bye bye bus wankers

tv >> the inbetweeners

last monday brought down the curtain on a tv series that has really tickled me in the last couple of years; the inbetweeners. it's going to be an arduous toil filling the void left by the close-to-the-bone tales of four suburban teenagers who don't (despite their best efforts) fit in. neither too geeky to endure daily wedgies from the college bullies, nor cool enough to survive a night on the persians without crying for their mummy, they sit uncomfortably somewhere inbetween.

in the last few weeks i've plugged the show to my girlfriend, assuming the shenanigans of four heart-in-the-right-place lads will bring hilarity and enjoyment to her. sure, there's been a few 'lol' moments uttered from her lips but nothing to the levels of cracked-ribbed roars of merriment that i've been experiencing. surely smashing the hell out of some tulips with a golf club is hilarious? i believe the difference in our laughter meters is because as i watch the stupidity unfold, i relate it to my own inbetween years; such as the time we were arrested for stealing plant pots from someone's front garden (my mum fainted in the middle of lakeside when my sister phoned bragging the news), when we used to bunk off school one day each summer to go sailing but all we'd do is purposely and repeatedly capsize the boat much to our amusement and the annoyance of our fellow sea dogs, the camping trips where we'd drive for seven hours, face mass seagull poo attacks and have a baby puke on our laps in wimpy all for the sake of some teenage male bonding, the five mile drunken walks after nights out to stay at our mate's house just to have a perv on his mum in her silky nightie in the morning (despite only living half a mile from town ourselves) etc, etc - you get the picture. silly, yet not really hurting anyone - typically boyish behaviour that i can't fathom doing now, but at the time, seemed so right and so funny.

recalling our ever distancing youth is one of the main reasons behind the pleasure in the inbetweeners, i'm sure most of my male friends can see themselves and our previous disobedience in the characters - personally a scary mix of simon (terrible haircut/obsessing over unatainable girls) and jay (constant swearing and lying). ah, our naive and gone but not forgotten youth, how I miss thee. it's good to have these brief flashbacks remembering our fruition and coming of age, full of seemingly pointless happenings, but they were anything but pointless, they needed to happen to shape where we all are today. all teenage boys should experience the same playful mischief - just make sure your mum's sitting down (and not in lakeside) when she learns of your latest naughty adventure.

oh, and bring on the film - a lads holiday, it'll be like tenerife '97 all over again! sun, sea and absolutely no sex.