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

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I'm talking about THE BENEFIT OF DISTANCE AND HINDSIGHT

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

30 times?

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

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

no more, rather

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

what do YOU think?

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

'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)

I've just rememberd Baddiel's Syndrome again.

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

lost classic?

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

certainly one of those two

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

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)

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)

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)

'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)

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)

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)

I'm still lolling

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

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)

francis macdonald OTM.

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

pt. II

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

woah, deja-vu

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

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)

Mark Heap could bother Richard Ayoade. I smell ratings.

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

'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)

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

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

'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)

yeah well.

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

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)

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have there been any good UK sketch shows in recent years? The only one I can think of is Ellie & Natasia

― Platinum Penguin Pavilion (soref), Thursday, 10 April 2025 09:44 (two months ago)

US SNL interesting as an exercise in "how much talent can you pour into a show for decades and decades without ever being funny", don't see any need to repeat the experiment elsewhere tho.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 10 April 2025 09:46 (two months ago)

Who's gonna sing "Hallelujah" when Reform gets in?

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 10 April 2025 09:47 (two months ago)

have there been any good UK sketch shows in recent years? The only one I can think of is Ellie & Natasia

Burnistoun is the only one I can think of.

― ailsa, Thursday, 10 April 2025 11:51 (two months ago)

i've watched the first 3 eps of LOL. Bob Mortimer would have me in stitches.
switched over to watch a bit of The Martian I'd recorded for another day and Mr Swallow pops right up as a NASA JPL guy, freaked me out a bit!

― kinder, Saturday, 12 April 2025 15:22 (two months ago)

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