Think there is such a thing as "false memory" where you swear you saw something in a programme and there's nothing to say that what you remember actually happened at all. Snake Charmer is probably the key example of this, plus what happens and appears during recording and what goes out on the telly one day are two entirely different things.
The Catchphrase "Snake Charmer" clip was an edited, presumably "less offensive" version, maybe from an early evening outtake show (ludicrous that it ever needed to be "censored" in the first place!).
It was the version seen in the episode itself. They altered the animation before it was broadcast.
It's the version Challenge shows, but I didn't think it was edited on the original broadcast.
There was one of these a few years back that digitally edited the Turkey clip to falsely show the contestant giving the answer for more questions ("Name a famous snooker player" "TURKEY!") which struck me as a bit misleading and unfair.
The Catchphrase "Snake Charmer" clip was an edited, presumably "less offensive" version, maybe from an early evening outtake show (ludicrous that it ever needed to be "censored" in the first place!).
It was the version seen in the episode itself. They altered the animation before it was broadcast.
It's the version Challenge shows, but I don't think it wad edited on the original broadcast.
Challenge tried to recreate the unedited one for a promo years ago, which wasn't terribly convincing!
Think there is such a thing as "false memory" where you swear you saw something in a programme and there's nothing to say that what you remember actually happened at all. Snake Charmer is probably the key example of this, plus what happens and appears during recording and what goes out on the telly one day are two entirely different things.
I think the thing that really cements this is that the clip that's most circulated online comes from the Alright On The Night Cockup Trip from 1996, which was a long unedited clip and it included the catchphrases between the bonus rounds- stripped of the surrounding Dennis Norden introductions and it can give the impression it's an extract from the episode itself (the additional audience laughter is the main clue it didn't). I think that's the main reason people think the "naughty" version went out in the aired version and Challenge have edited it, even though it isn't the case.
There was one of these a few years back that digitally edited the Turkey clip to falsely show the contestant giving the answer for more questions ("Name a famous snooker player" "TURKEY!") which struck me as a bit misleading and unfair.
On this particular compilation, none of the talking heads seem to have figured out
why
he might have said "turkey" for the answers until "A food often stuffed" - they come up with really bizarre theories!
There was one of these a few years back that digitally edited the Turkey clip to falsely show the contestant giving the answer for more questions ("Name a famous snooker player" "TURKEY!") which struck me as a bit misleading and unfair.
Think there is such a thing as "false memory" where you swear you saw something in a programme and there's nothing to say that what you remember actually happened at all. Snake Charmer is probably the key example of this, plus what happens and appears during recording and what goes out on the telly one day are two entirely different things.
I think the thing that really cements this is that the clip that's most circulated online comes from the Alright On The Night Cockup Trip from 1996, which was a long unedited clip and it included the catchphrases between the bonus rounds- stripped of the surrounding Dennis Norden introductions and it can give the impression it's an extract from the episode itself (the additional audience laughter is the main clue it didn't). I think that's the main reason people think the "naughty" version went out in the aired version and Challenge have edited it, even though it isn't the case.
Or, as I thought, Challenge received an edited version. But it makes sense that it was edited before the first broadcast. Having the catchphrase re-animated would have been easier then than later (as the arm doesn't move in the edited version), after which it would be trivial overlaying it on the episode.
It's not, as one YouTube commenter claimed, something that could have only been done in Hollywood at the time.
The two versions AFAIK differ by the appearance of Mr. Chips' fist in the centre square. The nicer version censors this, but pretty much detracts from what makes it so funny in the first place.
I remember first seeing it on Alright On the Night and being too young to understand *why* people were laughing, but finding it funny anyway as I thought the joke was it was all just nonsensical images and a catchphrase impossible to solve. Especially when the random snake head appeared.
Until someone can find a recording of the original ITV broadcast of the episode, I'm going to stick by my guns that only the edited version was ever briadcast, and the "naughty" version has only been seen on clip shows.
