Look Around You series 2

Nice music though. I'd buy the OST.

there is an obvious problem with lovingly recreating dull source material. especially if this source material now only exists in the memories of 30 something insomniacs. (that said, the 1997 OU program about Object Orientation the other night was just as dated but in a different way. HotJava!)

(although for series one to be *completely* spot-on, it should have had a section about the Billingham chemical plant in every single episode)

Synthesizer Patel ("Those bloody BASTARDS always try to nick your synthesizer")

Electric Teethbrushing (That has a side effect of mucking up your speech rhythms)

That weird song "Macachengo Alamenyo" or whatever (supposedly the most futuristic song in the world)

COBBLES! (Absolute genius this - especially the fact that it lets you rocket around in the air)

Plastic surgery ("I love it! I love it!")

The Rapping Song ("Rapping all day/Rapping all night/I'm rapping/I'm rapping/I'm rap-rap-rapping" etc).

And last but not least:

ME-DI-BOT! (this nearly gave me a prolapse)

And what about that guy who is head of EMI (or whatever) and is also the world champion of french kissing. "Om".

The first one had its moments: the rap song was fantastic and the bloke who was in Spaced & Green Wing complaining about the noise in his life (living in Gatwick airport with a wife and her sister who had a strange medical condition that made them scream incessantly). The second one only made me laugh when medibot said medibot.

What's the problem with that? Also, I mean surely the surreal bits are what make it funny, otherwise you may as well watch Tomorrow's World reruns as someone said upthread. It is after all a comedy programme.

As for the whines about the slow-pace, I didn't think this was a big problem. Most comedies are very slow paced in order to account for audience laughter-tracks anyway. But I do remember (before I grew to like it) Spaced having this effect on me - lots of awkward pauses and embarassed mutterings that kind of killed a lot of jokes.

According To Bex perhaps?

It's the asides that get me, rather than the "big hitter" comedy moments. Although Rick tells me that last night they used the "thank you ants" "thants" bit again, which is really bloody lame, it's not unexpected that we've seen the first series and that recycling was very poor. The "thank you doctor - thockter" bit, I also found pushing it.

hahahaha

Er, that doesn't really work does it.

"Blants"

I liked Outlaws and a couple of episodes of My Life In Film, but personally speaking, there just isn't enough 'Judge John Deed' to go round.

And did anybody see the C4 political awards last night? Hilarious! I never realised Boris Johnson had cribbed his entire act off his own dad.

> The second one only made me laugh when medibot said medibot.

the way the doctor also said medibot in the same style but only when addressing the medibot was also funny.

> as ever i'm interested to know what IS making the people who dislike this show and/or Nathan Barley laugh, if anything...

simpsons reruns. turns out that i'd never seen treehouse IV until yesterday...

I'm quite liking Joey actually, but I realise this means you'll never trust my opinion about anything else in the world ever again. :)

(I didn't dislike NB though, I was pleasantly surprised by it).

Last night the guy with the beard who came on to the sweeping up, looked a bit like T0m 3wing!

I've not seen Joey yet, I recorded it though.

For the record I like this programme, the comedy is very, er, mild but it's fun to watch I think. In fact I think I even laughed out loud twice during the last episode, which is quite a high strike rate for when I watch comedies on my own.
And I'm really quite looking forward to the next episode of Nathan Barley actually.

But...it's improved and show #3 was OK. And the little details are good enough to make me forgive some of the daftness. The Data Bank stuff unfortunately reminds of GagFax or whatever it was called in Three Of A Kind. First time around Serafinowicz and Popper practically buried material (fake Ceefax pages on the DVD, material on the BBC minisite) that was miles better. I'm dubious about the roll-call of fabulous comedy sleb mates in this series too (Enfield, Fenton-Stevens, Buxton, Lucas). Like a low-fee version of later AbFab lurching from one nauseating starry cameo to another.

RJG and Ally C can't even remember 1980 so, on this occasion, sod them.

I think it's much more like Digitiser's The Man's Daddy jokes. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they were a direct influence - especially with the one that went "What was the most notable thing about the 1932 Grand National? The horses were all drunk". I half expected them to add "on gin" at the end.

gosh, what a hot potato - this will run and run...

my startling controversial new theory: Scottish men are the hardest to amuse (thing is tho i don't think it's brilliant or anything at all, just like most things there will be a couple of funny bits here and there).

'Music For Spiders' is a good title.

THALIX

the St Frankenstein's Day thing before the official start was weird, tho many of the things mentioned seemed very studenty/poor TVGoHome imitation anyone could think of

*crickets*

Synthesizer Patel needs bigger locks…

Idiot. Pidiot. Pridiot. Peroximidiot! Cabbage Hall investment fund!!!

Who in UK comedy is doing stuff like this now?

I still sing “Macadenu“ to myself

The Rapping Song is my favourite comedy bit ever.

LAY has aged well imo

I'd forgotten about the "special picture" until I scrolled up earlier today

Who in UK comedy is doing stuff like this now?

― DLC Soundsystem (dog latin), Wednesday, 12 March 2025 17:04 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

miles darker but have you seen the (imo incredible) C4 series of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

I saw a few of the early YouTube ones of that a while ago. I'll investigate

Is it fair to say UK TV comedy has become much more... I dunno terrestrial since then? I feel like anything I can think of is more like a sitcom. Even Popper's later venture Friday Night Dinner (which I didn't like) was basically a family sitcom affair

Macadenu otm

Synthesiser Patel FTW.

Blants

Crime's so bloody bad and those bastards they steal your synthesizers

Oh man... his wistful, faraway look. Contemplative and frustrated at the same time

Bring me my pipe, boy. You're an embarrasment. You've embarrassed the pipe!

Anyhoo what has Peter Serafinowicz done lately? I loved his self-titled sketch show (“send £1 to this address” followed by a picture of a chagrined-looking cat ).

Seems like he mostly does voicework these days.

he turned up as a South African idiot on Amandaland... I think his sister writes for that. Not the greatest show but I did enjoy his appearance.

can't think of him without "Bloody Bond!" Ringo Starr doing Goldfinger

One of my fave bits of his will always be him on the phone to Fran on Black Books. "FRAN! Are you OK, FRANNNNN? I'll come Fran! I'm coming!"

i was just cleaning off my coffee table and i found my bootleg SLP-mode VHS of "Look Around You"

mind you i left it there because i'm not one of those people who collects VHS tapes for its retro cachet or whatever

i'm just going to wait until my old DVDs become desirable retro fetish objects, should only be a couple years now. someday somebody will say to me "oh man you have the DVD of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace? That's so awesome!"

it's a show from 25 years ago but made to look like 40 years ago, it's hilarious

How possible would it be to make a show now that parodies a show from 2005? I just can't see it working

I think there's a particular type of mid-2000s reality tv show that has a distinctive enough style that you could imitate it and people would 'get' it? But maybe tv styles have stayed more similar because the internet is where the energy has been for the last two decades? You could imagine someone making something in the style of an early youtube video that everyone immediately registers as archaic looking, for example.

I recently rewatched one of the Adam and Joe 'People Place' bits (from 2000 I think?) and was surprised by how not-dated it looked, so maybe crap daytime tv at least hasn't changed all that much

That's a good point. I wonder if there are many examples of retro-spoof websites etc, outside of stuff like vapourwave / Aero Fruiter aesthetics?

That's a good point. I wonder if there are many examples of retro-spoof websites etc, outside of stuff like vapourwave / Aero Fruiter aesthetics?

― DLC Soundsystem (dog latin)

tons. tons and tons and tons. do you know the game "hypnospace outlaw"? that's definitely very early-internet retro. "retro" hasn't quite caught up to the '00s yet but there's a lot of '90s retro websites. i was actually talking with a friend recently about tv that copies the '90s retro feel. i'm not the best person for that, but "the pink opaque" is a spot-on version of that.

you _definitely_ could parody '00s media. shit, i didn't watch NTSF:SD:SUV::, but it would be very doable.

apparently peter serafinowicz was in NTSF:SD:SUV::!