Grown Up Comedy

I missed the news of Larry Gelbart's passing.

M*A*S*H was the first sort of adult - in a good way - humour that I remember getting. My Dad was a fan, and even when I was young (I'm talking about the mid 70's!) I knew it was kind of different from the other comedy shows we were seeing on the telly.

Thinking back on it, I had a notion it was maybe the quality of the dialogue, or simply the acting, but a quick internet trawl of what we were watching in the UK in 1975 brings up Fawlty Towers and The Good Life, and there wasn't much wrong with the scripts or the performances in those two.

I suppose all that blood, gore and transvestism must have given Mr Gelbart's stuff a memorable edge.