You can stick your Screen Wipes and your Time Trumpets

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... how great are Mark Steel's Lectures?

Just watched the one on Darwin. Just terrific.

Alba (Alba), Saturday, 2 September 2006 23:02 (eighteen years ago)

They're making televisions ones? Fantastic, the radio ones were absolutely fantastic, some of the funniest radio ever.

Ed (dali), Sunday, 3 September 2006 08:14 (eighteen years ago)

They work brilliantly as TV. Mark Steel's script is all factual (not that it's not funny too), leaving the visuals to completely go off on flights of fancy. Watching Darwin musing over the adaptive qualities of saliva production levels while his wife gave him a blowjob was a (cheap) highlight, but it was all good. I liked the Mexian bees with their moustaches.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 08:35 (eighteen years ago)

I must be the only one to think that these aren't very good. Every single segment seems to go along the lines of:

"Darwin was struggling with resolving his religion with his scientific discovery. It's a bit like a rock star being bought up on big guitars, suddenly realising that classical music requires a higher degree of playing skill!" - cut to Darwin in a wig with a big electric guitar rocking out.

Maybe it's just me, but when I watch these I feel like I'm being talked down to. Not informative enough to be informative and not funny enough to be funny.

Time Trumpet and Screen Wipe are good, tho.

Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Sunday, 3 September 2006 08:42 (eighteen years ago)

3 series of television ones now. The Thomas Paine from series 2 has been the highlight thus far, I think.

aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 3 September 2006 08:45 (eighteen years ago)

I was a bit drunk when I watched it, I should say. Still, I'm going t stick my neck out and say it's funny sober.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 08:45 (eighteen years ago)

(I had no idea these were so old - I'm so glad I've started watching TV again, with my Humax)

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 08:47 (eighteen years ago)

All the series turn up pretty frequently on UKN0v4. (In fact, I've just checked and all three series are on there now)

aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:21 (eighteen years ago)

I find Steel kind of unwatchable for his whole "I may be a regular proletarian noodle but nevertheless I have got me some fancy book-learnin" shtick. I also agree with Johnny B.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:31 (eighteen years ago)

Schtick is in the eye of the beholder, you classist rotter.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:35 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

But I find Charlie Brooker perfectly hateful. Armando wins by default.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:36 (eighteen years ago)

What is a Humax?

Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:48 (eighteen years ago)

It's basically a video for posh people. Alba's got one. He might have mentioned it once or twice :-)

ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:52 (eighteen years ago)

yeah i find this patronising and unfunny. can't watch him. i agree, johnny b.

jed_ (jed), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:54 (eighteen years ago)

It's weird that with the new series of Screen Wipe CB now seems to want to be a TV comic, performing other people's scripts (the episode I watched had David Quantick as the sole writer, I think, though I might be wrong). Still, I can forgive him a lot for his tvghome prescience. Today's BBC Three listings:

Sunday 03 September

7:00 pm Dog Borstal
8:00 pm Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife
9:00 pm Little Britain
9:30 pm The Catherine Tate Show
10:00 pm Little Miss Jocelyn
10:30 pm F*** Off, I'm Fat
11:30 pm Too Ugly for Love
12:25 am Little Miss Jocelyn
12:55 am Dog Borstal
1:50 am F*** Off, I'm Fat
2:50 am Too Ugly for Love
3:50 am Welcome to BBC THREE

Tomorrow: My Small Breasts And I, Trauma Uncut, Spendaholics Saved My Life.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:55 (eighteen years ago)

Ha – I like BBC Four's highbrow brand of mince:

Tuesday 05 September
19:30 Meetings with Remarkable Trees
A look at Britain's largest broad leaf lime tree, which boasts a magnificent rococo-style tree house. [S]

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 09:58 (eighteen years ago)

The worst things about BBC3 are those preposterous "Hi! I'm James and here's your news in 60 seconds..." infoblips. And also that obnoxious northern woman continuity announcer who seems to think 'Two Pints...' is the pinnacle of human civilisation.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 3 September 2006 10:01 (eighteen years ago)

(Alba, if you are joining the post-work drinks on Friday I could sort you out with the three series of these, or leave them with another glasgow type for you)

aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 3 September 2006 10:04 (eighteen years ago)

Cheers aldo, but I'm away this weekend. The UKN0va heads up was all I needed really. Thanks.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 10:05 (eighteen years ago)

Mr Steel lives in my neighbourhood and we often see him in Sergio's, buying groceries with his adorable daughter, or having a coffee in La Brushetta. I wonder if he's still supporting local businesses now that we have a shiny new Sainsbury's? I bet he is.

It seems I have little in common with JtN these days...I like his lectures (Pam loves 'em) and would cite the visual gag in his Marx prog (regarding his insensitivity towards Engels' bereavement - shot of Marx in internet cafe typing email, Subject: Re: Dead wife) as one of my top 36 telly lolz of the twenny-oh-ohs. I think the fact that he's local means we forgive the things that annoy JtN.

And Brooker! I find Screen Wipe quite funny! Especially the US edition! Yes, he is quite hateful. He reminds me of a few people round here.

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Sunday, 3 September 2006 11:19 (eighteen years ago)

Anyway, this is all moot cos we have the Mitchell and Webb sketch show to look forward to, which will blow 'em all out of the water. Or will be ruthlessly dissected in here, pronounced a disappointment and "not as good as the radio version".

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Sunday, 3 September 2006 11:23 (eighteen years ago)

The trailers for Mitchell & Webb look terrible!

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 3 September 2006 11:28 (eighteen years ago)

Top tv comedy right now = Kath & Kim, obv.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Sunday, 3 September 2006 11:28 (eighteen years ago)

He reminds me of Dom P, Grimly F and dadaismus, a bit.

Ally C and RJG and I were watching Bruiser with Mitchell & Webb the other day. It was as funny as Ally C remembered, in places.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 11:31 (eighteen years ago)

alba, you couldn't mail me .tØrr3nt files for the ms lectures from uknova coul you?

Ed (dali), Sunday, 3 September 2006 12:08 (eighteen years ago)

Kath and Kim is SHIT.

(I've never actually watched it, I was trying to maintain the lack of common ground).

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Sunday, 3 September 2006 12:10 (eighteen years ago)

Ed, I don't want to do that cause ukn0va use some kind of key system and if they find you've been sharing it about you get banned.

But if I dl them all myself I'm happy to post a DVD-R of them all to you. Email me your address.

Alba (Alba), Sunday, 3 September 2006 12:18 (eighteen years ago)

Mark Steel works better the less you know abt the subject, which in this case its nothing whatsoever, bcz if you even pick up tiny miniscule factoids before watching it gets v annoying v fast despite odd gag working.

I probably was a bit more into these until I saw his dig at John Cage in his Beethoven programme.

xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Sunday, 3 September 2006 12:26 (eighteen years ago)

I laughed at the Mitchell & Webb Look trailer. I think the Mark Steel lectures on TV are good - pretty well judged (it's meant to be trying to make that sort of thing more interesting to people who probably wouldn't be that interested in it normally i.e. me, or maybe people even stupider than me) altho I don't think Steel is particularly funny (but I enjoy the knowledge imparted). Forgot to watch Time Trumpet last week but not that bothered. Missing Screen Wipe already tho.

Konal Doddz (blueski), Sunday, 3 September 2006 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

"Just watched the one on Darwin. Just terrific."

I misread this as: "Just watched the one on Dawsons"

jel -- (jel), Sunday, 3 September 2006 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

We've got Steel in for Freshers Week doing Che Guevara I think. Will it be as good without the visuals? And me doing the sound?

Pete (Pete), Monday, 4 September 2006 07:04 (eighteen years ago)

I find Steel kind of unwatchable for his whole "I may be a regular proletarian noodle but nevertheless I have got me some fancy book-learnin" shtick. I also agree with Johnny B.
-- Jerry the Nipper (jerrythenippe...), September 3rd, 2006.

OTM. i found the marx one funny *at the time* but thinking about steel, he is a bit of a choad.

on the other hand, 'screen wipe' was aces.

i am following 'time trumpet' but it's wildly uneven, often shit. dubya singing u2 was a career low for ianucci, surely?

it is funny, that alba has just discovered this two-year-old programme!


a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Monday, 4 September 2006 07:12 (eighteen years ago)

Three-year-old!

Alba (Alba), Monday, 4 September 2006 08:19 (eighteen years ago)

We've got Steel in for Freshers Week doing Che Guevara I think. Will it be as good without the visuals? And me doing the sound?

started on the radio so fine with no visuals, possibly better, shame no one will be able to hear it beyond the first couple of rows then (when is it? can you blag me in)

Ed (dali), Monday, 4 September 2006 08:34 (eighteen years ago)

after a good 18 months of my pissing and moaning*, i've just discovered that the armando ianucci show is released on dvd today! hurrah.

*not that i'm suggesting that my barracking resulted directly in bbc capitulation, but y'know...

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 4 September 2006 08:36 (eighteen years ago)

Er, C4 and Frem4ntl3, more like. Wonder what they've replaced all the Part and Gorecki with?

Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 4 September 2006 09:31 (eighteen years ago)

Chicory Tip

Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 4 September 2006 09:42 (eighteen years ago)

Thomas Paine
Beethoven
Darwin
Da Vinci
Mary Shelley

are available at www.o b s c u r e d t v.com

Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 4 September 2006 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

hmmm although it appears they're not torrents but some sort of plug-in-only view-in-browser movie files, and you need a PC for em

Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 4 September 2006 11:47 (eighteen years ago)

steel is a nonce, i can't watch him for more than about 2 picoseconds without wanting to kick the telly in

i'll keep me time trumpets and screen wipes except for those bits where brooker just screams the same phrase over and over again in an increasingly shrill voice

The Real DG (D to thee G), Monday, 4 September 2006 11:48 (eighteen years ago)

I plan to watch some of these tonight and weigh in with my weighty thoughts sometime soon. With a little bit of source code viewing at obscuredtv, one can download the movie files directly. They are "nsv" files - whatever that means - but they seem to play fine on my VLC.

Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 4 September 2006 15:20 (eighteen years ago)

I'd be interested to hear what you make of Steel's lecture on history of U.S. slavery, EK/TH.

Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 4 September 2006 15:46 (eighteen years ago)

it's not on that site ... without a ukn0va account the world may never know!

Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 4 September 2006 17:21 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

He reminds me of Dom P, Grimly F and dadaismus, a bit

ha! i open this thread because i can't find the "proper" screenwipe one (we did have one ... didn't we?) and the first thing i see is this. i'm very flattered. thank you, alba. nobody has ever compared me to dom passantino before.

ANYWAY. just wanted to say that the second ep of this series of screenwipe was genius on a grand scale. "it's my anus"/"amy winehouse has really let herself go" ... fuck, there was another bit that was equally brilliant. perhaps just the well-timed use of the phrase "bell-end".

mark steel is ace, yeh, but brooker is close to godliness.

grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 21:50 (seventeen years ago)

there was too much of the anus last night. he makes really good points about the way tv executives are their own worst enemies and then fucks himself over with the teenage humour and waniking actions. (and wasn't the titleless end a bit of a mindbender, straight into something else.)

lol moment last night - calling nadine 'hardly an executive price tag' bagget a terrahawk. (amy winehouse a close second)

koogs, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago)

i haven't lolled that much at a brit tv show in a looong time. well, not since the last 'tv burp'. the billie phone call was very harry hill.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:42 (seventeen years ago)

only ruder obv.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:43 (seventeen years ago)

Oh. When is this on? Digital? UKnova?

Bocken Social Scene, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago)

bbc4 -- it gets repeated.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:49 (seventeen years ago)

mark steel is too politically biased to be funny. see also: mark thomas, michael moore. not saying i disagree with everything they've said, it's just that it seems like a left wing version of jim davidson telling immigrant jokes his audience.

max r, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:55 (seventeen years ago)

*to his

max r, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:56 (seventeen years ago)

is it 2 eps in? didn't know it had started again.

bloody good job it's repeated seeing as it's not on THC replay (death to whoever is denying me this).

blueski, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 13:56 (seventeen years ago)

2nd last night, yes.

koogs, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:06 (seventeen years ago)

i missed the first :(

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:07 (seventeen years ago)

i will get them, along with Diary Of A Call Girl.

blueski, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:08 (seventeen years ago)

Thought the "Doctor, it's my anus" stuff was slightly overplayed but the rest was sheer genius. Nice to see the return of The Biggest Cocks (and She-Cocks) In Advertising.

A History Of Corners, with Victoria Coren.

aldo, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:09 (seventeen years ago)

I don't usually watch Screen Wipe but did last night. I didn't think it was very good, though I agree the Terrahawk was funny. And the Billie Piper stuff.

Didn't think the anus thing was funny once, and it didn't become more so as a running gag.

Alba, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:11 (seventeen years ago)

i tuned in during the 'closing credits' and was very, very close to believing the victoria coren thing.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:13 (seventeen years ago)

I think I need to grab Billie Piper.

aldo, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:14 (seventeen years ago)

Charlie Brooker's disgusted persona just doesn't have legs enough in it for me to work anymore. He's still doing TV Go Home exploitation-TV titles, after all these years. It's like finding out Viz is still going!

Maybe judging whether such things are tired or a classic seam of humour is just an irreducible matter of taste. Still, the title "A History of Corners" was good, even if the execution of the programme was a bit rub (you can't get Victoria Coren et al on board to be in on the joke). But then I think taking the piss out of trends in high-brow programming is much less played-out than doing it for Celebrity Spew On My Widow and what have you.

Alba, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:23 (seventeen years ago)

any of the new sketches on youtube?

max r, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:24 (seventeen years ago)

He's still doing TV Go Home exploitation-TV titles, after all these years.

hells yes. no sell-out.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:26 (seventeen years ago)

the 'so you want a job in tv?' thing was a virtual repeat from last season as well.

corners, yes, funny.

koogs, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:35 (seventeen years ago)

Didn't think the anus thing was funny once, and it didn't become more so as a running gag

heh. i thought it got funnier each time.

mind: i think i've missed only two issues of viz since 1988.

i actually wasn't so taken with the "corners" bit, mainly because i remember alexei sayle beginning his show with five minutes of juliet bravo, which was way less obvious and way ahead of the curve.

actually: that's who brooker reminds me of -- the swearing/anger/beating up stooges etc. it's alexei sayle. who is also a god amongst men.

grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 22:02 (seventeen years ago)

the adam curtis segment was awes.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 23:06 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah, I thought that was possibly the best Screen Wipe yet. (although criticising the 70s news for being too slow while attacking the modern news for being too exciting = happy for about 5 minutes in 1986?)

aldo, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 07:02 (seventeen years ago)

Brooker is never happy is he? I'm getting bored with his schtick - it seems to me to be along the lines of "is it me or is everything shite?" which i'm really bored with too.

Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 07:27 (seventeen years ago)

He likes Billie Piper and The Wire.

Alba, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 07:43 (seventeen years ago)

I like how many of his main pieces to camera are done while he's on his couch, perched above his computer, as if at any moment he's going to go, I don't know, Google something. And then I see the candles he's got on the table and I'm like hang on, have I somehow just gone "back to mine" with Charlie Brooker? Is he going to put the moves on me?

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 09:49 (seventeen years ago)

at one point he was fetching a cup of tea which was lol-y.

That one guy that hit it and quit it, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 09:53 (seventeen years ago)

i liked his rant in last week's about 'the death of the credits' altho can't make up my mind whether or not i agree (breather or cast members hamming it up over credits vs who gives a shit who the associate producer is anyway)

blueski, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 10:38 (seventeen years ago)

i notice his series seem to be immune from credit death, ie the bbc isn't putting him in a box and/or talking over.

koogs, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 11:35 (seventeen years ago)

Oh yes they are! A week or so ago they did it, and he put gaffer tape over his mouth. The continuity woman apologised, wryly.

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 12:19 (seventeen years ago)

it's perhaps not that credit death is particularly bad in itself (although i think it is) it's the fact that it once the credits did go out of the window it led to trailers for what's coming next encroaching into the programme itself. 5 or so minutes from the end (at the stage) there's a pop up telling you what's coming on after, which is really very very annoying if your watching "tribe", for example, but probably less so if you're watching ant and dec's saturday night takeaway. if you watch a lot of US TV the what's coming next bit occupies the bottom third of the screen for most of the show.

jed_, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 12:24 (seventeen years ago)

I have been on the internets for too long, I spent far too long just now trying to work out what word wryly was a contraction of.

aldo, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 12:25 (seventeen years ago)

i liked his rant in last week's about 'the death of the credits' altho can't make up my mind whether or not i agree

I'll tell you what I did not like was how he appeared doing a jokey "shout over the squeezed credits" trail for his own programme over the end of the last episode of Tribe, which had ended the series on an extremely sombre note, being about logging destroying the way of life of the Penan in Borneo.

I realise that the puncturing of space and time for reflection is part of what Brooker is complaning about, but this seemed an unnecessarily crass way of proving the point. If I were a member of the Tribe production team (or the Penan), I'd wonder who volunteered me to be the butt of Brooker's "cruel to be kind" point-proving.

Alba, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 12:37 (seventeen years ago)

That Penan episode was totally amazing (despite my intense loathing for the presenter).

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 12:58 (seventeen years ago)

yes, the adam curtis bit was fantastic (even though i thought the "berlin wall coming down changed everything" hypothesis a little shaky). really liked the whole episode, but that's hardly surprising. his less-than-ten-second dismissal of sport was fucking joyous.

grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 13:07 (seventeen years ago)


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