Television series
The Goodies
Three overgrown boy scouts running an odd-jobs agency who'll tackle anything from saving the world to selling ice cream, armed only with absurd sight gags, terrible puns, and a tandem bicycle built for three. It's gentle chaos — cheerfully daft, visually inventive, unmistakably 1970s British telly. Best for anyone who wants comedy that's silly rather than smart, and doesn't mind special effects held together with string and enthusiasm.
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Monty Python's Flying Circus1969
The Goodies' exact contemporary and closest cousin — same era of BBC absurdism, same willingness to abandon a sketch mid-joke for something stranger entirely. If you like the tone, this is where it all started.
But More cerebral and less plot-driven; some sketches are pure non-sequitur with no punchline at all.
The Young Ones1982
Takes the same anarchic energy and injects it with punk aggression and student squalor. Faster, ruder, and gleefully destructive — like watching The Goodies after several strong lagers.
But Loud, chaotic, and deliberately abrasive; the gentleness that made the Goodies charming is nowhere to be found.
Bottom1991
Pure slapstick violence between two hopeless flatmates, with the same commitment to physical comedy the Goodies built entire episodes around. Simple, stupid, and beautifully well-executed.
But Almost wall-to-wall violence and crudeness — no real plots, just escalating pain.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Jackass2000
The Goodies famously did their own dangerous physical stunts — kayaking down stairs, being chased by a giant kitten — for real laughs, not just jokes. Jackass takes that same 'we'll actually do it' spirit and strips away the narrative scaffolding, leaving pure trashy, unscripted commitment to a bit.
Strip away every joke and script and what's left is the Goodies' actual engine: people doing dangerous, undignified physical stunts purely because it's funny to watch. This is that instinct with the safety rails removed.
But There's no plot, no characters, no warmth — just real risk and real pain played for laughs, which some viewers find genuinely unpleasant.
More like this (7)
Blackadder1983
Swaps sketch chaos for a proper story and sharper writing, but keeps the same absurdist British silliness and love of a good pun, filtered through history's worst courtiers.
But More dialogue-driven and less visually inventive — if you loved the stunts and props, this is a quieter pleasure.
The Mighty Boosh2004
A modern heir to the Goodies' love of costumes, cheap effects, and total tonal freedom, wrapped in psychedelic music-hall weirdness.
But Its surrealism is stranger and more knowing — less family-friendly daftness, more art-school in-joke.
Red Dwarf1988
Same fondness for daft gadgets, cheerful cheapness, and characters bickering their way through ridiculous scrapes, just relocated to a spaceship three million years from home.
But Sci-fi trappings and a slower comic rhythm might not suit anyone after pure sketch-pace silliness.
The Muppet Show1976
Different puppets, same spirit — variety-show anarchy, terrible puns, and total commitment to a joke regardless of dignity. Family-friendly chaos done brilliantly.
But American in flavour and less interested in Britain's specific brand of self-deprecating silliness.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975
A tighter, funnier cousin to compare against — proof that the same loose sketch DNA can be shaped into one very silly, very quotable feature film.
But You've probably already seen it, and it's a single film rather than a series to sink into.
The General1926
The Goodies' trandem chases and elaborate physical set-pieces are direct descendants of silent-era slapstick, where the joke was the stunt itself. Keaton did it first, without stuntmen, and arguably did it better.
Buster Keaton running, climbing, and nearly dying on top of a moving train, entirely for your amusement, decades before health and safety existed. Watching it explains exactly where the Goodies' chase-sequence instincts came from.
But Silent and black-and-white, with no dialogue jokes at all — you have to be in the mood for comedy told purely through movement and timing.
Danger Mouse1981
Both shows share the same British sitcom instinct: absurd heroes taking on ridiculous jobs with cheerfully low-budget effects, treated with total straight-faced seriousness. Danger Mouse just moved that engine into animation and Saturday-morning kids' telly.
Same cheerfully cheap heroics and anything-goes plotting, but drawn instead of filmed, and aimed squarely at children who'll grow up loving the same daftness. A one-eyed mouse saving the world with a hamster sidekick is pure Goodies logic.
But It's a children's cartoon at heart, gentler and shorter than the Goodies' half-hour chaos, with none of the adult undertones.
People
Cast
Recommended by
Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Mighty Boosh, Ripping Yarns, Rentaghost, The Young Ones