Chubbie Chumps
24 February 1975
A bit of an odd duck, this one. On the one hand, the lads seem to be striking out, removing the implied ‘will do’ from ‘Anything, Anytime’ and embracing in its place a more chaotic scenario. The issue of the day—the insidious influence of radio DJs—happens to them, within their everyday lives, and they have little agency in shaping the course of the episode. On the other hand, while Chubby Chumps is clearly experimental, pushing the bounds of formula, it is also littered with throwbacks[1], and skits dug up from the Super Chaps’ time on I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again. The result is an untethered and somewhat unsatisfying mess, too reliant on pop-culture references and in-jokes.
That said, the Goodies by this stage had built up such a history and reserve of humour that they could get away with a lot just on character alone; and even if the viewer missed all the references, the episode is still rampant with gags and guffaws!
Also hiding away, lost amongst the fat-suits and Benny Hill housewives, the DJ impersonations and reliably funky music, is a sneaky jibe at male-viewpoint double standards. In the Goodies’ three-bachelor household, it was mostly Tim who was cast as homemaker (though Bill occasionally took the role, as in Farm Fresh Food). In this instance, Graeme and Bill return to the office and are incensed at Tim’s manifest laziness in neglecting the cleaning and instead lying about in bed, eating himself into a state of obesity.
“Look at him! Look at him!” Graeme accuses. “The lazy lump!”
“Wake up, you lazy lump,” Bill echoes. “Oi! This place is like a pigsty!”
But of course they themselves have been off fishing for the weekend, leaving all the work to Tim! That they have objectified him as a domestic drudge is clear, not only from the exquisite, pique-masquerading-as-regret contemplation of his picture:
…but also from their complete obliviousness to his transformation into Timbelina Tottywallop. When Tim returns from the health & beauty farm, they recognise him only in his capacity of missing purveyor of housework:
—woman, is how the sentence ends, and nicely encapsulates the doublethink the episode seems to be driving at. In a man’s estimation, women are both necessary and useless: the former because they’re the ones who do housework; the latter because they never actually get round to it, because they’re too busy primping (which itself is all about their vanity, and nothing to do with male expectations!).
There’s a real ‘issue-episode’ point to be made here, but at best it remains hinted-at, glossed over while the lads are busy being funny. We’re given a classic Graeme pratfall as he tries the door of a cobweb-strewn BBC Radio building, slick camerawork as a horde of hungry housewives devour a policeman (and his car!), some glorious throwaway punning (the ‘big’ parade; “Mrs Liverpool—lord have Mersey!”), and one of the all-time-great visual gags when Bill is flattened by a rolling housewife:
Musical sequences include a reprise of the ‘Square Dance’ (from The Music Lovers and elsewhere, most recently The Movies) and two rounds of ‘Lay Weight on Me’, one of Bill’s groovy, soul-funk classics.
All told, an episode that provides some big, memorable moments without ever amounting (or even really aspiring) to greatness.
Jacob Edwards, 24 February 2025
Tweets:
[1] The cat, for example, is named Twinkle. Michael Aspel/Aspirin makes another appearance (cf. ‘The Baddies’). Bill performs as ‘Lionel Bleugh’ (cf. ‘Come Dancing’). Nostalgia even takes us on A Walk in the Black Forest, as if ‘Terry’ is broadcasting his anti-flab campaign from a pirate radio station!
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