For every British teenager growing up in the early 00s – myself included – The Inbetweeners is essential viewing.
It’s an awkward, unrelatable portrayal of youth, in stark contrast to other mainstream shows of its era, like Skins or The OC.
Instead of a cute teenager who wears Louboutins and meets a gruesome death every other season, The Inbetweeners, which spanned three series and two movies between 2008 and 2014, is about a lot of Joes just trying to pull it off.
But the depiction of the agonies of teenage lust is not the only selling point of Channel 4 shows, no one can deny the other big pictures of other shows that are puerile and crass humor.
In my home town of Norwich, I couldn’t walk down the street between 2008 and 20010, when the sitcom originally aired, without someone shouting ‘bus w**nker’ or ‘clunge’.
And at the time it was funny.
But what’s funny now? In 2024 big? Absolutely not. And that’s why which is rumored A revival of The Inbetweeners would be a terrible idea.
So I had to stifle a pained grunt when Joe Thomas, who plays romantic teenager Simon Cooper, teased a comeback on the Always Be Comedy podcast.
My trepidation could not be underestimated when he confirmed talks ‘in various forms’ and the other main players – Simon Bird (Will), James Buckley (Jay) and Blake Harrison (Neil) – were all on the same page.
‘We all think we’ll be fine,’ said Joe.
Well, let me be the first to say that, no, Joe, it won’t be ‘good.’ In fact, there is a risk that it could be a huge disaster and ruin the memory of the show for all generations.
At 16, I was the target audience for The Inbetweeners when it debuted and I thought it was funny.
But now in my 30s, I wouldn’t find childish sexual humor remotely funny – I would find it offensive.
For starters, Emily Atack’s character Charlotte Hinchcliffe is the most popular girl in school because of her large breasts or ‘jug big’, as she’s better known. I hope there’s no need to explain why reducing women to the sum of their physical parts doesn’t fly right now.
Also, there is the ongoing ‘joke’ that Neil’s (Harrison) father Kevin (Alex Macqueen) is secretly gay. It’s considered ‘funny’ every time a character calls him a slur or makes a joke about Grindr. It’s mean and homophobic.
Even the humor that will not be canceled in 2024, is now at least sophisticated.
Just like when Joe’s character, Simon shows up at a fashion show at his school and his testicles come out of his outfit. Watch the clip again, it’s not funny and it’s definitely not smart.
And that’s a real problem. A troubled joke, Inbetweeners is a playbook of 00s humor and it’s not funny today.
The alternative – to make the jokes more reflective of society in the here and now – would just kill the heart and soul of the show. I just can’t imagine a world where Jay (Buckley) doesn’t freak out and instead make socially sensitive Gen Z-approved jokes.
And I’m not the only one.
Even Joe Thomas, when teasing a reboot, admitted he was afraid the reboot wouldn’t live up to the standards of the original series or two box-office smashing movies.
‘All the anxiety will be, “Will it be good?”. That’s what we’re going to do,” he said.
Apparently among the floated ideas about including Reunion in Las Vegas stag do or a five-sided game, but they do not feel fresh or original like the original series.
They’ve actually done it to death – I’m not sure who wants to see a low-budget British version of The Hangover.
Despite my reservations, I’m sure the revival of the Inbetweeners will be a blockbuster success even if the plot only amounts to four boys bumping into each other on the road in a nondescript commuter town and reflecting on the bad old days at Rudge Park Comprehensive under the tyrannical rule of Mr. GIlbert (Greg Davies).
It has a huge ready-made fan base – at the time, it broke the viewing record for E4 and won various accolades including the British Comedy Award – and memes from the show still circulate every day on social media.
So there will be a whole generation of listeners, whether it’s like me who has aged out of humor but will watch out of curiosity.
Or maybe they just want some dopamine nostalgia: there’s no denying that relics of the past are synonymous with big hits in entertainment.
Just look at the Sugababes almost shutting down the Glastonbury section – twice – because it was too crowded, or S Club 7 selling out the arena 25 years after they were formed.
But for me, like Jane Nor’s bag and concealer-for-lipstick, I prefer to leave the Inbetweeners as a fond – if cringe – teenage memory.
The Inbetweeners is available to watch on Channel 4
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