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‘Father Ted’ poked fun at Catholic Ireland; a faithful audience appreciated it

38 points by mellosouls 5y ago

kamaitachi 5y ago
I grew up looking at this - brilliantly funny. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0
- Cybotron5000 5y ago
  ‘…where are you going, with your fetlocks blowing…’ :) https://youtu.be/Nxf6ECuRcWM https://youtu.be/Nxf6ECuRcWM
tluyben2 5y ago
Excellent tv show. They still do Ted-fest on Craggy island where people come together (Covid probably made it skip 2 years now) to celebrate it.
- Normille 5y ago
  >They still do Ted-fest on Craggy island... Craggy Island is fictional. Ted-Fest[0] takes place on Inis Mór [1], the largest of the Aran Islands. Which is also where the shipwreck featured in the Father Ted title sequence is to be found. [0] http://tedfest.org/ http://tedfest.org/ [1] https://www.aranislands.ie/ https://www.aranislands.ie/
  - ploika 5y ago
    The wreck is actually on Inis Oírr, the smallest island. Over the past few years it's kind of collapsed in on itself. It's not much more than a vaguely boat-shaped pile of rust these days.
    - Normille 5y ago
      My correction stands corrected
Macha 5y ago
Father Ted is as mentioned by the article (and the Irish Catholic source it links), something that really could only have been made when it was, in the middle of collapse of the Catholic church as an influential establishment in Ireland. 15 years earlier it would have been criticised for making light of church authority and condemned for it. 15 years later, and we'd be right in the midst of revelations about priests abusing kids and the church covering it up and nuns running industrial schools that neglected children to the point of death. The author recognises this in a tweet that's quoted but no longer available as his Twitter was banned due to a crusade of trans harrassment.
jwdunne 5y ago
It’s funny, it was just the other day I was trying to convince my other half to watch Father Ted. She thought it’d be like that dreadful Mrs Browns Boys. Ahhh I loved this show. Sadly they chose not to make more because the guy who played Father Ted tragically died of a heart attack after the first series. Father Jack makes me piss. I love the episode where they’re trying to teach him how to say phrases like “that would be an ecumenical matter” instead of his usual “Drink, arse, feck, girls”, ready for a visit by a group of Bishops. They ultimately succeed and one bishop is very interested in what Jack has to say after he successfully responds with “that would be an ecumenical matter”. Or, in response to “what you say to a cup (of tea)?”, he shouts “feck off cup!” Hilarious. I’m not Irish but I was brought up Catholic so maybe that’s what makes it so funny.
- paulmac_ie 5y ago
  Dermot Morgan died just after making the third series. Before Ted, he was best known for Scrap Saturday, a radio show that parodied and mocked the Irish politicians of the day. Scrap Saturday was arguably a watershed in Irish culture. It was broadcast on the national broadcaster (RTE) that even today is criticised for being too close to the government. By making fun of powerful figures, it opened peoples eyes to how ridiculous and corrupt Irish politics could be. Ironically, Fr. Ted was commissioned and broadcast on Channel 4 on UK TV. At the time, the talk was about how RTE refused to commission the series because they didn't want to mock the Church, although this has been refuted by the writers. Over the course of two series, Dermot Morgan mocked both the political and religious establishment and brought both closer to the common person. Whether this reflected the changes that were happening in modern Ireland, or lead the way can be debated. But we're certainly poorer for his loss.
  - jwdunne 5y ago
    Oh wow. I’m not sure where I got first series from. I must have binged in one continuous session! Thanks for the history on a show I remember fondly from my youth. I love that :)
    - paulmac_ie 5y ago
bennysomething 5y ago
It's not just a piss take of catholism , it's a piss take of Irish country life and a very affectionate one. I grew up in Belfast, spent a lot of time visiting relatives on farms in Donegal. That recurring cup of tea joke pretty much happened nearly every weekend to me as a child "do you want another cup a tea"..."no thanks"..."awk sure go on!" This was long before the show aired.
- randompwd 5y ago
  > it's a piss take of Irish country life and a very affectionate one. I grew up in Belfast, spent a lot of time visiting relatives on farms in Donegal. The cup of tea thing isn't a rural Irish phenomenon. It's a widespread thing that would happen in pretty much every house in every (at least ROI) Irish rural/village/town/city.
  - cameronh90 5y ago
    British too. I've probably drunk more tea out of politeness than I actually wanted.
conradfr 5y ago
> “Father Ted,” in some ways, is a warning against the “integralist” state, against the suffocating, politicized omnipresence of a religion that ultimately must rest on individual faith. Funny, as Graham Linehan is banned from Twitter because of intolerant trans activists (my opinion). Unrelated, one funny aspect of Father Ted is how the priests don't get any special treatment or respect from the island inhabitants.
- Macha 5y ago
  Linehan did not get banned for just generally opposing trans rights but for repeated harassment targeted at individuals (specifically instances of accusing trans people of grooming kids)

38 points by mellosouls 5y ago

I grew up looking at this - brilliantly funny. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0

Cybotron5000 5y ago
‘…where are you going, with your fetlocks blowing…’ :) https://youtu.be/Nxf6ECuRcWM https://youtu.be/Nxf6ECuRcWM

tluyben2 5y ago

Excellent tv show. They still do Ted-fest on Craggy island where people come together (Covid probably made it skip 2 years now) to celebrate it.

Normille 5y ago
>They still do Ted-fest on Craggy island... Craggy Island is fictional. Ted-Fest[0] takes place on Inis Mór [1], the largest of the Aran Islands. Which is also where the shipwreck featured in the Father Ted title sequence is to be found. [0] http://tedfest.org/ http://tedfest.org/ [1] https://www.aranislands.ie/ https://www.aranislands.ie/
- ploika 5y ago
  The wreck is actually on Inis Oírr, the smallest island. Over the past few years it's kind of collapsed in on itself. It's not much more than a vaguely boat-shaped pile of rust these days.
  - Normille 5y ago
    My correction stands corrected

Macha 5y ago

Father Ted is as mentioned by the article (and the Irish Catholic source it links), something that really could only have been made when it was, in the middle of collapse of the Catholic church as an influential establishment in Ireland. 15 years earlier it would have been criticised for making light of church authority and condemned for it. 15 years later, and we'd be right in the midst of revelations about priests abusing kids and the church covering it up and nuns running industrial schools that neglected children to the point of death. The author recognises this in a tweet that's quoted but no longer available as his Twitter was banned due to a crusade of trans harrassment.

jwdunne 5y ago

It’s funny, it was just the other day I was trying to convince my other half to watch Father Ted. She thought it’d be like that dreadful Mrs Browns Boys. Ahhh I loved this show. Sadly they chose not to make more because the guy who played Father Ted tragically died of a heart attack after the first series. Father Jack makes me piss. I love the episode where they’re trying to teach him how to say phrases like “that would be an ecumenical matter” instead of his usual “Drink, arse, feck, girls”, ready for a visit by a group of Bishops. They ultimately succeed and one bishop is very interested in what Jack has to say after he successfully responds with “that would be an ecumenical matter”. Or, in response to “what you say to a cup (of tea)?”, he shouts “feck off cup!” Hilarious. I’m not Irish but I was brought up Catholic so maybe that’s what makes it so funny.

paulmac_ie 5y ago
Dermot Morgan died just after making the third series. Before Ted, he was best known for Scrap Saturday, a radio show that parodied and mocked the Irish politicians of the day. Scrap Saturday was arguably a watershed in Irish culture. It was broadcast on the national broadcaster (RTE) that even today is criticised for being too close to the government. By making fun of powerful figures, it opened peoples eyes to how ridiculous and corrupt Irish politics could be. Ironically, Fr. Ted was commissioned and broadcast on Channel 4 on UK TV. At the time, the talk was about how RTE refused to commission the series because they didn't want to mock the Church, although this has been refuted by the writers. Over the course of two series, Dermot Morgan mocked both the political and religious establishment and brought both closer to the common person. Whether this reflected the changes that were happening in modern Ireland, or lead the way can be debated. But we're certainly poorer for his loss.
- jwdunne 5y ago
  Oh wow. I’m not sure where I got first series from. I must have binged in one continuous session! Thanks for the history on a show I remember fondly from my youth. I love that :)
  - paulmac_ie 5y ago

bennysomething 5y ago

It's not just a piss take of catholism , it's a piss take of Irish country life and a very affectionate one. I grew up in Belfast, spent a lot of time visiting relatives on farms in Donegal. That recurring cup of tea joke pretty much happened nearly every weekend to me as a child "do you want another cup a tea"..."no thanks"..."awk sure go on!" This was long before the show aired.

randompwd 5y ago
> it's a piss take of Irish country life and a very affectionate one. I grew up in Belfast, spent a lot of time visiting relatives on farms in Donegal. The cup of tea thing isn't a rural Irish phenomenon. It's a widespread thing that would happen in pretty much every house in every (at least ROI) Irish rural/village/town/city.
- cameronh90 5y ago
  British too. I've probably drunk more tea out of politeness than I actually wanted.

conradfr 5y ago

> “Father Ted,” in some ways, is a warning against the “integralist” state, against the suffocating, politicized omnipresence of a religion that ultimately must rest on individual faith. Funny, as Graham Linehan is banned from Twitter because of intolerant trans activists (my opinion). Unrelated, one funny aspect of Father Ted is how the priests don't get any special treatment or respect from the island inhabitants.

Macha 5y ago
Linehan did not get banned for just generally opposing trans rights but for repeated harassment targeted at individuals (specifically instances of accusing trans people of grooming kids)