Leslie Nielsen Syndrome

[davidn]

Whitney's been watching a load of Murder, She Wrote this weekend, and there was an episode where the captain of an ocean liner was played by Leslie Nielsen. After Airplane and Naked Gun it's totally impossible to watch him do anything seriously now, because you keep expecting something to happen like him saluting with a kettle in his hand and smacking himself in the face, or to knock over a load of background objects in a Tom and Jerry chain reaction. It helps that he acted just as straight-faced in his comedy films as he did in the straight ones.

Dead Ringers (not the film) also did this to me with Charlotte Green, who I could no longer listen to reading the news because I was always waiting for the joke. And it unexpectedly did it with Crimewatch as well, which is unfortunate given that it's actually serious, often disturbing and doesn't regularly include coverage of the multiple song-homicide of the Sing Something Simple Singers.

Comments

[kibet.livejournal.com]

Harry Hill has done the same for me with headlines. Now, whenever I read out the headlines from a news site, I read it like Harry Hill and get disappointed when it is not that funny. I never got into dead ringers, i think it is the whole "Hi, I'm [say name they are impersonating] and I...". The same reason why I also don't like that other impersonator (the one that got popular a while ago on the BBC).

I also heard Harry Enfield's impression of Tony Blair, before I heard Tony Blair speak. So the first time I heard Tony Blair, I though "ooh Harry Enfield is on!!!"

[davidn]

So it was you - I knew that somebody on my friends list had said that before in an entry somewhere, and it hadn't bothered me before then but after you'd said that I could never un-notice it! I'm sure they always used to do it less... clumsily in the radio version, but now I can't remember.

That's fantastic about Harry Enfield/Tony Blair... possibly the ultimate example of this phenomenon :)

[kibet.livejournal.com]

Alastair McGowen was who i was thinking of that was an irritating impressionist. He is like a male Catherine Tate!