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

holy crap, that's loads.

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)

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

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).

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?

hyperdrive is a moderate giggle, still game and saxondale are two of the only things to force yourself to remember to watch.

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.

force yourself to remember to watch

wow, appointment TV still exists? who knew?

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).

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.

"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.

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?

nathan barley and peep show are the closest we have to genius, peep show actually attains genius at times.

THE THICK OF IT, why do i keep forgetting, now that's the best thing atm

i.e. it is flat-out genius

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

obviously i do see the mid-late 90s as a golden age, but you gotta fight that.

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.

oh yeh forgot peep show. no way is the thick of it genius tho.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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?

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.

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?

possibly -- but not with 'father ted' or 'brass eye' or 'i'm alan partridge'.

or 'the smell of reeves and mortimer'!

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.

'i'm alan partridge' was smug-inducing. brass eye was alienating to a lot of people. father ted was a legtimate universal sitcom tho.

ban anyone who uses the words 'smug' or 'genius' on this thread.

blueski banned!!!111

i don't think IAP was smug at all.

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.

nah iap is iannucci and coogan playing to the gallery. the student-wanker gallery.

i disagree.

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.

hmm.

some cracking gags tho gromit.

all rooted in a slightly shitty view of the world.

at least they're not racists though.

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.

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

"Brass Eye was alienating to a lot of people, most of whom were Mail-reading cunts"

you're a complete fucking dickhead

And you're the dude who saw 'media-savvy' and quoted 'tech-savvy'.

nah iap is iannucci and coogan playing to the gallery. the student-wanker gallery.

Sotcaalicious

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.

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?

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.

Wow, two absolutes in one post! For <superlative> programme ever, read "in my opinion, the best I have seen".

You're nuts.

Mark Heap is, like, 54 or something, you know?