― Miles Finch, Monday, 7 February 2005 09:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 7 February 2005 11:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 7 February 2005 12:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― Miles Finch, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― stelfox, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― stelfox, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Miles Finch, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― stew, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 7 February 2005 12:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― stelfox, Monday, 7 February 2005 12:50 (nineteen years ago) link
I think the Daily Mail thing was suggesting that a young Rik Mayall (bear in mind this is the Daily Mail and they aren't quite au fait with the current times) could be the stereotypical obnoxious arsehole, and that Dylan Moran has the cynical world-weariness to play Dan Ashcroft.
Anyway, I am not defending the daily mail, but, as you were...
― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 7 February 2005 21:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 11 February 2005 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Frogman Henry, Friday, 11 February 2005 22:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:36 (nineteen years ago) link
I didn't realise, not having read (read?) 'shoreditch twat', that morris had spawned a band of this kind of neologistic followers but I got the broad generalities.
― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:38 (nineteen years ago) link
the nathan barley charater/actor was completely unconvincing
he seemed pretty much in keeping with the TVGH character
― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:39 (nineteen years ago) link
I think the point of the character was "Hi, I'm popular TV critic Charlie Brooker, and man do I meet some foolish people in my ever-so-rivetting life".
That wasn't even Chris Morris' "Max And Paddy". It was Chris Morris' Tony Ferrino.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:42 (nineteen years ago) link
(xpost)
― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:47 (nineteen years ago) link
the scene with the Weekend On Sunday editor...maybe lacking the poise of The office but reminded me of it a lot
i liked it when he joined in 'cock muff bumhole' at the end too, the sense of hopelessness and resignation was well captured.
― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Friday, 11 February 2005 22:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― stew, Friday, 11 February 2005 22:55 (nineteen years ago) link
They humour is that they're idiots. We are supposed to identify with the Ashcrofts here. But seriously, I don't really, to be honest. The real bite would have been the rage of 'AND THESE FUCKHEADS ACTUALLY EXIST AND GET PAID AND ARE UTTER CUNTS' but actually, they're all on the dole because their dotcoms crashed and it's all a huge case of missing your moment. The TVGH show should have been this. The time was right then.
― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 11 February 2005 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link
Clapham seems to be a major gathering place for these people now, though.
― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Friday, 11 February 2005 23:11 (nineteen years ago) link
Well, only in the way the best lyrics are the ones we mishear and turn out to have made up ourselves. The headline was actually "Tom Paulin: Haunted By Rumour". Which I think is funnier.
― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― stew, Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:09 (nineteen years ago) link
i'm not sure - i thought so at first but it soon became clear that he was a pitiful character, somewhere between David Brent and Tim for me. actually that's me in a nutshell, maybe. ack.
the timing thing isn't so relevant for me because of this 'nostalgia' aspect mentioned upthread, plus the humour relying a great deal on just the absurd exaggeration of it all. i can enjoy it whilst thinking back to my own experiences as a numeeja design underling and personal hatred/envy conflicts re Hoxditch hype.
― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:23 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm bored to the back teeth of the SOTCAA/NotBBC/Cook'd and Bomb'd crowd - those forums were always like the most soul-sapping aspects of ILX and it's no surprise that they loathe this. Imagine an ILM where all the threads were about much worse everything is getting and how even the bands we liked have lost it. Oh, wait...
Morris is stuck with being lorded as the undisputed heavyweight comic genius of our time so if he turns something out that's slightly to the left of the money, or three-fifths as good as Peep Show or whatever, it's a calamity and a Slade musical written with Richard Stilgoe can only be round the corner.
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Saturday, 12 February 2005 00:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 12 February 2005 01:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ally C (Ally C), Saturday, 12 February 2005 02:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 12 February 2005 03:41 (nineteen years ago) link
The reviewers who've said it gets uncomfortably close to The Office are right; it's The Office transplanted to a loft where The Play Ethic has gone mad. But I think that's okay; The Office was simply the precursor of a new school of 'embarrassment comedy', and Morris and Brooker are big enough not to stand in its shadow. What's good about this embarrassment comedy thing is that it really makes you feel with the characters. That keeps it from being a Vanity Fair or Rake's Progress or Beggar's Opera-style ensemble piece, just a parade of unsympathetic fops and bullies.
And I have to say I was snorting with embarrassed laughter at scenes like the one where Nathan goes into an Asian newsagent and calls the owner 'my nigga'. Horrific, yes. Over the top, well, not really; I know people who would almost do that.
― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 12 February 2005 08:18 (nineteen years ago) link
There's a constant stream of references to massacres, exploitation, atrocities... 9/11, Mai Lai, Hitler, 'that cool e mail of a woman being bummed by a wolf...' These events are all trivialised by Barley for the sake of some kind of banal 'normative aggression', and seen as essentially no different from the pranks he plagues his shy, sensitive assistant with. Or perhaps the pranks are just massacres and atrocities scaled down to chick-pea size, web dimensions. The thing I'm wondering, though, is whether the reverse situation wouldn't be worse. If The Idiots made no reference to Vietnam, Hitler, gangsta rap etc and were simply privileged white kids in a playpen, would they be exonerated? In other words, what is the function of this constant transpostion of their antics with atrocity? And if they were no longer pedalling along the streets on tiny bicycles, the cars would have the street to themselves, right? And that would be better... how?
― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 12 February 2005 08:48 (nineteen years ago) link
I haven't seen much Morris stuff, but what I have seen made lots of references to atrocities of one kind or another (dog bomb, spot the assassin or something). In fact, that was why I didn't like him.
― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Saturday, 12 February 2005 09:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 12 February 2005 10:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― David Merryweather (DavidM), Saturday, 12 February 2005 10:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 12 February 2005 11:03 (nineteen years ago) link
Very poor.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Saturday, 12 February 2005 11:31 (nineteen years ago) link
I guess maybe it would be different for me if I could experience it from the Class Envy aspect, with an edge of schadenfreude but I just don't. I just feel sorry for the Trustafarians because I know too many of them and know how empty their emotional lives are, so I can't see them as figures of fun or hate, just of pity. [/poor little rich girl routine]
I'm not really sure who this programme is supposed to be aimed at. Not me, I guess. Are those ads in the tube actually ads for those silly phones, or are they some kind of weird guerilla advertising for NB? That confuses me.
― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Saturday, 12 February 2005 11:34 (nineteen years ago) link
If you would actually care to look, there isn't a consensus on those boards. Some liked it, some hated it, some expressed mild apathy. I didn't care for it, but then I was expecting some comedy rather than one extended media in-joke. Nice use of Broadcast, though.
I predict Pingu will crack and attempt to kill Nathan by episode six.
― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Saturday, 12 February 2005 11:35 (nineteen years ago) link
i quite enjoyed it, from the TCP joke at the beginning onwards. it is rather officey, but i think momus is right about the comedy of embarrassment thing.
also if arsehole beats muff, then muff must beat cock and cock must beat arsehole, which i'm sure you could get a psychology dissertation out of...
― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Saturday, 12 February 2005 11:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Saturday, 12 February 2005 11:45 (nineteen years ago) link