Review of How To Irritate People

Introduction

How To Irritate People? Sounds a promising DVD title...

John Cleese narrates and stars in a series of sketches with fellow cohorts (namely Michael Palin and Connie Booth), all informing you of one thing: how to irritate people. The sketches range from annoying car salesman to aggravating parents. But the question remains: does the material irritate you, or tickle the same funny bone that other Cleese outings such as Fawlty Towers and Clockwise did?

Video

It is presented in 4:3 Fullscreen, and it is evident that the print is over 30 years old (34 to be exact). The palette is used to a fairly good extent, and there are no compression signs, but the print is not always crisp nor clear.

There are various different scenarios used, depicting different situations, with many different characters, and of course, Cleese performs in nearly every single sketch.

Audio

A DD Mono track is on offer, and due to firstly the age of the feature and secondly the type of feature, a 5.1 track is not a necessity, although the least they could have managed was a 2.0 track. The sound quality is OK, although the ambience stream isn`t too good.

The sketch scripts are OK, although they do get tedious, mainly because the material is stretched out until its at bursting-point. Instead of taking a subtle approach to the comedy, How To Irritate People does just that - irritate you after the same type of joke has just been made for the fifth time...

Features

The only extra is an interview with Sir David Frost, filmed in 2002. It has a laughable running time of just under 4 minutes, and focuses (briefly) on how Cleese was recruited, as Frost explains how he discovered Cleese when he was his senior at Cambridge University.

The menus are animated visually and with music in the background, and they offer the usual setup, such as being able to choose which sketch you want to view.

Conclusion

This is a disappointment to be honest. Instead of a typical Cleese comedy, it is a typical Cleese comedy that has been stretched to its limit. If this was just a couple of `irritance` sketches entwined into a montage of different comedy, then yes, it could be amusing. But with a running time of 65 minutes, and a similar line of jokes throughout, you`ll be constantly looking at your watch.

Disc wise, it is poor - an average, typical TV-DVD transfer combined with fairly poor audio and lacklustre extras (they offer no real insight): not the kind of disc to show off the potential of DVD.

Overall, people may consider this for an overnight rental, but to be honest there is nothing that appeals after the first 10 minutes - because yes, it will irritate you. All the way to the Eject button...