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

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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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

'not going out' was better than the current 'peep show'.

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

"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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

oh right, i just got the pun. d'oh.

xpost acrobat, have you read private eye?

― CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

yeh i've read private eye. it's kinda like popbitch if 1965 had never happened.

― acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

sub-carmody

― acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

otm

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

at least private eye chooses its targets for more than being fat or blind, generally.

― acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

"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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

a pun?
mock...the...week?
where's the pun there?

― pisces, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

also the tories for most younger people are hardly the BIG EVIL THREAT they once were.

― acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

we(e|a)k xpost

I didn't say it was a good pun. xpost

xxpost

― ledge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

Peter Cook _was_ a Tory, wasn't he?

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

"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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

i think the key clause there acrobat is "in some quarters".

― Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

" 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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

not tyler's, the writer's ;)

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:40 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

was have i got news for you "better" or simply "meaner" in the past?

― acrobat, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 23:00 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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