Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
It's like a little piece of Cookd and Bombd on dear old ILx.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:24 (eighteen years ago) link

anyway... Gervais gets painfully OTM takedown from The Indy.

Ricky Gervais: Step into my office

He created one of the great sitcoms. He is a very funny man. And he's concerned about his 'legacy'. Which is exactly why Nicholas Barber would like to have a quiet word with Ricky Gervais

Published: 14 January 2007

Ricky Gervais opens his new live show wearing a plastic crown and a regal red robe, with his name in lights behind him and a six-foot model of an Emmy award to his left. "Not too much, is it?" he asks with mock-concern, but the answer is, no, it's not too much. If anything, it's not enough. Once he's slipped off the fancy dress, the reigning King of Comedy strolls around the stage for an hour and a bit in his trademark jeans and black T-shirt. He couldn't be more relaxed if he was at home in his pyjamas (which he is, he says, by 6.30 most nights).

He's such a natural comic that he gets laughs every time he unleashes his falsetto sarcasm or his saliva-soaked giggle. He skilfully deconstructs his stories as he's telling them, and he slips nimbly back and forth across the boundaries of taste, so we're never quite certain how offended to be.

But compared to any other stand-up show in a venue the size of Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, it's a lackadaisical performance. Between swigs from a beer can, Gervais recounts a few chat-show anecdotes, does some student bar stuff about how nonsense songs don't make sense, has a smirk at those dunces who abused a paediatrician because they thought he was a paedophile, and dishes up regular portions of ironic homophobia.

At least, I assume it's ironic. When he makes an Aids joke, and then mutters, "I won't do that one in Brighton," I'm not 100-per-cent sure why it's less objectionable than it would have been if Jim Davidson had made the same remark. Overall, it's an amiable show, but there's not much in the way of depth or quotable punchlines, and there's no theme beyond the tour's title, Fame: doing charity gigs, signing autographs, being misrepresented in the tabloids, hugging Chris Tarrant. You'd assume that someone who didn't start writing The Office until his late thirties would have a stock of pre-fame memories to transmute into comedy. There was his stint in an Eighties pop duo, and then as a university entertainments officer, to name the two best-known jobs he had before he made headway at XFM and on Channel 4's 11 O'Clock Show. But instead of mining these veins of material, Gervais seems obsessed by his own celebrity. He's like one of those rock bands who get to their third album and can't dredge up anything to write songs about except groupies, hotel rooms and the disappointments of being a multi-millionaire.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Since The Office brought Gervais sudden fame and fortune, he's been the proverbial kid in a candy store, living out the fantasies of every film and comedy geek. He made a guest appearance on Alias because he was a fan of the show. He wrote an episode of The Simpsons, and turned up in it in cartoon form. He became friends with Jonathan Ross, as every rising UK comedian is contractually obliged to do. When Channel 4 offered him his own interview strand, he jumped at the chance to badger his heroes, Larry David, Christopher Guest and Larry Shandling. His first film roles seem to be motivated by hero-worship, too. Having shone as a pompous boss in The Office, he can now be seen cameoing as a pompous boss in both Night at the Museum and For Your Consideration. Neither film is very good, but they did allow him to hang out with Ben Stiller and Christopher Guest, just as his role in the forthcoming Stardust let him share a studio with Robert De Niro.

"It's like winning a competition," he said in one recent interview. "It's like, would you like to play with Spinal Tap for a day? Yes. Would you like to play with The Godfather for a day? Yes." Gervais is not the first British comedian to jump on a plane to Hollywood, of course, and there's nothing wrong with mutual appreciation sessions with your idols. Indeed, there's something sweet about such a major star letting his inner fanboy come out to play. As his collection of Golden Globes and Emmys attests, the American entertainment industry loves the man from Reading, so you can hardly blame him for loving it back. Who wouldn't want to be Peter Lawford in a comedy Rat Pack?

On the other hand, it's getting harder to ignore the weird disjunction between the way Gervais talks about his career and the way it actually is.

Ever since The Office began broadcasting in July 2001, its star and co-creator has been repeating in interviews that he's primarily a writer and director, and that he gets "no joy from seeing my fat face on the screen". Initially, he said he didn't want to do too much TV as himself because he wanted viewers to enjoy the illusion that David Brent and his colleagues were real people; that was why he cast unknown actors.

He even boasted, somewhat ungallantly, that he'd turned down roles in Pirates of The Caribbean and the other films which went on to feature his Office co-stars. "Secretly I think I'd be quite good on QI," he told one interviewer, misinterpreting the word "secretly". "But you have to discipline yourself and you have to ration yourself. I can get sick of someone I like within the space of a weekend if I see them on two quiz shows and then in the Sunday paper." It's a strange statement from someone who once fought Anthea Turner's husband in a televised boxing match.

The Ricky Gervais who talks to journalists is a publicity-shy artist with exacting principles. "That quest for excellence, and also the legacy - I think about that," he said in The Radio Times. "I don't know if that's because I came to it older, but we really want to to have a great batting average. We don't want to let our guard down. You do it because you want to be proud of it." To Esquire, he pronounced: "When you're creating art, you've got to be a complete fascist." To GQ, he described himself and his co-writer and co-director, Stephen Merchant, as "comedy fundamentalists". He's often said that he doesn't rate many British comedians after Stan Laurel. "American comedy is better. It aims higher," he told Esquire. This Ricky Gervais is an ascetic, slightly intimidating perfectionist. And yet the other Ricky Gervais, the one who's all over the media, is someone who knows he won't be in the limelight forever, and who wants to revel in the exposure, the side projects and the glamorous friendships while he can.

It's impossible to exaggerate just how successful he's been. The Office has been broadcast in 80 countries, and remade in several, including the hit American edition with Steve Carell in the lead role. Sales of the British Office DVDs were record-breaking - four million is the current figure - and, as the tongue-in-cheek introduction to his live show reminds us, he's won an Emmy, two Golden Globes and six Baftas.

But this astonishing Midas Touch doesn't stop a large proportion of his work falling short of the benchmark he's set himself. His current stand-up tour, the fastest selling in history, sees him sitting right in the middle of his comfort zone. Podcasts of The Ricky Gervais Show are another record-breaking hit, but as funny as they can be, they consist largely of his XFM producer, Karl Pilkington, reeling off outlandish theories, while Gervais and Merchant berate him for not being as well educated as they are. And if his trio of children's picture books, Flanimals, hadn't had Gervais's name on it, the publisher would have sent it back with a polite note saying that it wasn't what they were looking for.

And then there's Extras. At the risk of inviting hate mail, I'd argue that Gervais and Merchant's second sitcom is, objectively, a patchy programme. Yes, it had its laughs. The fizzy water incident is destined to join Del Boy falling through the bar in all future bank holiday retrospectives of The 100 Best British Sitcom Moments. But it always felt less like a fully-formed show than an exercise in muscle-flexing by two writer-directors who had realised how powerful they were. They wanted superstars, they wanted location shooting, they wanted no canned laughter and almost no supporting cast; they had a list of minorities for the characters to upset and they wanted to tick them off methodically, week by week. Everything they wanted, they got.

The mysterious aspect of Extras was that it drew almost entirely from Gervais's own experiences in television, and yet it couldn't shake off a whiff of fakeness. It missed the satirical targets which were right in front of its creators' noses. Take its famous guest stars, for instance. On the programme which had the biggest influence on Extras, The Larry Sanders Show, the celebrity guests challenged us to spot where they ended and their scabrous self-parodies began, something Gervais himself does brilliantly on talk shows and on stage. But in Extras the celebs were all caricatured so ridiculously that there was never any danger that they might have been revealing their dark private selves. Did anyone watching it ever suspect that Daniel Radcliffe goes around propositioning actresses twice his age, or that Orlando Bloom pathologically hates Johnny Depp, or that Ben Stiller has exactly the same speech patterns as David Brent? Probably not. The actors could congratulate themselves on being good sports without the slightest risk.

Beyond that, there was the implausibility of Gervais's character, Andy Millman, being hoiked to stardom from work as a "background artist" even though - unlike Gervais - he had no TV-comedy experience. There was also the bewildering animus against the BBC, which was forcing Andy to wear a bad wig and specs in his sitcom-within-a-sitcom; when did that last happen in the real world? But what was more damaging was the series' grating inconsistencies. Sometimes Andy would be as crass and tactless as David Brent ever was, whereas at other times Andy would be the judicious one, and the solecisms would be parcelled out to his friend Maggie or his agent, played by Merchant.

In their introduction to the Extras script book, the writers say that they wanted a change from Brent. They wanted "Andy to be more like us: more normal, more self-aware, educated and liberal-minded, with a half-decent sense of humour". And so he was - some of the time. But he was also a man who saw a Bosnian refugee's photograph of his murdered wife, and then chided him for his choice of developer. "Oh, you missed a trick," he said. "Truprint give you a free film when you get something developed. So you're a mug." And witness the way Andy was shocked when Keith Chegwin grunted that the BBC was run by "Jews and queers" - and I'd love to know when anyone in showbusiness last said that - but was also horrified when a schoolmate he hadn't seen in 20 years thought he might be gay himself. (More only-just-ironic homophobia there.) "Andy's not a jerk at all," said Gervais in the Onion AV Club last week, but when it suited the joke, Andy mutated into David Brent multiplied by Basil Fawlty.

Whereas The Office took such pains to fool us, for half an hour at a time, that we were flies on the wall of a genuine paper merchants', Extras required viewers to give it the same leeway that they would a pantomime. In a single episode of the second series, Andy was at the BBC, filming a sitcom, and yet the same sitcom was already on air, getting a critical pasting, and Andy was also auditioning for a play, rehearsing it and performing it. Assuming that he wasn't supposed to be a Time Lord, Gervais and Merchant had given up caring whether their programme had any internal logic or not.

At the risk of inviting yet more hate mail, I'd suggest, too, that even in the second series of The Office, there were signs that its writers already believed the hype. Gareth was more obnoxious; Brent was more self-deluding; the humour was broader and cruder. When Brent frothed at a birthday party about how he'd have sex with the Corrs, the raucous, drunken festivities slammed to a halt and everyone stared in disgust.

Fair enough, that's the kind of thing which happens in sitcoms all the time, but the previous series hadn't felt like a sitcom; it had felt like an unwittingly hilarious documentary. The second series could have been written by someone who had watched the first one, but hadn't quite understood it.

That's not to say that anyone who masterminded those first terrific six episodes of The Office shouldn't be proud of himself. Nor is this an attempt to start a backlash or chop down a tall poppy. After all, everything Gervais does is worth a look, because he's funny even when - as on the current stand-up tour - he's not trying very hard. And when someone has accrued so many millions, so many plaudits and so many famous admirers he might feel justified in letting standards slip.

But let's get his output into perspective. Perhaps we should ease off on the King of Comedy accolades until Gervais's batting average, as he calls it, is a little closer to Galton and Simpson's or Clement and Le Frenais's. And that's not likely to happen unless he eases off on the cameos, the podcasts and the children's books. Maybe now that he's done a stand-up show called Fame, he can get back to the sort of work which made him famous.

The first leg of Ricky Gervais's stand-up tour has sold out. Tickets for the second leg, beginning on 6 March, go on sale on Tuesday at www.ticketzone.co.uk

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2152792.ece

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Who wouldn't want to be Peter Lawford in a comedy Rat Pack?

BURN.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:29 (eighteen years ago) link

couldn't agree more with the article.

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:34 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah pretty definitive article.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I got most of my Extras series 2 opinions (other people's that is) from the thread on here, and as such it's quite easy to forget that a pretty big proportion of the outside world thought it was really good and not at all disappointing or obsequious. Good piece, thirded

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago) link

not that big a proportion surely though. i bet it got nowhere near the viewing figures of say my family or something.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:11 (eighteen years ago) link

"it's quite easy to forget that a pretty big proportion of the outside world thought it was really good and not at all disappointing"

is this true?

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Among the people that actually watched it, I meant, but yeah you could definitely argue that the audience-to-coverage ratio is pretty skewed

xpost

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:16 (eighteen years ago) link

on a cookd/bombd tip, glad to see i'm, not alone in thinking Sam Wollaston is a truly hopeless telly reviewer.

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Alison Graham and Sal Woollaston liked it. They're two hip, with it, swinging cats.
xxp

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Cookd and Bombd fact: I once saw a noted C+B poster try to chat up a Little Britain fan, whilst he so clearly was trying to hold back his real views on Lucas and Walliams for the sake of poppage.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link

It got mostly good reviews did it not? And most people I spoke to thought it was pretty good, maybe not quite up w/ the first series

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Alison Graham: Copy and Paste Your Top 1000 Reasons Why She Is So Bad and Hated

Michael Philip Philip Philip Philip Annoyman (Ferg), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link

But why though? Is Gervais just some master of the percentage game, he knows that 20% ironic homophobia, 15% recycled Seinfeld gags, 32% broad catchphrase comedy, etc etc is the key to the nation's heart?

xp

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:18 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm calling it: Alison Graham is the worst fucking journalist on the planet today.

I would say that though, because I hate women.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago) link

who's your least favourite man hack? (you can't vote for yourself)

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link

"Sam Wollaston
Wednesday January 3, 2007
The Guardian


Here's a scene. You're looking along your collection of CDs, or shuffling through your playlist, trying to find that new Lady Sovereign album or whatever. But you stumble across something else, something from 10 years ago - the Fugees, say."

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago) link

OTM

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Sam Wollaston would then go on to mention how his "friend" really likes that Fugees album.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:22 (eighteen years ago) link

who's your least favourite man hack? (you can't vote for yourself)

That senile dribbling cunt with his own column in the Guardian weekend magazine.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Or Artrocker Comedy Racism Man

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

that article i posted up thread is i think what john harris perecives his "controversial" articles to read like.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

SW will never spend any real money or time on "that new (some say only) Lady Sovereign album" or, indeed, "whatever."

That senile dribbling cunt with his own column in the Guardian weekend magazine.

Cue stock that's no way to talk about Zoe Williams gag.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Alison Graham doesn't have a Wikipedia entry. And Dom Passantino does.

Michael Philip Philip Philip Philip Annoyman (Ferg), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Where are the standards of today, I ask you.

I don't have a Wikipedia entry either.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Thursday, 20:00
Radio Ha Ha

Radio 4 turns over the airwaves to solid gold laughter, as Steve Punt joins up with a host of stars, backstage movers and industry shakers from the comedy industry with a two-hour special.

Variety shows and radio were the traditional routes to comedy fame and fortune, but what about today? Super agents, DVD sales, straight-to-TV stars; where does radio fit in? Steve and a panel of guests pick apart the laughter seam of the modern comedy industry, as well as generating a few jokes along the way.

Includes News Summary at 9.00pm.

Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago) link

In any given episode of "Extras", it could be 15% "brilliant", 25% "passable" and 60% "rubbish/obvious"...

like swimming in a cool sea and passing through a warm current, etc...

Where are the standards of today, I ask you.
I don't have a Wikipedia entry either.

-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...)

Oh, have I got one?

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:37 (eighteen years ago) link

you are diligently referenced on both j harris' and a petridis' though marcello.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link

Search
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You searched for mark grout [Index]

No page with that title exists.

Whew.

mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:39 (eighteen years ago) link

before that little derail folks was talkin' about the public / critical reaction to extras s2. the critical raves so often feel like wishful thinking. wanting, needing to have that generation defining masterpiece happening on your watch. i have yet to meet anyone who regards extras as anything other than ok or entertaining.

also on the bad can someone please put Have I Got News For You out of its misery.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link

At the risk of inviting hate mail, I'd argue that Gervais and Merchant's second sitcom is, objectively, a patchy programme.

At the risk of, on this reviewer's logic, inviting lynch-mobs to my door, I'd argue that Extras was shite.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Radio Ha Ha is great. I was fooled by it the first time.

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:10 (eighteen years ago) link

sometimes writers employ rhetorical devices.

xpost

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:10 (eighteen years ago) link

wait, i'm thinking of that other thing on radio 4. carry on. xpost

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:10 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost: Yes, but I still think the sentence panders unnecessarily towards Extras when it can really go for the kill instead.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago) link

'This week: Worzel says all reggae is vile.' thread actually linked to from John Harris wikipedia!

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago) link

A handful of contributors to the I Love Music boards have strongly attacked what they as a thread of covert racism in some of his work

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:13 (eighteen years ago) link

david quantick wrote a book about chris rock?

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS COMING OUT OF MY QUIZZICALLY PURSED LIPS?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:18 (eighteen years ago) link

to get off the hate and link to Quantick... TV Burp is back on Saturday! woo! Harry on this year's CBB should be a joy.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link

for reference or summat from the green wing thread:

To put things into context: Harry Hill aside, all British TV Comedy right now is total shit.

-- Ruairi Wirewool (horseproduction...), January 15th, 2007. (Ruairi Wirewool) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

what were the chances of that happening?
-- mark grout (mark.grou...), January 15th, 2007. (mark grout) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you can put CT and Green Wing on a par, you truly show a lack of discernment IMO.
Frankly, now that GW has been and gone, I'm inclined to agree with Ruairi, minus the bit about Harry Hill.

-- You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (papiermachealamphibia...), January 15th, 2007. (Haberdager) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you can put CT and Green Wing on a par, you truly show a lack of discernment IMO.
no it's just a 'higher' (or rather 'stricter') level of discernment.

-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'the thick of it' will be back, later in the year, and so will 'peep show'.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

but in a another more accurate sense...
-- mark s (mar...), January 15th, 2007. (mark s) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

but then i do like Harry Hill so it's apples and roundabouts.
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

rubbish
-- RJG (RJ...), January 15th, 2007. (RJG) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so you keep saying
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RJG's TV Burp
-- Dom Passantino (juror...), January 15th, 2007. (Dom Passantino) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hmm. I was only talking about currently-running comedy shows. If Peep Show returns for a fourth bite at the cherry (and TTOI for a second), I will only be too delighted. Of course, the one I'm really looking out for is Nathan Barley II.
-- You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (papiermachealamphibia...), January 15th, 2007. (Haberdager) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i think it would be a big ask for there to be a 'great' uk comedy series to be running all 52 weeks of the year. i have low standards perhaps; but i don't ask for a 'great' film each month either.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

of course i too want 'nathan barley' back.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They could drop scissors on a dog's head this time.
-- Dom Passantino (juror...), January 15th, 2007. (Dom Passantino) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

uh, rose-tinted view there i reckon - but at least it was generating interesting discussion.
one episode of Screen Wipe a month would be good. ditto TV Burp.

-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ha ha Dom OTM
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unread Messages
as with 'green wing', take away the hype and the expectation it'll live up to 'the day today' and 'nathan barley' was 23 minutes well-spent. i lolled anyway.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i didn't laugh more than i did laugh etc.
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:00 (eighteen years ago) link

We're, what, 18 months away from NB now? Can we work out why it was so bad and so hated yet?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link

we already did!

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link

like, 5 minutes after the end credits!

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm talking about THE BENEFIT OF DISTANCE AND HINDSIGHT

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Charlie Brooker's Monday G2 column is weird because you can see the video game journalist in him threatening to break through at any moment. qf the Geoff Capes gag in today's etc.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Louis you seem to be assuming that the guy from the Indie actually thinks Extras is shite, which isn't what he's saying. Something can be patchy and still have plenty of redeeming features overall

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:06 (eighteen years ago) link

It wasn't bad. It was funny, well-drawn and turn-itself-inside-out clever, not to mention superbly casted and acted. It needs re-watching cos it skips from one idea to the next so quick, but yeh, it's awesome.

And Screen Wipe rocks.

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Brooker should start doing his columns in cartoon strip form, like those ads for some gaming shop or other that were always in Gamesmaster magazine

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:08 (eighteen years ago) link

ok 'nathan barley' in the oh-7: that corner of east london had probably lost its edge well before 2005, but now it feels even less edgy. the kind of magazine the show is lampooning is long gone. i have even forgotten the name of that sleazenation guy the guardian hired. but there were some very good throwaway gags.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:10 (eighteen years ago) link

the IT crowd was about 300 times better than nathan barley if we're talking post being any good chris morris.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago) link

i know a person who knows the redhead, from that.

it was good, but not 300 times better than 'nathan barley'.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago) link

30 times?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago) link

IT Crowd would've been a lot better without the Irish guy.

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago) link

no. i actually disagree that it's better, but even if i dodn't i wouldn't say more than 1.5 times.

xpost

steve otm

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago) link

it had jokes and didn't feel like an attempt to make a big insightful statement about something. nathan barley missed so many targets, pulled so many punches and generally got the tone wrong (we should HATE NB) that for me at least its glaring faults overrid any of it's mildly amusing qualities.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago) link

well this was the thing, we weren't entirely supposed to hate nathan barley.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Are you sure that's not just because they fucked up the characterisation?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link

oh he was hateable enough but his foil dan ashcroft, ie the viewers, was not much better. and i guess you can hate someone and be jealous of them.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago) link

if you don't hate him what's the point? the original tv go home columns had him (or maybe it was his frineds) getting blowjobs from underage hookers and stuff. in the tv show he's just bloke in a silly hat who says daft things. how are we supposed to give a shit about might boosh man if all he's supposedly kicking against are people who are a bit silly? they could have created a proper comedy monster but it was just nothing.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

the original tv go home columns had him (or maybe it was his frineds) getting blowjobs from underage hookers and stuff.

this happened in the show except he thought she turned out not be under-age (at which point NB thinking it now okay to pretend she WAS under-age was actually quite a clever little point about...something or other).

i did hate NB but yes no less than anyone else around him.

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

no more, rather

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought that was kinda the idea, that NB was a harmless berk, mooching around London and getting into scrapes like a coked up Shaggy, and DA (because of his own self-loathing) decides to not sort himself out, but instead write columns about how idiotic the rest of the world is.

Actually, scratch that, that's not the idea at all. It's funny caricatures falling into situations and scrambling to return to the status quo whilst simultaneously being trapped; a very old-fashioned sitcom thread. I certainly didn't feel that is was trying to make a big insightful statement about something, at least, nothing larger than "it's better to like something than to dislike something."

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link

the barley getting a bj ep was better than any 'it crowd'.

'THIR-FUCKING-TEEN'.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Acrobat OTM.
In TV Go Home, 'Cunt' was unbridled misanthropy. 'Nathan Barley' gave us a guy who was a bit of a tool. You could forgive Barley being sympathetic if it was an entirely naturalistic piece, but the tone was so inconsistent.

In fairness, I guess originally Barley wasn't really a character, just a cipher, and in making him human Morriss and Brooker made him more, er, human. I just don't think that made for great comedy. It wasn't sharp enough to be genuine satire and it wasn't silly enough to be knockabout comedy. It was just 'dark'.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Monday, 15 January 2007 16:54 (eighteen years ago) link

on a thread that started with a load of gervais bashing... Barley should have been presented more like david brent. deluded, egotistical, actually unpleasant but whom we might in the end feel some sympathy for. all the "idiots" seemed nice, there was so sense of infighting or bitchiness which seemed wrong to me. also they could have had some more funny lines.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:02 (eighteen years ago) link

So was the "nicening" of NB down to Brooker, Morris, or Channel 4 themselves?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:04 (eighteen years ago) link

what do YOU think?

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link

'Cunt' was very funny in TVGH, on the whole, but a half-hour show on actual telly where he actually did those things would have probably been a bit shit to say the least

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I've just rememberd Baddiel's Syndrome again.

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:20 (eighteen years ago) link

lost classic?

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:40 (eighteen years ago) link

certainly one of those two

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Should have been 30 minutes each week of David Baddiel pointing out who people look like.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Or a study of people who keep saying things sarcastically even if they mean it sincerely (this may be more Newman Syndrome tho).

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:47 (eighteen years ago) link

those baddiel and skinner unplanned episodes are the nadir of something or rather. some cultural wave definetely died on that sofa. faux laddism or whatever john harris, james brown called it finally dying on it's arse as middle aged men bullying people without microphones.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link

'So was the "nicening" of NB down to Brooker, Morris, or Channel 4 themselves?'

I doubt whether Channel 4 enforced any 'nicening'.
You know, maybe Barley always looked like that in Brooker's head, and if you boil the actions in any of the episodes down to the kind of 3-sentence description that you would find in TV Go Home, it wouldn't be that different. But TVGH gave the impression that Barley was a cartoonishly horrible amoral grotesque, and that's not what we got in the TV show. We got 'idiots'. I hoped it would be either venemous or ridiculous and it was neither.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Monday, 15 January 2007 18:09 (eighteen years ago) link

francis macdonald of teenage fanclub etc on myspace on gervais:

pt. I

pt. II

RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 09:51 (eighteen years ago) link

the comedy conceit of the piece is that people in third world countries dying of aids and starvation rarely complain about ME.

i lolled?

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 09:54 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm still lolling

RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 09:57 (eighteen years ago) link

But TVGH gave the impression that Barley was a cartoonishly horrible amoral grotesque, and that's not what we got in the TV show.

Oh okay, I didn't read the website so I didn't know what was supposed to happen, I only saw (and liked) what did.

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 10:04 (eighteen years ago) link

francis macdonald OTM.

Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 10:05 (eighteen years ago) link

pt. II

RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 10:07 (eighteen years ago) link

woah, deja-vu

Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 10:13 (eighteen years ago) link

after his roaring sucess with the television adaption of internets phenomenon nathan barley i think chris morris should do a dark and edgy adaption of the potter puppet pals.(http://www.potterpuppetpals.com/)

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 11:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Mark Heap could bother Richard Ayoade. I smell ratings.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago) link

does anyone hold out much hope that chris morris will or even has the incination to do anything of the day to day / brass eye quality again? watching nathan barley i just had this horrible sinking feeling which i guess is why it seems in memory so bad. all those expectations. then fucking time trumpet. armando discovers youtube. that whole 90s axis seems to have really lost it. is it coming to the point where "new chris morris show" is as exciting as i dunno "new ben elton show"?

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:09 (eighteen years ago) link

no-one remains hot for that long, it really doesn't bother me. the question is does anyone younger got any game? morris will keep on doing things, and it's not out of the question he'll come back strong one day, but i would never expect anyone to consistently put out new shows on the level of 'brass eye' or 'blue jam' each year. that's incredibly rare in any artistic medium.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Morris' "hot" period was really short though: 1994 through 1996. Baby D were on top of things for longer than that.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:14 (eighteen years ago) link

bawww-sheeit.

'TDT' radio show was 1992. he was doing big things on london radio about then too.

'blue jam' dropped at the arse-end of '97 and was hot into the double-nine.

for me it went bad with 'jam' but then i was a student contrarian at the time, maybe i missed out.

it's just that there was a looong hiatus between the underwhelming 'brass eye '01' and 'nathan barley'.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:16 (eighteen years ago) link

'TDT' radio show

ie 'on the hour' (in b4 sotcaa smackdown).

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:18 (eighteen years ago) link

"the double-nine". is this new ilx trucker lingo?

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:19 (eighteen years ago) link

'TDT' radio show

ie 'on the hour' (in b4 sotcaa smackdown).

on which Morris had only as much if not less input than Lee, Herring, Marber, Baynham etc. [/sotcaa swot]

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:21 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah well.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:22 (eighteen years ago) link

i only became aware of morris really round the period of BES '01. actually i saw jam when i was about 14 but had been all "where's the lolz?" in 1998 adam and joe were ruling my comedy anyway. thing about morris thou is that he, perhaps inadvertently, has built up this mystique. the BES furore cemented this image of reclusive, mysterious, media agitator genius in impressionable minds. then you go back and watch the dvds and yeh he was hot. it seems he's become like peter cook but without the being dead get out clause. actually his career maps pretty well onto that of radiohead. yeh chris morris is the thom yorke of comedy. i can't wait to get LJ's view on this.

fig 1
the day today = bends
brass eye = ok computer
blue jam = kid a
jam = amnesiac
BES = hail to the thief
nathan barley / it crowd = the eraser

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:30 (eighteen years ago) link

isn't the whole reason Morris went to C4 to do his 'own' thing because they all fell out over who got the credit for what material etc.

as a team they really were a 90s Python only with a much more 'subliminal' influence on everything after (they're all known but not really as celebrated as Python gang were after they disbanded). i know the comparisons only stretch so far.

After Python there seemed to be quite a gap between something like that and early 80s 'alternative' 'edgy' stuff (Comic Strip etc.), only a handful of decent well crafted sitcoms in the 70s - which seems stranger and stranger looking back. perhaps we're seeing a similar effect even now with Whitehouse having killed laughtrack sketchom only for it's reanimated corpse to stalk the lands taller than ever before in Little Britain and Tate. Gervais is an anomaly with ridiculous carte blanche but can take 'credit' for pushing 'reality comedy' into mainstream. The conventional sitcoms remains thwarted, no show in that vein unable to command mass appeal of even mid 90s predecessors.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:34 (eighteen years ago) link

no because 'the bends' was suckage and 'the day today' was not.

i think you're gonna have a very different perspective than me tbh, my dad knew about him before i did via radio 4 and he basically made me watch 'the day today', and then there was the radio one music show which was a revelation -- but also not infallible. so yeah the post-jam mystique is a bit lame, but it really is a recent development within his career, and arguably it ended with 'nathan barley' anyway.

xpost

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:34 (eighteen years ago) link

yeh chris morris is the thom yorke of comedy.

or the Mel C.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:35 (eighteen years ago) link

undergrads don't call mel c a "genius" much. maybe they did in 1998...

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh Christ, people were doing the Morris maps to Radiohead thing on SOTCAA eight years ago. Sorry, perhaps you weren't to know that.

Yes, his very best work is probably behind him but I have a lot of time for most of his stuff post-BE. It was the "utter shit"/"I turned it off during the ad break" reaction of many posters on the SOTCAA/NotBBC/CaB forums to the BE P43d0 Special back in 2001 that made me realise that I just wasn't going to hack it as one of that crowd. Maybe I'm too easily amused.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:37 (eighteen years ago) link

re python -- mark s's boy ben thompson says more like the 'beyond the fringe' crew and he's otm.

cook - morris
miller - marber
moore - coogan (ok it breaks down a bit here)
bennett - iannucci (wheels: off)

but he's still sort of otm.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:39 (eighteen years ago) link

under-rated show (but then so is TMWRNJ)

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:44 (eighteen years ago) link

but then i think TMWRNJ is ultimately better than any Morris-led stuff.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:44 (eighteen years ago) link

ah well yes, TF/SNA.

iannucci has come back from post-TDT mediocrity (imo) to awesomeness. to be fair he's more of a producer than the other stuff but even still.

'TMWRNJ' has never been underrated on this talkboard.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd say it has actually, TMWRNJ, The Adam and Joe Show, and In Bed With Medinner are the holy trinity of 90s comedy. It's impossible to overrate them.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:45 (eighteen years ago) link

but then i think TMWRNJ is ultimately better than any Morris-led stuff.
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 16th, 2007.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40897000/jpg/_40897670_crackpipe203spl.jpg

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:46 (eighteen years ago) link

GOOD ARGUMENT

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:47 (eighteen years ago) link

eight years ago? ha! ok any band / artist (accidently?) living on mystique earned during the 90s then.

xp

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Oasis

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

2Pac

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

tricky

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Longtime Stylus faves Embrace

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Whatever piece of shit band Perry Farrell is in these days

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

thin blue line

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:51 (eighteen years ago) link

oops

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago) link

chris morris and peter cook made a good radio series together called "why bother?". er, download it from somewhere, its worth it!

zappi (joni), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, OK, maybe it wasn't 8 years ago (I associate time spent slapping my forehand in frustration at idiotic SOTCAAishness [and mostly not posting] with goofing off on the Web during my pharma job in Welwyn and that was 8 years ago); perhaps the Radiohead thing was more in the wake of BES. I'm not about to run any searches to try and find out.

Whither Lionel Nimrod?

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:55 (eighteen years ago) link

bit i remember from hearing that is peter cook say somethin along the lines of "oh you're going to make me work aren't you."

xp

also surely the true inheritors of brass eye are balls of steel and the friday night project. in a roundabout kinda way. alex zane mocking anne frank writer is speak yr brain fed through the millenial vice mentaility.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:05 (eighteen years ago) link

whatever you say chief.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:10 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm aiming to get head hunted by comment is free.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

"the true inheritors of brass eye are balls of steel and the friday night project"

you made me sick up a little

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

but you can see so much shit where someone has seen brass eye a bit of jackass (maybe some beadle) and said "we could do that only a bit more..." i'm not sure what the next word would be.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago) link

"relevant"

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd be very surprised if the pitch for Friday Night Project didn't mention Morris at some point, put it that way.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago) link

"Brass Eye meets Jackass for the Libertines generation ON DRUGS" or summat

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago) link

have you fellas seen 'brass eye'? it's like a parody of 'panorama'?

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

The question isn't have I seen it, it's has TV funnyman Marc Dolan seen it.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Y'see, you just mention FNP or BoS and straightaway I'm quite keen to get back to Stewart Lee talking about Rape An Ape.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link

What should be on Channel 4 on Friday nights?

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

all those funny programmes the americans talk about. '30 rock' and whatnot. it couldn't be any worse than the carr/JLC axis.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link

they're not allowed to rely on American imports like that.

when Celeb BB finishes what will they do. show a film?

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link

they're not allowed to rely on American imports like that.

rly?

my recollection of the 1990s (which is pretty good!) is that they always showed 'friends' and 'frasier' on fridays.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link

They should have snapped up 'Entourage' - Sundays Dorkapalooza ep was sublime, but how many people watch ITV2?

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago) link

space 1999 is wasted on ITV4

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago) link

my recollection of the 1990s (which is pretty good!) is that they always showed 'friends' and 'frasier' on fridays.

and now Ugly Betty. my point is they can't show JUST American shows on a Friday night.

is Entourage really as good/bad as people keep suggesting?

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:56 (eighteen years ago) link

They should have snapped up 'Entourage' - Sundays Dorkapalooza ep was sublime, but how many people watch ITV2?
-- Jerry the Nipper (jerrythenippe...), January 16th, 2007.

cosign, it should have been a lock.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link

i rly like 'entourage'.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link

i saw a bit of 'Whatever' again the other week. shudders.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link

i tell you what is good. those 'spying on chavs' skits on Paramount between programmes.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link

space 1999 has just rolled over back to the beginning. last couple of episodes feature N's dad.

Anne Widdiecomb vs The Hoodies was funny last night. but i don't think that counts as comedy. actually, it did have a brasseye feel about it.

My Koogy Weighs A Ton (koogs), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link

i really want to see entourage, i even have a digibox, but because its on itv2 i haven't managed to catch an episode. when is studio 60 coming?

i am not a nugget (stevie), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link

"last couple of episodes feature N's dad"

main reason i keep watching.

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link

i have a terrible ph34r it won't now, and i have given up torrenting it :(

xpost

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link

it's a bit sad that american comedy is ruling things. funniest things i saw last year where arrested development and family guy. russell on big brother's big mouth is lolz but is own show was just high grade mediocrity. oh and tv burp and there was peep show which is funny but... i dunno underwhelming at the same time.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 14:58 (eighteen years ago) link

i rate 'peep show' very highly. what was exciting in the 90s was partly the sense of a comedy gang who contributed to each other's stuff: the day today crowd obviously, but they linked with 'father ted'... thinking about it 'big train' was rly good, the first series. and more mainstream stuff like 'the fast show' was much better than anything similar now. i don't have much love for the old-style sitcom in the death, then or now.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link

The thing about Peep Show is that it _is_ the best thing on British TV right now insofar as comedy, and that's so so depressing. It'd be kinda like if The High Life had been the best Britcom of the mid 90s.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link

nah. it's mint.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link

thinking about it 'big train' was rly good

agreed. it's aged v well.

what saves The IT Crowd is those typical Linehan/Matthews flourishes here and there.

one other good thing about Morris which I miss in this Gervais-dominated period was his media reticence (which he claimed was thrust upon him i.e. people were too scared to talk to him or just assumed he wouldn't want to).

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link

Still Game being ignored again! Best laugh-track sitcom since Black Books.

Annually Retentive was frustrating because Rob Brydon seemed to be ruining his own great ideas half the time, even if most of them were based on Sanders, David etc.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:47 (eighteen years ago) link

the morris radio show (wot i have now downloaded :) a mere 4-odd gb) is odd because it's quite 'public', on at 9-10pm, and probably disorientating, because he was so amazingly hostile to the rest of radio one. especially bruno brookes.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't "get" still game. the gervais / kay / little britain axis did produce great great stuff a few years back. the office, that peter kay thing and rock profiles were all great, great, great.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:53 (eighteen years ago) link

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tqiFRyk1LY0

better then peep show say i.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:54 (eighteen years ago) link

i have never 'got' peter kay.

funny how forgotten eddie izzard is. he was a lot more prominent than any of the people we're fellating on this thread at the time.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:54 (eighteen years ago) link

never did tv did he? apart from "cows". i think, never saw it.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Cows was four years in development, but it was so bad Channel 4 buried it at, like, 11:30 on a Wednesday or something.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, never made a big show, but he was on tv all the time, far more than morris. iirc it was only with the third season of 'father ted' that that got any love, too.

xpost

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago) link

didn't he replace merton on "have i got news for you" for a series? i know people in late teens early twenties who like the izzard but he hasn't got morris' hip cachet has he? he's kind of cuddly. all my female english teachers loved him.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:02 (eighteen years ago) link

actually one of them spoke like him. you know that voice he does. that was really annoying.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I hated Rock Profiles myself. Lucas will never top George Dawes which seems a shame.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago) link

that's right (i just imdb'd it). he was massive, anyway -- and vic and bob, still, with 'shooting stars'. i knew like one other person who listened to 'blue jam'. but yeah the izzard voice was quite the thing.

saying 'what am i fuckin noddy', not so much.

xpost

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago) link

flippin' knees round me ears...

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago) link

saying 'what am i fuckin noddy', not so much.

it is in our house (yes even today i'm afraid).

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago) link

that's a good thing!

'it's outrrrAGEOUS'

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago) link

top google result for 'what am i fuckin noddy'

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=64446617

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r68/daveinarave/ske.gif

this dude looks like a certain ilx poster.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago) link

a new Vic & Bob equivalent might be good actually. Northern* surrealist revival minus the pretensions of London scene. went to bog-standard schools and colleges but still well-read and clever enough to refer to things as much as Vic & Bob. keep the slapstick and knob gags to a minimum tho.

*mainly just because i enjoy the accents

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago) link

father ted got much love by the 2nd season for sure.

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link

for reals? ok.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Enrique showing a great deal of OTM-ness throughout this thread. Just thought I'd drop in and say that I have every single episode of Blue Jam, I listen to them with great regularity, and that it is by far my favourite (and most-quoted) show of all-time, TV or radio. It genuinely is next-level stuff, with the sort of ambition, comedic brilliance, emotion, and interest-value no other show on earth could have dreamed of.

Father Ted, Fawlty Towers and Peep Show is in my book the holy trinity of Britcom.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago) link

'blue jam' also has flat-out awesome music, it's no way as ambient-warpy as the cd (as you might imagine, what with it being on warp).

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, exactly. The near-abstract combination of incredible, chilled-out if emotionally stirring music and pitch-black, unsettling sketch humour is done perfectly. I actually bought the best of Dubstar purely on having heard a couple of their songs on Blue Jam. There's one song called 'Let Your Light Shine On Me' whose author I cannot for the life of me trace, which is starting to irritate me a bit.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago) link

probably Sting

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Blue Jam was full of "chart weird" music, right? Aphex Twin, Bjork, Eels, Portishead, etc?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:29 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah but also random things like 'body talk' by imagination (kind of 80s funk i think), beach boys 'surf's up', best of all this looping of 'ray of light'.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago) link

No Aphex Twin (I don't think), but the other three definitely make an appearance. He loops the opening of 'Isobel' over one of his sketches, which works an absolute treat!

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

'windowlicker' appeared in the third series iirc but as i say, the cd is more ambient/homogenous (PUN) than the radio show.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link

probably my first exposure to parliament/funkadelic was on chris morris's radio show.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link

OMG when 'Ray Of Light' kicks in (after its middle-eight has been obliviously looped for a while) at the end of Rothko...OMG. Has to be heard. By everyone.

I haven't heard the CD, just get bit torrent and download the whole thing, it's the only way to hear it.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

On the CD there are at least two excerpts from SAW2.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

MTV for me. xpost

I've never seen much of Blue Jam. just wasn't that bothered. then i saw the Adam & Joe pisstake and felt validated.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Each episode starts and ends with a surreal if vaudevillian monologue, spoken over DJ Shadow's 'Stem-Long Stem', which kicks major-league ass.

LOL@Adam and Joe. They weren't really piss-takes, I thought they were quite affectionate, myself. Their Jam was superb, it has to be said.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

it didn't work so well on tv. a&j were otm. but again an hour long radio show late at night just has more scope for long stretches of music, kind of adds to the experience.

the opening music is an 'triguing montage. sly and the family stone ('time') also appear in it.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

oh shit i am a geek.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

it didn't work so well on tv. a&j were otm

Well, indeed. The actual visuals were always best-left to the imagination, and the television version dropped all the music, which robbed BJ of its soul (if not its content).

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link

The A&J pisstake ("Goitre") was actually included as an extra (hidden, maybe?) on the jam DVD release (the subtitles for which took up a chunk of my time back in 2003; oh, those wacky "corrections" allegedly from CM himself!).

Blue Jam was fantastic, jam less so.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link

only heard the blue jam cd at work. as i remember it's hardly lol a minute stuff. kinda like prog rock comedy or something. if it's had any effect on uk comedy i'd say it's mainly been negative. all the "edgy" nighty, nighty stuff type stuff. couple this with all the gervais /cye comedy of embarassment stuff it's not hard to see harry hill as some kind of saviour. anyone see al murray's show on saturday? i saw a bit but i realy don't like the pub land lord character...

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:09 (eighteen years ago) link

if it's had any effect on uk comedy i'd say it's mainly been negative. all the "edgy" nighty, nighty stuff type stuff.

otm

but you could say similar about massive attack and their influence on dido.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

I've never understood that character, I've never seen a pub landlord anything like him.

xpost

chap (chap), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

i saw a bit of his "audience with..." and he had garry bushell in the audience happily laughing his arse of at all the landlord's "ironic" mysoginy / homophobia etc, etc. made my brain hurt.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:14 (eighteen years ago) link

anyone see al murray's show on saturday?

it's the new Saturday Night With Lee Hurst or whatever that was called.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

prog rock comedy

You are hinting towards something I myself crave. It's quite a good way of putting it, although perhaps simply 'progressive comedy' might suffice better.

Blue Jam is not comedy of embarrassment, it is comedy of helplessnes and weakness. To claim that it's had any effect on Gervais (who I regard as a charlatan, a funny man but a charlatan) is almost heresy in my eyes.

Nighty Night just didn't have the same vibe. Like Jam, it was dark, but Blue Jam really is something else entirely. Don't base your opinions on the CD, invest some time in the whole thing. Seventeen hour-long comedy concept albums, each one a work of crazed genius.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

it is comedy of helplessnes and weakness.

how does it make helplessness/weakness actually funny? just via surrealism and the inappropriate happening?

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:17 (eighteen years ago) link

It reveals the human inability to deal with situations anywhere outside our society- and self-constructed 'comfort zone'.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

that sounds really funny

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:20 (eighteen years ago) link

i saw a bit of his "audience with..." and he had garry bushell in the audience happily laughing his arse of at all the landlord's "ironic" mysoginy / homophobia etc, etc. made my brain hurt.

"So Roger, I hear you've got a ten-inch cock..."

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, it is. That's not its only purpose, mind; it also shows what happens when people who look at the world differently clash with those who conform (and therein lies the greater part of its subversion).

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Nighty Night wasn't actually funny for me, just some sort of vaguely admirable well-written demonstration of 'evil' but presented as a light-hearted 'farce' (for want of proper term) for that surreal quality. But that's black comedy i guess.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:22 (eighteen years ago) link

It reveals the human inability to deal with situations anywhere outside our society- and self-constructed 'comfort zone'.

it also shows what happens when people who look at the world differently clash with those who conform (and therein lies the greater part of its subversion).

you may be right but still not seeing how these convert to roffles, other than in the latter's case the obvious juxtaposition and subsequent confounding of expectations (which isn't/doesn't have to be done dark of course).

i mean a woman crying and when asked what's wrong saying 'i can't feel my cock' IS/was funny provided it's done with the right tone but beyond that it just didn't do it for me...

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:25 (eighteen years ago) link

"Seventeen hour-long comedy concept albums, each one a work of crazed genius.

i think i'll stick with family guy.

i think a big problem is, for me anyway, often the funny comes before the thinking. i admire the satirical intent of brass eye but to be honest richard blackwood saying "i feel suggestible now" or the purves grundy "me oh myra bit" are just funny cos well i'm not sure. or mark heap swearing at a cow, it didn't make me thing about "people who look at the world differently clash with those who conform" but it made me laugh a lot.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link

i mean a woman crying and when asked what's wrong saying 'i can't feel my cock'

You've chosen one of the more obtuse, wilfully 'outrageous' sketches. The majority of BJ has some grounding in logic. Not the logic of any other show, mind.

You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago) link

I think Scourage is overselling the subversive genius angle of Blue Jam just a tad; my enjoyment of it was far more superficial - I found it as immediate in its lollacity and rofflage as yr undark tellyMorris. They were wonderful works for voice - and few do deadpan as well as deadpan Cann (can).

I mean, the monologues were a slower, richer source of hyuks but, still, there wasn't a point at which I thought, "Oh yes! I was feeling faintly nauseated there for a while but NOW I see how he's challenging convention - ha ha ha!" It was all pretty amusin' to me.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, that's not to say that the laughter wasn't immediate! Of course many of the sketches were instantly funny; if they weren't I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much! I'm just saying that the immediate laughter is often derived from such cultural subversions as I have named, on a purely technical level. One of the funniest things I've ever seen was Jam's finest hour, and the closest it came to appropriating BJ, in its version of BJ's 'Unflustered Parents'. Not the version they showed, mind, but an extra on the Jam DVD, in which genuine audience response was played over the sketch. As it turns out, most of this response was hysterical laughter. It gave one of the darkest, most disturbing sketches of recent times a feelgood, 'comedy classic' aura, as we and the audience laughed along to a couple of parents reacting to the rape and murder of their son as if it were a cracked flowerpot (the aforementioned Cann pulling off an astonishing performance). This brilliant challenge to what instant, hilarious, laugh-out-loud comedy COULD be is what makes both BJ and Jam so great IMO.

the killfire konspiracy (Haberdager), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 17:50 (eighteen years ago) link

You've chosen one of the more obtuse, wilfully 'outrageous' sketches. The majority of BJ has some grounding in logic. Not the logic of any other show, mind

I was talking about this 'sketch' on the TV version (as I hadn't heard it on the radio show). But funny because I do tend to prefer logic/realism in my comedy now (at least I do when it's comedy set in our real world e.g. Peep Show, Extras). But I do need to listen and watch the shows properly to really be sure of all this.

I found it as immediate in its lollacity and rofflage as yr undark tellyMorris.

I think Morris has always traded this way e.g. laughs for the puerile gags (road sign called 'Youngbottom Ride' on the BE TV special) as big if not bigger than the ones reserved for the actual 'satire'. He seems to love the puerile as much as anyone else really.

but an extra on the Jam DVD, in which genuine audience response was played over the sketch. As it turns out, most of this response was hysterical laughter. It gave one of the darkest, most disturbing sketches of recent times a feelgood, 'comedy classic' aura, as we and the audience laughed along to a couple of parents reacting to the rape and murder of their son as if it were a cracked flowerpot (the aforementioned Cann pulling off an astonishing performance). This brilliant challenge to what instant, hilarious, laugh-out-loud comedy COULD be is what makes both BJ and Jam so great IMO.

again isn't this just 'let's confound expectations in a rather obvious way whilst using brutal subject matter for added punch' or am i still missing something? i suppose years later it might not seem as impressive because of copycats, internet stuff etc. but still.

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link

i know that sketch with the dead kid from the tv show and the cd. it's certainly memorable but i don't remember laughing much. what is it actually meant to be satirizing? bad parenting? yes it's a clever conceit but it just seems sort of empty. funniest thing on jam IMO was the day kilroy went mad. jam had a nice atmosphere and was kinda immersive but seems now like such a dead end.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 18:12 (eighteen years ago) link

in which genuine audience response was played over the sketch. As it turns out, most of this response was hysterical laughter.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding you here, but by "genuine audience response" you don't actually mean a recorded response to this sketch, do you? Because it's obviously not - it's canned. I thought it was a fairly cheap gimmick, provoked (possibly) by the response of audience members to playback of BJ sketches at Battersea Arts Centre in '98 (where his brother is/was artistic director) - polite, simpering laughter which Morris apparently thought kinda depressing.

I sort of admire your zeal, Scourage, and I'm sure you're quite sincere in your enthusiasms but trumpeting the show's cultural subversions and its "brilliant challenge[s]" isn't, I don't think, going to convince the sceptics that it's funny. It's one of the hardest (and most futile) undertakings, that of selling a piece of comedy based on its perceived importance and innovation. Having said that, quoting funny lines out of context (another popular approach) doesn't work either. I suppose that's why I find your fandom a bit uncomfortable - you're championing something to people who aren't interested in terms I don't really recognise.

We can't really re-create the conditions in which you or I encountered BJ upon original broadcast for anyone else, so don't be surprised if someone goes away from this thread, downloads a couple of eps and is underwhelmed.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 22:33 (eighteen years ago) link

LJ must have been about 8 when BJ went out.

acrobat (elwisty), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 23:19 (eighteen years ago) link

lolz at the conformist squares in double figures

mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 00:39 (eighteen years ago) link

ha wikipedia gives us this info about Jam;

Genre - Ambient comedy

not quite prog then.

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 12:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Louis: would you rather a comedy was "intelligent" and mildly funny, or dumb and very funny?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 12:15 (eighteen years ago) link

What the hell did anyone think putting people in an arts centre and getting them to react to Blue Jam sketches was going to achieve?

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 12:24 (eighteen years ago) link

A playback of BJ sketches at Caesar's in Streatham, preferably at about 11:30 pm on Saturday, might have produced more invigorating results.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 12:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Dom: Interesting question. Good comedy can provide more than just laughter, it can provide bitterweet and perhaps even deflating satirical observations upon the vagaries of existence, so I'd say even a mildly funny comedy that has a great emotional effect upon the viewer (see: Monkey Dust) has a great deal of worth. Of course, when you talk about 'dumb' comedy that's 'very funny', you're getting onto tricky ground. Surely for something to be 'very funny' and somehow not hackneyed, uninteresting or repetitive, it wouldn't be 'dumb' but very cleverly made. If by that you mean 'Airplane!' and others of that puerile (if insatiably hilarious) type, I'd have answered in 'dumb/very funny's' favour a few years ago, although now I'm really not so sure. Airplane! isn't that dumb anyway, not nearly as dumb as much British television nowadays.

the killfire konspiracy (Haberdager), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 12:42 (eighteen years ago) link

What the hell did anyone think putting people in an arts centre and getting them to react to Blue Jam sketches was going to achieve?

Er, some pleasure for the audience? Some gauge of how effective the material was for the creators? I dunno, why do anything ever? They were all on the floor on cushions in complete darkness, apparently. I imagine it was all rather awkward. Apart from the ubiquitous snogging couple.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 13:09 (eighteen years ago) link

well they'd only just met...

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago) link

and then she noticed he was in fact made out of gristle and JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMM

anyway... LJ's point kinda hold i think the comedy programs held in the most affection tend not to be simply 'cos of the roffles. there's also a gender thing. there's a certain generalization about the ladies liking lolz only as a side order to soapiness or "feeling good" friends or green wing tend to be produced as evidence. there's a real covert thread of that in c & b world. cf there thread on upcoming stand up josie long. theory is kinda bollocks cos loads of gurls like family guy which is like the most unemotional program ever.

back to the main point. the way LJ regards chris morris is kinda like the way "the nation" regards only fools and horses: a non comedic element has become, in talking about it at least, the chief reason for the cherishing of it. possibly.

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago) link

The division between 'dumb' and 'intelligent' comedy is hard to discern at times, though. Are 'Father Ted' and 'The Day Today' dumb? They certainly have plenty of dumb jokes in 'em.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

most good comedy operates on more than one level like that.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, I used deliberately innacurate terminology because I kinda wanted to see what LJ's approach was.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago) link

so what is yr definition of straight up dumb comedy? "dirty sanchez"? dumb comedy that's really funny?

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

straight up dumb (fictional) comedy = most conventional sitcoms (v thin on the ground now in the UK)

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

the only thing i can think of that reasonably fits the bill is my hero. my family is quite knowing really and the writing is pretty tight.

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

If you're counting Family Guy as 'dumb comedy', it's dumb comedy that's smart enough to know how to get plenty of laughs. I'm not its biggest fan (I've since discovered Arrested Development and Peep Show which are smart on more or less every level, with the belly-laughs a comedy needs fitted as standard), but I do find it funny.

Father Ted and The Day Today use 'dumbness' in a manner that almost entirely removes the stupidity, because they do it with such unremitting poise.

the killfire konspiracy (Haberdager), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Linehan & Matthews wanted 'Father Ted' to be stupid though. And it is - there's a few arch jokes here and there, and subversions of sitcom tropes, but for the most part it's basic, silly comedy. And it's wonderful.

'Peep Show' is intelligent with regard to the subjects it handles, but I never notice the actual jokes being that esoteric.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link

I love Father Ted as much as anyone, but I don't like it to be described as 'stupid' when it's been written so intelligently. Perhaps my definition of 'stupid' isn't quite the same as everyone else's. Would there be a better word we could use? 'Blunt-force comedy'?

the killfire konspiracy (Haberdager), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:17 (eighteen years ago) link

'Peep Show' is intelligent with regard to the subjects it handles, but I never notice the actual jokes being that esoteric.

joek

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:18 (eighteen years ago) link

It is stupid though! I don't mean that in a demeaning way, comedy can be very effective when it's stupid. I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say it wasa written intelligently. I mean, we know Linehan & Matthews are very intelligent people, but Father Ted is plain daft. Plain daft with better jokes than any other sitcom of it's kind. Linehan himself has said that 'Stupid' is what they were aiming for.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Thursday, 18 January 2007 00:01 (eighteen years ago) link

example of Father Ted's edge over other 'trad' sitcoms: the set-up for Ted looking like Hitler when seen thru the window by the Chinese dude

that sort of thing just doesn't happen in yer standard sitcom

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 18 January 2007 00:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Linehan himself has said that 'Stupid' is what they were aiming for.

he achieved this a lot better with The IT Crowd it would seem. i don't think he'd actually be capable of writing a 'stupid' Roy Clarke-esque sitcom.

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 18 January 2007 00:09 (eighteen years ago) link

Hey, don't diss the Clarkester - he wrote Rosie, Potter and Open All Hours as well as the interminable pensioner-in-bathtub thing (which wasn't all that bad back in the early Brian Wilde days).

(I'll admit to having not seen either of the first two in 20+ years - they could be dross misremembered as understated gems with cracking performances).

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 18 January 2007 00:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Open All Hours perhaps over-rated as well?
(I loved it as a kid of course, obviously decent work from Barker but was there really much else going for it?)

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 18 January 2007 00:22 (eighteen years ago) link

LOL moments from memory in 'blue jam' just to steer it away from the prog label:

- the doctor who has eleborate swearwords
- 'he killed the man'
- '--brackets--'
- rothko
- 'i work in the warm arts'
- 4ft car
- '...can't you just' (louis knows what i mean)
- the dance charts -- hackneyed but still funny

but also to repeat it was half a *music show*, and worked on those terms. think of it like steve wright in the wee hours or something.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:10 (eighteen years ago) link

what's wrong with PROG?

WOEbat (elwisty), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago) link

i have never heard any prog fwiw, but you know, shorthand.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:51 (eighteen years ago) link

The dance charts were hilarious.
'In at 2, it's 'Fat Weeping Bitch' recorded in tribute to the Wu-Tang's GZA in case he was shot and released last week by accident.'
I remeber one track was called 'Manhattan Is My Wristwatch'. I have no idea why I find that funny.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:12 (eighteen years ago) link

on one of the 1994 dance charts: 'there is no number nine.'

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:15 (eighteen years ago) link

'Techno News with Troy Wembley' on the NME 'funny' page did more or less the same thing slightly earlier. Maybe I was just at the right age but it made me cry with laughter on occasion

Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:16 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah they always work. i think peter cook did one in the 70s?

putting me in mind of attractive women (Enrique), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Peter Cook Techno News yes please

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:32 (eighteen years ago) link

the NME 'funny' page

Ah there was often comedy gold to be found there. Favourite ever was insults from Huey of the Fun Lovin' criminals:

You still pushing your jaw each way but westwards? You're raising my pressure quickstyle my friend, upside like a doped joker. i'm gonna cut you open so far you'll be up all night stitchin' your backpipe together just so you can start weepin'! You're gonna need eleven different kinds of treatment! You'll be tryin' to find ice till there's no more ice!

(from memory, tragically)

ledge (ledge), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:39 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm gonna cut you open so far you'll be up all night stitchin' your backpipe together just so you can start weepin'!

roffle all the way home . . .

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:40 (eighteen years ago) link

a lot of 'select' funnies were by the 'father ted' graham wotsit.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:41 (eighteen years ago) link

harry hill's tv burp back on saturday. wonder if he'll makes lolz about the CBB situation. tbh clips of jade et al then cutting back to harry doing the forehead slapping and "duh" noise would be funny enough.

acrobat (elwisty), Thursday, 18 January 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

From the NME funnies:
Two weeks after R Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly', Boyz II Men release 'Airborne Self-Propulsion Is A Myth' in protest.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Thursday, 18 January 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I want to form a band called 'The Current Size Of India' and release a single called 'Putting Me In Mind of Attractive Women' because of those dance charts.

Enrique's list is good, and contains (just about) two of my top-3 BJ moments...

3) Series 1 Episode 4, 25:10. The sprightly, uptempo groove accompanying Michael Alexander St.John's dance countdown suddenly morphs (in the radio equivalent of bone-spaceship in 2001:ASO) seamlessly into Lennon's '#9 Dream'.

2) Series 2 Episode 4, 27:59. The Rothko monologue ends. Accompanied by the melancholic, chilled middle-eight of Madonna's 'Ray Of Light', although you don't know that at this stage. As the monologue ends, the building, throbbing intro to the actual song bounces into gear, and as the last word is spoken, Madonna's heavenly voice takes up the baton. As a moment of sadness into happiness it is unparalleled.

1) Series 2, Episode 1, 34:18.

"Well, we'll just have to get used to it being just the two of us again."

"Mmmmmmm..."

unmixed by DJ Mrs. Clark of Egham (Haberdager), Thursday, 18 January 2007 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link

louis, i'm reaching out here but what are you on with this "Madonna's heavenly voice" bullcrap!? it *is* a seminal moment i grant yer, but that song would have been better if orbit had got like... nathalie from the all saints to sing on it ffs!

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 18 January 2007 15:23 (eighteen years ago) link

nah

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 18 January 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Not heavenly in the context of singers, but with all the effects thrown onto it by Orbit it genuinely sounds as if it's being beamed down from somewhere up in the sky (well, it does to me at any rate), especially coming after Morris' hangdog deadpan drawl. You have a point, though, and I should probably have phrased it better.

balling fart-ravine (Haberdager), Thursday, 18 January 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link

i think the loop makes me think 'wouldn't it be nice if this was ALL instrumental'. but on the other hand it is one of madonna's less terrible vocal performances.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 18 January 2007 15:42 (eighteen years ago) link

question: could little britain have happened, in the sense of all the "un PC" gags, without morris legitimizing bad taste humour for the mark lawsons of this world?

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 02:53 (eighteen years ago) link

We already had PLENTY of un-PC gags. Morris' weren't so much un-PC as satirical of political correctness, entirely self-aware and wittily subversive. Little Britain (which I only find offensive in terms of its simpering, lovvie awfulness and its appalling fanbase) took its cue from things like the League Of Gentlemen and the Fast Show (both infinitely better I hasten to add), which in turn originated in, I dunno, schlocky 80's horror (I really don't know, someone should clear this one up for me). To even bracket Morris with LB gives me the shudders, for were Walliams and Lucas to have actually watched and appreciated a single work of Morris, I'm sure their 'comedy' would be roughly seventeen times as funny as it currently is.

Bear in mind that I probably hate LB more than almost every single other person on earth, so I am speaking with an element of bias, but frankly, to blame CM for them is I think ridiculous.

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 02:59 (eighteen years ago) link

yes but "self-aware and wittily subversive" is the defense used for little britian. it's that way of thinking and talking about comedy thats lets us have such delights as ting tong macadacadingdong on bbc1. possibly.

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 03:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I gree LB could not have happened without certain grey areas being legitimized by Chris Morris, but then could the Suomi ethnic cleansing programme in Sweden have happened without Charles Darwin?

Pete (Pete), Friday, 19 January 2007 09:18 (eighteen years ago) link

jagger is otm re little britain's antecedents. something like 'nighty night' is more directly morris-y. but anyway it's not morris's fault what people take from him (and it's not like he was in a bubble or 100% original, and he had very talented collaborators...).

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 19 January 2007 09:26 (eighteen years ago) link

> jagger is otm re little britain's antecedents.

citation required.

there's a dvd extra on the LB dvds that is them talking about their influences but sadly(!) i haven't seen it. i have them down more as Dick Emery copyists.

My Koogy Weighs A Ton (koogs), Friday, 19 January 2007 10:32 (eighteen years ago) link

'Little Britain [...] took its cue from things like the League Of Gentlemen and the Fast Show'1

1 Jagger, Louis, posted at Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number, 19 January 2007

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 19 January 2007 10:37 (eighteen years ago) link

yeh but dick emery didn't have people proclaiming his work as satirical genius and i'm pretty sure he didn't have people puking after eating food cooked by asians. hey if you put some late nineties warp shit behind that and got julia davis and kevin eldon to act it...

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Little Britain's Tom Baker narrations are probably inspired by the similarly styled intro narrations from The Smell Of Reeves & Mortimer (Lucas having risen up thru ranks via them).

vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:03 (eighteen years ago) link

bollox, that's not blue-jammy at all, which was mostly about doctors, mental health, and our attitudes towards children.

xpost

steve otm there.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:04 (eighteen years ago) link

did morris never fuck with race then?

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:05 (eighteen years ago) link

Fur Q

vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:06 (eighteen years ago) link

"representing every black man in Britain.... i am deeply sorry"

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:10 (eighteen years ago) link

WOMAN: It's him from next door again.

MAN: What's he want now, eh?

[Him from next door enters - he's a stereotyped Pakistani character.]

HIM: Ah, Mr Eddie. I was wondering if I could be borrowing a cup of sugar for my lunch.

MAN: What's he say?

WOMAN: He said he wants you to give him a punch.

MAN: Ah. [He does so.]

HIM: Oooh, ooh! You misunderstanding me, I am asking for sugar. That is why I am here.

MAN: I can't understand a bleedin' word he's saying!

WOMAN: He says he wants you to give him a thick ear.

MAN: Oh, right. [He obliges.]

HIM: Oooow, ooooh!

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:11 (eighteen years ago) link

"representing every black man in Britain.... i am deeply sorry"
-- acrobat (p---_s---...), January 19th, 2007.

which makes a point, and a good one, about representations of race in current affairs broadcasting. 'little britain' isn't in the same game, let alone the same ballpark.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:12 (eighteen years ago) link

CHRIS MORRIS: BEATING DAVID WALLIAMS AT A GAME HE COULDN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO PLAY

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago) link

BUT LB would like to THINK, or at one point did, that something like the ladies being sick is making similar points. tbh honest i can't quite see the "point" if any of that sketch beyond sometimes "repectable" people harbour racist views but when it goes on week after week it kind of loses any meaning. surely though walliams and lucas would use some kind of satirical justification for that sketch.

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:16 (eighteen years ago) link

new thread idea: white male British comedians who HAVEN'T at one point or another 'blacked up'

vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 19 January 2007 11:27 (eighteen years ago) link

'little britain' isn't in the same game, let alone the same ballpark.

this is what i've been trying to say. the workings of, say, 'brass eye' are incalculably more interesting than the dumb-as-shit plodding idiocy of LB. to compare the two is futile.

answer to steve's question: Bill Bailey

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:42 (eighteen years ago) link

i am not comparing the two i am just saying one was less likely to have happened without the other.

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link

hmm, yes, but that in itself is an acknowledgement of artistic lineage and therefore an indirect comparison (or, to be fairer, it's a proposition that automatically invites comparison). Personally I think that if anything un-PC television became MORE of a risk after the BE paedophile special, and the outrage it engendered.

still the greatest (if you bear in mind its importance and the effect it had as well as its quality) single episode of television there has ever been.

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:36 (eighteen years ago) link

LB's off-beam Tom Baker narrations are right out of Lee and Herring's "Lionel Nimrod". LN featured Tom Baker introducing the show as an omniscient narrator who spouted nonsense. hmmm

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link

BES wasn't un PC it's most vocal supporters were all liberals!

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago) link

well, the best kind of un-PC is liberal un-PC! :-D

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 18:10 (eighteen years ago) link

what is fundementally wrong with political correctness?

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 19:31 (eighteen years ago) link

When people misinterpret its well-meaning essence and use it to excuse their own self-serving bullshit (see: most news stations, hence CM's parodies).

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 20:00 (eighteen years ago) link

isnt morris generally parodying the simplification and hyperbole of news media rather than attacking PC perse. maybe rosie may is an attack on evironmentalism but it's probably more just that it is quite funny to put a beard on Rebecca Front.

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, he's attacking sensationalism (and having a right good laugh at the same time), but he's also skewering a certain, cloying sort of hush-hush political correctness.

"These images were deemed too shocking to show. That we do so tonight is only with the proviso..."

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago) link

surely that's daily mail prudishness rather than PC?

acrobat (elwisty), Friday, 19 January 2007 21:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, I don't think the softly-softly ignore-it-and-it-disappears approach is typical of the Daily Mail, more the entire televisual media. Chris Morris isn't attacking one thing here anyway; he's savaging everything he hates, despises or finds amusing about the world of news reporting. Which amounts to quite a lot, in fact!

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 21:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I just think throwing the term PC around, especially in the sense of celebrating something being un PC exactly shows up the route that has taken us from morris to little britain

acrobat (elwisty), Saturday, 20 January 2007 02:18 (eighteen years ago) link

also
The existence of PC has been alleged and denounced by conservative, (Lind, Buchanan, Sobran), liberal (Hentoff 1992, Schlesinger 1998), and other (Brandt 1992) authors. Its existence, however, is hotly contested. Some left-wing authors (Messer-Davidow 1993, Schultz 1993, Glassner 1999) have argued that "political correctness" is a straw man, meant to discredit what they consider progressive social change, especially around issues of race and gender.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness#History

hey it's wikipedia but y know...

acrobat (elwisty), Saturday, 20 January 2007 02:19 (eighteen years ago) link

I have just watched my first ever episode of Harry Hill's TV Burp. I have never really liked Harry Hill, and my opinion hasn't changed as a result. Also, blacking up (crap sketch based on Dev from Coronation Street in the style of Morecambe and Wise making breakfast).

Dumb comedy = Not Going Out. An entire show based around the premise of using as much of Lee Mack's standup (generally unfunny) and Tim Vine's standup (hit and miss, usually fairly amusing) routines and then fashioning a ridiculously bad plot around them. Basically, it is extremely shite, but can also raise a giggle. But you'd be better watching Tim Vine doing stand-up rather than Tim Vine shoe-horning his stand-up into a ludicrous domestic sitcom.

ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 21 January 2007 12:52 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.dirkgently1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/harry.jpg

acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

that image signifies wrongness.

"tabby cat - can live with that
if it's leopardy - you're in jeopardy
except you know it doesn't actually work in the southern hemisphere..."

acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago) link

TV Burp made me cry with laughter as usual. Blacking up probably a bad idea tho. Ken Barlow as a ventriloquist's dummy is priceless.

God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:23 (eighteen years ago) link

i finally watched the Hill Xmas TV Burp last night and haven't roffled at anything that much for some time. this blacking up thing sounds wrong tho (saw some of last night's show but missed this).

vita susicivus (blueski), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I guess he'd argue that it was just part of his Dev impersonation, but however you look at it, he was getting roffles from the fact of blacking up.

I missed the Xmas ep :(

God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, that was good (Ken as dummy). I don't know what I was expecting TV Burp to be, but that wasn't it. Perhaps it would be better if (1) you mentalists hadn't made it out to be the greatest thing ever and (2) I didn't want to punch Harry Hill in the face every time he opens his mouth. Or does his hyuk hyuk face, in fact.

ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago) link

It is the best thing ever tho! The funniest, anyway. I guess hating HH's persona is a big stumbling block to getting full enjoyment. ;__;

God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

And I would have been very unlikely to see that woman who dressed her daughter up as a Doctor Who monster if not for TVB.

God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Sunday, 21 January 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link

re: the blacking up. i did go "eh?" but he dresses up as women if he's being deidre or janice battersby. i'm not sure the laugh was not 'cos he was in black face but because he was in dev's place.

so uh Shilpa Fuckawillah or Shilpa Poppadum for the next series of Little Britian?

acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 21 January 2007 19:14 (eighteen years ago) link

edit
i think the laugh was not 'cos he was in black face perse but because he was in dev's place being silly.

acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 21 January 2007 19:16 (eighteen years ago) link

I can see that. It's a very iffy line to walk though, and this was probably not the best week, TV-wise, to do it.

God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Sunday, 21 January 2007 19:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Noodle Vague OTM, also Dev has enough overstated mannerisms that you could convey the essence of Dev (stupid hair, ridiculous enunciation) without going "wooh, he's not white".

ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 21 January 2007 20:34 (eighteen years ago) link

i like 'tv burp', probably in a slightly unusual way in that i don't watch any other itv shows. it works anyway but even still. re blakcing up, i don't think it's wrong in all circumstances, but the pretext was a bit flimsy here, no?

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 22 January 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago) link

I like TV Burp, it is good. Although it suffers from a lack of Club Reps these days.

There was a new comedy series on BBC 3 last night called Thieves Like Us. I could not really pay attention as I was engaged in conversation, but it featured the Goldie lookalike from The Smoking Room. Perhaps we can see a BBC 3 mafia beginning to form, what with the rise and rise of Myfanwy off Little Britain, etc.

Anyway, was this programme any good? It involved nicking tellies, like on Max and Paddy.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

TV Burp's a lot funnier than it should be. I mean, Harry Hill dicking around for half an hour while channel hopping sia simple enough concept, but it gets the roffles from me, thanks UKn0v@!

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm sure HH has done skits as dev before. and in the same style

Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:23 (eighteen years ago) link

To be honest, not blacking up would have just left a massive elephant in the room. The laffs come from Harry Hill doing a bad impression of someone, and not blacking up per se. I want to live in a world where people can black up for comedy skits and it not be a problem.

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:49 (eighteen years ago) link

pokey)

ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Reeves & Mortimer did it relatively well on occasion (the Lethal Weapon pisstake on Shooting Stars with Bob as Danny Glover = lololololol) altho they did tend to get a few complaints in the process (esp. for the Otis Redding & Marvin Gaye stuff on The Smell Of...to the extent where they had to do it without the make-up in the end).

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Bob as Mick off Brookside

vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 14:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I saw Josie Long earlier this week... and I liked it.
I suspect a few of you may have opinions about her.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Friday, 26 January 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago) link

She's one of the scriptwriters for Skins, y'know?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 26 January 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago) link

'the thick of it' will have another one-off in the summer.

josie doesn't strike me as being any different from anyone else with a myspace page and a wry, mildly self-deprecating sense of humour.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 26 January 2007 11:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Yup, her and Simon Amstell have written for 'Skins'. I guess we'll notice her contributions when one of the characters says 'You know when you're walking down the street? I love that!'. Amstell's involvement is odd - isn't 'Skins' the kind of thing he just ADORES slagging off?

And Ms Long is anything but wry. It was like being in a room with an overexcited hippie. I'm not doing a good job of explaining why I liked her show, am I?

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Friday, 26 January 2007 12:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Perhaps Amstell has hidden depths. Next person to see him at the bus stop should ask him.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 26 January 2007 12:42 (eighteen years ago) link

A friend of mine claims to have twice seen Simon Amstell walking around with a woman and two small children, and wonders if perhaps he's a closeted heterosexual.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 26 January 2007 12:43 (eighteen years ago) link

gay man... walking around with a woman... could never happen.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 26 January 2007 12:49 (eighteen years ago) link

sophieheawood.jpg

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 26 January 2007 12:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Got to admit, I thought him presenting 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' would be awful, but it was....OK.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Friday, 26 January 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Cleo hopes to be next Catherine Tate

Cleo has admitted that she is hoping for her own sketch show following her stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

The actress wants to follow in the footsteps of Catherine Tate after introducing the nation to some of her characters over the past three weeks.

"I'd love to launch a new comedy show with really wacky characters, like a cross between Little Britain and Catherine Tate. I think the time is right for something new," Cleo told the Daily Star last night.

"The characters I brought in with me - like Tiara the Tart and Dorothy Montgomery the biscuit tycoon's wife - were done deliberately because I was hoping there was a producer out there looking for new ideas."

Asked about failing to make Big Brother laugh in the comedy task, she added: "That was embarrassing. I died on my a**e in the Diary Room. I think they stitched me up. I was certainly funnier than some of the others."

acrobat (elwisty), Saturday, 27 January 2007 14:45 (eighteen years ago) link

also ITV launches Benidorm with Johnny Vegas on Thurdays. the new Hardware?

acrobat (elwisty), Saturday, 27 January 2007 14:48 (eighteen years ago) link

We did a thread about Josie Long, which, as so many threads do, turned into a thread about Louis Jagger.

Defend the indefensible: Josie Long

I'd love to launch a new comedy show with really wacky characters, like a cross between Little Britain and Catherine Tate. I think the time is right for something new

Does anyone see anything wrong with this? Also anyone who uses the word "wacky" as an aspirational concept tends to not be worth listening to.

ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 27 January 2007 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks for the link, Ailsa.

A cross between Little Britain and Catherine Tate would, to paraphrase Stuart Braithwaite, implode with pure evil.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Saturday, 27 January 2007 23:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, I just read that thread and it appears that Ms Long went to a summer camp for gifted children with Louis Jagger. There's probably a joke in there somewhere, but I'm not mean enough to make it - this is why I'd never cut it as a poster on CookdAndBombd.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Saturday, 27 January 2007 23:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Something along the lines of "If I'd been exposed to Josie Long at a young age I'd have been put off having sex with women as well"?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 28 January 2007 00:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Wait, Louis Jagger exposed himself to Josie Long?
RE-EVALUATION TIME

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Sunday, 28 January 2007 00:41 (eighteen years ago) link

you know harry hill's tv burp is so great cos i lmao then almost completely forget it. it's like the opposite of that "progreesive comedy" idea someone was throwing arounf up thread. it also feels like it exists in a sort of infinite tea time of adolesence. it reminds me of being 13 or so and watching coronation street or whatever not because you wanted to really but just because it was on and just sitting trying to find unintentional lolz.

acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 28 January 2007 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link

A cross between Little Britain and Catherine Tate would, to paraphrase Stuart Braithwaite, implode with pure evil.

Well, indeed. Marcello and his red button to thread (in three seconds).

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Sunday, 28 January 2007 03:22 (eighteen years ago) link

THe live Mighty Boosh DVD is £6 in Fopp, should anyone be interested.

I could not find the Oh Monsieur Le Fopp You Are Spoiling Us thread.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 29 January 2007 13:53 (eighteen years ago) link

The Armando Iannucci Shows DVD is £7 in Fopp. I presume all the Arvo Part and Henryk Gorecki has been surgically removed and replaced with library music and/or The Sweet.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 29 January 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago) link

I think there are a couple of surviving bits, but the "driving at 160mph is actually really safe" sketch and the like suffer a bit with generic chirpy violinz instead.

Commentaries are pretty good though.

Michael Philip Philip Philip Philip Annoyman (Ferg), Monday, 29 January 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I watched Mark Lawson Talks To...Armando Iannucci on Sunday.

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 29 January 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Lawson: 'Could you talk about Ricky Gervais for 45 minutes PLEASE'

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Monday, 29 January 2007 16:49 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/downtheline.shtml

Radio 4's Down the Line with Gary Bellamy

a) Fuck me this is brilliant
b) Why was Felix Dexter never a true star, he had a window of opportunity in about 95/96 to make it as a comedy A-liner
c) Wow, Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery in something that isn't complete shit
d) Paul Whitehouse is, pound for pound, the best comedy performer of his generation, six lengths ahead of yr Morrises and Ianuccis
e) "Do you know if Foxton's is owned by Bruce Foxton of The Jam?"

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago) link

b) Why was Felix Dexter never a true star, he had a window of opportunity in about 95/96 to make it as a comedy A-liner

he did a pilot exec-produced by whitehouse and higson. it didn't get taken up and he joined the RSC. anil gupta says he didn't have enough big noises on his side at the bbc.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't have aspergers, i was just reading about it last night.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago) link

No private school for you then, young man

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Paul Whitehouse is, pound for pound, the best comedy performer of his generation, six lengths ahead of yr Morrises and Ianuccis

Performer, yes. No doubt about that.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link

But doesn't he just know it!

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link

I meant "performer" not as, um, the actual meaning of the word "performer", but as in an all round package. I honestly think he's got the strongest package of work of any writer in British comedy post 1990.

xp

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:06 (eighteen years ago) link

seriously?

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:08 (eighteen years ago) link

http://a30.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/41/l_a91d1dc57b5b64a3553469b0b07c40b5.jpg

"comedy-writing? 'ardest game in the world. done it meself, 40 years, man and boy..."

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, he seems to have got better as he's branched out. I just caught a bit of Help down the corridor in the AV suite while I was changing tapes - makes me wish I'd seen the whole series (it was the bit with Olivia Colman as the "disappointing wife").

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:10 (eighteen years ago) link

# "Help" (2005) TV Series (writer)
# "Happiness" (2001) TV Series (writer)
# "Harry Enfield and Chums" (1994) TV Series (writer)
# "The Fast Show" (1994) TV Series (head writer)
# Smashey and Nicey, the End of an Era (1994) (TV)
# "Harry Enfield's Television Programme" (1990) TV Series (writer)

That's a pretty impressive line-up, no? And that's not even including radio work. Plus seemingly the only awful thing he's even written was Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link

I think he's got worse as he's branched out, he's become so full of himself that I can barely watch him anymore (xpost)

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link

My favourite bit in Help, due to obvious reasons, was the Italian immigrant character trying to come to terms with living in a different country. It's a tie between him offering baccala as a present and "I-a johst give 'er-a lil slap"

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Did not like "Help" at all

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Because of Whitehouse, Langham, a third reason?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link

saying whitehouse is the best comedian of the last decade is like saying peep show is the best current tv comedy...

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link

i.e.?

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link

i.e. there's a fair enough arguement behind it but it feels kind of dispiriting.

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:21 (eighteen years ago) link

there is nothing dispiriting about peep show being the best current comedy; it's up there with Fawlty Towers and Father Ted in my top 3 all-time UK sitcoms.

what's dispiriting is the competition.

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link

It's fun but it's not that good

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:28 (eighteen years ago) link

i like it a lot. but then i like 'scrubs'.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I can understand why a posho like you Louis wouldn't have Porridge, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, or Steptoe and Son in your top three, but what about Yes, Minister?

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I've not really seen any of those four for more than five minutes at a go.

to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link

replace 'posho' with '19 year old' there

Is Whitehouse really 'full of it' or is this just another projection?

I guess if Johnny Depp calls you the greatest comic actor of the modern age then you'll have trouble keeping it together.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link

i've never really seen Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, or Steptoe and Son, and i'm 26. porridge is okay if you like that 70s sitcom format thing, and i'm meh on it.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:32 (eighteen years ago) link

I guess if Johnny Depp calls you the greatest comic actor of the modern age then you'll have trouble keeping it together.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. I actually quite liked "Happiness" but "Help" was just, "Oh look at me, look at all these accents I can do, amn't I great?" - well, no, because your Scottish accent was shite for one. Plus crap serious bits. Not funny enough.

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:35 (eighteen years ago) link

but peep show is nowhere near as good as fifteen stories high!

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:37 (eighteen years ago) link

No, Paul Whitehouse is great. Help and Happiness are both terrific, and Help is a thing of absolute beauty. I thought the serious bits were fantastic, haterz.

I was gonna start a thread on how great Chris Langham's body of work is as well, but I thought better of it. for. obvious. reasons.

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:40 (eighteen years ago) link

anything involving sean lock must be shit.

xpost

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:41 (eighteen years ago) link

no it's really, really great! i was rewatching it on allfg and it's far more engaging than peep show ever is / was. does blackmailed by teenage bullies plot better than peep show.

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link

15 Storeys High was very good.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago) link

ha @ my spelling

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago) link

I like that Ted thing where he's a gamekeepr or something, if that is Whitehouse, and the other bloke is his rich employer and wants to take him to see Tina Turner. That is good, that is.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago) link

you're 26??

RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago) link

i think so. yes, definitely.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Happiness was very good - but I do rather like Pearce Quigley - as, indeed, was 15 Stories High

Obscure comedy that I personally wish was better-known: My Life In Film

Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago) link

yes My Life In Film was, on the whole, better than many think.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago) link

It was possibly better than I think.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago) link

It was just another of those ones that make you smile more than they make you bellow with laughter, this not always being a sign of inferiority in a comedy.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago) link

It was just another of those ones that make you smile more than they make you bellow with laughter

like peep show and ted & ralph and down the line!

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link

"Peep Show" has made me bellow a few times

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago) link

The Pearly King extending the hand of friendship to Muslims on the last Down the Line gave me proper "I need to pause this I'm laughing too much" moments.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago) link

why shouldn't i be 26?

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago) link

you should--you are

RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link

you're 26??
-- RJG (RJ...), January 31st, 2007.

why shouldn't i be 26?
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 31st, 2007.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

you should--you are
-- RJG (RJ...), January 31st, 2007

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Down The Line = big lols

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago) link

i think so. yes, definitely.

-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 31st, 2007

RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:30 (eighteen years ago) link

although they're both often really lolzy there's something about both Peep Show and Spaced that feels small and mean and easy

Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Felix Dexter's work on the first series of Down The Line was fucking hilarious. I haven't heard anything of Season 2 yet unfortunately.
I also prefer 15 Storeys High to Peep Show.
And Dom does make a strong case re: Whitehouse. I never saw anything nore than 10 minutes of 'Happiness' though, does anyone rate it that highly?

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link

I didn't LOL at Down The Line, but it was pretty good. Perhaps the inexhaustible patience of the Higson/Whitehouse axis with young Rhys Thomas has finally paid dividends; he's fine in this.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link

i am listening to my first episode of down the line now. it is insanely good. is there any way of hearing all the others?

i am not a nugget (stevie), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

MUCH OBLIGED
the pearly queen was the funniest thing i have heard in such a long time!!!

i am not a nugget (stevie), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link

enrique seems so jaded for 26yr old.

Tracer, what do you mean by small?
Mean yes (altho I wouldn't say Spaced was particularly mean in any way).
Easy? Maybe...they both seem very thoughtfully written and intricate tho.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago) link

"Spaced" is one of the least mean British comedies of the last ten years! "The Vicar of Dibley" is meaner!

Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 17:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Errol's driving lessons in 15 Storeys High were amazing.

Favourite Down the Line moment might be from the first series when Whitehouse's Scouse character comes on, says something like 'Alright Gary, I'm a Socialist...' and gets immediately cut off. 'What is the biggest house in France?' runs it close though.

Rob O'Brien (igotmadskills), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 18:09 (eighteen years ago) link

'Swings an' roundabahts, though, innit Gary? Swings and roundabahts...
'I'm not actually sure what that means'
'.....swings and roundabahts, innit? Swings and roundabahts.'

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 18:13 (eighteen years ago) link

"The Vicar of Dibley" is meaner!

I wouldn't go that far. Spaced is a bit mean about...Aswad.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link

"Let's not knock The Jam - they was there for a lot of people"

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link

'You DO sound black though..'
'I'm not sure I'd agree with you. Battybwoy may say....'

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 18:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Vhat is point?

Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link

"You're using words there that children use to describe witches"

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 19:47 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioassets/photos/2007/1/31/13755_2.jpg

Discuss.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 21:20 (eighteen years ago) link

"i'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song"

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 21:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Man, those Sunn O))) dudes have turned into cunts.

Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Thursday, 1 February 2007 00:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Ralph and Ted, that's the one. Excellent.

I wonder what an AV lounge is.

I watched some of The Mighty Boosh live last night and reflected that perhaps it was not worth six quid after all.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 1 February 2007 09:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Down the Line is, indeed, the funniest comedy show on any of the broadcast media for a long time. I could listen to Simon Day talking bollocks in a South London accent for hours on end.

b ham (b ham), Thursday, 1 February 2007 09:16 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioassets/photos/2007/1/31/13755_2.jpg

Obi-Wan and Luke have let themselves go.

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Thursday, 1 February 2007 09:51 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPu4YX0KfFA&eurl= now that's some satires

acrobat (elwisty), Thursday, 1 February 2007 12:31 (eighteen years ago) link

this probably deserves a thread of its own on ILM and it's not even really comedy BUT it is the offical comic relief single 2007

Girls Aloud vs Sugababes - Walk This Way

not very "good"

acrobat (elwisty), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:55 (eighteen years ago) link

screen wipe/burn is back back back tonight.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 5 February 2007 11:45 (eighteen years ago) link

i have been watching things mentioned here, for research purposes.

i saw e01 of 'jam'. i now think that this was the only ep i saw of it first time round (in full at any rate). it's mostly utter shit, and the appalling rape 'joke' towards the end is just... shit. i will persevere, but it's drastically worse than...

'nathan barley'. rewatched first two episodes, and it's great.

'spaced' is still good.

'the day today' is too familiar now' so is 'kmkywap', but in a good way.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 5 February 2007 11:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Spaced is waaaaaay too familiar for me now. Every time I watch it (not often nowadays) it's just too boring. I think I need to not watch it for 10 years like I'm doing with Star Wars.

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Monday, 5 February 2007 12:56 (eighteen years ago) link

tv burp was again almost flawless. after the jade goody doll i couldn't stop laughing. i seriously doubt its "timeless" or "progressive" but imo funniest tv program in years.

acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link

do they repeat it?

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:33 (eighteen years ago) link

it's on tonight. didn't know it had already gone out.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago) link

oh 'burp', not 'burn'.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:37 (eighteen years ago) link

the trumpet-playing 'how to be a lesbian' bit killed.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:37 (eighteen years ago) link

> tv burp was again almost flawless.

funniest bit was the 'who do you think you are?' / 'you don't know you're born' comment. i doubt itv bosses were laughing though.

> do they repeat it?

yes. late night, sometime in the week. (midnight, wednesday night)

Koogy Bloogies (koogs), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link

TV burp is funny

RJG (RJG), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:57 (eighteen years ago) link

the breakthrough

vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 5 February 2007 13:57 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm loving Harry Hill's riffs on Ray Mears and that nature guy who never finds what he's looking for ("Up in the sky, that's birds... On the ground, that's mostly dogs...")

chap (chap), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:46 (eighteen years ago) link

It almost makes me want to watch those programmes, but I'm afraid that might spoil it.

And when it's finished, all the "normal" problems look as if they are deliberately bad, for laughs or something.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:49 (eighteen years ago) link

that nature guy who never finds what he's looking for

The bit the other week with the rules for which snakes are poisonous was comedy gold.

I don't know whether to play the trumpet, read a book or be a lesbian. (aldo_cow, Monday, 5 February 2007 14:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Screen Wipe not quite firing on all cylinders there, but Justin Lee Collins presenting The World At War was inspired.

I don't know whether to play the trumpet, read a book or be a lesbian. (aldo_cow, Monday, 5 February 2007 22:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, he's starting to repeat himself a bit - how many times has he done psychics? A few chuckles, though.

chap (chap), Monday, 5 February 2007 22:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Once, I am going to remember this is on.

Friday sees the return, on BBC Scotland only, of comedy scripted by Jack Doherty and Moray Hunter. A pilot only, mind, but it's a start.

ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 5 February 2007 23:52 (eighteen years ago) link

That's quite exciting, Ailsa. Do(c)herty looked very rough when I saw him on Wardour Street last week. Probably just got up (it was 2pm). This was two minutes after seeing Victoria Wood hefting a large bag up Newman Street. Flickr friends will know of my latest Britcom celeb encounter. But it's Soho - the place is crawling with people visiting their agents/postprod studios/prod companies/etc. And none of them look like they have to get up (or go to bed) as early as I do. (He says, posting at midnight).

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 00:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, Docherty. Pete's junkie ways have infested my brane.

It stars Docherty, Hunter, Morwenna Banks and John Gordon Sinclair (who hasn't actually done anything of note since Fraggle Rock, I don't think, but he gets a free pass for life in my world for Gregory's Girl and That Sinking Feeling)

Looks a bit shit, mind.

ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 00:06 (eighteen years ago) link

ally saw m hunter on byres rd, a month and a bit ago, and I saw j g sinclair in somerfield on byres rd, about a month ago

no idea what's happened to m banks

RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:05 (eighteen years ago) link

burp > burn.

brooker needs to make big statements too much.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:14 (eighteen years ago) link

I've seen Morwenna Banks around here a bit too; probably doing lots of voiceover work. "More Peppa Pig!" I almost shouted at her. The lad Sparkes is also doing children's stuff and regional-only TV.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:16 (eighteen years ago) link

i mean, still rep him to the fullest and all.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:17 (eighteen years ago) link

do you like macs?

RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:18 (eighteen years ago) link

i have one. it's okay. the ex says the article was silly because for some people a mac is a work requirement.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:22 (eighteen years ago) link

brooker's summation of CBB was spot on.

did noddy mention last week that the absolutely team had some animation thing going out on during the day on ch4? possibly repeats of after midnight stuff?

Koogy Bloogies (koogs), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:35 (eighteen years ago) link

02:30 Humdrum [repeat] [subtitles]
A shadow-play, voiced by Jack Docherty and Moray Hunter, dealing in a humorous way with boredom.

Koogy Bloogies (koogs), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Mowenna Banks is David Baddiel's other half I believe!
She was in one of the Thick Of It episodes -playing the actress in the focus group..

Pandas At War (pandas at war), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 11:37 (eighteen years ago) link

She was also in Baddiel's Syndrome...

DavidM* (unreal), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, she has spawned child of Baddiel too. Also, she was in Saxondale, but no-one watched that, did they?

ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 20:44 (eighteen years ago) link

They should have. It was great.

Venga (Venga), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 20:49 (eighteen years ago) link

A lot of these BBC3 things seem to be not making DVD. I wonder why that is then? The Smoking Room seems to have come out in every format imaginable.

PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago) link

OH DEAR GOD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEkTlabUjyk

Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 09:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I KNOW

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 09:46 (eighteen years ago) link

He's got to have some kind of spreadbet on, no-one can be that oblivios and repulsive.

Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 09:46 (eighteen years ago) link

oblivious

Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 09:47 (eighteen years ago) link

he thinks he's acting a role.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 10:00 (eighteen years ago) link

ha ha @ harry hill turn-to-camera

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 10:07 (eighteen years ago) link

acrobat found it (it's upthread) -- but i want to use it all the time now!

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 10:09 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't know if it counts as comedy but omfg is Shameless jumping shark after shark or what. I can't believe I found myself sitting watching an Alsatian dog blowing off a blindfolded security guard. When C4 says "scenes of a sexual nature" in the pre-programme warning they should really mention bestiality at some point.

onimo (onimo), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 10:14 (eighteen years ago) link

i think the harry pic needs a bit of text to indicate that sound makes to express suprise/confusion/disdain but i'm not sure words can represent it with any accuracy.

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Why all this outrage @ Gervais clip? Seesm like pretty standard stuff to me, could easily imagine Stiller or Steve Martin doing something similiar.

Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:26 (eighteen years ago) link

with them it'd be acting role. with him, it's actually him.

the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:27 (eighteen years ago) link

the Harry img needs to be animated ideally.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:28 (eighteen years ago) link

and repeatedly posted on certain threads

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:31 (eighteen years ago) link

it's a bit big tho. i'm a shrink it and re-upload probably.

vita susicivus (blueski), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:35 (eighteen years ago) link

with them it'd be acting role. with him, it's actually him.

Would it really? Not that I have any dirt on Stiller or Steve Martin (both of whom I like) specifically, but it's hardly uncommon for comedians with asshole personas to carry that off into their private life (or, well, what is known of it to the public at large, anyway.) Chevy Chase and assorted 70's SNL cokeheads to thread, you know.

Ok, I don't actually live in the UK, so don't have to swallow as much of Gervais's smugness as you guys do (did hear some of his recent radio stuff, pretty painful), but I was really expecting a bit more from that clip.

Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:49 (eighteen years ago) link

I think "Ricky Gervais is the new Chevy Chase" may be the crux of why Gervais is such a fucking stain.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

actually the thing about teh clip is how rote and lazy it is. sure the obnoxious schtick is annoying but now it's just been repeated so much that you can trace his thoughts / words. it's not just the tone it's the lack of effort.

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 12:52 (eighteen years ago) link

also myspace is aming me HATE mitchell and webb with a passion.

"i'm a PC i dominate the home and the office..."

FUCK THE FUCK OFF ARGH!!!

acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 17:51 (eighteen years ago) link

My friend made a point last night that it's a strange advert because the role for which Webb's most famous isn't exactly aspirational - Jez is as much of a loser as Mark in his own way.

chap (chap), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 17:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Donny Tourette has just been unknowingly one of the funniest things on Brit TV comedy in a long time on NMTB.

I don't know whether to play the trumpet, read a book or be a lesbian. (aldo_cow, Wednesday, 7 February 2007 22:33 (eighteen years ago) link

please explain.

also need more HATE for mitchell and webb apple ads. agrh. unfairly cementing my peep show is overrated pish position. are macs meant to be REALLY UNBEARABLY SMUG?

acrobat (elwisty), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Al Murray? He gets paid for that?

Tom D. (Dada), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:40 (eighteen years ago) link

He came on and did his patented "I'm a rebellious punk rocker" thing and everyone, including the other musicians, just ripped the piss out of him for the entire show. Possibly the funniest bit was Mr "real punk" not knowing the words to "Anarchy In The UK".

I need to try and find a t0rr3nt of the show his band did for E4, they showed a clip and it looked utterly ridiculous.

I don't know whether to play the trumpet, read a book or be a lesbian. (aldo_cow, Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I always thought macs were unbearably smug, so I guess the ads work just fine in that context. Doesn't make me like them tho.

Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:54 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.b3tards.com/u/488db8f83c2de2ff324c/macadvertparody.jpg

acrobat (elwisty), Thursday, 8 February 2007 12:25 (eighteen years ago) link

that is good, acrobat.

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 8 February 2007 12:51 (eighteen years ago) link

b3ta i think

acrobat (elwisty), Thursday, 8 February 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago) link

i figured

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 8 February 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Is "Change" a BASIC command?

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 8 February 2007 12:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Don't think so. I'd have used a FOR loop.

case of the mutual heart friendship (onimo), Thursday, 8 February 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago) link

http://base58.com/ilx/policeman.jpg

"I'm a PC"

http://base58.com/ilx/markmorrison.jpg

"I'm the Mack"

http://base58.com/ilx/policeman.jpg

"Then you're nicke-OWWWWWWW! TASERS!"

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 8 February 2007 13:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes, and including the REM comment in the GOTO loop! Idiocy!

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 8 February 2007 13:06 (eighteen years ago) link

That's what David Walliams would do tho.

vita susicivus (blueski), Thursday, 8 February 2007 13:07 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...
Bump for nu-ILX era

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 22 February 2007 13:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Watching Screen Wipe this week, I was struck by Charlie Brooker's ersemblance to the bucket-owning seal:

http://www.arbitary.i12.com/stupidman.jpg http://www.arbitary.i12.com/charlie.jpg

Bucket-owning seal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/discoweasel/376246577/

Brooker

aldo, Friday, 23 February 2007 10:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Lots of great new comedies starting on BBC2 last night:
Peter Davison's new sitcom about a middle-class family - he's a deadbeat-ish, stay-at-home, struggling-writer dad who is always getting it wrong, and is relentlessly admonished by his perma-peeved, go-getting wife. And his two teenage daughters are, well, just so much like teenagers!
The return of Dead Ringers an their uncannily accurate impersonations of TV presenters you can't quite recognise.
Graham Norton's new chat show, like the one he used to do on Channel 4. Surprised it took the Beeb so long.

DavidM, Friday, 23 February 2007 10:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Not to go all Bushell on you, but you watch that, and then you watch those three hour spots on FX where they have two episodes of Family Guy, two of Lucky Louie, and two of Chappelle's Show, and then you think "Wow, British comedy really fucking sucks"

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 10:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Family Guy is rubbish

Alan, Friday, 23 February 2007 11:39 (seventeen years ago) link

gtfo

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Alan is right

RJG, Friday, 23 February 2007 11:58 (seventeen years ago) link

You people are dead to me.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 11:59 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm cutting FG a little more slack lately, but that 'Cartoon Wars' episode of South Park is still OTM.

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:00 (seventeen years ago) link

"Cartoon Wars" is the kind of reactionary regressive bullshit that Parker and Stone trade in these days. When South Park goes back to episodes like "Casa Bonita" or "Woodland Critter Christmas", then we can talk.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:01 (seventeen years ago) link

cartoon wars wasn't LOL (a Bart Simpson cameo OMGZZZzzzz) but the FG crit was bang OTM

Alan, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:03 (seventeen years ago) link

I LOVED the animated thing in Screen Wipe tho. more of that please:

"they don't care for it do they?"

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, explaining why something "is" funny is a lot harder than explaining why something isn't. Family Guy has basically ascended to my favourite TV show currently running now because it's pretty much the perfect TV show for those of us born 1976-1986, raised on TV and easy access to video rental stores. High pop culture saturation and Seth McFarlane is kinda blessed with knowing what _is_ funny and what _isn't_ (qf the Petergeist episode, which is near perfect as 30 minutes of television).

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link

American Dad blows, however.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link

cartoon wars wasn't LOL

i laughed out loud at Cartman's general hatred for the show, the actual FG pisstake bits themselves, Cartman and Kyle's fight ("NO HITTING IN THE BALLS"), the manatees and more.

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link

that Peter Davison thing looked awful.

Alan, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link

because it's pretty much the perfect TV show for those of us born 1976-1986, raised on TV and easy access to video rental stores. High pop culture saturation and Seth McFarlane is kinda blessed with knowing what _is_ funny and what _isn't

you could argue this about South Park just as easily.

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Needs more Alison Redman.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:08 (seventeen years ago) link

xp, or maybe not.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:08 (seventeen years ago) link

you could argue this about South Park just as easily.

No, you couldn't, because at centre the best episodes of South Park are the ones that have heart, when Parker and Stone obviously have some affection for Stan and Kyle (and, to a lesser extent, Kenny and Butters), and when Cartman is the asshole villain who has his little moment in the sun then gets taken down. The worst episodes of South Park are when the characters are just faceless ciphers for whatever OMG ISSUE THAT WE MUST TACKLE THIS WEEK that Parker and Stone have going on.

Where Family Guy stands alone from pretty much every other animated comedy (maybe every other sitcom) is that none of the characters are particularly good people. Homer hitting Lisa in the face with a baseball bat wouldn't be funny. Hank hitting Bobby with a baseball bat wouldn't be funny. Peter hitting Meg is, tho.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:10 (seventeen years ago) link

american dad is incredible

so terrible that it would taint anything that was good about family guy if there were anything good about family guy which there isn't

I wish we had underline formatting

RJG, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:23 (seventeen years ago) link

family guy doesn't seem to have characters

however, it definitely does have a talking dog as well as a talking baby

RJG, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:24 (seventeen years ago) link

It's very weird to claim that Family Guy doesn't have characters, all of its lead have very very strongly defined personalities, moreso than, say, The Simpsons.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:30 (seventeen years ago) link

when Parker and Stone obviously have some affection for Stan and Kyle (and, to a lesser extent, Kenny and Butters), and when Cartman is the asshole villain who has his little moment in the sun then gets taken down. The worst episodes of South Park are when the characters are just faceless ciphers for whatever OMG ISSUE THAT WE MUST TACKLE THIS WEEK that Parker and Stone have going on. [/]i]

except all of that is every episode ever pretty much. i know substance (rather than 'heart') isn't necessarily as important as roffles but the average SP has more of both than an average FG or Simpsons, for me - with KOTH probably one rung higher still altho the humour is obv. far more subtle and complex.


[i]is that none of the characters are particularly good people. Homer hitting Lisa in the face with a baseball bat wouldn't be funny. Hank hitting Bobby with a baseball bat wouldn't be funny. Peter hitting Meg is, tho.


this i ALMOST get. i mean not en episode of FG seems to go by without Lois or Meg getting punched in the face, but i don't find it funny and i don't really get it. it's not even slapstick violence and i find that bad enough now generally (see that terrible Simpsons trailer). i can see that Family Guy may be trying to question and break conventions re violence on women but....why...again? funny that South Park would never have Stan's Mom getting punched in the face - but then they don't have to do that, and I much prefer it that way.

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Family Guy as misogynistic is a point that has been raised before many times, and you may be onto something with a point, but... violence against Meg is part of the problem that a lot of comedy writers have which is that they can write adult males (they are one), young males (they used to be one), and adult females (they fuck them). Teenage girls have always been problematic. Early on in FG Meg was kind of a faceless character, she just did bland "thank you daddy" schtick whenever she was called for, indeed, Chris was the lead child. Chris is a backseat character now because Meg has this personality of the character who everyone hates for no reason at all, she's an all purpose fall character. There's a history of characters like this in both literature and television (and, fantastically, I can't think of any at the moment), the characters who are despised despite doing nothing wrong... whether you're meant to feel sympathy for Meg (which I suppose is a mitigating factor) or just laugh at her (which is perhaps not) is up for you to decide. [Removed Illegal Link]

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Illegal link?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRXm8vY9mU4

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:41 (seventeen years ago) link

they don't seem, to me, to be "strongly defined personalities"

more like someone has written down:

character #1 - dog. talks. is sensible. smokes. very funny.
character #2 - baby. talks. makes gadgets to try to kill or escape from parents and take over world. very funny.
character #3 - son. stupid. stupid voice. very funny.

and so on

yes, I haven't watched many episodes of family guy but I have, probably, watched too many

RJG, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:43 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh i do see that with Meg. i find it rather disturbing tho, and indicative of the writers inadequacies. plus, they're still beating up poor Lois just as much. at least Lois has not become as annoying as Marge yet.

i just don't know why they bother centering things around the family unit at all. Brian and Stewie are better just on their own. Chris is pretty much a waste of space unless it's an evil monkey gag. Just write Meg out if you can't do anything good with her.

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:44 (seventeen years ago) link

character #4 - daughter. everyone hates for no reason at all. very funny.

RJG, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:45 (seventeen years ago) link

here's the thing from Screen Wipe i mentioned:

http://www.fat-pie.com/tv3.htm (or go to fat-pie.com and click 'tv3' link)

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link

plus, they're still beating up poor Lois just as much.

Lois has beaten up Peter as many, if not more times, than vice versa. Including that "laying carpet at three in the morning" gag.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:48 (seventeen years ago) link

well i don't care for that either

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Peter deserves it tho, the fucker.

blueski, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:50 (seventeen years ago) link

i liked that thing on screen wipe too. looking fwd to hearing 90s comedian Stew Lee on 70s teen drama "you were mostly worried about being brainwashed by a thousand-year-old mystical cult or how to cope with being separated from your family while society collapsed back to a pre-industrial era"

Alan, Friday, 23 February 2007 12:52 (seventeen years ago) link

I keep going back for more Man Stroke Woman even though I really only laugh once or twice per episode (each seem to contain about 50 sketches), because I find all of the leads so appealing. I like Nick Frost, and Nathan Barley Dude, and Blonde Lady, and Woman with Mysterious Possibly American Accent.

Ben Boyerrr, Friday, 23 February 2007 17:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Man Stroke Woman: poorly written, well performed.

chap, Friday, 23 February 2007 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Man Stroke Women is badly written, badly performed, badly everything. It may have been mildly amuding when I was twlve, but it really is a shockingly bad show.

I LOVED the animated thing in Screen Wipe tho

Check out David Firth's website, www.fat-pie.com All his cartoons are on there. The guys a certified genius - The Pulch is beautiful, and the Salad Fingers cartoons are sometimes cool, although not quite to my taste. And check out the Jerry Jackson cartoons (one of Firth's pseudynms, accessible from the main page) for some of the funniest short cartoons you will ever watch.

The Wayward Johnny B, Friday, 23 February 2007 20:40 (seventeen years ago) link

I like Firth's cartoons based on his dreams. Also, it's nice to see what they really can't/won't show on telly (i.e. the two Brooker commissions that have been canned so far).

The most striking thing about Dead Ringers is the enormous gulf between the amount of effort that goes into the costumes and make-up and the amount of effort that goes into the writing. It's a real feature of a lot of current BBC comedy - high-production values (Tittytittybang, Little Britain, etc) and dire scripts. The voice talent on DR is OK, I guess, though Cornwell never really sounds like anyone but himself.

Michael Jones, Saturday, 24 February 2007 09:13 (seventeen years ago) link

But that's true of many impressionists' shows though Mike - Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona were plagued with the same thing - yeah yeah you sound very like Victoria Beckham/Mark Lawrenson/whoever, BUT YOU AREN'T FUNNY. AT ALL. (see also Only An Excuse up here, in fact all of Jonathan Watson's other ventures into doing other people)

ailsa, Saturday, 24 February 2007 09:41 (seventeen years ago) link

God, I can't stand those animated bits on Screen Wipe. They always seem like padding to me.

I've never warmed to Family Guy either. I don't mind it, it's just a bit too puerile. It's like The Simpsons for Adam Sandler fans.

DavidM, Saturday, 24 February 2007 10:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Incidentally, if you really don't fancy a laugh, at all, then Radio 2 brings you:

PARSONS & NAYLOR'S PULL-OUT SECTIONS
Thursdays, 2200 - 2230
Rpt'd Saturdays at 1330
Five parts (15 Feb-15 Mar)

Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor's comedy sketch show is back for another series - bringing you inspired social and political satire.

Designed on the 43 separate sections that fall out of your newspaper on the way back from the shop, the show takes a topical look at news, culture, sport, finance, in fact, every aspect of life.

With music from Richie Webb, it's crammed with acutely observed sketches, character comedy and punchy stand-up - with attitude.


You know the Upper/Middle/Lower Class sketch from That Was The Week That Was? It's like that but about a decade more dated.

William Bloody Swygart, Sunday, 25 February 2007 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Dom more or less OTM upthread about Family Guy and South Park, although his degree of liking for FG is a lot more elevated than mine. It's the sort of thing I don't (often) go out of my way to watch, but whenever I do I have a riproaringly good time with laughs aplenty. There's an episode on Youtube somewhere (the one involving Disneyland and Chris being employed by a creepy transvestite pensioner) which had me carousing around the floor with mirth.

South Park is, I'd say, at its best when empathy for the characters is combined with a powerful, general statement. Best episode I've seen recently: The one set at that ski resort in Aspen.

unfished business, Sunday, 25 February 2007 14:08 (seventeen years ago) link

cooked and bombd reporting chris morris / islam project is go! the casting call;

CLOSING DATE:Sunday, 20 May 2007, 23:59
wt; chris morris project (Film)

a tv film about a bunch of pakastani lads living in britain now,its about what they do-for work for play,what they believe,how the relate to their parents,families,the culture around them,their sense of heritage,its being writen and directed by chris morris for channel 4.

Company:

pbj

Producer:

derrin schlesinger

Director:

chris morris

Casting Director:

Des Hamilton

Location:

london and poss north of england

Dates (Shooting, Rehearsal, etc.):

summer 07

Casting Details:

pls send cvs+photographs to des hamilton 104c camden st,nw1 0hy,thanks.

Role:

ahmed (Male)

Description:

british/pakastani,30,bright,intense,knowlegeable,not good with people,attended islamic law school in damascus for a year.

Agreements / Contracts / Fees:

tbc

Role:

omar (Male)

Description:

british pakastani,29,ahmeds brother,more streetwise though not a gangster,persuasive,capable of empathy,smart around people,all overlayed on a low self esteem.

Agreements / Contracts / Fees:

tbc

Role:

waj (Male)

Description:

british/pakastani,20,less bright but not totally dim,loyal follower of omar,big guy,strong works out,fearless.

Agreements / Contracts / Fees:

tbc

Role:

hass (Male)

Description:

british/pakastani,21,bright,more middle class poss public school,moralistic,funny,studying IT after doing good at school.

Agreements / Contracts / Fees:

tbc

Role:

azzam (Male)

Description:

british/pakastani,,22,college mate of hass,bright,articulate,provocative,loves the spotlight loves winding people up,sort of guy who'd protest against cartoons in a bomb belt,mouthy.

Agreements / Contracts / Fees:

tbc

Role:

crow uncle (Male)

Description:

british/pakastani,38,fairly bright,mad brooding,watches a lot of tv between odd jobs (nightwatchman etc),seems more of a hick than the others.

Agreements / Contracts / Fees:

tbc

Role:

crow uncles nephew (Male)

Description:

british/pakastani,17,insanely intense......bright,very very focused,blind to anything he's not focused on,small seething boffin.

Agreements / Contracts / Fees:

tbc

acrobat, Thursday, 1 March 2007 13:56 (seventeen years ago) link

will they be seen hanging out at Viva Cake?

blueski, Thursday, 1 March 2007 14:01 (seventeen years ago) link

sort of guy who'd protest against cartoons in a bomb belt

erk.
the whole thing fills me with dread but y know it might work, it might work...unless it's a fucking edgy jam sketch about lol terrorists. doesn't even say if it's a comedy.

acrobat, Thursday, 1 March 2007 14:08 (seventeen years ago) link

I really enjoyed Never Mind the Buzzcocks last night. I chortled and chortled and chortled.

PJ Miller, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Chris Morris is exactly the kind of guy who I'd imagine would have his finger on the pulse of what young Muslim males are thinking *roll eyes emoticon*

Charlie Brooker's impression of Ray Winstone on the last Screenwipe ("root de doot, root de doot, apples and pears") is comedy line of the year so far.

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

young muslim males was already nailed by monkey dust

unfished business, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:29 (seventeen years ago) link

abu gharib

Frogman Henry, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Robin Hood was really funny on it.

PJ Miller, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:59 (seventeen years ago) link

OMG at Chris Morris. He really has gone wrong recently, and I liked Nathan Barley

The Wayward Johnny B, Thursday, 1 March 2007 18:26 (seventeen years ago) link

I think you're inferring a bit much from a casting call and a vague outline! Anyway, I'm not going to play this miserable game again - second-guessing the show for the 12 months prior to broadcast based on internet rumour and leaked bits of info. Mind you, if you want some nothingy fluff to promote idle speculation - I saw Fielding hand Morris a copy of John Lurie's "Fishing With John" on DVD in the street a few weeks ago. So expect that whole angling vibe.

I chuckled at Dead Ringers last night. I think it was the Waking The Dead skit. That was it.

Michael Jones, Friday, 2 March 2007 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I feel almost ashamed to admit this, but I quite like Comedy Cuts - or whatever it is called - the sketch show on ITV2. Simon Munnery turned up on it the other day! If you disregard the terrible presenter, Comedy Shuffle has its moments, too.

Stevie T, Friday, 2 March 2007 12:00 (seventeen years ago) link

I laughed at something, but I can't remember what.

I also laughed at some other programme which had Tony Blair pouring water on Gordon Brown's feet under the desk.

PJ Miller, Friday, 2 March 2007 12:01 (seventeen years ago) link

something about Dead Ringers just turns me right off. Could it finally be this...mythical...'air of smugness' I've heard so much of here there and everywhere?

blueski, Friday, 2 March 2007 12:07 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkYDxW30vS4

this is from a new comedy with Adam Buxton in it. Looks quite funny from this clip.

the next grozart, Sunday, 11 March 2007 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

[Removed Illegal Link]

blueski, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

http://commercial-archive.com/136526.php

blueski, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah that was good. the series seemed to get better over the four eps. perhaps it's an odd format, there's a danger it's just this guy saying stuff at you about stuff.

That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link

it pretty much is that but as long as it's lolsome then fine.

blueski, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link

BIG TIMES ARF at the adam buxton clip there!

Alan, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link

i just can't get past the 'it's on BBC Three' barrier :(

blueski, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link

srsly. it's a live bowdlerisation of "Fuck Tha Police"

Alan, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:52 (seventeen years ago) link

masterful bowdlerisorisering!

CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

No talk regarding "Comic Relief" ?

Two sketches had the subtitle "I have a great deal of power now, I can get people to do my script!"

1) Ricky Gervaise gets Geldof, Bono, Oliver and some blokey he knows to send themselves up / pretend to sell-out their perspective that they are most known for. And Andii Peters.
2) Caroline Tate gets the Prime Minister into her sketch, and gets me for the first time to admire Tony Blair's performance!

Who wins? Who pwned?

Who do you think?

Mark G, Monday, 19 March 2007 09:40 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't deny i roffled at Andi Peters.

Frogman Henry, Monday, 19 March 2007 10:43 (seventeen years ago) link

do i look bothered? (didn't see any of it. wasn't there a highlights show though?)

can't find the Peep Show thread but ch4 are advertising series 4. and their 4-on-demand is showing series 1 and 2. plus myspace.

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/P/peep_show/

koogs, Monday, 19 March 2007 11:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I liked the Catherine Tate sketch with Daniel Craig, partly because instead of looking slightly bewildered and looking like he wished he wasn't there, Craig really seemed like he was making an effort to do it properly, which I thought was cute. I like him.

accentmonkey, Monday, 19 March 2007 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

There's a rumour in the Guardian today about a Brass Eye special on suicide bombers. Too good to be true?

chap, Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:26 (seventeen years ago) link

too hyped to be funny, more likely

blueski, Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:38 (seventeen years ago) link

...Monkey Dust got there first. And did it BEFORE 7/7, so nobody complained.

unfished business, Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:39 (seventeen years ago) link

OK, I've just googled it and it just seems to be the drama thingy that was mentioned upthread, not a new Brass Eye at all.

chap, Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:41 (seventeen years ago) link

The Blair sketch is on youtube.

onimo, Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:48 (seventeen years ago) link

they should have spliced footage of kids getting there fucking legs blown off in iraq with that.
"aaaahhhh my leg"
"bovered!"
etc

acrobat, Thursday, 22 March 2007 18:42 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...
PREMISE: UK comedy is a bit rubbish at the moment. 2nd tier stuff like peep show is the best around.
THEORY: comedy has become too centered around "performers" rather than "writers". lots of half decent comic actors coming through, no decent gag writers getting in.
COUNTER ARGUEMENT 1: it's the INDUSTRY dude! capatialism!
COUNTER ARGUEMENT 2: peep show is great, you is mad.

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:38 (seventeen years ago) link

holy shitters just seen the blair/tate thing. the man's got some balls. maybe he should be an actor. oh, wait...

CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:41 (seventeen years ago) link

People do seem to "get into" comedy writing these days because they can't get a job in international finance or whatever.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:42 (seventeen years ago) link

names?

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:45 (seventeen years ago) link

"Blunder" (2006)


Series Writing credits
Steven Burge (unknown episodes)
Simon Farnaby (unknown episodes)
Tom Meeten (unknown episodes)
David Mitchell (unknown episodes)
Rhys Thomas (unknown episodes)
Tony Way (unknown episodes)
Glynne Wiley (unknown episodes)

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:46 (seventeen years ago) link

i've managed to avoid Hary & Paul all too easily so far.

blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:50 (seventeen years ago) link

x post

most of them started of as performers thou i thought? well certainly Mitchell and Thomas.

i dunno i was thinking that some of the best gagsters around are ex music journos, well swells and qunatick anyway.

i reckon "performers" rather than "writers" is why there is so much bad character based comedy about. i believe mark wooton is being given a third chance by the bbc, apprently he's a decent comic actor but fuck me the matriel isn't there.

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:51 (seventeen years ago) link

didn't most of the pythons start in the industry as writers for established performers?

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Cleese and Chapman started off writing sketches for Dick Emery, I know that much.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:56 (seventeen years ago) link

i am thinking of a very definite style. lots of mugging, lots of "the voice". think ayoade, think star stories.

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Ayoade is a modern day nadir, obviously, but then he's just yr common-or-garden "he ran Footlights, we have to give him a career" douchebag, right?

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Harry and Paul is v bizarre. I just can't quite work out what they're trying to do (unlike the rash of other new sketch shows where it's really easy to work out what they're trying to do, and it's not funny).

ledge, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:02 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh i guess but it's the same thing. it's the performer attempting to create his own material and coming up with, well, mugging rather than jokes.

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Harry and Paul is kinda... you know when old bands play low key gigs to work out "if the magic's still there"? It's kinda clear that with them two it isn't.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link

john oliver been nicked by the mericans innit

Alan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:06 (seventeen years ago) link

i like ayoade as a performer. he's got comedy timing. i don't know how much as a writer.

Alan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Surely Ayoade's "performance" consists entirely of wearing a funny wig and talking in a funny voice?

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Ten years ago, he could have been a pretty good regular guest on Noel House Party, he could have been Sammy the Shammy's comedy nerd sidekick.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:09 (seventeen years ago) link

did you see his Dean Learner show? painful. i din't mind him in the IT Crowd but i wish he'd drop that voice he does.

sorta xpost

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:10 (seventeen years ago) link

i saw a trailer, and it looked rub, so didn't bother. if that's his writing or improv skeez, then stuff it. but i do like the dean lerner character. not so much the 'i'm being a bad actor' bits in darkplace, but the insert talking heads bits.

Alan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Coogan begat Pegg begat Ayoade

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

It's like a half-life of comedy talent.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Too many actors, and too many "comedians" who want to be actors eventually

Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

lesdawsonasnona.jpg

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

even Jamie Theakston got to be in a sitcom.

blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

> i've managed to avoid Hary & Paul all too easily so far.

i have been watching it (fills the gap between HIGNFY and Derren Brown / Peep Show on ch4 without needing to turn over. i r lazy). i do like the eastern european cafe girls, nelson mandela hawking alcopops and the posh surgeons. and the art boutique. the rest of it feels a lot like H&P doing Little Britain (in fact, some of the above feels like H&P doing LB). oh, what Dom said.

koogs, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Dean Learner is barely a character. It's a "funny" voice and some "funny" mannerisms. the tv show didn't work because it didn't make sense, he was somehow meant to be incredibly naive and incredibly ruthless. really all of it was just set up for lame pastiches. i mena Kevin the Teenager was a far better character even if he was a sterotype 'cos you could understand it. if a character doesn't ring true then it's hard to accept the jokes they are delivering.

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

i do like the eastern european cafe girls

It's not funny tho, is it?

Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Neither was Ted and Ralph, tbh.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link

oh jeez HIGNFY, how more reactionary can that show get?

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, it sounds dumb, but in a sketch show you have to have some stuff that isn't "funny", and is clever or touching or whatever. Rowley Birkin's dead girlfriend, that kinda stuff.

xp

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:32 (seventeen years ago) link

nelson mandela hawking alcopops

explain me where is the humour... comedy blackface? A famous paragon of virtue promoting illegal and harmful products?

the art boutique

yeah that's good.

ledge, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:33 (seventeen years ago) link

HIGNFY seems to have really lost it now. axe it. come back in a year with a similar yet different show.

blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link

mock the week, then?

hmmm.

Surely Ayoade's "performance" consists entirely of wearing a funny wig and talking in a funny voice?

Andy Millman to thread!

CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Mock The Week seems better than HIGNFY at the mo. I get the impression the choice of presenter for MOW is a bugbear.

blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Never watched Mock the Week, has it got crap comics on it? Like that Scottish guy?

Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link

mock the week is excruciating

Alan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I refuse to watch any show with the word "Mock" in the title

Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link

> A famous paragon of virtue promoting illegal and harmful products?

pretty much. i also find it's quite a fond portrayal of him.

only funny thing about the U2 sketch (which is only 20 years after R&M did the same thing with slade) is the doctored Joshua Tree(?) poster in the kitchen.

they do seem to be hammering things into the ground though. barbican man for instance. same thing 6 times.

still some good lines on HIGNFY. ferne was bad though.

koogs, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:57 (seventeen years ago) link

that Scottish guy can make me laugh. probably the voice.

blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:01 (seventeen years ago) link

mock the week, dead ringers and HIGNFY = AXIS OF FAKE SATIRE

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:02 (seventeen years ago) link

john prescott... HE'S FAT!

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link

gordon brown... HE'S SCOTTISH!

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:05 (seventeen years ago) link

barbican man for instance. same thing 6 times

I think the one about the independent was meant to be the master punchline. It did make me smirk.

The serth efrican character seems to be entirely predicated on the fact that enfield can do a very good serth efrican eccent.

I only recently got the pun in "mock the week".

ledge, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:05 (seventeen years ago) link

david blunket... HE'S BLIND!

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:05 (seventeen years ago) link

david cameron... WE'RE ALL GOING TO VOTE FOR HIM

Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:07 (seventeen years ago) link

hmmm i wonder if a cameron government would spawn some better "angry" comedy. i doubt it.

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Who is angry?

Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I suspect Cam's quite an oldschool Tory at heart and the Blairification of the Conservative Party is a cosmetic thing that won't last long after the next election. So, yes, it might do.

chap, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link

well no one at the moment Tom D. that was my point about FAKE SATIRE.

also Dom's sketch shows need pathos theory only fits with the one example he gave. possibly.

acrobat, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Nothing, NOTHING, is as bad as Get A Grip.

The Scottish bloke on Mock the Week (Frankie Boyle) makes me laugh too, but mostly because he gets better lines and a lot of it is in the delivery. Also Dara O'Briain >>>> 90% of the guest hosts on HIGNFY. Hislop and Merton are just going through the motions, and it only works when they get someone they can react to/interact with, and who has the brains to keep it going rather than just reading off autocues. Scrap the "lolz, it's Boris/Joan Collins/Charlotte Church, this'll be a laugh" hosts and keep it to whichever Armstrong/Miller it is that's good, Hugh Dennis and (probably) Clarkson, and you're probably just about OK.

ailsa, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:24 (seventeen years ago) link

My mum says the Lee Mack thing is funny.

chap, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link

"Mock the Mack"?

Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha, so does my husband. It sort of is, when you're drunk and don't expect very much from a comedy show other than a couple of cheap belly laughs. Assuming you mean "Not Going Out".

ailsa, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Not Going Out, that's the one. I haven't seen it, but she told me a joke from it:
"They say no man is an island."
"What about the Isle of Man?"

Moderately witty I guess.

chap, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

It's pretty much a ton of one-liners (it's co-written by Tim Vine) with a ridiculous "plot" contrived as a showcase for the one-liners, rather than the sensible way round.

ailsa, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, it's not co-written by Tim Vine at all, he's just in it. It's Lee Mack and Andrew Collins. Oh well.

ailsa, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

i rly liked Not Going Out.

Alan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Ayoade is a modern day nadir, obviously, but then he's just yr common-or-garden "he ran Footlights, we have to give him a career" douchebag, right?

-- Dom Passantino, Tuesday, May 1, 2007 4:01 PM (Yesterday)


... no. if you're going to single out one comedy performer for coming up via oxbridge networking, you're going to have to single out basically all of them. the dean learner chat show was sort of bad for the reasons acrobat gave, but it wasn't terrible.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I really like Not Going Out too. It did try a bit too much to be American styled (loft apartment, er, having an American in it) but its gag per second ration was massive which is the major let down of British sitcoms. I think given a chance to get really confy (and not fit all the wacky plots into a six episode run) it could be really, really good.

Pete, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Way too harsh on Ayoade; Lerner started very well, dropped off sharply thereafter. No, it didn't make sense.

But I'm always going to blindly defend people I see in my local shops - they're part of the community, y'know? See also Mark Steel.

Michael Jones, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:20 (seventeen years ago) link

'not going out' was better than the current 'peep show'.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:22 (seventeen years ago) link

"But I'm always going to blindly defend people I see in my local shops - they're part of the community, y'know?"

that bloke off crimewatch last night might be a vicious thug, but he's
our vicious thug.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I only recently got the pun in "mock the week".

oh dear, i'm about to make a fool of myself. there's a pun?

i don't get the hignfy hate - it doesn't seem any weaker now than it was say five years ago, and i never thought it was weak then anyway. is the rotating presenter thing putting paid to its punch?

also, what is this not going out thing? i suspect i'll like it.

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Because they spent 5 minutes laughing WITH Jeremy Clarkson about how global warming does not exist. It's more right-wing than South Park.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:51 (seventeen years ago) link

oh right, i just got the pun. d'oh.

xpost acrobat, have you read private eye?

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link

private eye has a vicious tory streak a mile wide. HIGNFY has been going bad for ages. was it joan collins? jackie? whatever, i kind of stopped watching after that.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:20 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh i've read private eye. it's kinda like popbitch if 1965 had never happened.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:40 (seventeen years ago) link

sub-carmody

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link

there are many, many things of value in 'private eye', but perhaps it's better under a tory government than under labour.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link

otm

stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:48 (seventeen years ago) link

actually comparing HIGNFY and Private Eye is really misleading. it's not like a panal show can get away with the kind of journalistic stuff they have in PE. the things i like in PE tend not to be the "comedy".

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link

The cartoons in Private Eye are never, ever funny

The middle-aged satirical whimsy stuff is OK sometimes

Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link

at least private eye chooses its targets for more than being fat or blind, generally.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link

"Because they spent 5 minutes laughing WITH Jeremy Clarkson about how global warming does not exist. It's more right-wing than South Park."

you know i don't rate HIGNFY but.. that's a pretty dense reaction.

Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:33 (seventeen years ago) link

well that's why i don't enjoy it. i can't relate to where most of the humour is coming from and yes that Clarkson episode really pissed me off. i mean i know Richard Litttlejohn or Ann Coulter want to get a rise out of "liberals" but that doesn't stop me finding them loathsome. surely ian or paul could have made like one joke about him being completely wrong? but no they laugh it up. the bbc's most watched satirical program should not be playing so obviously to the daily mail crowd. maybe i should lighten up.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:39 (seventeen years ago) link

thinking about it, HIGNFY was better under the tories.

"vote cameron for better satire."

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:50 (seventeen years ago) link

but perhaps it's better under a tory government than under labour.

i feel a list thread coming on...

blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

a pun?
mock...the...week?
where's the pun there?

pisces, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:54 (seventeen years ago) link

do people seriously think if cameron gets in we'll be back in 1983 again with legions of ben elton's appearing? i dunno the daily show suggests it's possible but the comedy culture in britain at the moment, well it's pretty similar to the culture in (british) indie music.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:54 (seventeen years ago) link

also the tories for most younger people are hardly the BIG EVIL THREAT they once were.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:55 (seventeen years ago) link

mock the week pun = based on Wok The Meek, a short-lived early Sky TV cookery show for East Asian Christians.

blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

There's plenty of kids around who would describe themselves as both "indie" and "liberal" who'll be voting Tory next time round.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

we(e|a)k xpost

I didn't say it was a good pun. xpost

xxpost

ledge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

i hate the idea that great satire is dependent on the biggest cunts being in power, but embittered gallows humour and all that.

blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't think that exactly, just that the default mode of the high tory christians who dominate private eye (hon. exceptions francis wheen, paul foot rip, peter cook rip) is better excercised when tories are in power.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Peter Cook _was_ a Tory, wasn't he?

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link

US satire hasn't really improved as such since Clinton gave way to Bush, has it? it seems fairly constant. Britain is weird part 8 million.

blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

because basically the upper-middle classes who run the media don't need much excuse to go over to the tories, and the shittiness of labour has licensed a more general attack on political correctness and stuff, made it ok to call people chavs and all that. once the shitty tories are back in, doing dodgy deals with iraq and getting in weird sex scandals, and trip-hop regains the charts all will be right with the country once more, ie it will resemble my teenage years.

re cook being a tory. he wasn't a leftist, put it that way.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link

"shittiness of labour has licensed a more general attack on political correctness and stuff, made it ok to call people chavs and all that."

that's a hell of a stretch

Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link

it's not one i've made, but it does seem to have happened. it's not a very sophisticated narrative, but ten years ago it was not cool to write off poor people, and people voted on things like "it would be good to boost public spending & improve things... a bit". even outside daily hell territory there's a perception that boosting public spending did v little; even that level of pragmatism seems pretty well absent and we're back with the idea of the undeserving poor.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:09 (seventeen years ago) link

well clarkson et al have the gift of being "anti-the status quo". not comedy really but something that's really interested / annoyed me has how all the hype around Life On Mars seems, in some quarters, to have boiled down to "things worked better when you could be unapolegeticlly Un-PC" (or a complete bigot as it's better known)

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

life on mars was mediocre, but was made shit by all the love for gene hunt. total non-phenomenon. over a decade of laddism and here is a guy being applauded for basically embodying a 'loaded' sidebar featch on 'what was great about the sweeney' circa 1996.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link

i think the key clause there acrobat is "in some quarters".

Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

hmmm but even mark lawson and co on front row and newsnight review seem to get off on the "deliciously un-pc" side off it. hell even on the ilx thread some folks seemed to be a little too fond of gene hunt. i mean the series itself came down on his side didn't it really. i dunno i agree with totq the cultural mood in britian now seems right under the smallest veneer of irony. something tells me cameron getting in wouldn't re-start the old battles. neo-liberalism won, if it sells it's ok.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link

" i mean the series itself came down on his side didn't it really"

no. it came down on the side you think it came down on.

Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:33 (seventeen years ago) link

well the appropriate quote there is from peter cook on "those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War".

HIGNFY being better in the 90s, and alternative comedy in the '80s, did nothing to stop the thatcherite/blairite agenda rolling on, nor could they have. satire is always a bit defeated, always a bit "right-wing" in that it has to acknowledge that everything will always be a bit shit. it can't "do" anything.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:36 (seventeen years ago) link

hmmm. well john simm's dude choose to say in 197whatever and unless you interpret that as him feeling he could make more of a difference in that time that's a pretty big thumbs up for the 70s and gene hunt in my book. also he went back out of loyalty to gene and the team.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

dice was loaded in gene hunt's favour by him not being an evil racist like actual bent copper c. 1973.

That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link

that's such a defeatist attitude, alternative comedy, for all its faults, certainly i feel took some stuff off the acceptibility list. yeh thatcher still got in but if someone, somewhere was made to realize that hey lolling about black people was a little bit bad then y'know it wasn't all in vain.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

to say that tyler's actions then condone anti-pc is both unwarranted and, in my view, inconsistent with what happened in the show as a whole.

Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

not tyler's, the writer's ;)

blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

well, tyler liked the 70s cos THINGS GOT DONE and you could FEEL ALIVE sure those things in themselves aren't un-PC but it can so easily be read as apologetic or even nostalgic for it.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

thinking about it, HIGNFY was better under the tories.

"vote cameron for better satire."


haha best slogan ever! i might even be tempted.

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

thing is... hasn't there been quite enough to satarise under blair? passantino is right up there, young 'uns today don't for the most part don't quite take ideological sides as folks did in the past. i mean the basis of ethical branding is sort of "whatever gets things done" well certianly folks i know involved in charity type stuff seem to take that geldofian line.

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

was have i got news for you "better" or simply "meaner" in the past?

acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 23:00 (seventeen years ago) link

mitcheel and webb are doing the post jonathan ross comedy on radio 2 right now. by god it's bad. but then this slot always is.

acrobat, Saturday, 5 May 2007 12:26 (seventeen years ago) link

hignfy on friday: bill bailey as host, armando and adam buxton. what's not to like?

oh, i hadn't thought it through...

koogs, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link

why cook'd and bomb'd is great vol 1.

from a thread about the mighty boosh:
"Very occasionally, there is a brief moment of repartee that would have been quite good if performers of the calibre of Russ Abbott or Les Dennis had been hired to work on it."

acrobat, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 19:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Lenny Henry "funnier than Lucas n Walliams and Pegg n Frost" shock.

Dom Passantino, Monday, 21 May 2007 12:20 (seventeen years ago) link

yes, that was odd, him on his own with the camera crew laughing along.

he still chose a lot of stuff that i remember whereas i'd've imagined him as the generation before - he's a good 8 years older than me.

LOTS of dawn french clips as well as clips of his own (were they down to do it together perhaps?).

koogs, Monday, 21 May 2007 12:42 (seventeen years ago) link

good choice of Love Thy Neighbour clip. "the joke's on EVERYONE" etc.

blueski, Monday, 21 May 2007 12:43 (seventeen years ago) link

The "no cohost, no audience, laughs from the production crew" aesthetic I took as a deliberate reference to Kenny Everett?

Dom Passantino, Monday, 21 May 2007 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link

That Dying Rooms documentary they showed a bit of looked shocking. I missed it at the time. I'd like to see it in its entirety, though I don't know if I could handle it. Shame about the "only Brits can make good documentaries" nonsense that accompanied it.

onimo, Monday, 21 May 2007 12:48 (seventeen years ago) link

i watched and kinda enjoyed HIGNFY this week. i skipped out the opening round, which i think is the worst bit and enjoyed ian hislop's sniping at chris tarrant. not exactly satire but good mean fun.

acrobat, Monday, 21 May 2007 12:50 (seventeen years ago) link

The "no cohost, no audience, laughs from the production crew" aesthetic I took as a deliberate reference to Kenny Everett?

I always associate that kind of thing with Phillip Schofield's broom cupboard.

chap, Monday, 21 May 2007 13:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Gordon the Gopher not a cohost now?

Dom Passantino, Monday, 21 May 2007 13:10 (seventeen years ago) link

watched and kinda enjoyed HIGNFY this week. i skipped out the opening round, which i think is the worst bit and enjoyed ian hislop's sniping at chris tarrant. not exactly satire but good mean fun.

See, I watched this too and didn't enjoy it much at all and wondered exactly why people prefer the "continually take the piss out of the host/guest" thing to people being witty and scathing about the actual news. Because wasn't it precisely the fear of HIGNFY becoming the former rather than the latter that led to the removal of Deayton?

(also fuck off whoever in the team thinks that crap grainy vids nicked off of YouTube/emailed to them by their mums are the height of humour)

ailsa, Monday, 21 May 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

no, deayton was removed 'cos the main producer had dropped the drink 'n drugs and was told to remove any negative influences from his social sphere, this was also why rory mcgrath lost his place on TTIAO... OR SO I HEARD. also see my post from two weeks ago being nasty to minor celebs has always been part of HIGNFY. it was funny cos it made me laugh, the more i think about it the mopre i realize it's not so much the "satire" that used to make me laff but paul merton going on about tigers giving birth to tigers out of their mouths.

acrobat, Monday, 21 May 2007 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link

no, deayton was removed 'cos the main producer had dropped the drink 'n drugs and was told to remove any negative influences from his social sphere, this was also why rory mcgrath lost his place on TTIAO... OR SO I HEARD

O RLY?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2373711.stm

ailsa, Monday, 21 May 2007 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link

thats what they want you to think! i like the conspiracy theory i read on another board.

acrobat, Monday, 21 May 2007 16:33 (seventeen years ago) link

remember that dude who used to spam ILE with the government done 9/11 stuff? i'm like him but with british comedy.

acrobat, Monday, 21 May 2007 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, it would excuse them from having "lol, our guest host's been a naughty boy" hypocritical ridiculousness every other week, I s'pose.

ailsa, Monday, 21 May 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost, obv

ailsa, Monday, 21 May 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

There's a big article about it in today's Daily Mail.

Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 07:31 (seventeen years ago) link

"Not Going Out"

crummy situation comedy as per the seventies, lame scenarios but oh it's actually got funny lines and stuff! What were the chances?

Mark G, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 15:08 (seventeen years ago) link

British comedy 'is bigoted'
Racism 'as rife as in the Seventies'
British comedy 'is bigoted'
BBC

British comedy is as bigoted and racist today as it was in the Seventies, academics have claimed.

Experts at a comedy conference yesterday said that after a wave of political correctness in the days of alternative comedy, jokes are again targeting minority groups.

And they dismissed arguments that postmodern irony makes the gags acceptable.

‘Pleasure is derived from the expression of aggression against a target,’ Guy Redden of Lincoln University told the seminar in Salford.

He said that Britain had moved from a ‘stereotype comedy with unflattering gags about social types where the white nation was working through the meaning of immigration’ to a new era of ‘post-PC comedy’ where the targets may have changed, but the sentiment is the same.

The cruel humour of Little Britain came under attack; in particular the character of mail order Thai bride Ting Tong was considered an example of the insidious racism.

Presenting a joint paper, Susan Becker of the University of Teeside and Lloyd Peters of Salford University argued that stereotypes are perpetuated and compounded by comedy.

‘Comedy is utilising stigma,’ they said. ‘A sign or mark which designates the bearer as less than normal people lies at the heart of the joke.’

Redden accepted that ‘unlike the discriminatory humour of the Seventies, today’s performers are aware of the power and meaning of the taboos they choose to break’, but argued that did not make the humour acceptable

However, Nigel Mather of the University of Kent suggested that when Ting Tong turns her husband Dudley’s flat into a Thai restaurant at the end of the series, it could be seen as empowering. ‘It could be seen as positive in terms of her characterisation,’ he said.

The conference continues at Salford University today.

acrobat, Saturday, 2 June 2007 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

However, Nigel Mather of the University of Kent suggested that when Ting Tong turns her husband Dudley’s flat into a Thai restaurant at the end of the series, it could be seen as empowering. ‘It could be seen as positive in terms of her characterisation,’ he said.

wah??

anyone catch the dreadful documentary on Hitler on telly on more4 last night? moronic, pointless, offensive, straight-facedly calls 'allo allo' genius, with a narration by some gormless bloke who sounded like he was trying to be one of the peep show characters.

stevie, Saturday, 2 June 2007 17:17 (seventeen years ago) link

er, no...

acrobat, Saturday, 2 June 2007 17:20 (seventeen years ago) link

that was jacques peretti wasn't it

Frogman Henry, Saturday, 2 June 2007 20:07 (seventeen years ago) link

it was horrendous.

stevie, Saturday, 2 June 2007 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Has anyone caught Pulling yet?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/programmes/pulling/

I keep bumping into it by accident and I think it's got real potential in a "loser girls version of Peep Show" sort of way.

CharlieNo4, Thursday, 14 June 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link

BiffoVision hasn't been commissioned for a series, apparently, on account of it being "not youth enough". Husss.

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 14 June 2007 12:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I watched the trailer for this on BBC3 a few months ago and it was, and i do not say this lightly , an absolute load of rubbish.

Lots of the material was also _influenced_ by other shows.

If this gets a series the BBC can say goodbye to my fees

acrobat, Thursday, 14 June 2007 12:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe you should put your foot through the TV and send them the bill

Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 14 June 2007 12:59 (seventeen years ago) link

And when the cheque comes, put your foot through that and send them the bill again

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 14 June 2007 13:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Pulling looked terrible in the trailers but was actually really really good. I love Sharon Horgan at the moment. Just the bit about Miss Congeniality 2 had me cracking up. And it's hard to make me laugh (esp BBC3).

Not the real Village People, Thursday, 14 June 2007 13:12 (seventeen years ago) link

As with other BBC Three pilots of late, this was pretty crap.
Though much better than the "Yoof sitcom" one a few weeks ago.

Complete rip-off of a series a couple of years ago which was made to look like a retro-Tomorrows World style show.

It was much better though, even if it wasn'[t that great.

PS, was the "presenter" the guy who used to be in Doctors?

acrobat, Thursday, 14 June 2007 13:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyone watched this Karen Taylor woman trying to funny? She got a rave review in the Guide, which I completely know is no guarentee of quality, but fuck me the gap between the review and the actual progamme was astronomical. Sample sketch: A man chats up a woman in a club, and finds out that her hobby is birdwatching. He asks what birds she get round here, and she says she gets a little thrush. And just as she shouts it the music happens to stop and everyone looks at her. Really, really tired shit.

nb the music playing at the club was a very lame approximation of drum n bass, possibly used in attempt to lend the rotten material the faintest hint of edginess.

chap, Monday, 18 June 2007 23:51 (seventeen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/comment/0,,2123547,00.html

yeah yeah welcome to 2003, pal.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:27 (seventeen years ago) link

being asked to subscribe is very 2003 yes

blueski, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Not everyone will agree with this incendiary column by Daily Mirror TV critic Jim Shelley, but it is one of the best pieces on Guardian Unlimited today.

Gervais has always been what you call a Marmite character. People love him or hate him. But his recent behaviour at the Diana concert and Live Earth have prompted even more extreme reactions from fans and foes alike.

Here is the Shelley's column in full:

It's hard to say exactly when Ricky Gervais stopped being the endearing, ingenious wit behind The Office and became the tiresome embarrassment he is today. There were the endless, nauseatingly matey, appearances on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross; his mediocre episode of The Simpsons; his mutual appreciation society with overrated US comics Ben Stiller and Larry David.

Fawning anecdotes in which he would call Extras' guest Robert De Niro "Bob" were another giveaway. His cameo in A Night At the Museum (with Stiller) was sub-sitcom standard and, like The Simpsons, another example of him re-hashing Brent. After years refusing to "do" The David Brent Dance, these days you can hardly stop him.

He was at it again during The Concert for Diana, where the sight of Gervais dying on his feet confirmed his demise. Having been introduced by, you've guessed it, Ben Stiller, Gervais performed the never-knowingly-funny Brent number Free Love On the Free Love Freeway, before making a gag about global warming we've all made: "at least we're going to have brilliant summers from now on". Asked to wing it until Elton John was ready, the acclaimed stand-up floundered.

His appearance at Saturday's Live Earth concert only compounded his humiliation. He opened with a lame remark about the show's eco-conscious stars flying in by private jet - an irony already commented on by that acclaimed comic genius Simon Le Bon. Then it was a case of he doth protest too much, as he insisted he'd done Live Earth as a favour to Spinal Tap creators "Christopher" (Guest) and "Rob" (Reiner), and that he couldn't say no to the Diana concert because he'd been asked personally - by Wills and Harry.

And with that, Gervais and David Brent, whose capacity for ingratiating, excruciating embarrassment he made famous, finally became indistinguishable.

blueski, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:32 (seventeen years ago) link

move on, britain

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I was with him until he called Larry David overrated. The dickwit.

Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Emergency Shelley Ward 10

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:35 (seventeen years ago) link

But Gervais is a cunt, so OTM.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:36 (seventeen years ago) link

no jokes, bruv

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Gervais's "lol black/lol jew/lol homo" schtick would work better if he added a "jokes bruv" at the end of each sentence.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:39 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah unreasoned zinging of stiller and larry d is what turned me against. i bet when 'the office' was first on he was all over it.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link

this thread can trundle along with a few posts every week or so but someone mentions gervais or nathan barley and 100 odd posts. that the real jokes, bruvs.

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:45 (seventeen years ago) link

there will not be 100 odd posts on the issue.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link

*cracks knuckles*

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:51 (seventeen years ago) link

UK Comedy Thread: Knuck If Ya Buck

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:51 (seventeen years ago) link

We really need a US Gervais defender in here. Maybe one of the same ones that have a hard-on for Jeremy Clarkson?

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 10:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I'll happily defend The Office. Some of the stand-up routines are funny too. Everything after that has been Gervais spunking people's goodwill up the wall.

Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:03 (seventeen years ago) link

TS: The Office vs The Thick of It vs 15 Stories High

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:08 (seventeen years ago) link

image blocked

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:12 (seventeen years ago) link

TS: The Office vs The Thick of It vs 15 Stories High

is 15SH any good?

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:14 (seventeen years ago) link

we always do this. hardly anyone has seen it. i'm boycotting it on "sean lock was involved" grounds.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:16 (seventeen years ago) link

it's really funny!

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:19 (seventeen years ago) link

It's not as good as Ideal.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Better than that James Lance Is A Drug Dealer sitcom, tho

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:21 (seventeen years ago) link

yr boy whitehouse has spoilt his copy book with that last enfield series no?

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:25 (seventeen years ago) link

The special Blair-era-ending "Down the Line" wasn't that great either, tbh. Although "Ted 'eath was a pearly", was funny.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:26 (seventeen years ago) link

It's not as good as Ideal.

zinggggg

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:28 (seventeen years ago) link

knowing dom i don't think that's actually a zing.

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:29 (seventeen years ago) link

I liked Ideal! What's wrong with Ideal!

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:30 (seventeen years ago) link

i didn't actually see it, i'm going by the 30-second advertising clips

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link

if it's on bbc3, i'm not repping for it.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:32 (seventeen years ago) link

the big elephant in the room is monkey dust

(200 posts minimum?)

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:34 (seventeen years ago) link

What I saw of that last Harry Enfield series was alright. His schtick hasn't really changed in 20 years. The "I saw you coming" bloke was lollable.

Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:35 (seventeen years ago) link

the second series of monkey dust was very dissapointing. yesterday i was wondering why mitchell and webb are as famous as they are. peep show really isn't that good. well not good enough to ride that kind of profile off. well at least c tate will be tied up with dr who for a bit. small mercies, man, small mercies.

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I liked the doctors on the Harry Enfield thing.

That one with Nick Frost starts again this week. I quite enjoyed that the first time. But as I can't remember what it's called, or when it's on I shall probably miss it.

Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I watched Spaced series 1 again the other day. Man, Simon Pegg hates women.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:45 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't really like edgy anymore, and certainly not something as self-consciously edgy as Monkey Dust.

Man, Simon Pegg hates lols.

Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:47 (seventeen years ago) link

You have to over-enunciate all of the vowels in that sentence.

"I aaaaam Siiiimon Peeegggg, and Iiiiiiii haaaaaate loooools", complete with weird facial expressions and hand gestures.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Monkey Dust has a nice little recurring sketch about a guy who tells an elaborate story about where he's been for the last 48 or so hours that she would knock down by pointing out that he was actually recounting the narrative of Hotel California or something. He'd then admit to have been doing something "edgy", which imo wasn't really needed. I guess you could call it PROGRESSIVE COMEDY.

acrobat, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I remember that sketch. What would be a better post-punchline payoff then? He'd been doing something mundane ("I was at Morrison's looking at the damaged goods aisle"), or doing something "naughty" ("I was fucking my secretary")?

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 11:56 (seventeen years ago) link

("I was at Morrison's looking at the damaged goods aisle")

ok this might have improved it

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 12:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I love Monkey Dust for the beauty of animation, the finely-observed characters, and the refusal to compromise in order to make a point. It helps that it's also frequently hilarious, if perhaps a tad unsubtle.

The second series WAS a little disappointing, yes, but still contained many great moments, and to top everything off, the THIRD series was (by far) the best.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 12:15 (seventeen years ago) link

beauty of animation? third series?

you're all ignoring Karen Taylor. probably for the best.

blueski, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 12:38 (seventeen years ago) link

i admired her unabashed showing off of her womanly curves. i did not, however, admire her womanly curves.

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

New series of Hyperdrive WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

ledge, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 21:38 (seventeen years ago) link

name one 00s BBC comedy series that DIDN'T get a second series.

blueski, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 21:53 (seventeen years ago) link

According to Bex

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

BBC hates women

blueski, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 21:59 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/800/bex_1.jpg

"jokes, bruv"

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link

According to Bex fun fact: Jessica "Hynes" Stevenson fired her agent after that series was transmitted for letting her make such bad decisions.

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 12 July 2007 08:21 (seventeen years ago) link

i think i want a (british) sitcoms cast pictures thread

acrobat, Thursday, 12 July 2007 08:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Set it up, we run it.

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 12 July 2007 08:32 (seventeen years ago) link

so, Learners then - Jessica "Hynes" Hynes and Doctor Who back together again but this time FUNNY. oooooOOoo

Alan, Thursday, 12 July 2007 09:24 (seventeen years ago) link

see also http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/l/lforlester_1299001825.shtml

Alan, Thursday, 12 July 2007 09:25 (seventeen years ago) link

zomg Jessica Hynes husband in that is Rose Tyler's dad!!!!

Alan, Thursday, 12 July 2007 09:26 (seventeen years ago) link

I LIKED GAVIN AND STACEY.

PJ Miller, Thursday, 12 July 2007 09:58 (seventeen years ago) link

ban pj miller

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 12 July 2007 10:09 (seventeen years ago) link

There is no-one, NO-ONE that is improving British Comedy on TV right now. No-one. Everything is middling to dreadful. How the hell did we arrive at this state of affairs?

My doomy outlook may be informed by spending too much time at Cookdandbombd. The most positive thing you're likely to read on there is 'Everything is fucking awful apart from X. And even he's a cunt.'

Ruairi Wirewool, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link

THE THICK OF IT

Just got offed, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link

'The Thick of it' is alright. That's depressing though, given that it is actually the best comedy thing on TV at the moment. it's clever, well made and acted, witty.....and i've never once laughed out loud at it.

Ruairi Wirewool, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link

the first part of 2-part special had me laughing out loud around 20 times, and that's a conservative estimate

Just got offed, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, i can't really argue with your experience of it, Louis. i feel that it's a very smart show, but isn't that funny. Without the Malcolm character (the most trad element)would it be anything more than slightly amusing?
i like it fine enough, but i don't think it's a GREAT comedy show.

Ruairi Wirewool, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought the programme's strength came from its excellent and universally funny ensemble cast (the 'tory' faction being especially amusing). The Malcolm character may be the funniest (and, oddly, most complex) character, but it succeeds whether its set-pieces contain him or not.

Just got offed, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:40 (seventeen years ago) link

'Universally funny' is quite a stretch.

Ruairi Wirewool, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Perhaps, but I didn't detect any clear weaknesses.

Just got offed, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link

My doomy outlook may be informed by spending too much time at Cookdandbombd. The most positive thing you're likely to read on there is 'Everything is fucking awful apart from X. And even he's a cunt.'

Emergency Lalla Ward 10 and Josie Long share a Facebook friend. Should we be told?

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:54 (seventeen years ago) link

The secret of great comedy is, never visit Cookdandbombd.

Noodle Vague, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Lalla and Long's facebook friend : Kofi Annan.

Ruairi Wirewool, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:04 (seventeen years ago) link

lol @ me going to same summer camp as josie long when i was 12/13

Just got offed, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Lalla and Long's facebook friend :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/images/2006/04/11/wrestlemania_22_11_470x360.jpg

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Must dash - Mock The Week's on. i never tire of Frankie Boyle call someone 'a paeeeeeeeeeeeeeedoh'.

Ruairi Wirewool, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

are you an american or an american't?

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:10 (seventeen years ago) link

can i be a canadiboth?

Will M., Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Josie Long latest name in Phil Astin steroid prescription controversy - you gotta go out there on the road every night and be whimsical thirty, forty minutes a night, somethin's gotta give and etc

That mong guy that's shit, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Robin Ince expects a specific LOOK for his performers, he's made his name putting on comedians with comic book bodies and it's hard for him to get out of that mindset.

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh christ, that was terrible @ Andy Parsons on Mock the Week just now.

Actually, Oh christ, that was terrible @ Andy Parsons.

Ruairi Wirewool, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link

You've gotta bear in mind that Ince was the product of a rape and his sister was kidnapped and murdered though

xpost

That mong guy that's shit, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link

just got offed OTM re The Thick Of It 1:2 funniness

blueski, Thursday, 12 July 2007 20:58 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm surprised how much i'm laughing at fonejacker. does that make me a bad man?

CharlieNo4, Thursday, 12 July 2007 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link

no just brainless

RJG, Thursday, 12 July 2007 22:02 (seventeen years ago) link

^^^ this

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 12 July 2007 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Still Game was rubbish :-/

ailsa, Thursday, 12 July 2007 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link

i caught a bit of trevor mcdonalds news knight on sunday. it was hilarious. incredibly satirical and genuinely funny. especially marcus brigstock, that guy can crack a gag!

acrobat, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 12:28 (seventeen years ago) link

...

CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 12:31 (seventeen years ago) link

oooh mustn't forget the sterling work of sue perkins, so good to see a female lesbian trading jokes with a knight of the realm. the footlights really have been working overtime in the last few years producing comedy giant after comedy giant. it really was like all the funny bits of have i got news for you without the all the other stuff round it. marvellous!

acrobat, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 12:39 (seventeen years ago) link

i saw it once. they gave reg hunter a script. this is by no means a good idea.

CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 12:44 (seventeen years ago) link

sue perkins is gay?

blueski, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link

well we've lost a lot of uk comedy MVPs this week but for whoever's left, a video beef from ricky responding to the haters...

http://www.rickygervais.com/

it's well trainwreck.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 19 July 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

i watched that expecting something about live aid. nada. i hate you.

i actually watched that.

i hate you.

Frogman Henry, Thursday, 19 July 2007 12:25 (seventeen years ago) link

live earth.

Frogman Henry, Thursday, 19 July 2007 12:26 (seventeen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

MOST INFLUENTIAL COMEDIES
1 Monty Python's Flying Circus
2 Only Fools and Horses
3 Blackadder
4 Little Britain
5 The Royle Family
6 The Morecambe and Wise Show
7 Spitting Image
8 The Young Ones
9 The Office
10 The Vicar of Dibley
Source: UKTV Gold

blueski, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link

i'd like to make it clear i was sort of trolling when i was saying news-knight is "good" upthread. it isn't.

acrobat, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:14 (seventeen years ago) link

UKTV Gold viewers seem to have some new definition of "influential" that none of the rest of us do.

aldo, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Little Britian in the short term is pretty OTM though, look at the BBC 3 comedy roster. And it is definetely represntative of a clutural moment that encompasses the likes of The Friday Night Project and Blunder whether it actually influenced these thing is debatable but y know as a certain ilx dude likes to point out the whole concept of influence in these contexts is kinda silly.

acrobat, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Go on, justify inclusion of Vicar of Dibley then :-)

ailsa, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

OK it revived teh idea of the trad sitcom. My Family and My Hero can be seen as following directly from its undemanding but slick mix of mild slapstick and loveably quirky characters centred round "national treasure" type lynchpin.

acrobat, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:48 (seventeen years ago) link

NO ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, NO CREDIBILITY

ailsa, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:51 (seventeen years ago) link

WHAT DID THAT "INFLUENCE"?

acrobat, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:54 (seventeen years ago) link

The Vicar Of Dibley is probably the one that stuck out most for me as well, although OFAH is kind of an odd one as well.

Spitting Image could be argued two ways, either directly influencing the Ianucci shows - although surely something like TW3 was more influential in terms of political satire? - or in allowing people to make non-acted comedy shows.

Little Britain undoubtedly massively influential, for promoting the idea you didn't have to be funny to get a comedy made on BBC3.

aldo, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Um, The Worst Week of My Life?

(also surely Keeping Up Appearances pre-dates Vicar of Dibley for that description you gave up there, in fact probably OFAH could count as well)

ailsa, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:56 (seventeen years ago) link

WWOML = influenced by OGITG, well-meaning buffoon has horrible things happen to him a lot through no fault of his own, has long-suffering partner who endures it.

ailsa, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

2.4 Children and several other sitcoms were still going when VoD started - no 'trad sitcom' revival required. It's influence on anything good or bad really is 0.

UK Gold shouldn't really be wasting their time on this matter anwyay, not when they have Mel Gibson films and The New Adventures Of Old Christine to be filling their schedules with.

blueski, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Coming less than 18 months after the last 'Allo 'Allo, it's pretty hard to argue TVOD could seriously represent a "revival". Ab Fab started 2 years before TVOD as well.

aldo, Monday, 13 August 2007 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link

New Adventures of Old Christine is dreadful (note: have only seen one and a half episodes).

I am not meaning to suggest that One Foot in the Grave *was* actually influential, but it pre-dates Dibley and was 10000000x better.

ailsa, Monday, 13 August 2007 15:00 (seventeen years ago) link

OFITG influential in at least spawning memorable catchphrase which the VoD didn't (mercifully).

blueski, Monday, 13 August 2007 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link

UKTV Gold viewers seem to have some new definition of "influential" that none of the rest of us do.

I have no clear idea of "influential" mean in this, and most other, cases

Tom D., Monday, 13 August 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

No I would argue it's a revival of the trad sitcom in that it's so much slicker than 2.4 or Allo, Allo. It's a trad british sitcom but Curtis gave it an almost American feeling. maybe.

acrobat, Monday, 13 August 2007 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link

saw adverts for new IT Crowd series. next friday? appears to contain vince noir. it sounds digusting but is actually quite beautiful.

koogs, Monday, 13 August 2007 15:44 (seventeen years ago) link

lol goths are depressed. Keep 'em coming linehan and/or matthews

Dom Passantino, Monday, 13 August 2007 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

OK it revived teh idea of the trad sitcom. My Family and My Hero can be seen as following directly from its undemanding but slick mix of mild slapstick and loveably quirky characters centred round "national treasure" type lynchpin.

-- acrobat, Monday, August 13, 2007 3:48 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

the trad sitcom never went away.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 13 August 2007 17:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Father Ted = most influential non-UK European comedy?

Just got offed, Monday, 13 August 2007 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Or does it count as UK because it was aired on C4?

Just got offed, Monday, 13 August 2007 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link

it was made for channel 4 thru hat trick, so isn't really non-uk. and to be fair, can you name a single live-action comedy that has ever aired here from the continent?

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 13 August 2007 19:35 (seventeen years ago) link

monsieur hulot should have been a tv series, it would have removed the necessity for mr. bean's existence

Just got offed, Monday, 13 August 2007 19:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Has Father Ted actually influenced anything? It was fairly traditional as well.

ailsa, Monday, 13 August 2007 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Has Father Ted actually influenced anything?

Black Books, for a start. Anything written by one of its creators.

Just got offed, Monday, 13 August 2007 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Right, so Graham Linehan influenced himself to write a sitcom, having written one before. OK.

ailsa, Monday, 13 August 2007 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it's possible to influence oneself. Besides, I'm sure there are more examples of FT's influence.

Just got offed, Monday, 13 August 2007 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Kudos to the C+B poster who note that you can recreate an episode of Mock the Week in your own house just by repeatedly saying "paedophile" in a Scottish accent.

Dom Passantino, Monday, 13 August 2007 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeh the trad sitcom was very much a going concern when Dibley turned up but there is something slicker yet blander about it than what had before. It truly is the Tony Blair of comedy.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 09:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think I've seen an entire episode of The VOD. But then, I've never seen so much as one second of "Black Books"

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 09:26 (seventeen years ago) link

You're always saying you've never done this or that.

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Gervais defends "Brent Dance" at Di gig:

However, the comic told radio station Heart: “After the Diana concert there was one guy – who works for a tabloid – and he wrote that the crowd booed.

“They didn’t boo, they loved it. People love it when something goes wrong and I was standing there and they demanded I do the ’robot dance’ and it was funny.

“But this guy wrote: ’He’s rubbish, everything he’s ever done is rubbish and it’s all over for him’.

“That week I got nominated for four Emmy Awards, sold 100,000 DVDs of Extras and signed up for two Hollywood movies. So bring on the backlash... I want him writing about me every day.”

onimo, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I can imagine Gervais spending about 2 hours just insisting 'the criticism does not bother me' to his peers, ala Coogan in The Man Who Thinks He's It.

Is Mock The Week the funniest British comedy show on TV at the mo?

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Talking of "signing up for two Hollywood movies - I caught a trailer for the adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" at the weekend. Gervais being billed above Robert De Niro will do his ego the world of good...

onimo, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Is Mock The Week the funniest British comedy show on TV at the mo?

You have killed me.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:13 (seventeen years ago) link

MTW lol count = 4 or 5. More than 8 Out Of 10 Cats. Less than Star Stories.

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Ban blueski

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:15 (seventeen years ago) link

You're always saying you've never done this or that.

I've never done that

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I saw some of Hyperdrive this week which wasn't that funny overall but they went back in time to 1995 which was funny. I think someone should write a whole sitcom set in 1995.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Diet Coke break
Dog Eat Dog
Devolution

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Is Mock The Week the funniest British comedy show on TV at the mo?

Not in a world where Still Game exists, no.

ailsa, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:31 (seventeen years ago) link

I think someone should write a whole sitcom set in 1995.

SimpsonsSouth Park did it

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Set in Essex.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Omni Trio, Outhere Brothers, Joshua Kaddison and Powder on the soundtrack.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:35 (seventeen years ago) link

think someone should write a whole sitcom set in 1995.

-- acrobat, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 11:18 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

i will write it. it will be called 'the auteurs plan their third album'. haines having his ankles broken will restrict him to his flat, giving it that classic 'confined space' brit sitcom vibe. the arc is, he has to 'sit out' britpop.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Not in a world where Still Game exists, no.

Didn't think it was still on. It's not particularly funnier anyway tho - just sort of nice pleasant viewing.

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:42 (seventeen years ago) link

It's on Thursdays on BBC2, after Mock the Week and Hyperdrive. Presumably everyone's turned their TVs off for Hyperdrive and forgotten to switch them back on again. It's way funnier than watching Hugh Dennis pulling faces and doing Jimmy Savile impressions apropos of nothing, though YMMV, obviously.

ailsa, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:45 (seventeen years ago) link

I've never seen "Mock the Week". Never done that.

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I've been a bit indifferent to the last couple of series of Still Game. It's still occasionally brilliant but for me too often strays towards Last Of The Summer Wine With Swearing.

onimo, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Last one I saw was pretty hilarious

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Never seem still game. Seen hyperdrive once. MTW twice. 8ooTC multiple times and that is the winner.

ledge, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

I like Still Game, I just find it more of a smile than a laugh.

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Erm Still Game is on at the same time as My Name Is Earl people. Unless you is all amd and don't like that.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Never seen "My Name Is Earl". Never done that.

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't like it as much as I did, but I still like it better than Mock the Week, and bits of the one a couple of weeks ago with Victor and Jack kidding on they were posh "aye, and then one time we kicked a giraffe to death" had me crying actual tears of laughter, and I don't do that very often.

(there are stacks of clips on YouTube, btw)

acrobat, there are these devices which allow you to record one programme while watching another. Watch Still Game, record Earl, watch Earl minus the adverts. Marvellous.

ailsa, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I think the Sc13nt0l0gy aspect puts me off "My Name Is Earl"

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link

^^^ this

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:08 (seventeen years ago) link

No, don't let it do that. I only found out about the Sc13nt0l0gy thing last week, it's not clunkingly obvious or anything (or I am stupid, or I am too busy laughing to care).

xpost

ailsa, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe it's a Scottish thing.

I don't really watch TV. Or I don't mean to watch TV. I don't really plan. Louche.

xp

I was sad when I discovered this. But then Mark E Smith hits women and I still like The Fall.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:12 (seventeen years ago) link

And I still like Incredible String Band! So what a hypocrite I am!

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Pac was a rapist but California Love is still hot.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link

who gives a shit if Jason Lee is a Scientologist?

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Jason Lee's family?

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Jason Lee's accountant?

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:30 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it's the premise that Earl's karma-tastic adventures are pushing the religion of the main cast a bit, but that's pretty much nonsense.

ailsa, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:30 (seventeen years ago) link

And that everybody on the show from the tea lady up is one too.... Something bizarre just happened there, when I was typing "that", I typed "theta" instead, spooky!

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I think someone should write a whole sitcom set in 1995.

aldo, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:38 (seventeen years ago) link

is 'my name is earl' actually scientologist (yeah that's right, i'm not googleproofing it)?

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link

No not real 1995 but 2007 vision of 1995. Like Life on Mars but with Britpop.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 12:11 (seventeen years ago) link

It's about doing the right thing and karma and righting previous wrongs and stuff, so maybe, dunno enough about it. It's very funny though, which tends to be what I look for in a comedy.

xpost

ailsa, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 12:16 (seventeen years ago) link

No not real 1995 but 2007 vision of 1995. Like Life on Mars but with Britpop.

-- acrobat, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 1:11 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

obviously i think this is a fantastic idea, but it will have to wait till commissioning editors are basically our age. although people in 1995 were banging on about 'the sweeney' and whatnot, so i guess it'd be quite like 'life on mars' anyway.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 12:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Kevin Eldon with long hair and a Therapy t shirt.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 12:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Woops Therapy? innit.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 12:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Kevin Eldon with long hair and a Therapy t shirt.

this is vee close to what happened in hyperdrive though! or is that your point?

CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:06 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh that's the point. a whole sitcom of that. no sci-fi just kevin eldon with long hair and a Therapy? t shirt. ok there would be other stuff. not sure what though.

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

how does Hyperdrive compare to Red Dwarf series 5 or 6?

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

i've said before i've been pleasantly suprised by hyperdrive. it compares extremely favourably with the arse end of red dwarf.

CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link

from what i've seen, which isn't much, it's not good but nick frost has enough charisma to pull it through. the trip back to 1995 was awesome though.

"this is a wind up, edmonds, it's edmonds innit"

acrobat, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:40 (seventeen years ago) link

The android/ ship's computer woman is incredibly irritating and I don't like the hippy/ beardy guy either

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Dan Antopolski is a very good stand-up comedian, but seems really bad in what I've seen of Hyperdrive (which isn't very much).

(I'm guessing that's who you mean by hippy/beardy guy)

ailsa, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link

That's him

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Tom is lying and has of course never seen Hyperdrive.

blueski, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha ha, I do watch telly occasionally, I usually prefer watching crap TV to "good" TV

Tom D., Tuesday, 14 August 2007 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link

My name is L Ron Hubbard

The show is about karma and redemption, but could there be a deeper message? James Donaghy examines the influence of the Church of Scientology on hit comedy My Name Is Earl

Saturday June 9, 2007
The Guardian

Do good things and good things will happen to you. Do bad things and it will come back to haunt you". Why can't all TV have a simple message like that at its heart? The brilliantly slick My Name Is Earl carries the karmic principle through to its logical/absurd conclusion with reformed felon Earl Hickey making up for past wrongs by doing good deeds. It's a feelgood kind of show. Yet there's something rotten at the heart of Earl if you believe the whispers. Critics claim there's an unholy influence by the Church of Scientology on the show with jobs for the boys and a crypto religious subtext just two of the allegations. I thought it was all about making a better world?

Article continues

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a busy time to be a publicity officer for the Church of Scientology. First the controversy caused by the Panorama programme with the John Sweeney meltdown and now the creeping unease about My Name Is Earl. The Scientology-Earl connection begins with Earl himself - actor Jason Lee is a Scientologist, as is show creator Greg Garcia and Ethan Suplee who plays Earl's slow-reader brother Randy. So far, so creepy. But there has also been a guest appearance from Juliette Lewis, Suplee's sister-in-law and a practising Scientologist. Also down with the Church is Giovanni Ribisi, who plays recurring character Ralph Mariano. Church membership beats the crap out of having a union card and relevant experience, some might suggest.
Scientologists in Hollywood are nothing new, of course. Tom Cruise will be forever associated with the cult and other high profile members include Beck, Kirstie Alley, John Travolta and Priscilla Presley. While there is nothing in its doctrines that actually promotes celebrity, it certainly hasn't shied away from embracing the famous and the publicity that creates. Part-time musician and spree-killer Charles Manson is also said to have studied Scientology. Strangely, the Church seem less keen for people to know about that.

But what exactly are its teachings? The Church was the creation of L Ron Hubbard, the American science fiction author, as the religious development of his earlier secular self-help system dianetics. Scientology moulded the pseudo science of dianetics with spiritual concepts such as reincarnation and the idea that a person was an immortal spiritual being called a thetan.

A practice central to Scientology is auditing, where a trained counsellor gets the subject to unburden themselves of past traumatic events (engrams) and, crucially, bad things they have done in their past. The confessions are recorded in preclear (PC) folders and kept permanently by the Church. Although there is an auditor's code which states that the auditor must promise not to use the information gained during the audit for punishment or personal gain, a California judge ruled that "the Church or its minions is fully capable of intimidation or other physical or psychological abuse if it suits their ends. The record is replete with evidence of such abuse." So what, we might wonder, could be in Jason Lee's PC folder? And is this finally PC gone mad?

Then there's the concept of the "overt-motivator sequence". Crudely, this is what happens when a person does something bad then subconsciously causes something bad to happen to themself. It all sounds eerily like "Do bad things and it will come back to haunt you", Earl's karmic mantra. The entire series premise, in fact. So when Earl crosses something off his list of bad acts is he just clearing out his preclear closet? Maybe we're unwittingly witnessing an overt motivator sequence? Ruh-roh!

And it's not the first time Scientology has been implicated as influencing its showbiz members. When Isaac Hayes quit voicing South Park's Chef a statement issued on his behalf said it was because he objected to "inappropriate ridicule" of people's religious beliefs. This got one of the biggest laughs in the show's 10-year run from those working on the show. "In 10 years and over 150 episodes of South Park, Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons or Jews." co-creator Matt Stone pointed out "He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show."

If you're wondering what so offended Shaft it's likely you haven't seen the Trapped In The Closet episode. Scientology and prominent Scientologists are roundly mocked and there is a scene where R Kelly sings a song about Tom Cruise being "trapped in the closet". There is also a priceless scene where regular South Park character Stan, who the Scientologists believe to be the reincarnation of L Ron Hubbard, tells them that "Scientology is just a big fat global scam" which prompts the followers to threaten to sue him. This was too much for Hayes. "There's a growing insensitivity towards personal spiritual beliefs." said the Chocolate Salty Balls vocalist. Can you dig it?

They certainly seem a touchy bunch, these Hubbard lovers. People tread warily around the subject of Scientology with its hearty appetite for litigation. They have a rich and varied history of lawsuits. Against newspapers, including the Washington Post, against individuals that teach Hubbard's work outside the official Scientology banner and against the US Internal Revenue Service. There is something about Scientologists that they don't seem to play well with the other boys and girls.

But maybe we're getting our panties in a bunch about this. A Hollywood actor has wacky beliefs? Hold the front page! He puts in a good word for his mates at his job? You'd think he was a chump if he didn't. And let's not forget that Hollywood has always had these cabals, real or imagined. Spencer Tracy's Irish mafia in the 1930s spring to mind and the more recent panic about the supposed gay mafia. The Scientology preclear folder could be the Catholic confessional without the confidentiality and many religions have karmic or "as ye sow, so shall ye reap" principles.

Yet still there's something creepy about Scientology. All this talk of purification gives you a queasy feeling. You can't trust a church which has its member's secrets on file and is willing to use them for its own ends. And many of their specific beliefs do give cause for concern like the necessity of "silent birth" which received widespread exposure in the latter stages of Katie Holmes' pregnancy. Female Scientologists are encouraged to keep the noise down during birth in case the newborn hears "negativity" which can emotionally scar the baby for life. As ever, there's no scientific basis for this and it seems just a neat way of keeping the chicks quiet.

Maybe people wouldn't be so bothered if My Name Is Earl wasn't such a good show. But being loved by so many people seems to bring a certain responsibility. If you have a good show about a good guy people expect you to do good things. And they don't expect you to start subliminally brainwashing them with your weird whacked-out beliefs. Whatever's happening on Earl, Scientology seems unlikely to shake off the common perception that it is a cult. I don't know, though. Mind control, dark rituals, misogyny - maybe it is a mainstream religion after all.

· My Name Is Earl, Thu, 10pm, C4

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeh it's american but i think *everyone* who has posted to this thread is UK so um it's ok.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:31 (seventeen years ago) link

wonder if sally phillips puts crazy alpha course shit into her shows.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Sally Phillips has actually turned down work because it offends her beliefs.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:36 (seventeen years ago) link

dude is she jesus-tastic?

*crosses another one off the list*

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:41 (seventeen years ago) link

She's born again, I forget the complete story... I think she was at the Fringe or some other comedy festival doing this "lol jesus was rubbish amirite?" routine and then she was approached by some Alpha Course types afterwards who let her bathe in their healing light

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:43 (seventeen years ago) link

God, now I remember that hour-long Alpha advert on BBC 2 a few years ago. Eeeeurrrghhhh.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

story i heard was that she was doing some horror type thing and got TOO DEEP INTO THE OCCULT and had to take the righteous side. a bit like I'm Famous and Frightened meets that Hell House thing they have in America where Satan makes women have abortions and you have to choose between heaven and hell at the end of the tour.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:50 (seventeen years ago) link

saxondale series 2 trailers as well recently.

koogs, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:55 (seventeen years ago) link

In fact, the very English one said 'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.' That was the rudest thing anyone had said to me in years, but it worked.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

oh for the love of god why?

xpost

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'

HARSH!

haha xpost

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

mind-boggling that Phillips link

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link

oh for the love of god why?

because the BBC insist/demand a second series of all their comedy shows - refusal to comply has srs consequence. well done to Jessica Stephenson for having the balls to stand up to them and say no i say.

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

we need more religious Brit ILXors to defend her, this has turned pretty one-way pretty quickly

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link

What on earth is the reasoning behind the two season rule at the Beeb? It's obviously not for selling-to-the-US reasons... is it a DVD thing?

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link

maybe, it's a "it might get better in the second series and become a hit like what only fools and horses did" thing thatcherkid

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

maybe just banal face-saving exercise ala 'look it can't be THAT bad if it got a second series' and it satisfied their VERY LOW ratings expectations. i think they have relatively huge comedy budget burning hole in their pocket because they're required 'to entertain' and this stuff IS so cheap to produce (one or two writers, mostly indoors, only 3 hours of finished material). nobody is going to harass them for not being funny enough because the 'competition' are no better.

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

That Phillips piece is hilarious.

I started seeing evidence that I believed: when people cast spells things happened, and when Buddhists chanted things happened you wouldn't expect. So that was a bit worrying. And more so to discover that Satanists appeared to exist. I thought that was all rubbish, but I was uncomfortable with the idea that some people are actively supporting the other side. Even if it was all rubbish, it would be nice if there were people supporting the right side as well, just in case.

I wonder what she was expecting?

Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link

How much do you get for writing a 10pm BBC2 sitcom, d'ya think?

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Loadsamoney.

Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

channel 4 has peep show, star stories, it crowd, nathan barley (both have 2nd runs forthcoming) i guess. listed like that it's kinda depressing.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

because the BBC insist/demand a second series of all their comedy shows - refusal to comply has srs consequence. well done to Jessica Stephenson for having the balls to stand up to them and say no i say.

-- blueski, Wednesday, August 15, 2007 4:03 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

they *changed her name*, which was pretty harsh.

xpost

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

nathan barley pisses all over hyperdrive, still game, saxondale, etc.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Peep Show must be on it's 4th series by now I think. I lost count after 1.

Actually I was watching Swiss Toni series 2 on DVD and found it pretty funny, and funnier than series 1. This may not be saying much.

Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:20 (seventeen years ago) link

'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'
'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'
'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'
'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'
'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'
'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'
'You're only interested in Jesus because you haven't got a boyfriend.'

nathan barley is MUCH funnier now than it was when it was on the telly.

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:20 (seventeen years ago) link

xp

i have been told it's £3000 to write an episode of hollyoaks. i may have been misinformed. a days speaking part on dr who is a bit under a grand with dvd royalties at a later date.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:21 (seventeen years ago) link

so, er, work it out from that.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link

holy crap, that's loads.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:23 (seventeen years ago) link

one thing Still Game and Hyperdrive have sort of got right: lead characters are pretty likeable even loveable (altho Nick Frost's safe persona has got boring perhaps)

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:25 (seventeen years ago) link

because the BBC insist/demand a second series of all their comedy shows - refusal to comply has srs consequence. well done to Jessica Stephenson for having the balls to stand up to them and say no i say.

-- blueski, Wednesday, August 15, 2007 4:03 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

and chris langham amirite

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Altho Bex seemed likeable enough also - maybe it's just more difficult when the lead character is a woman (IT Crowd lass also likeable I think). And different rules apply to early evening sitcoms (people don't watch them expecting riotous hilarity, just something light-hearted to help your dinner go down).

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link

nathan barley pisses all over hyperdrive, still game, saxondale, etc.

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:19

i didn't know you huffed glue, how's that working out for you?

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link

hyperdrive is a moderate giggle, still game and saxondale are two of the only things to force yourself to remember to watch.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Gervais being billed above Robert De Niro will do his ego the world of good...

At least he should be spending most of the film dead - not that stops his character, though.

Forest Pines Mk2, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:46 (seventeen years ago) link

force yourself to remember to watch

wow, appointment TV still exists? who knew?

CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:47 (seventeen years ago) link

if you have to force yourself...

even if a show is quite funny i find i'm not that bothered about it/won't go out of my way to see it. i only ever watched all the US animated shows on a casual basis anyway (the Simpsons was pretty unavoidable back when i had Sky anyway). combo of age, jadedness and plateau/nosedive of the medium maybe (applies to lots of music and other art too wah kill me now).

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:47 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't think tv's worse than it was -- even if there aren't many comedy shows i like now it's not like it was ever overbrimming with gold. it only takes a few really good shows to make something look like a golden age.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:50 (seventeen years ago) link

"if you have to force yourself..."

i kind of have to force myself to watch anything on telly when i could be doing something else (why don't you..). what i meant was inertia vs the rewards you get from the show. actually switching the box on is an effort for me.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:50 (seventeen years ago) link

hmm i dunno i guess it's easy to be revisionist but is there really anything of the quality of father ted or the day today or i'm alan partridge or blah, blah around at the moment?

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

nathan barley and peep show are the closest we have to genius, peep show actually attains genius at times.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link

THE THICK OF IT, why do i keep forgetting, now that's the best thing atm

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:55 (seventeen years ago) link

i.e. it is flat-out genius

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:55 (seventeen years ago) link

no -- but they occupied 30 minutes a week for six weeks, and TDT ran for only six weeks in total. IAP ran in two separate years widely spaced apart. FT was about three series in four years. so TV as a whole wasn't upturned by their presence.

xpost

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:55 (seventeen years ago) link

obviously i do see the mid-late 90s as a golden age, but you gotta fight that.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:56 (seventeen years ago) link

okay i have no idea if i'm going to get laughed at but the nicholas craig shows on bbc4 ie how to be edwardian, how to be science fiction, the mark lawson interview, have been the funniest things in ages and definitely on a par with early partridge.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link

oh yeh forgot peep show. no way is the thick of it genius tho.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:00 (seventeen years ago) link

part of what makes a golden age is the feeling that you're not in a tiny minority of smug media-savvy bbc4-watchers too, and while i do think 'the thick of it' is up there with the 90s stuff i mentioned (though i do think it's mean-spirited but those are the times we live in ;_;), i'm conscious it doesn't have that 'quoting it in the playground the next morning' vibe. granted i'm not at school, but i mean, people at work and even people i like don't know what the hell it is. likewise 'nathan barley', which is somewhat esoteric.

'peep show' is getting more popular as it gets more shit, and again i often find it more depressing than funny.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link

The Thick of It is great, I forgot that but, but it doesn't make me laff that much. It's a neat little send up of modern politics but no way is it The Greatest Sitcom Since Fawlty Towers (TM Alison Graham)It'll have two or three killers an episode but not Police Squad bang, bang jokes, bruv. Family Guy does. TV Burp does as well but that really should be an entree not a main course.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:06 (seventeen years ago) link

There's something about the name of that massive If You Don't Like Peep Show You Are Probably Not Worth Knowing facebook group that makes me think that is the perfect sitcom for our crypto-tory shitbag generation.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm not saying TV's worse - quality is constant because new problems replace the old ones.

there was a good thing on BBC Four about TV in 1974 a few weeks back. Unfortunately the clips they showed of Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads made it look a rather worthy (Bolam sighs at sight of demolished factory etc.), boring affair with stifled laughter to match. Surely not the case.

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

"part of what makes a golden age is the feeling that you're not in a tiny minority of smug media-savvy bbc4-watchers too"

i'm not taking offense as such but i never mentioned anything about no golden age which i think is ridiculous anyway (in this context), what makes you think bbc-4 watchers are tech-savvy i'm certainly not in fact most of them are prob middle aged with string round their glasses, and "smug" ? bit douchey, no?

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

There's something about the name of that massive If You Don't Like Peep Show You Are Probably Not Worth Knowing facebook group that makes me think that is the perfect sitcom for our crypto-tory shitbag generation.

-- acrobat, Wednesday, August 15, 2007 5:08 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

yeah 100% otm. i hadn't realized this till recently when it got really massive. the jokes have become more sour over the last two series also, as mark as become the central character and jeremy the tosspot.

xpost i was talking about me and mine, frogman.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

in any case, when the day today came out, did you not feel part of a clique/minority watching this tremendous/slightly overlooked thing at 10pm on bbc2? smug, perhaps?

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

possibly -- but not with 'father ted' or 'brass eye' or 'i'm alan partridge'.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link

or 'the smell of reeves and mortimer'!

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link

imo Malcolm Tucker and Ollie are more likeable than Mark and Jeremy. maybe it's because they're such high status clever bastards (Tucker at least) and actually succeed most of the time. British comedy penchant for irritating losers really not a plus point.

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link

'i'm alan partridge' was smug-inducing. brass eye was alienating to a lot of people. father ted was a legtimate universal sitcom tho.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link

ban anyone who uses the words 'smug' or 'genius' on this thread.

blueski, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:16 (seventeen years ago) link

blueski banned!!!111

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:17 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't think IAP was smug at all.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:19 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah i am kind of using it because i disagree with the notion, however 'i'm alan partridge' is kind of sneering and loathsome and i don't think people who are obsessed with it are particularly nice.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:19 (seventeen years ago) link

nah iap is iannucci and coogan playing to the gallery. the student-wanker gallery.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:21 (seventeen years ago) link

i disagree.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:24 (seventeen years ago) link

i think peep show fits in quite well with programs like balls of steel even the apprentince. it shares space with media figures like gordon ramsey and jeremy clarkson. it echoes the elevation of boris johnson to godhead status. self satisfaction, complacency, meaness all are celebrated with unironic irony. g2 gentrification, the mainstreaming of hipster one up manship becomes playground tactics. everyone wants to be on the side thats winning.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:25 (seventeen years ago) link

hmm.

some cracking gags tho gromit.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:26 (seventeen years ago) link

all rooted in a slightly shitty view of the world.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

at least they're not racists though.

acrobat, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link

imo Malcolm Tucker and Ollie are more likeable than Mark and Jeremy.

Ollie isn't (especially not in part 2 of the special), Tucker certainly is. Whoever said it didn't have a laughing-out-loud vibe clearly didn't see Part 1. An hour's worth of belly-laughs, that one.

Brass Eye was alienating to a lot of people, most of whom were Mail-reading cunts.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link

the weird thing abt ramsey is that his shtick -- which is as acrobat sez -- is at odds with the content and dynamic of his programmes, which are about the opposite of complacency: viz "yr cookery is only as good is its eaters say it is", hence LEARN TO DO IT PROPERLY PLZ

it's quite ur-reithian that way, fuck me

mark s, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:40 (seventeen years ago) link

"Brass Eye was alienating to a lot of people, most of whom were Mail-reading cunts"

you're a complete fucking dickhead

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:41 (seventeen years ago) link

And you're the dude who saw 'media-savvy' and quoted 'tech-savvy'.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:42 (seventeen years ago) link

nah iap is iannucci and coogan playing to the gallery. the student-wanker gallery.

Sotcaalicious

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link

xxp
ie members of my family found it too harsh, too nihilistic, too confusing, amoral etc. and they're not mail reading or the other thing. i love it, but i can see why a person brought up in a different time, or with more mainstream values might have not liked these things.
i mean i hate almost everything morris did after blue jam which revealed those unpleasant tendencies used to great effect in brass eye much more starkly. i guess that makes me a mail-reading cunt.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:45 (seventeen years ago) link

And you're the dude who saw 'media-savvy' and quoted 'tech-savvy'.

-- Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:42

you're absolutely right. um, so?

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Srsly, tho, what's so dickheaded about my statement? Brass Eye is one of the funniest programmes in the history of television, that is unalterable fact. Therefore, who can it possibly alienate? Possibly, it alienates stuck-up prudish Daily Mail readers (the stereotype most certainly applies here), who can't abide by its content, or the manner in which it skewers their complacent, bigoted view of the world.

Aha. Explanations.

Well, my comeback above was a cheap shot, sure, but bear in mind I said 'most' not 'all'. Sure there are those that might have found it amoral or confusing. In general, though, I'd expect the majority of opprobrium to come from those ideologically opposed to Morris.

Blue Jam, I'll say it again, is the finest programme ever, radio or television.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Wow, two absolutes in one post! For <superlative> programme ever, read "in my opinion, the best I have seen".

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

You're nuts.

Mark Heap is, like, 54 or something, you know?

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:51 (seventeen years ago) link

finding things funny = no prob
finding things funny and awarding yrself a medal for it = tw@t

mark s, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost: Yeah, he's getting on a bit, but he was absolutely perfect for his BJ roles. And he's still got it in doses; he was probably the best thing about Green Wing.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I'd hardly call this 'awarding myself a medal' btw. Everyone my age with an interest in comedy likes Brass Eye. Now that's scientific fact.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:55 (seventeen years ago) link

there's an awful lot thats funny about brass eye that makes no coherent "ideological" sense, and at the same time repulses if you've been brought up in a different milleu (social and media). you're very narrow in your knowledge and possibly experience.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, by 'ideological' I mean Morris' clear objective to make more or less anything, no matter what the supposed taste, into a joke. This wanton subversion goes squarely against those who would dictate what is 'right and proper'; his freedom of expression, raucously manifested as it is, got up a lot of noses.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

and bar

mark s, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Terry and June is one of the funniest programmes in the history of television, that is unalterable fact. Therefore, who can it possibly alienate? Possibly, it alienates stuck-up prudish The Sex readers (the stereotype most certainly applies here), who can't abide by its content, or the manner in which it skewers their complacent, bigoted view of the world.

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Dude I haven't seen Terry and June, but if I did, I probably wouldn't feel 'alienated'! I'd like to know how it skewers my view of the world. Enlighten me.

Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 17:08 (seventeen years ago) link

there's an episode in which terry scott is reading "the daily mail" before his chair breaks

Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link

> there's an episode in which terry scott is reading "the daily mail" before his chair breaks

isn't that the title sequence?

the only thing i remember about t&j being how topical it was, hence the cb radio episode, etc.

koogs, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 18:11 (seventeen years ago) link

there's a fair bit of morris stuff that's just nasty. i know the peedo special is bestsatiresinceswift but so much of it is just bad taste lols. i think at some point there's a realization, or one i had, that as much as you try and justify it sometimes yr laughing cos it's naughty. it's a cheap thrill. but we're all popists here and "cheap thrill" is no denegration. it's just something to be aware of when you stop patting your back.

wikipedia says;

"Satirical television shows such as Have I Got News For You and They Think It's All Over are also popular on British television."

acrobat, Thursday, 16 August 2007 10:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Wait a minute, Louis Jag is pulling a; "If You Don't Like Peep Show You Are Probably Not Worth Knowing" but with Brass Eye. Comedy = divisive.

acrobat, Thursday, 16 August 2007 10:14 (seventeen years ago) link

The Nicholas Craig thing on "How to be C18th" was pretty funny for a clip show - much riffing on Biggins, Brian Blessed's "keynote performance there as Lord Shoutyface Cholesterol". Haven't seen the others. Who'd have thunk it 25 years ago that the only member of the Young Ones/Comic Strip clan to still be making reasonably good TV comedy into his 40s/50s would be Planer? To be fair, some of the others have moved into other areas, but they've all been hopeless on the telly since '93 or so.

(Lou1s J@gger is 19 or something, isn't he? I was a daft sod at that age too.)

Michael Jones, Thursday, 16 August 2007 10:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Ooh, automagical googproofin'.

Michael Jones, Thursday, 16 August 2007 10:24 (seventeen years ago) link

however 'i'm alan partridge' is kind of sneering and loathsome

Who is being sneered at?

Tom D., Thursday, 16 August 2007 10:34 (seventeen years ago) link

There's a difference between not liking/being unsettled by Brass Eye, which I can fully accept, and being 'alienated' by it. I'm sure plenty of my friends don't much like Brass Eye, but I doubt any of them are completely, vocally opposed to its principles.

Just got offed, Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

principles?

acrobat, Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Louis thinks everyone has many principles has he has

Tom D., Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:17 (seventeen years ago) link

i did see the 'how to be science fiction' which was actually 'how to be 70s science fiction' as it took most of it's cues from gareth edwards. was very much a 'lol, actors were bad back then' type affair.

brass eye argumenting now in it's 5th great year.

koogs, Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:25 (seventeen years ago) link

surely 10th?

acrobat, Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link

principles of expression and humour xxxpost

Just got offed, Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Only 5 of them were great.

xpost

onimo, Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:32 (seventeen years ago) link

That many?

Tom D., Thursday, 16 August 2007 11:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Brass Eye - is that what all the fuss was about?
-- tarden, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (6 years ago)

BRASS EYE - 8/8/01
-- dave q, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (6 years ago)

Brass Eye / Chris Morris...
-- Nick Southall, Monday, 13 May 2002 00:00 (5 years ago)

koogs, Thursday, 16 August 2007 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

The Office and Extras star/writer/director, Ricky Gervais, has signed to direct and star in This Side Of The Truth!

Gervais, 46, will play the leading role in the comedy and co-direct
with Matt Robinson. This will be Gervais' directing feature debut.

This Side Of The Truth is about a contemporary world where no one has
ever lied. A performer (Gervais) tells the first lie and harnesses its
power for personal gain.

DavidM, Friday, 14 September 2007 13:59 (seventeen years ago) link

according to guardian peter serafinowicz has his own series starting in september (that's this month).

koogs, Friday, 14 September 2007 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Trailer for The Peter Serafinowicz Show.

DavidM, Friday, 14 September 2007 16:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Jimmy Carr is being lined up to front a new clip show for the BBC.
He last night recorded a pilot episode of What Are You Looking At? with plans for a full series.

The show, made by Have I Got News For You producers Hat Trick, promises to take a ‘comedic look’ at the week's television

However, the show has already been criticised for being a carbon copy of Harry Hill's TV Burp, which has proved a ratings hit for ITV.

BBC director general Mark Thompson has previously been dismissive of copycat programmes, and the corporation says their show will be ‘more spiky’*.

DavidM, Saturday, 15 September 2007 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Dogface officially not too bad.

blueski, Friday, 21 September 2007 17:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Who'd have thunk it 25 years ago that the only member of the Young Ones/Comic Strip clan to still be making reasonably good TV comedy into his 40s/50s would be Planer?

"Mike" was on SAXONDALE last night.

PJ Miller, Friday, 21 September 2007 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link

the only thing i remember about t&j being how topical it was, hence the cb radio episode, etc.

I don't remember ever having seen this episode, but it sounds fucking fantastic.

PJ Miller, Friday, 21 September 2007 17:53 (seventeen years ago) link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7028033.stm

stevie, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

"Other winners included David Gest, who picked up the prize for funniest reality TV person."

koogs, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link

i still can't believe he's bangin Malandra Burrows

blueski, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link

BBC2 launches it's Comedy Night (again) tonight:

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle - Jennifer Saunders giving Oprah-type confessional talk shows the Larry Sanders treatment.

The Peter Serafinowicz show - impersonates The Beatles, Michael Caine, and other hip'n'happenin stuff.

That Mitchell and Web Look - (rpt)

Newsnight - Tories lol.

DavidM, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Serafinowicz won't be funny

RJG, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link

i like PS, find him v watchable so expect at least 2 chuckles

blueski, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link

in other news i think there should be a Mighty Boosh comic

blueski, Thursday, 4 October 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Ban Peter Serafinowicz, this is dreadful

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 4 October 2007 20:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Between the old Futarama gags, the old French and Saunders gags and the old Simpsons gags, my most entertainment was from going "Look, it's the guy who played The Curious Orange" when the guy who played The Curious Orange was onscreen

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 4 October 2007 20:59 (seventeen years ago) link

/\ ban, obv.

i thought PS was fine, better than expected, several good lols. i also cheered Paul Putner tho. better than Dogface (which features the same doe-eyed lass).

blueski, Thursday, 4 October 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

BBC scheduling methodology troubles me now as it seems that you can't get a new comedy on BBC2 unless you're already a name, you can't get on BBC Four unless you're aloof (i think FOTC counts as aloof altho i still haven't seen an ep), and you can't get on BBC3 unless you're incredibly stupid and crap. Doesn't bode well for actual fresh funny talent at all.

blueski, Thursday, 4 October 2007 22:30 (seventeen years ago) link

didn't see it

RJG, Thursday, 4 October 2007 22:36 (seventeen years ago) link

think you'd be somewhere between me and dom if you had

blueski, Thursday, 4 October 2007 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I was disappointed by Serafinozowicz. I loved Look Around You, but this wasn't half as clever. Seemed like he was taking cheap shots at things that have already had the mick taken out of them a thousand times before (Big Brother, Michael Caine, QVC). I don't get the Mitchell and Webb sketch with the snooker commentators at all.

Can anyone remind me what the bit of music Seraphimowitz played on the lady's fingers? I can't work it out, even though it's very famous.

In other news, I've been really enjoying Snuffbox (about a year too late I know). Especially "Rapper With A Baby".

the next grozart, Friday, 5 October 2007 00:18 (seventeen years ago) link

The '70s man getting married' thing felt a bit Look Around You S2 but in a good way.

blueski, Friday, 5 October 2007 00:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Can anyone remind me what the bit of music Seraphimowitz played on the lady's fingers? I can't work it out, even though it's very famous.

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

Venga, Friday, 5 October 2007 08:19 (seventeen years ago) link

PS's alan alda was great. rest of it middling. but passed the time.

vivyan vyle was bbc1 fodder, i thought, ab fab watered down.

best of the three was mitchell and webb, yes. unfortunately the last one. still graham norton next week.

koogs, Friday, 5 October 2007 08:52 (seventeen years ago) link

i liked the chiropractor sketch on mitchell and webb

the next grozart, Friday, 5 October 2007 12:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I liked the cavepeople sketch and the nazi sketch on Mitchell and Webb. the rest was disappointing.

Grandpont Genie, Friday, 5 October 2007 12:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Dogface officially not too bad.

It's total cack

Tom D., Friday, 5 October 2007 12:43 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm sticking with my first answer

blueski, Friday, 5 October 2007 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link

thursdays now officially less funny now norton has replaced mitchell and webb. v vyle still dreadful. BUT 30 rock is on ch5 later and is quite good.

serafinowicz good bits = none of the recurring characters (although i did like butterfield's(?) disguises). dickens' jammy corners, poison sockets good. beatles very poor.

koogs, Friday, 12 October 2007 08:51 (seventeen years ago) link

'30 rock' is great. by episode four or five it's genius.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 12 October 2007 08:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Serafinowicz has a sort of gentle silliness that is quite likeable but, generally, the material is shandy weak. Poison sockets, Christmas Man, Limpy's Got Cancer the only highlights this week.

Funny that, for all his voice talent and acting chops, the best thing he's ever been involved in (Look Around You S1) hardly featured him as a performer at all.

Michael Jones, Friday, 12 October 2007 09:01 (seventeen years ago) link

the best thing he's ever been involved in

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UDONGdCjkNw

Dom Passantino, Friday, 12 October 2007 09:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, that was good too.

Michael Jones, Friday, 12 October 2007 09:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Serafinowicz has a sort of gentle silliness that is quite likeable but, generally, the material is shandy weak.

i agree, forgot to watch last night (thought it was on friday for some reason, in your face BBC branding-obsessives).

blueski, Friday, 12 October 2007 10:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Paramount Comedy has a kinda "stand-up" compilation show featuring biggish name stand-ups of today's routines that they can get cheap, ie: from 1997. It's fucking weird to watch. Stewart Lee as a punchline machine comedian, Sean Lock doing a kinda "Gas as hosted by Lee Mack" surrealism piece, Dave Gorman telling actually jokes...

Dom Passantino, Friday, 19 October 2007 08:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, on the topic of S.Lee, apparently he's got the BBC nod to produce his own pilot, based heavily on the old Dave Allan stand-up shows. Except with an extra half-a-finger, I assume.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 19 October 2007 08:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm glad he found work so soon after being sacked by Bolton.

Mark C, Friday, 19 October 2007 13:01 (seventeen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

OK, "It's Adam and Shelley", it's the last straw really. Why? How? Why again?

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

did anyone see Learners? her from spaced, him from doctor who. i taped it but am not sure i can summon up the will to actually watch it given the BBC1 9 o'clock timeslot

koogs, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Going to the taping for S. Lee's no-longer-cancelled pilot, will report back

That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I saw most of Learners. It was not worth the time although I had to keep watching because I was intrigued by the building they used for drving school HQ and wondered whether they were using the actual interior or a set.

Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, on the topic of S.Lee, apparently he's got the BBC nod to produce his own pilot, based heavily on the old Dave Allan stand-up shows.

What is with Dave Allen? This from the bbc's blurb about Amid Djalili's new show...

Omid Djalili invokes the spirit of Dave Allen in his new self-penned, self-titled stand-up and sketch show.

Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I imagine a lot of comedians are fans of his

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Dave Allen was funny, died within the past five years, didn't have a massive fall-off in funniness towards the end of his career, plus there's something endearingly "old school" about his approach that's gonna suit guys like Djalili and Lee: stand-up with brief character sketches

xp

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Plus Lee and Djalili are both "lightly political" comedians, like Allen.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Dave Allen was great! His comedy was gentler, slower, and yet more piercing and devastatingly-observed than most modern wannabes'.

Just got offed, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I'd forgotten that Dave Allen used to do sketches. I only rember him sitting on that stool telling jokes (and drinking and smoking iirc).

Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Pour one out...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/content/images/2007/08/20/daveallen_2_396x222.jpg

Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Allen became very rude towards the end or, perhaps, that material was always part of his stand-up and '90s TV allowed him to broadcast it. I just remember my parents (big fans in the '70s) being appalled by the explicit sex jokes; like a hero of theirs had revealed his true colours. I doubt my Dad had been so disappointed in anyone since Dave Hickson joined Liverpool in 1959.

Michael Jones, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 12:48 (seventeen years ago) link

He used the f-word, I was shocked by that

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 November 2007 12:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, perhaps it was more the language. Poor old Mum just can't get past swearing; she nearly made my Dad turn off One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest when it was first shown on TV in about 1988 cos of the cussing. It became one of my Dad's favourite films!

Welcome to the Jonesy Nostalgia Thread.

Michael Jones, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 12:56 (seventeen years ago) link

PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR A THIRD SERIES OF TITTYBANGBANG, THEY LOVE NOT PRODUCING ONE SINGLE LAUGH EVER AND YET STILL BEING RECOMMISSIONED

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Double thread attack on Tittybang!

Tom D., Friday, 16 November 2007 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Some bits of Tittybang have actually made me snigger.

Noodle Vague, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Also lol at weird "Megan's Law" looking dude who reviews TV in The Lite London Paper going "Some may say that Lead Balloon is "steals" from Curb Your Enthusiasm, but there's one difference: it's funnier"

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Some bits of Tittybang have actually made me snigger.

-- Noodle Vague, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:33 (5 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

"Snigger" isn't an acceptable euphemism for "jack off"

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:33 (seventeen years ago) link

It's almost as good as "Katy Brand's Big Ass Show"

Tom D., Friday, 16 November 2007 11:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey I was surprised too but God knows most of C4s comedy output is worse.

Noodle Vague, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Katy Brand's Big Ass Face, morelike amirite?

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:40 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm assuming after Jan Ravens and Ronni Ancona female impressionists don't need to be either funny or actually sound like the people they're impersonating, and just have large breasts?

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

You forgot Karen Taylor

Tom D., Friday, 16 November 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost

Works for me.

Noodle Vague, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Tittybangbang: not as bad as Little Miss Jocelyn.

Should totally be its slogan.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Testicular cancer: not as bad as Little Miss Jocelyn.

Should totally be its slogan

Tom D., Friday, 16 November 2007 11:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I feel like such a racist for hating Little Miss Jocelyn, but it really is fucking awful and was obviously commissioned so the BBC could go "See! We DO give black comedy a chance!"

Remember that comedy drama about the family with the dude who played Geoffrey in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? That was OK. And I laughed at least twice after watching three episodes of The Nathan Caton Show, so, again, I'm not a racist.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link

well played.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Bring back Robbie Gee.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:49 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.adrians.co.uk/acatalog/MICKY01CD2.jpg

Tom D., Friday, 16 November 2007 11:49 (seventeen years ago) link

That record was funny.

Noodle Vague, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:50 (seventeen years ago) link

POLL:

Curtis and Ishmael
Collette Johnson
Llewella Gideon
Meera Syal
Perry Benson
Sanjeev Bhaskar
Leo Chester
Felix Dexter
Robbie Gee
Kulvinder Ghir
Judith Jacob
Rudi Lickwood
Eddie Nestor
Marcus Powell
Junior Simpson
Curtis Walker

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:52 (seventeen years ago) link

his last film has a somewhat hopeful title and one solitary review on imdb. guess it was unreleased:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2007/03/12/dont_stop_dreaming_2007_review.shtml

xpost

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, I wanna see that!

Tom D., Friday, 16 November 2007 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Taz and Michelle Collins, together at last.

"Cowboy Song", that was OK.

Dom Passantino, Friday, 16 November 2007 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Going to the taping for S. Lee's no-longer-cancelled pilot, will report back

-- That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:19 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

^^^how about some feedback on this?

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 6 December 2007 10:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Assuming the taping was cancelled after he ate the cameras lol he's fat now

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 6 December 2007 10:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Hit and miss, I think it's supposed to be stand-up intercut with taped interviews. The stand-up bit largely consisted of him shouting abuse at the British public for thinking Del Boy falling through the bar is funny.

That mong guy that's shit, Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link

It is funny though

Tom D., Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Prefer the police inteview scene.

Dom Passantino, Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Comedy gold...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtboTwW-Jao

Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Stewart Lee:

TS: Derek Trotter vs. Derek Bailey

Tom D., Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Prefer the police inteview scene.

Not the bit when DelBoy rips open a policewoman's jacket thinking she's a stripper then?

Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Man Stroke Woman is best UK comedy right now.

blueski, Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Gulp

Tom D., Thursday, 6 December 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

To pick up on Koogs' comment on Love Soup on the other thread. Yeah, I like this but they've lost Michael Landis as their leading man (got a better offer) and Renwick seems to been forced into a complete rethink on S2 - it's 12 x 30min rather than 6 x 60min. We've got S2 in at work but I haven't seen any of it yet.

Michael Jones, Thursday, 6 December 2007 12:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Shut it. These are OFFICIALLY the best in British comedy right now:

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2007/12/05/6116/british_comedy_awards%3A_the_results

Gavin & Stacey, Simon Amstell and David Michell were big winners at the 18th annual British Comedy Awards last night.

Gavin & Stacey won best new scripted comedy, while its stars, and co-creators, Ruth Jones and James Cordon won best new actress and actor accordingly.

Amstell won best entertainment personality, while Never Mind The Buzzcocks was named best comedy entertainment show. He thanked 'Mark Lamarr for leaving. I've done really well out of that depression.

Mitchell won best comedy actor, while Peep Show won the big prize of the night, best TV comedy.

As expected, host Jonathan Ross cracked plenty of jokes at the expense of ITV, which decided not to air the show live following inconsistencies in the 2005 phone-in vote.

Frogman Henry, Thursday, 6 December 2007 12:31 (seventeen years ago) link

The full list of winners at the British Comedy Awards 2007:

Best Television Comedy Actor
David Mitchell - Peep Show

Best Television Comedy Actress
Liz Smith - The Royle Family: The Queen of Sheba

Best Comedy Entertainment Personality
Simon Amstell - Never Mind The Buzzcocks

Best TV Comedy
Peep Show

Best Comedy Entertainment Programme
Never Mind The Buzzcocks

Best International Comedy Show
Curb Your Enthusiasm

Best Male Comedy Newcomer
James Corden - Gavin & Stacey

Best Female Comedy Newcomer
Ruth Jones - Gavin & Stacey

Best New British Television Comedy
Gavin & Stacey

Best Live Stand-Up
Alan Carr

Best Comedy Film
The Simpsons Movie

The Writers' Guild Ronnie Barker Award
Simon Pegg

Lifetime Achievement Award
Stephen Fry

blueski, Thursday, 6 December 2007 12:34 (seventeen years ago) link

yes that's better.

Frogman Henry, Thursday, 6 December 2007 12:34 (seventeen years ago) link

not sure i ever saw the end of G&S. lol at the fact that the mates both won comedy newcomer but neither gavin nor stacey did.

> Michael Landes

thought i'd seen him in something more recently but his imdb page doesn't show anything. CSI bit parts and Ghost Whisperer but not sure that counts as 'better offer' 8)

best line in Love Soup: 'it's not rocket salad'.

other current fav: Big Train repeats on Dave Tv. mark heap as emperor ming in hosital after slipping on mat. pegg as blue skinned underling visitor.

koogs, Thursday, 6 December 2007 13:00 (seventeen years ago) link

with julia davis as his nice sister

blueski, Thursday, 6 December 2007 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Lead Balloon ultimately sucks because Dee's character is actually too unpleasant, manipulative and miserable whereas Larry David was mindful to present himself as in the right and the victim enough of the time to remain likeable. Also he made jokes.

blueski, Thursday, 6 December 2007 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't understand how Ruth Jones can win Best Comedy Newcomer. She was in Human Remains 7 years ago!

nate woolls, Thursday, 6 December 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

HIGNFY has been good lately. Charlie Brooker did well the other week and Lauren Laverne was excellent last week - forgot how funny she could be.

blueski, Thursday, 20 December 2007 14:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Russell Brand was shit tho

Tom D., Thursday, 20 December 2007 14:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Lauren Laverne said funny stuff but came across as unlikeable

Tom D., Thursday, 20 December 2007 14:55 (seventeen years ago) link

only to you, WEIRDO

blueski, Thursday, 20 December 2007 14:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know, something a bit unpleasant and sneery about her

Tom D., Thursday, 20 December 2007 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link

But I suppose that's what the kids want these days

Tom D., Thursday, 20 December 2007 14:59 (seventeen years ago) link

see what you want to

blueski, Thursday, 20 December 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

i didn't see her on HIGNFY, but my fondness for la laverne has diminished these past ten years. she is a bit superior, in a guardian guide sort of way, on the culture show, and, in a guardian guide sort of way, without having much to be superior about.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 20 December 2007 17:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Right. Supercilious, middlebrow and proud of it.

Tom D., Thursday, 20 December 2007 17:29 (seventeen years ago) link

examples?

blueski, Thursday, 20 December 2007 18:23 (seventeen years ago) link

'the culture show' is EXACTLY THE SAME as, say, the housewife/dolie/oap-oriented lunchtime show 'loose women': some fucker plugging their new book/record/film. that's it, that's all they do, there is no chance of criticism or perspective; just the inevitability that not one choice will take you by surprise. it's all incredibly safe -- tate modern, arcade fire, ang lee, that kind of shit. only it's presented as if you the viewer should be proud for having discovered something. and you don't need any of this shit.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 20 December 2007 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link

don't think that's right. Kermode and to a lesser extent Graham-Dixon do offer the criticism/perspective on things but if you want more of that watch Newsnight Review anyway. TCS mandate as a light general arts guide is fine (under the circumstances and if this is how much time the BBC want to spend on this). I mean middlebrow is the POINT and there's no shame in that at 7.30pm on a BBC2 Saturday night. Laverne is kinda wasted as a presenter tho despite being competent and 'bubbly' enough to front it. Verity Sharp was doing a good enough job before her.

blueski, Thursday, 20 December 2007 18:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Kermode and to a lesser extent Graham-Dixon do offer the criticism/perspective on things but if you want more of that watch Newsnight Review anyway

Newsnight Review's worse! Unless you actually believe that what Julie Myerson thinks about anything is of any interest to anyone in the universe

Tom D., Thursday, 20 December 2007 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't even dislike middlebrow stuff exactly... probably more like i'm bored with the same old stuff. in the summer TCS did a "british movies spesh" and it was... 'wicker man', 'clockwork orange', fucking 'notting hill'. whereas last night channel five included 'taking of the pelham 123' in a clip show (i guess for some people *that's* played, but not as badly).

i don't dislike kermode but he does reinforce received opinion -- by dint of being everywhere he kind of *is* received opinion. TCS will never kick something unless its down -- recently 'southland tales', giving the impression of occasionally being badass.

think forward or back to the meltdown festival -- would TCS ever, ever say "lol this curator is a twazz"? and yet they usually are.

xpost

aye, i can't even watch newsnight review now.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 20 December 2007 18:55 (seventeen years ago) link

On tonight's show: the latest Ian Rankin; the newest offering from Dreamworks; some other shit and, right at the end of the show, 15 seconds of footage to commemorate the death of Karlheinz Stockhausen, but, don't worry, we won't actually talk about Karlheinz Stockhausen because we know fuck all about him or about almost anything to do with music

Tom D., Thursday, 20 December 2007 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link

the point is you will still get a bit of argument on that show even it is just Morley vs Harris on Shrek 3 (fun fun!). whether TCS should try and do this or not is another issue. i do know that Laverne should leave it in order to be more roffley tho.

blueski, Thursday, 20 December 2007 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

she does other shows, i think -- corporate indie at 11.40 on channel 4 kind of stuff? live from koko.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 20 December 2007 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link

'tonight on the culture show laverne talks to dizzee rascal / next week on transmission laverne talks to dizzee rascal' was my zingy cos it's true earlier this year

blueski, Thursday, 20 December 2007 19:09 (seventeen years ago) link

tcs made me have some respect for sting. thus i hate it.

Frogman Henry, Thursday, 20 December 2007 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link

laverne was interviewing him about his dowland record, and said "so, it's not just for chinstroking beardy weirdos, then?"
he answered bemusedly and then performed live, pretty good i thought.
havnae bought it or anything.

Frogman Henry, Thursday, 20 December 2007 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link

"so, it's not just for chinstroking beardy weirdos, then?"

she said this to dizzee too, or should have.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, 20 December 2007 19:47 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Is it common knowledge that Peter Cook was originally going to play Alf Garnett?

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 09:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Peter Cook as Alf Garnett vs Les Dawson as Victor Meldrew.

(I don't think it's common knowledge, no. I didn't know about it.)

Michael Jones, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 09:29 (seventeen years ago) link

New series of "Little Miss Jocelyn" folks, put it in yer diaries

Tom D., Tuesday, 8 January 2008 10:03 (seventeen years ago) link

[scrit ... scrit] ... right, it's in. "new series of little miss jocelyn starts thursday night. so go to the pub."

grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

oh noes it clashes with Echo Beach

blueski, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link

:)

grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 22:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Right, so, in a rare moment of curiosity and having nothing better to do, I thought I would watch the "live" episode of Two Pints of Lager that was on BBC3 tonight. Dear fucking GOD. They were killing off Ralf Little's character, and to do this they sent his character off as a competition winner to go to America to, get this, JUMP A SHARK. The scriptwriters's backs must be black and blue from all the mutual slapping that must have gone on when someone came up with that one.

ailsa, Monday, 14 January 2008 00:40 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/downtheline.shtml

Radio 4's Down the Line with Gary Bellamy

a) Fuck me this is brilliant
b) Why was Felix Dexter never a true star, he had a window of opportunity in about 95/96 to make it as a comedy A-liner
c) Wow, Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery in something that isn't complete shit
d) Paul Whitehouse is, pound for pound, the best comedy performer of his generation, six lengths ahead of yr Morrises and Ianuccis
e) "Do you know if Foxton's is owned by Bruce Foxton of The Jam?"

-- Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 13:35 (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

Series 3 is still amazing.

Dom Passantino, Sunday, 3 February 2008 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link

"She used to look at me like my taste in music was bad. I don't wanna get a look. I like KPak, TJ, Mooseboy, this goth at the counter look like she into terrible music like Kasabia or something. What about them what like Girls Aloud?"

^^^ILM summed up

Dom Passantino, Sunday, 3 February 2008 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

So what are me most looking forward to then? The Mighty Boosh movie, or the Russell Brand biopic?

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 10:00 (sixteen years ago) link

The Alan Partridge movie.

Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 10:19 (sixteen years ago) link

The Mighty Boosh movie

say it ain't so

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 10:45 (sixteen years ago) link

A movie version of TV show The Mighty Boosh is in the works.

Stars Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt have signed a deal with BBC Films to bring the cult series to the big screen.

The show focuses on friends Vince Noir (Fielding) and Howard Moon (Barratt), who embark on a series of magical adventures.

BBC Films editor Christine Langan told Variety: "Noel and Julian are phenomenally talented, there's an existing, very loyal fan base, and the project has huge potential."

The pair are currently working on a script for the movie, which is likely to begin filming early next year.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 10:48 (sixteen years ago) link

Holy Hail on the soundtrack, I hear.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 10:48 (sixteen years ago) link

i'm going to review this, to do my bit in their hardsonning. sight unseen.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 10:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Somebody should really launch a film mag called Sight Unseen, full of reviews of films the reviewers haven't seen

Tom D., Tuesday, 19 February 2008 11:00 (sixteen years ago) link

they could go on

-press release
-trailers
-internets "buzz"

i doubt anyone could spot the difference.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 11:01 (sixteen years ago) link

I think y'all sleeping on the fact that Russell Brand is to write and star in a film adaptation of his own life. It's be like Private Parts.... ON DRUGS!!!!!

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 11:02 (sixteen years ago) link

My Filmy Wilm?

Tom D., Tuesday, 19 February 2008 11:03 (sixteen years ago) link

I'm a moderate fan of the Boosh, but there's no way a film's not going to be shit (for reference - League of Gentlemen: Apocalypse).

chap, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:31 (sixteen years ago) link

Is LoG:A really as appaling as everyone says? I never really fucked with the show, but that movie seems to get the gasface from everyone.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:32 (sixteen years ago) link

A repost from another board


Absolutely DVD Box Set Get's Release Date
Dear All,

I am pleased to announce that we will be releasing the box set of Absolutely on DVD on the 21st of April 2008.

This is in no small part due to all of you for getting in touch and reminding us that there were people out there who loved the show and we should do something about it. Well it has been a bit of a marathon but it is happening soon, so thank you, all of you, for getting in touch.

If you go to the web site http://www.absolutely.biz you will see a request for material to put on the web site and if we can on the extras DVD. If you can help with this thank you again.

Thanks again and speak to you soon.

If you do not want to receive anymore emails about the Absolutely Box Set DVD you can unsubscribe from the mailing list using the link at the foot of this email.

Best wishes

Gordon Kennedy

STONEYBRIDGE!

Herman G. Neuname, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:36 (sixteen years ago) link

I didn't mind it at all, but it's not as clever as it thinks it is. xpost to Dom

aldo, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:37 (sixteen years ago) link

I watched about twenty minutes of LoG:A and found it really predictable and tired.

chap, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:38 (sixteen years ago) link

Big Train is being repeated on Dave at the moment, and it's still very funny. Didn't realise Catherine Tate was in it though.

nate woolls, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:41 (sixteen years ago) link

Such a breeding ground for the current generation of UK comedy, that show.

chap, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:42 (sixteen years ago) link

Mark Heap should make a movie.

And by "make a movie" I mean "fuck off".

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:44 (sixteen years ago) link

I like Mark Heap! What's wrong with Mark Heap?

chap, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:44 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't like Mark Heap.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:45 (sixteen years ago) link

So I gather.

chap, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:46 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.lovefilm.com/lovefilm/images/products/9/3189-large.jpg

blueski, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:49 (sixteen years ago) link

DVD Rom game!

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 13:51 (sixteen years ago) link

Last night's Mitchell and Webb was an improvment on the first series, I thought. Still a fair amount of lameness (how fucking long did they eke out that Da Vinci Code spoof?) but some genuine laughs as well. Liked the racist war reinacters and the bronze age orientation particularly.

chap, Friday, 22 February 2008 14:03 (sixteen years ago) link

LoG:A is genuinely awful - ten minutes of playing-to-the-crowd half-arsed sketches and then an hour and a half of 'OMG wouldn't it be really innovative if WE turned up in the story?' when really they should've just made a really dark gothic horror or murder mystery or something.

Matt DC, Friday, 22 February 2008 14:08 (sixteen years ago) link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7264321.stm

lame

Thick of It entry needed that "you ever take the piss outta Jolson again...." rant

That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:30 (sixteen years ago) link

"I have here a copy of your book, Origins of the Crimean War. It smells of poo." "That's because it's been inside your mum's bra."

ha

That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:32 (sixteen years ago) link

the Dr Cox one is bad - he's got better ones

blueski, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:37 (sixteen years ago) link

most of those are rright show, wrong quote.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:38 (sixteen years ago) link

lol @ Rimmer

why didn't they include animated comedies? because they would dominate i guess

blueski, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:39 (sixteen years ago) link

Father Jack Hackett - Father Ted. "Drink! Feck! Arse! Girls!"

morons who think this is a "put down". i can't think of an alternative right now tho. maybe "how did that gobshite get on TV?" re Dougal.

blueski, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:41 (sixteen years ago) link

Inspector Monkfish is the only one that raised a smile with me.

nate woolls, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:46 (sixteen years ago) link

good and very english put-down in fawlty towers: "do i detect the smell of burning martyr?". said with real acid.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:48 (sixteen years ago) link

Alf Garnett - Till Death Us Do Part. "You Scouse git!"

incredibly lame choice, but i guess they couldn't go with the racist stuff

blueski, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Percy (re his new ruff): "The fashion these days is towards the tiny, my Lord"
Edmund: "Well in that case you must have the most fashionable brain in London"

blueski, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:54 (sixteen years ago) link

blackadder 2-4 are all zings, all the time. blackadder himself is the og zingmaster.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link

"to you, the renaissance was just something that happened to other people"

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:57 (sixteen years ago) link

^^^I used this one on Perpetua once

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Sorry, not the Renaissance. Fitness First.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:57 (sixteen years ago) link

i love the Malcolm Tucker one - so topical

blueski, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:58 (sixteen years ago) link

"I'd like to see the Spaniard who could get past me!"
"Well go to Spain, there are millions of them."

chap, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:21 (sixteen years ago) link

Videogaiden February Christmas Retro Special

Easily the funniest guys in Britain right now. Lolled at so much of this, especially the Emily Booth and Dave Perry stuff.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 12:32 (sixteen years ago) link

banking a lot on people remembering Gamesmaster but yeah I approve

blueski, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 12:41 (sixteen years ago) link

"hotter than Cathy Dennis and Betty Boo writhing together in the same grave"

blueski, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 12:42 (sixteen years ago) link

Isn't that the Poptimists motto?

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 12:59 (sixteen years ago) link

That Ricky Gervais article at the top of the thread was going so well until the last paragraph.

Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 13:01 (sixteen years ago) link

"Do you really think that's wise, sir?">>>>"Stupid boy"

Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 13:30 (sixteen years ago) link

"Do you really think that's wise, sir?"

Aching for an Eric Morecambe punchline, that was.

Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 13:33 (sixteen years ago) link

dvd "rom" ?

Ste, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 13:33 (sixteen years ago) link

it's only just occurred to me how weird it sounds

Ste, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 13:34 (sixteen years ago) link

that's why it's read only AHAHAHAHAHAHA

blueski, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 13:36 (sixteen years ago) link

ken ski

That mong guy that's shit, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 14:31 (sixteen years ago) link

nathan barley and peep show are the closest we have to genius, peep show actually attains genius at times.

-- Just got offed, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 15:54 (6 months ago) Bookmark Link

*sigh*

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 14:38 (sixteen years ago) link

Still missing him?

Tom D., Tuesday, 4 March 2008 14:39 (sixteen years ago) link

Bart: Mom, I just saw Krusty!
Marge: Yes, dear, in your mind.
Bart: No, on the street.
Marge: On the street in your mind.

Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 14:41 (sixteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

e) "Do you know if Foxton's is owned by Bruce Foxton of The Jam?"

i am listening to this RIGHT NOW. i love this show.

stevie, Saturday, 22 March 2008 19:24 (sixteen years ago) link

Halfway through Teenage Kicks.

ITV really is in trouble, isn't it?

Autumn Almanac, Sunday, 30 March 2008 00:27 (sixteen years ago) link

Eddie Hitler meets My Family -> THIS DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE

oh how the mighty have fallen etc.

Autumn Almanac, Sunday, 30 March 2008 00:40 (sixteen years ago) link

more Gavin & Stacey love

blueski, Sunday, 30 March 2008 13:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Oh man I read a painful interview with Ade Edmonson in the Daily Mail the other day. He's on a "first rule of comedy - you must have reality" kick and in denial about everything he's previously done. Which is fine until you watch that shite he's just written.

Noodle Vague, Sunday, 30 March 2008 16:17 (sixteen years ago) link

more Gavin & Stacey love

Rob Brydon's best work since Marion & Geoff in this.

DavidM, Sunday, 30 March 2008 20:37 (sixteen years ago) link

Why does no one ever talk about 'Pulling'? It is pretty good, I think.

Stevie T, Sunday, 30 March 2008 21:04 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't know which is worse, Ade Edmondson being interviewed in the Daily Mail or an ilxor reading it.

Autumn Almanac, Sunday, 30 March 2008 21:45 (sixteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Pulling, that's pretty shit.

Dom Passantino, Monday, 21 April 2008 22:22 (sixteen years ago) link

Saw Gavin and Stacey for the first time last night. It's pretty good at what it does, but its gentle character comedy and light whimsy hardly excited me. All a bit Richard Curtis, dare I say it.

chap, Monday, 21 April 2008 22:29 (sixteen years ago) link

the last few episodes of G&S have been a bit off - start with the first series altho none of it is 'exciting' as such.

blueski, Monday, 21 April 2008 22:33 (sixteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

So, hey, I watched that The Wall last night. That's not so good.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 10:52 (sixteen years ago) link

e) "Do you know if Foxton's is owned by Bruce Foxton of The Jam?"

i am listening to this RIGHT NOW. i love this show.

-- stevie, Saturday, 22 March 2008 20:24 (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

Although, in defence of this nation, "Listen: don't knock The Jam, they was there for a lot of people" may be the funniest thing anyone has said this decade.

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 10:53 (sixteen years ago) link

it's no The Priory xp

blueski, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 10:53 (sixteen years ago) link

So, hey, I watched that The Wall last night. That's not so good.

"Scallywagga" any good, comedy fans?

Tom D., Wednesday, 7 May 2008 10:54 (sixteen years ago) link

It's like Blunder... ON (CHAV) DRUGS!

Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 10:56 (sixteen years ago) link

Ah right, "Blunder", had to google that... Jesus

Tom D., Wednesday, 7 May 2008 10:58 (sixteen years ago) link

the inbetweeners anyone?

i like. it's like 'on the buses' but with 6th form kids.

Alan, Friday, 9 May 2008 10:46 (sixteen years ago) link

i thought it was quite sweet

stevie, Friday, 9 May 2008 11:31 (sixteen years ago) link

i like love soup

Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 May 2008 11:55 (sixteen years ago) link

but i would, wouldn't i

Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 May 2008 11:55 (sixteen years ago) link

that last ep ended badly tho.

Alan, Monday, 12 May 2008 12:05 (sixteen years ago) link

i caught seven and a half minutes of something called Two Pints of lager blah blah last night and it was the worst british comedy experience i've indeed witnessed.

Ste, Monday, 12 May 2008 14:50 (sixteen years ago) link

it's not for you

Alan, Monday, 12 May 2008 14:51 (sixteen years ago) link

2pints fascinates me for reasons i can't quite explain - the only thing even remotely like it is the old US tv show, "saved by the bell"

Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 May 2008 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link

That's remote in astrophysics terms - as in light years away from being as good as even "Saved By the Bell"

Tom D., Monday, 12 May 2008 14:55 (sixteen years ago) link

i like love soup

Saw one episode and it's totally for girls.

chap, Monday, 12 May 2008 17:16 (sixteen years ago) link

Admin: this is an awful sitcom.

Dom Passantino, Monday, 12 May 2008 22:31 (sixteen years ago) link

I liked Love Soup up to the episodes with Mark Heap. He play a weird combination of creepy and soppy which I did not enjoy. But those outfits they wear in the shop are hot, definitely.

Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 07:20 (sixteen years ago) link

Teenage Kicks turned out all right, apart from the weird Asian jokes.

Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 07:31 (sixteen years ago) link

"Ed Reardon's Week" is as funny as Black Books and Love Soup and sometimes quite a bit funnier. Peng is maybe my favorite British comedy character.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/edreardon.shtml

(hint: try a torrent)

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 10:29 (sixteen years ago) link

"people who feel they deserve better in life but don't get too worked up about it" seems to come up again and again in british comedy

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 10:39 (sixteen years ago) link

"people who feel they deserve better in life but don't get too worked up about