Are ‘Derek & Clive’ comedy albums too much for sensitive 21st century ears?

Asks The Guardian (of course):

What’s the worst job you ever had? Ask the right (wrong) person and their eyes will light up with mischief and horrible recognition. They have found a kindred spirit. “I had the terrible job,” they will tell you, suddenly slipping into one of those whining, droning, ultra-boring, ultra-cockney accents that you no longer hear in real life, “of retrieving lobsters from up Jayne Mansfield’s arsehole.” (…)

It is a (vile) body of work that stands alone in the annals of comedy. Derek and Clive are juvenile, relentless, cheerfully disgusting and achingly funny, but their unmatched nihilism stares so deeply into the abyss that they’re almost unbearable to listen to for long stretches. In the witterings of two toilet attendants, you can hear the old head-to-head Pete and Dud sketches – the ones that won Cook and Moore fame and affection on their 1960s BBC2 series Not Only … But Also – curdling into a thing of genuine darkness.

I prefer the milder “Pete and Dud,” but yeah:

This stuff was almost “too much” then, let alone now.

It’s like the high Scoville hot sauce of comedy — I’m not sure if anyone really enjoyed it but you consumed it on a kind of dare.

This is not a parody of a BBC doc by the way:

And a note to the Guardian: Peter Cook drank a lot because he was an alcoholic.