> > The first one, which made me think "Wow, I bet nobody in the USA even realised that was a joke!", was a scene in the Wallace & Gromit movie "A Close Shave". I saw it on video a few nights ago, for the second time. Watching the hysterical Thunderbirds satire sequence when Wallace goes through all the contraptions to get onto his motorbike, the garden pond flipping over, and all that, I suddenly recalled having to tell people on this forum about Thunderbirds because NONE OF YOU AMERICANS HAVE SEEN IT!!! Oh, the tragedy! And that was one of the funniest parts of the movie, too.
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> Thunderbirds? The old B&W marionette thing? Or are you talking about something else?
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> Wormwood

That's exactly what I'm talking about, although it was in colour. In particular, that scene referred to the gloriously insane and overdone way they used to get into the rockets via a mind-boggling sequence of ridiculous mechanical contraptions, instead of merely walking in and sitting down. :-)

The garden pond in "A Close Shave" will also be instantly familiar to anyone who's seen Thunderbirds, but I can't really describe why all this is so funny. If you haven't seen the show, or any of the other series from the same studio, nothing I can say will ever give the full impression of its magnificent silliness.

Brunnen-"This is the voice of the Mysterons"G