russell brand - C or D?

Russell Brand might have to be a filler guest. David, don't give 'em your mobile number.

I understand Ricky Ger-vay is on standby.

So, if he drops out.. Hmm, who can they get at short notice, that would be reasonably expected to make ratings thicksoup?

xpost damn gave it away the punchline...

suddenly this has somehow turned into lose-lose!! how have they done this?

i actually have some sympathy for brand here; when you read what was actually said, brand was just running with something ross started - if ross hadn't raised the bar of blunt offensiveness so high at the beginning brand wouln't have had to go so far to "top" him, which is what these things always turn into

"overpaid drivelling celebs" - bit of envy there, Simon?

hahahah: of course there is! somewhere out there, maybe even lurking over this thread, is an ageing ILX0r with whom i once tried very hard to be funny on the radio ... sometimes, maybe for mere seconds at a time, we just about managed it. so yeh, as someone with a short and unimpressive history in radio (not just at a student level, either), i'm envious of people who are more talented than i am. i think that's natural.

where i get pissed off is when the talent stops trying. i've repped for RB round these parts more than once: i think he has the capacity to be a wonderful comedian, and his live show a couple of years back was magnificent. however ... well, nick nails it:

I think both are occasionally very funny indeed, but both are also massively prone to indulgent and aimless ego-stroking wittering. The two together is like a pair of schoolkids egging each other on to swear so much the teacher gives them detention. Which is kind of pathetic given how potentially talented they both are

this is the point at which envy of talent/justified success gives way to something more base and basically jealous, ie: dude, how the fuck are you getting paid so much for this shit?

i mean, prank calling is feeble. i remember doing it when i was a kid: bored shitless at a mate's house after his commodore 64 overheated, we started ringing up the operator and being stupid. it wasn't funny then and it ain't funny now (fonejacker: that includes you).

JR, let's not forget, is the man who claimed -- tongue perhaps in cheek -- that he was worth a thousand BBC journalists. you know what? he might well be more talented than most of the other BBC talent. trouble is, nobody can remember any more because his schtick is about as lazy as it can be.

this isn't just about RB and JR; it's about what passes for comedy, or worthwhile broadcasting. (and yes, the fact that every newspaper and news programme is full of it also says a lot about what passes for news reporting!)

i'm meant to be writing a lab report. perhaps i should sack that and dig out my unfinished (barely begun) sitcom. it actually had a couple of jokes in it, if i remember rightly.

"Miss, he started it!"
"Yes but you carried on with it"

xp

I took the "thousand journalists" comment as a sort of rap faux-braggadoccio. If he meant it then he really is a jerk. But somehow I don't think he is, except for that jibe at Rod Hull at the Comedy Awards whatever year of the nineties it was, even though that was scripted.

I mean, I hope he learned from that particular misjudgement.

Ar age 16, stoned out of our minds, we looked up teachers' phone numbers at 4am in the local directory. Found our (youthful, leftwing) English teacher's number. Called him. Asked if he'd ever licked a dolphin. Hung up. Seemed like the funniest fucking thing of all time, at the time. Not so much later.

And they've been suspended.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7696714.stm

Bailie said "they shoudl be sacked for inflating my celebrity standing and getting me booked out as a crap burlesque dancer until mid 2010".

Doesn't say anything about their being suspended on that link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7696714.stm

Youthful Leftwing English Teacher's SO: "who was that on the phone just now?"
Youthful Leftwing English Teacher: "Er, sounded like someone who wanted to know if I 'kicked it golfing'..."

Yes it does?

Where?

Oh right, they've just added a paragraph at the top.

18,000 complaints = approx 60,982,000 people who don't want them suspended.

I hope my maths is right there.

Daily Politics show on BBC just now talking about nothing but this story.

Craven cowards.

A golddigger on the make and probably on the take starts whingeing "daddy daddy thethe men inhulted me" and two perfectly good presenters get suspended.

Kowtowing to the tabloid fascists.

Oh wait they're onto trivialities like Afghanistan now.

Forthcoming to Saturday night Radio 2: four hours of Radio 2 Jukebox with Richard Allinson done with voice tracking to try and nick some listeners off Gold.

If Lesley Douglas or Mark Thompson had any guts they'd have stood up and told the parties involved to go fuck themselves.

Paul O'Grady was right about the BBC being like the Home Office and sucking all the life out of anyone who went in there.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also criticised the pair for their "inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour" on Brand's radio show.
He is also expected to face questions from MPs over the affair in prime minister's questions later.

so he made public comment on it in advance so as to pre-empt this, or is 'expected to face questions' more a result of the comment? chicken/egg

Awaiting the "saying Georgina Bailie is on the take is misogynist" posts.

There is a fucking RECESSION in this country.

And MPs are wasting precious time talking about THIS?

Christ, Britain breaks up a little bit more with every day.

Well, Nick, who'd heard of her before this was all blown up out of any sensible proportion?

Truly Ross and Brand are Heroes of Comedy *sniff*

Personally if I were JR or RB I'd just fuck off to Sky or wherever and let the BBC stew in its own brown Windsor soup.

Kelvin "Scousers piss on dead bodies" MacKenzie is on BBC News 24 right now talking about how offensive Brand and Ross are.

Russell Brand had. On a swing.

i think at this moment it's worth remembering the original "celebrity" prank caller, john bean, aka leroy murcer -

from knoxville tennessee, ca. late 1970s/early 1980s - also, actually funny

Anyone who signs up with Max Clifford is probably hoping to profit from their unfortunate situation regardless of gender.

Gah when they said on the news last night that it was Commented Upon In Parliament, there were only about 20 MPs sitting.

So that'll be Mark Lamarr covering for Ross for a fortnight and Stuart Maconie in the evening to send everyone off to sleep/Radio 1.

i'm meant to be writing a lab report. perhaps i should sack that and dig out my unfinished (barely begun) sitcom. it actually had a couple of jokes in it, if i remember rightly.

If you want some advice there's a good thread to post it to.

politicians going on oligarch's yachts get to keep their job and these guys get suspended for making a prank call?

this is some country

i thought Alexander Bell made the first prank call. pretending to be a sailor.

haha mackenzie is loving this.

xpost to raw patrick: yeh, i'll obviously bear that in mind ;)

I took the "thousand journalists" comment as a sort of rap faux-braggadoccio. If he meant it then he really is a jerk

i think it was somewhere between the two extremes.

fuck this suspension lark: what does that mean for the first ep of russell brand's ponderland? because we've got a TV preview of that running in tomorrow's paper and if it gets pulled ... here, hang on, i'm not back in till friday. why am i worrying?

That's not on the BBC, though, so it shouldn't be affected.

at least, not if Channel 4 have any guts.

C4 will be glad of Ponderland ratings bump

Yeah, C4 it's on innit? They'll be loving this - highest ratings ever, as all the grannies check him out to see if he's offensive?

Director of audio and music Tim Davie said it was 'too early to speculate'

Hmm, so there's one person not issuing soundbites. Unless that's one.

BBC News website readers can follow prime minister's questions live on the BBC News website.

oh, good point: sorry, i was thinking it was BBC3. hmm. yeh, sorry, as we were.

thought the whole point of speculation was that it's too early