What’s fascinating here is that we’ve all just learned that the phrase “this conversation is over” is, itself, ambiguous.  Some people took it as a statement of fact, and some people heard it as a snippy “this conversation is OVER!”

That usage of literally, and complaints about it, are literally over a century old. There’s plenty to dislike about it, but “it’s the newest sign of the language apocalypse” is not one of them.

“I’m looking forward to this Scottish restaurant...Macdonald’s?”

People love to shit on Friends, but the scene where Monica and Selleck are dancing, they start to talk about children, he says “I’ve had my children”, and five seconds later they realize they’ve just broken up...well, I remember it.

I think I fond this link a couple of weeks ago somewhere here on AV Clib, but here it is again:

<i>Okay, that monitor with the glass viewer was a “Brazil” reference.</i>

Also, only John could “plausibly” have British money for the bus.

As a big fan of Sky High, all the stuff about being a sidekick and how it’s an honorable status seemed pretty familiar.

Agreed, and I also think the act breaks are weak because the whole thing was made for a commercial-free outlet and shipped over to the CW.  I bet as conceived there isn’t even a break between parts.

Ha! I’m covered with a “fell into the hands of” because I thought it scanned better!

Homer/Castellenata’s “stage whisper” is always welcome.

I hadn’t seen that, it’s great.  Another application of this principle is the amount of Monty Python that’s more specific parodies of things than many Americans realize, especially 50 years later (OH HOLY SHIT 50 YEARS).

An American version of Malcolm Tucker would be most of the people on Veep, which, as it was created and originally written by the same person as Tucker, somehow both supports and contradicts your point, which is itself impressive.  (Also of course it played on HBO, not broadcast.)

Unless you’re Canadian (and you might be!) be careful about judging any country’s TV by what gets imported here. As I’m seeing from the plethora of 3rd-tier streaming services desperate for content from any English-speaking country, Canada, Australia and New Zealand do churn out plenty of derivative crud.

Vikander’s character is, notionally, “The Girl From UNCLE” even though that was a completely different character on TV.  (And I completely forgot that there was an entire spinoff, until that closing Hugh Grant sequence and I realized, oh, that’s what they’re doing.)

Also, one brief shot reminded us that “Delta Chi Sigma”, spelled out in Greek letters, looks like the English word “AXE”.  I don’t know if that even rises to the level of “joke” but it did seem notable.

I’m not usually the “fix that typo guy”, but her name is not “Robing Sparkles”.

Roll call you say?

“Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole...”

With a long scarf to respect social distancing, of course.