The Brittas Empire: Your Gateway to a Stress-Free Life, by Doyle

[longlivehumour]

FANDOM: The Brittas Empire
FIC LINK: Your Gateway To a Stress-Free Life
AUTHOR LINK: Doyle
RATING/WARNING(S): G | none
WIP?/WORD COUNT: Complete | 1200 words
MAIN CHARACTERS: Helen Brittas, Carole Parkinson

FIC SUMMARY: "Stop apologising, Carole, for heaven's sake. Everybody knows it's Gordon's fault for playing that Christmas tape on a loop." Helen's getting pretty good at stress management; she's had enough experience.

RECCER'S NOTES: Short, funny, and strongly in-character; you can just picture the mad glint in Carole's eyes as she explains. A productive conversation between the two most put-upon characters in the Brittasverse.

Comments

[silverr]

I am not familiar with the fandom, but the rec does not surprise me. I have been a Doyle stan for years, because among their many strengths is the ability to do IC humor (in tone-perfect fics) better than anyone else I've ever read.

tl;dr: Rec resoundingly seconded.

[longlivehumour]

Oh yeah. They're one of those authors I keep bumping into across multiple fandoms and when I scroll back up to check the author go, Hang on, isn't that... and then it turns out that they are, in fact, that.

I do recommend the Brittas Empire - I think most people nowadays only know of it because "it's that thing that Chris Barrie was doing during Red Dwarf Series V-VII" but it's a pretty good comedy in its own right. Nothing out of this world, but the supporting cast are excellent (Brittas's poor wife Helen and his deputy Laura are my favourites), it's a lot less cringy than you'd expect given the premise, and it does some very good episode-long jokes. It gets to the point where you're laughing before the payoff, because you've just realised exactly what's about to happen to that rubber ducky from the five minute mark.

(incidentally, good icon.)