wonder I was obsessed with Britlish comedy as a child.
I remember once small Ronnie was reading what he said was his government file. “Sits in a chair and tells long rambling stories. No one knows why.”
🎵 Come on Claire-y light his fire!
When Python broke over here in the 70s, they somehow held the door open for all kinds of British comedy to sneak onto American public TV, including the aforementioned multiples of Ronnie. WGBH in Boston, one of the PBS keystones, actually ran the Goodies in 1976, which means that the lost original version of Kitten Kong may actually be in someone’s forgotten Betamax collection in Massachusetts.
I have vague memories of watching The Goodies on PBS as a kid (WTVS in Detroit).
I recall an episode which involved a chasm in their sitting room and a potholing suit. Beyond that things are fuzzy.
The Ecky-Thump episode will live forever in my mind.
I will always remember Apart-Height
Wait, Kitten Kong has been lost? I might have it on Betamax (in Atlanta)
There were two versions of Kitten Kong; the one originally broadcast is thought lost. The extant version is an extended version created for the Rose d’Or (Montreux) television awards (a sort of Euro-Emmys).
There’s at least one poster on missing-episodes.com who says that the US syndication package used the Montreux remake, which I probably should’ve checked before I said something silly. Still, it never hurts to check.
I remember seeing the two on public television back then. The skit that always comes to mind is the one with the punch line “Well, she was on the roof chasing a squirrel.”
Didn’t remember the Ronnies, but Benny Hill, Marty Feldman, and pre-Croc Dundee Paul Hogan all made a deep and confusing impression on my teenage mind. (So did Carol Cleveland, but that’s another story for which the world is not yet prepared)
No idea how that’s possible, but Glenn seems both extremely happy and extremely sad at the same time. While Claire seems quite happy and extremely dangerous. Maybe it’s time to go at Mildred’s home and setting things on fire with her.
I think that’s just how his face do.
Glum has resting existential dread face.
That final panel would make a great T-shirt. Or just the “Claire” image on a “meet the cast” page.
I loved watching The Ronnies when I was in the UK back in the day. I especially loved te Ronnie in the Chair segments!
Ronnie and Also Ronnie were hugely popular on NZ TV in their time, so this traditional English Yuletide is similar to a ’70s NZ Yuletide but with fewer barbecues. We also had reruns of The Goodies, who seem to have faded from UK consciousness through lack of Python-levels exposure.
The first panel of the next page: Tackleford is ablaze.
It’s where we find out Glenn realizes his inner pyro, fully encouraged by Claire
I love the looks on Glenn and Claire’s faces in the last two panels. However I think sparklers are more of a New Year’s eve thing maybe? I’m not sure how it is for UK Commonwealth countries. On our side of the pond we only really use sparklers for the 4th of July.
Sparklers are most commonly seen on Bonfire Night in the UK. But the date that they’re most commonly used is irrelevant to Claire’s pyromania.
Yeah, I think the only explanation we need is “Claire”.
Typo in the third panel! It should to be spelt “four candles”.
He smiles!
The heat pump’s appearance explains the most esoteric Christmas Tree decoration from the title page… and it appears to be Fishman Industries branded!
We were stationed in England between 1978 and 1980 when I was in my early teens. I remember watching the Two Ronnies quite often.
I wasn’t aware that 1.5-and-a-half Ronnies was a Chrissmiss tradition in Britain. Well after the Queen’s (er, King’s) speech it looks like. Is it a Ronnies marathon or just one of a bunch of classic TV series?
It hasn’t been a tradition since 1987, but cosy repeats of light entertainment’s dusty jewels are a common sight on the festive schedules. Last year, for example, Channel 5 broadcast ‘Only Fools and Horses Greatest Christmas Moments’ on Christmas evening. (I checked an old schedule. My memory’s not that good.)
Pshaw! Kids of Today! When I was a sprog, Christmas meant compulsory Morecambe and Wise followed by the Great Escape.
Some traditions never truly die. Out of curiosity I dug out the Radio Times (Christmas Special 2025) again and can see that the Morecambe and Wise 1975 Christmas Special was broadcast on Christmas Day (BBC2, 8.10pm) and ‘The Great Escape’ was broadcast on Boxing Day (BBC2, 4.45pm).
next comic begins with the house ablaze, the family huddled under blankets outside and Clare, eyes fully dilated, staring blissfully into the flames. “so sparkly”
“My first winter Christmas”? Is Glenn from Australia? I somehow missed that…
New Zealand. It’s come up a lot.
Glenn is from New Zealand. (When he first introduced himself, Charlotte repeated his name back to him phonetically as ‘Glyn’ and that casual insult: (A) indicated that it was likely his accent was Kiwi and (B) began a whole mess of variations on a theme.)
You know, it never occurred to me that Lottie getting his name wrong could have resulted from a mishearing due to differing accents.
Time for the traditional Yule Barn Burning?
Time for a quick quick trip to visit the Gävle goat?
I’d heard of the Gävle giats and their usually Clairish fates, but now apparently Mother Nature has gotten in on it, as a couple of the recent goats were blown over in a storm, and… .”pecked to pieces by jackdaws”.
I like to imagine each new Gävle goat is the reincarnated soul of someone who did horrible (fire-related) things in their past life.
So….should I have been reading Glarb with a Kiwi accent this whole time? I mostly always forget that he’s from NZ. Oops! (Can we still call them Kiwis??) Love the accent but that’s a lot of work.
I don’t think any Kiwi (New Zealander) is upset at being called that. While we know that some countries call the fruit kiwis, here in Aotearoa we call them kiwifruit.
We do get pissed off at companies in other countries using Kiwi in their name tho’, like the Australian company S C Johnson (and son) using Kiwi as its brand for shoe polish and deodorant
‘Flightless bird appropriation’
That’s some pretty proprietary foot positioning Claire is using.
She has claimed her territory.
Checkov’s heat pump
I remember the Two Ronnies on PBS back in ancient times, and also Dave Allen. His entire show was him sitting in a tall, uncomfortable looking chair telling long, rambling stories, and holding a glass of whisky with a hand that was missing part of a finger. Sometimes the stories were ghost stories.
I am awe-struck at John’s ability to capture their faces so accurately, albeit in such an ultra-minimalistic style.