The layabouts of Britcom

Their years of rest and relaxation

King Onslow of Sloth, “Keeping Up Appearances,” in his natural habitat

In England, they have a system in place wherein you can be on something called benefits and live in something called a council flat and yeah maybe no one will admire you and you won’t be posh but you will live comfortably without having to be (to quote Janice from Benidorm) “arsed to do owt.” I remember people discussing this when I was in college… in Chicago. They had no idea.

What actually happens in England, it’s anyone’s guess. I know they now have a cost of living crisis possibly worse than ours in Canada, made worse still by the fact that they don’t have tomatoes.

Onslow is the archetype, the 1.0 version, the least aspirational of all layabouts. Doing as little as possible is an art form and he is a practitioner. He has everything he wants, so why would he do anything? He is “bone-idle” and proud. And the show celebrates him for this. Only social climbers like Hyacinth bother having goals.