first professor would often try to return the discussion to the original topic of debate, but would never achieve much luck as Professor Lewis would continue nonetheless to fire endless playground insults at him, forcing the first professor to retaliate in kind. The humour lay largely in the manner in which the professors maintained their well-spoken, formal tones despite the childishness of their insults. Many of the sketches even began with Baddiel's character apologising to the viewer for the previous episode's diversion from the chosen topic. The series of sketches was the inspiration for numerous office/playground copycats to recite its catchphrase of "You see that <insert pathetic, broken, or obsolete object>? That's you that is." The series originated in a collection of improvised sketches which were released on a cassette accompanying a video of the two performing a stand-up show in Edinburgh, and the first televised performance largely followed the original improvised version, but without the helpless laughter into which it would descend. People of Restricted Seriousness Presented in a documentary-style format, this sketch detailed the lives of a group of people afflicted with a rare condition called Restricted Seriousness, which deformed parts of their bodies so that they appeared like novelty joke-shop items and thus caused them to be laughed at by the rest of society. The main character was Julius (played by Baddiel) whose nose appeared like a plastic joke-shop nose and together with his rug-like facial hair gave him an appearance remarkably like Groucho Marx, and interfered largely with his profession as an undertaker. Determined to be taken seriously by other people, Julius attended a weekly support group for people with the condition, which was run by an unnamed character played by Newman, whose plastic-looking bald head and fuzzy green hair gave him a 'nutty professor' appearance. Other significant characters in this sketch included Daniel, who has enormous joke-shop ears and hands which interfere with his work in a centre for the deaf, and Helen, Julius' girlfriend, who has plastic-looking 'breasts of Restricted Seriousness'. Safety First A short sketch in the form of a TV safety warning presented by a character named Brian Coat, played by Baddiel. Brian Coat was a humourless and over-zealous safety officer, in hard hat, who caused the accidents he was trying to prevent. He would willingly set up an accident, then state "Y'see, there was no need for that to happen!" before