The last thing Britain needs is an Inbetweeners reunion -Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

(L-R) James Buckley (Jay), Blake Harrison (Neil), Joe Thomas (Simon), Simon Bird (Will) (Picture: Prods./Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

For every British teenager growing up in the early 00s – myself included – The Inbetweeners was essential viewing.  

It was an unfiltered and relatable depiction of awkward youth, in stark contrast to other major coming-of-age shows of its era, like Skins or The OC. 

Instead of impossibly beautiful teenagers raving around in Louboutin’s and meeting gruesome deaths every other season, The Inbetweeners, which spanned three series and two movies between 2008 and 2014, was about a bunch of average Joes simply trying to pull. 

But a spot-on portrayal of the agonies of teenage lust wasn’t the Channel 4 show’s only selling point, no-one can deny the show’s other other big draw was its puerile and crass humour. 

In my hometown of Norwich, I couldn’t walk down the street between 2008 until 20010, when the sitcom originally aired, without someone shouting catchphrases ‘bus w**nker’ or ‘clunge’. 

And at the time, it was funny. 

But is that funny now? In big 2024? Absolutely not. And that’s why the rumoured revival of The Inbetweeners would be a terrible idea. 

I was The Inbetweeners’ target audience when it debuted and I found it hilarious (Picture: Bwark Prods/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

So I had to suppress an agonising groan when Joe Thomas, who played hapless romantic teenager Simon Cooper, teased a possible comeback on the Always Be Comedy podcast. 

My fears were not assuaged when he confirmed talks ‘in various forms’ had taken place and the rest of the main cast – Simon Bird (Will), James Buckley (Jay) and Blake Harrison (Neil) – were all on the same page. 

‘All of us feel it would be nice to do,’ Joe said. 

Well, let me be the first to say that, no, Joe, it would not be ‘nice.’ In fact, there’s a risk it could be a colossal disaster and ruin the memory of the show for an entire generation. 

At 16, I was The Inbetweeners’ target audience when it debuted and I found it hilarious. 

But now in my 30s, I would not find the childish sexual humour remotely funny – I would find it offensive. 

For starters, Emily Atack’s character Charlotte Hinchcliffe was the most popular girl at school by virtue of her large boobs or her ‘big jugs’, as she was more commonly known. I hopefully don’t need to explain why reducing women to the sum of their physical parts does not fly today. 

Plus there is the ongoing ‘joke’ that Neil’s (Harrison) dad Kevin (Alex Macqueen) is secretly gay. It was deemed ‘hilarious’ every time a character referred to him by a slur or made a gag about Grindr. It’s vile and homophobic.  

I’m not sure anyone wants to see a lower-budget British version of the Hangover (Picture: Moviestore/Shutterstock)

Even the humour that would not get cancelled in 2024, is now at best a bit unsophisticated.  

Like when Joe’s character Simon appears in a fashion show at his school and his testicle is protruding out of his outfit. Rewatching the clip, it’s not particularly funny and it’s certainly not clever.

And that’s the real issue. Problematic jokes aside, the Inbetweeners was the playbook of 00s humour and it’s not funny now. 

The alternative – to make jokes more reflective of society in the here and now – would just kill the show’s heart and soul. I just can’t picture a world in which Jay (Buckley) isn’t horribly inappropriate and instead making socially sensitive Gen Z-approved gags. 

And I’m not the only one. 

Even Joe Thomas, when he teased the reboot, admitted he feared a reboot would not live up to the standard of the original series or the two box-office smashing movies that followed. 

‘Everybody’s anxiety would be, “Will it be as good?”. That is what we would be going in with,’ he said. 

Apparently among the ideas floated about include a reunion at a Las Vegas stag do or a five-a-side game, but they don’t feel fresh or original like the original series did. 

Frankly they’ve been done to death – I’m not sure anyone wants to see a lower-budget British version of the Hangover. 

Despite my reservations, I’m certain an Inbetweeners revival would be a blockbuster success even if the plot just amounts to the four boys bumping into each other on the street in a nondescript commuter town and reflecting on the bad old days at Rudge Park Comprehensive under the tyrannical reign of Mr GIlbert (Greg Davies).

It has a huge ready-made fan base – at the time, it broke viewing records for E4 and it won multiple accolades including a British Comedy Award – and memes of the show still circulate daily on social media. 

So there will be an entire generation who tune in, whether it is those like me who’ve aged out of the humour but would watch it out of morbid curiosity. 

Or perhaps they’d tune in just for a dopamine hit of nostalgia: there’s no denying that relics of the past equate to huge hits in entertainment. 

Just look at Sugababes almost shutting down a section of Glastonbury – twice – due to overwhelming crowds, or S Club 7 selling out arenas 25 years after they formed. 

But for me, much like my Jane Nor bag and concealer-for-lipstick, I’d rather leave the Inbetweeners as a fond – if cringe – teenage memory. 

The Inbetweeners is available to watch on Channel 4

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