Sunday Cartoons: RIP Stanley Baxter
Posted: December 14, 2025 Filed under: just because 8 Comments
It is Sunday, and I have a lot of instagram post for you today so you may want to reload the page now…that way you have a chance to get these embedded post loaded correctly.
So, an iconic British comedian passed away this week:
As you will see in the video clips below…
The description “special” is overused in television schedules; Stanley Baxter’s programmes justify it. The comedian is one of the few stars whose reputation rests on a handful of astonishing one-offs – standalone comic extravaganzas screened in the 1970s and 1980s, first by ITV’s London Weekend Television and then the BBC.
In both cases, the networks ended their associations with Baxter not because of lack of audience interest – at their peak, the shows reached more than 20 million viewers – but due to the colossal costs demanded by the performer’s vast and perfectionist visual ambition. One of Baxter’s favourite conceits was to re-create, in witty pastiche, scenes from big-budget Hollywood movies that made it look as if his versions had also spent millions of dollars.
Cashflow was further stretched by the fact that Baxter played multiple roles – 18 of them in one sketch. Recent digital technology has made such multiplications relatively easy, but at the time Baxter was sharing a screen with several selves, primitive image-mixing technology left a giveaway outline – like the chalk marks homicide cops put around a corpse on the sidewalk – when scenes recorded at different times were merged together.
But his drag performances are the ones that truly stand out…
A surprise to those rewatching TV comedy from the 1960s to 1980s is the prevalence of drag acting. This was largely necessity. Because almost all star comedians were male but their material often involved marriage and/or misogyny, light entertainment resembled an all-boys school trying to put on a production of The Trojan Women. But, whereas frequent cross-dressers such as Les Dawson, Dick Emery and Terry Jones were built to play somewhat squat matriarchs, Baxter had calves and ankles of such unusual shapeliness for a man that he could plausibly portray superstar actresses of the Hollywood golden age. When he portrayed Fred Astaire, he could also play his dance partner, Ginger Rogers.
In a 2019 Channel 5 profile in the Comedy National Treasures strand, the then 93-year-old Baxter explained that he did detailed impressions of Hollywood legends before knowing who they were. His mother, who had been prevented from becoming an actor by parents who believed that the profession was a euphemism for prostitution, trained Stanley from a very young age to entertain relatives and friends with versions of her favourite chanteuses, such as Marlene Dietrich and Gracie Fields. As her son had never seen nor heard the originals, she would do impersonations for him, from which he would create his own version. In retrospect, this was another key stage in the development of his exceptional ability to re-create cinematic scenes.
I think a great example of this is his play on Upstairs Downstairs:
Innit magic?
Take a look at these videos:
Part one:
Part two:
I may have put in a few too many videos, but I just love his comedy.
Cartoons next time…
You all stay safe, this is an open thread.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
To see the videos click on the “view comments” button!
An unarmed Muslim man named Ahmed Al Ahmed stopped the Bondi Beach shooting in Australia. He put his life at risk to save others.
The Dotard, in what remains of the White House, prematurely announced they’d caught the suspect at Brown University shooting before they had him on his damned chatter site. This could’ve meant the death of more.
Let’s think about who the real heroes are these days.
Mama, don’t take this to mean that I don’t love you, but you forgot the cartoons.
I know…I said up top that I would have the cartoons on Tuesday…sorry.
I knew today was the first day of Hanukkah, I even found images to post…but I forgot. Happy Hanukkah.
Trump administration races to finalize tariff payments — and hamstring possible refunds
In response, companies are now filing lawsuits to make sure they get paid back if the Supreme Court invalidates some of the president’s duties.
“The Trump administration is racing to deposit the money it’s raised from tariffs into the U.S. Treasury, a tactic that could make it harder for companies to get refunds for duties the Supreme Court may strike down in the coming months.
That has triggered a flurry of lawsuits in recent weeks, with companies ranging from wholesaler Costco to canned tuna seller Bumble Bee looking to preserve access to potential refunds for tens of billions of dollars worth of tariff fees. And it foreshadows the messy legal battles likely to play out if the high court rules President Donald Trump overstepped his legal authority when he imposed his steep “reciprocal” tariffs and other duties on major trading partners.”
Why isn’t some one stopping this asshole from wrecking our economy?
One more update on the shooting at Brown University: