Peter Kay: C or D?

For that alone, classic. And I larfed like a DRANE at Phoenix Nights.

Dud however = man on ITV Digital advert who's name I can't remember. Ha ha he is funny and has a croaky voice and is thick ha ha.

Although, I do only like anything as long as it comes from Lancashire.

Therefore I could approach him objectively, and thought "Phoenix Nights", from what I saw of it, not dreadful, but still a parade of instantly-recognisable and rather obvious Northern stereotypes which fell into the trap of assuming INJOKES = FUNNY (not true, at least not for me: I'm probably the biggest TV anorak on this board but my response to the camera focusing on an old Southern Television prop is "Yeah, so fucking what, say / do something funny, that's what you're here for!").

Strangely enough I did like That Peter Kay Thing in its more observant, impressionistic moments: the Ice Cream War was GRATE. He should do more of this: a whole series of Phoenix Nights was *not* the right way to go.

"I'm not going up that ladder." "Why not?" "Two words - Falklands."

The boy's a genius; really straddles the generations. We watched it at Christmas with parents and grandparents; all were in hysterics, even though normally, our respective senses of humour are miles apart.

I heard he's going to be in Corrie - is this twoo?

Maybe I will CAMPAIGN. They all seem to be the same distributor anyway.

this is really terrible! yes you should campaign. all dvds should have a subtitling option.

I thought it was good, by the way. He doesn't half know his audience.

I also thought the Services thing was good the previous night.

Is this Bennettism?

"put big light on"

He did the tour for so long its no wonder some people are confused as to whether its new material or not.

I liked the 80s DJ very much. I don't like it so much when he's dressed up as a woman.

V's mum teaches her embroidery (or used to at any rate)

Well, he has, hasn't he? The Services came out of Comedy Lab in '98 or so and That Peter Kay Thing followed it (upgrading from himself to Andrew Sachs as mocku voiceover).

When I saw him last year he got all the catchphrases out of the way before he even appeared onstage ("Garlic bread?" booming out over the PA). Lest anyone consider him an artist constantly refining his stagecraft over a gruelling tour, he pressed the "Buy Me Mum A Bungalow" point home - "I was gonna cancel tonight cos I've got the 'flu but, y'know..." (rubs thumb and index finger together)

In the encore someone asked if he was going to perform for the troops in Iraq - "Of course I'm bloody not, we shouldn't bloody be there. Saddam's got nothing to do with Mr Alan Qaeda" - and then got embarrassed at getting on his soapbox.

I missed the TV special last night but I expect it was the same material.

Managed to miss the live at the MEN last night. I know pretty much what to expect. He's hardly a groundbreaking stand-up but I do find him a likable performer it's hard not to smile.

"Phoenix Nights" is wonderful.

still, The Iceman Cometh was great.

My parents love Peter Kay and I am still in a grump because as far as I can see there is not a single live comedy DVD put out with subtitle options

We've done all the Izzards recently but I'm not sure if they were for the domestic market or not (and yes, EI lost it in about '96). Jimmy Carr too.

Subtitled DVDs of A Bit Of Fry & Laurie or The Armando Iannucci Shows are what I want in my working life. But it ain't gonna happen.

jokes about how small minded the working class is are dud.

I don't see this at all.

I've never found this so with PK, his comedy seems to come from genuine affection. For all the gentle sending up of it, the alternative comedy night episode of "Phoenix Nights" seemed such a heartfelt and almost defiant championing of that aspect of clubland.

I doubt it very much, and have suspended the penny's drop.

I was confused by his mother's Irishness. He doesn't seem remotely Irish.

Observational comedy (nowadays) = (Alan) Bennettism?

Last night's act was just a big gig on the same tour that they filmed Live at the Albert Hall; fewer gags than the Albert Hall gig, but no crossover from the Top of the Tower (previous tour before that).

xpost - the Kay family scream Mancunian / South Lancs Irish immigrant working class. From every single pore.

I'm probably just looking for an reason to dislike it beyond the fact that I just don't find it funny...

xpost - The garlic bread is from the reticence of many to eat garlic because it's foreign muck (sic).

I couldn't tell you at what point in the business hierarchy someone makes a decision to sub or not to sub - I suspect it's generally a case of whether the predicted revenues outweigh the costs involved in creating language streams for overseas territories then they'll get the likes of us to bung a hard-of-hearing stream on there too.

There are laws about this sort of thing now and the vast majority of new material should carry an SDH stream.

Sorry, I'm rubbish.

It's like when I relate some tale about my dad - while eating a trad British roast cooked to perfection in an Italian restaurant - going on about Italians being able to "make a suit, sing and play football, but they can't cook" based on some dissatisfactory experience on a coach holiday in Milan 10 years ago. I'm not making fun of his lack of a sense of irony or that he's misinformed or culturally backward, I'm just revelling in his majestic curmudgeonly nature, honed through 70-odd years of finding things "bloody rubbish". It's the way he expresses his distaste at this stuff that makes me relate the tale, not the fact of his possible ignorance.

"Well", says the woman, "it's very odd, but it sounds like 'Show me the way to Amarillo'".

"Oh that's nothing to worry about", says the Doctor. "Every cunt's singing that at the moment."

It will be on Amazon Marketplace later in case anyone's gagging to see it.

I decided it was a bit vulgar. Ted, even when vulagr, is innocently vulgar.

There's a warmth with Peter Kay at the heart of all his material, there's no condescencion, no "I can't believe we watched/listened to/liked this shit" which litters so many other "observational" comedians' (for want of a better description) material. I quite believe he has a laugh in working mens' pubs, listens to Tony Christie and dotes on his mam. He's like Billy Connolly before he disappeared up his own arse, and the only other person I can think of who can put their finger on what it is to be that down-to-earth is Caroline Ahearne.

Classic, in case you hadn't guessed.

"do you hate fun?" as inner de sadean task-master

i. large territory, granted
ii. but TRAP!!

Next day I thought, "let's give him another chance" and whacked on "Live at Bolton Albert Halls". Well by now I'd had time to let his schtick sink in, and guess what? I found myself laughing. Okay, he's still not the greatest comedy genius in the whole world ever like everyone I know seems to say, but you can't say he isn't slightly charming. It may not be Rory Bremner or Chris Morris but watching Peter Kay is like having your funny uncle waggle his ears at Christmas, and why not? It's good old fashioned humour and in this time of sitcoms-with-no-jokes and pitch black sketch shows, it's refreshing to see someone going out there and telling actual JOKES for once.

michael fuckin' jackson.

http://www.uploadlibrary.com/holymoly/gagpie.gif

protesting too much? these rumours have been flying around for years but this, along with him pulling out of the now-not-upcoming craig cash itv sitcom for not being paid enough, shows him to be a bit of a greedy humourless twat.

He royally fucked the final Parky. I don't know whether or not it was planned but jesus.

I'm calling Rick Astley saying "Shit love! Are y'alright?" as comedy highlight of the year.

^ this (just watching first part on Channel 4+1 due to it clashing with, er, Strictly Come Dancing).

I see (where) Steady Mike started the thread

I see (where) Carmody put Kay in his place

i'm just starting watching that britain's got blah blah etc thing now. is the reason i'm not laughing at all because i don't watch any of these programmes and so am missing some kind of fundamental grammar that underlies all the jokes, or because it's shit?

YOU DECIDE. call 0898-no-really-fuck-off-and-die.

I think the reason is that the programmes were all bollox anyway, and don't need satire.

i think you might be on to something.

I'm calling Rick Astley saying "Shit love! Are y'alright?" as comedy highlight of the year

it got a "ho". the bit when he stopped trying to pick her up and started singing again got a "ha".

that's pretty much a ho and a ha more than anything else has got, although there's been the odd chucklesome moment. ultimately, it just seems a bit joke-light. i'm catching up with e-mails etc as i watch, but i don't think i'm missing any important subtleties.

It's Peter Kay by numbers, affectionate rather than provoking huge lols. I can't see it doing much for anyone who doesn't watch The X Factor.

aye. it's done nowt for me, i have to say.

mind you, i think it's probably going to be better than that charlie-brooker-related zombies-meet-big-brother thing, which fills me with FEAR, but not in the way i imagine brooker would hope.

That show would probably have more CUTTING EDGE if a) Charlie Brooker's production company wasn't owned by Endemol b) Charlie Brooker didn't get 99.4% of the public's attention every year for his BB reviews.

I kept switching this on and random points, and never saw peter kay but always caught peter stringfellow. It looked crap.

i think you were accidentally watching celebrity come dine with me

This morning, saw an advert by Peter Kay's "fat girl singer" character (sorry, didn't watch this show), for the single "The Winner's Song"

Hmmm.... How bad could it be? Very bad indeed, right?

Got about two minutes into this then switched off.

Isn't Brooker's Big Bro thing gonna flip everyone's wig by being pro-Bro? I mean he's best mates w/Aisleyne and all that.

if by "flip wig" you mean "bore silly", yes.

I think it was Astley's delivery of the line that made it for me. I didn't have any huge expectations for this and mainly watched it cos our Joel is a mad Peter Kay fan, but I thought it was funny enough. Two Up Two Down was a great band name, and I will be annoyingly doing the hand gestures for the next month. It was shooting fish in a barrel, mostly, but they were clean shots so I didn't mind.

My main problem with this was that in slavishly recreating the format of X-Factor / Pop Stars et al, it felt like they'd forgotten to write many actual jokes. So despite intermittent gags, loads of time was wasted on not-very-funny pastiching, plus it was pastiching the show as it was six years ago so it was pretty stale at times.

I thought the trailer for Brooker's zombie BB thing looked alright, better than I'd anticipated.

I really enjoyed it. I thought Waterman was superb throughout ("that's the best vocal I've heard in 20 years since Glenn Medeiros!") and the Astley cameo priceless. Also I liked the character studies which came through the parody format; very nicely observed and the right side of pastiche. I liked how Cat Deeley's eyes never smiled once throughout the programme and the incrementally mounting horror of the last 15-20 minutes or so was well done.

I note that the "Winner's Song" was co-written by Gary Barlow so no doubt PK will get his third number one as a result (cue "Chicken Song"-style irony-oh-the-irony).

The trailer for the BB Zombies was arresting but I hope they haven't put all the imagination into the ad and none into the programme itself.

Oh, and the "Free Nelson Mandela...ella...ella...eh...eh..." segue was genius.

i agree, especially on the "Nelson Mandela...ella...ella...eh...eh..." segue.

this wasn't innovative at all but i laughed heartily throughout and it cheered me up after a crap day. what else can you ask?

also it was refreshingly generous in spirit for a pastiche. kay clearly loves those shows.

I'm not sure the Geraldine McQueen Xmas single is a good idea.

He should have left well alone and not tried to prolong the character's shelf life.

They're also repeating the Pop Factor blah blah series right now. The problem is, the real X Factor is a lot funnier.

Also I noted last week Cowell lifted his "proud to be British" line directly from the Kay spoof.

In retrospect it was well done but a bit pointless.

Yeah, turned over after Geordielad.

Briefly flicked back, saw Geraldine with her poorly mom.

See, it's all 'not funny enough' whene most of it could (and did) feature exactly thus, on the real show.

Peter Kay ... tribute act.

I like the first reader comment.

Car Share on BBC1 is a treat. Especially enjoyed the most recent episode the Beyoncé/car wash/ blue tooth one.