The Mary Whitehouse Experience: C/D S/D

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David Baddiel & Rob Newman from Spitting Image meet Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt from Canned Carrott and produce four series on the radio and two on the telly of sarky stuff for sarky teenagers, and an encyclopedia.

David Baddiel goes on to start New Laddism, Rob Newman goes onto Mariella Frostrup (for a while), and Dennis and Punt do their own stuff. But was it all worth it?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 19 September 2002 12:30 (twenty-three years ago)

A great source for this is SOTCAA's page. I had forgotten that everything I liked on the telly was (better) on the radio first. Also, it is just great to see a site that will obsessively detail a comedy program, including pointing out the duff bits. The site actually changed my mind on this question: I'd been going to say a bit dud (based on their incredibly smug for the number of laughs in it book), but now I have to say classic.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 19 September 2002 12:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Robert Smith doing Tie The Kangaroo Down Sport is about all small me can remember.

Was "major personal disaster" them?

― Graham (graham), Thursday, 19 September 2002 12:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Dud. The final nail in the coffin of alternative comedy.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 September 2002 12:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Dud
and
The final nail in the coffin of alternative comedy.

MAKE YOUR MIND UP! ;-)

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 19 September 2002 12:58 (twenty-three years ago)

haha but hugh dennis is the only person apart from me and the actual bloke who can do the scary movie voice over voice! "muuuurrrrdeerrrrr!!"

― katie (katie), Thursday, 19 September 2002 13:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The poltergeist, Ray - The Man Inflicted With A Sarcastic Tone Of Voice, many other things.

(12/ 13 year old me was quite enamoured of Rob Newman, also of Geoffery Lees, a big fan of The Mary Whitehouse Experience who sat next to me in double french the following day)

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 19 September 2002 13:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah most of my (slightly older than Anna) friends had a crush on either Newman or Baddiel. I have convinced myself that I didn't but I am not sure this is true. Anyway we all went to see them in Aylesbury Civic Centre. Cannot remember much about it. Sorry.

― Emma, Thursday, 19 September 2002 13:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Bloody awful, though I did like one sketch. It was all about people reflecting on how if they'd never done this or that they'd never have met. 'And think, if I'd never gone to that Satanist convention' etc.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 19 September 2002 13:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, I loved it, and I still do

And I mention that "And just to think, if I hadn't gone to that black mass we might never have met" thing to people, because it reflects on my lifestyle far too much. They respond with blank faces

― Sofa King Alternative (Sofa King Alternative), Thursday, 19 September 2002 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

what I saw of them I liked.

I never bought into the Punt and Dennis = not funny thing that some people did.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 19 September 2002 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

can i be picky and say that that
'satanist convention' sketch was from
'newman and baddiel in pieces' not
mwe. it was, like, waaaay darker.
certainly seemed so in 1993.

― piscesboy, Friday, 20 September 2002 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Revive, in wake of its mention in the sarcasm thread.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic. Mainly for everything Rob Newman did.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Eh, good in parts. Doesn't stand up to the passing of time AT ALL well. The Shakespeare's sister sketch still makes me laugh though "what do I pay you for, exactly?"

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I was just going to say about the Shakespeare's Sister thing.

Considering a lot of the humour was very topical (jokes about Shoegazers!) I'd say a lot of it has done pretty well.

Lovely. Milky milky.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

I had a bit of a fangirl moment with Mr Newman on Friday.

― leigh (leigh), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

in edinburgh? i went to see his show and thought it was wonderful.

bleak as fuck, but wonderful.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 08:45 (twenty years ago)

'that's you that is' = about all i can remember but CLASSIC. also a 'trendy' schoolteacher who's 'really into the new ride album'. The Man Inflicted With A Sarcastic Tone Of Voice is all of them, no?

― N_RQ, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 08:57 (twenty years ago)

He said hello and I was momentarily rendered incapable of coherent speech.

― leigh (leigh), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 09:02 (twenty years ago)

Yeah the Edinburgh show was great. He's found his calling.

The MWE WAS better on Radio 1, it's strengths were the topicality of some of the jokes and the different styles coming together, each strand was meant to be The "Something" Experience and this structure kind of got a bit over used on the telly version (and they re-did most of the jokes). I think it all got a bit out of hand by the time they were doing the stadium gigs (I went to one of the last ones and no one was laughing they were just applauding when they recognised a joke and trying to take photos).
I was really into the radio version of The MWE, I think it had something to do with it feeling like something I had discovered (when it used to be on late on Radio 1) that was aimed at ME (I was about 15) and not everyone was going to find it funny (so by the time they got on telly, the critics were dismissing it as Student Humour).

Ray, The Man Afflicted with the Sarcastic Tone of voice was Newman's character (but if you think about it, must be based on Baddiel as he is TRUELY afflicted with a sarcastic tone of voice. "Oh no, what a personal disaster")

Bleak...? well yeah The Party's Over...

― Pandas At War (pandas at war), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 09:05 (twenty years ago)

mistah newman is a good guy. and that p45 to ak47 thing is grebt. i fear it's just the same people going to see him over and over though...

― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 11:02 (twenty years ago)

yeah, preaching to the converted somewhat.
He's touring with Mark Thomas later in the year.. but not really a broader audience is it?

― Pandas At War (pandas at war), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 11:31 (twenty years ago)

heheh, no.

has anyone read newman's novel? (sorry if this has been mentioned upthread already). it's superb.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

I like baddiel & skinner

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

liar.

― N_RQ, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

what would I have to gain?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:18 (twenty years ago)

ironic cool.

― N_RQ, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

liar

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:20 (twenty years ago)

do you like Victor Meldrew?

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:27 (twenty years ago)

mr fiendish, yeah i have read all three. i really liked the first one but they get exponentially better and deeper and broader, apparently someone was sniffing around for the film rights to the fountain at the centre of the world - or perhaps they've even been bought? - but nothing seems to be happening so far...

― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:27 (twenty years ago)

i want to see this now, it's been 13-odd years and i can't remember it. also 'tmwrnj' -- lwt's have some repeats.

― N_RQ, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:33 (twenty years ago)

I don't like victor meldrew

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:34 (twenty years ago)

I picked up the DVD of the two series of this off ukn0v4 and it really hasn't aged well. Patchy at best.

TMWRNJ is still funny as fuck.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:43 (twenty years ago)

yeah i have read all three

see, when i posted that i thought: there's more than one, isn't there? but i couldn't remember what the first two were - and he certainly didn't appear to be flogging them at the edinburgh gig. "fountain" was there, though; i ended up haranguing half the queue to buy it. which they did. "has he paid you to come out here and do that?" asked the girl on the door.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

the first one was 'dependence day' (girl is crucial witness in fatal stabbing, stabber's chums attempt intimidation and threats to stop her testifying, girl comes through, lovely if obv little pivotal thing where "suddenly they both realised which of them was stronger" or sth), second 'manners' (good cop goes slowly insane, loses grip on reality, shits in a fireplace in the countryside, doesn't realise he's being stalked and his death planned, can't remember end but don't think it was positive, v evocative and moving chapter where everyone just stops giving a fuck about what they're doing and everything grinds to apathy-ridden halt). ADORED manners when it came out (nice timing cos it contrasted w irvine welsh's 'pigs'), not a patch on 'fountain...' tho.

― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

the 2003 docu about the making of '...fountain' which was filmed over 3 years (!) was killah!

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 30 August 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

i remember "dependence day" now; one of those books i avoided lest it turned out to be a disappointment. but i can honestly say "manners" has passed me by completely. from your description it sounds stunning, and i shall seek it out post-haste.

i bought "fountain" for my dad: the father-son narrative struck a chord in me. he loved it too.

x-post: that was the reason i bought the book! wonder if it's torrent-able?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 13:03 (twenty years ago)

Of the 3 books, Fountain.. is the only one that RN now thinks is any good. It's the one which is almost completely separate from his stand up. Both Manners and Dependance Day had bits that were continuations on a theme (or indeed just jokes) but the fact that I even noticed probably tells you that I saw the stand up too many times...

Fountain is really ambitious and absorbing.
Like I said earlier, he's found it!

Scribbling (the docu) was excellent.

― Pandas At War (pandas at war), Tuesday, 30 August 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

FILTH! that irvine welsh book was called 'filth', not 'pigs'. gah, i knew something was wrong when i posted it but couldn't put my finger on it. then as i was dropping off to sleep this morning it hit me. just had to put that right.

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 1 September 2005 06:51 (twenty years ago)

i want to see this now, it's been 13-odd years and i can't remember it. also 'tmwrnj' -- lwt's have some repeats.

It is strange that UKTV NEVER want to repeat these - it's just TOTP2, Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances and 2.4 Children all day everyday.

Last night I found myself wishing they would show Colin's Sandwich again. Perhaps the tapes deteriorated, or they recorded early 90s Byker Groves over them instead.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 1 September 2005 09:03 (twenty years ago)

is there a thread on 'stuff that needs repeating'? i don't know why i am asking when the search function is there, but maybe it has a cryptic title, you know.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 1 September 2005 09:05 (twenty years ago)

stevem they never came out on vid/dvd either, right? or did they? i'm sure i remember a friend who was a megafan bemoaning the fact that they still won't repeat them because bbc video have the rights to release them commercially first but even though it's clearly never gonna happen they still won't let them put them on tv again...

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:21 (twenty years ago)

they repeat loads of other bollocks that's on dvd though!

― N_RQ, Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:23 (twenty years ago)

yeah but it came out on dvd/vid first - they don't want to lose the opportunity of making pots of cash by repeating it and having all the avid fans taping/bittorrenting it. which is stupid since they're blatantly never gonna get around to releasing it.

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

in the name of something i re-listened to all the radio shows again recently (and blogged this on ft). pretty awful.

i laughed at something in the last series where they read out a letter to the Funday Times (or some juvenile pullout of a broadsheet) where some 8 year old kid was complaining of being bullied because an ex-girlfriend had told everyone he couldn't wipe his own arse. they got the audience to chant "Simon's got a poo-ey bottom"

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Thursday, 1 September 2005 10:36 (twenty years ago)

The MWE never came out on video at the time, presumably because it was meant to be a bit topical (having said that, I noticed that Drop The Dead Donkey has come out on DVD... the mind reels). I think a few of the radio shows have been repeated on BBC7. There was a website with them all on, but this has long since been taken down.
You have to remember this is pre-DVD and pre the BBC releasing virtually EVERYTHING as sell through. Considering how much cash Avalon (RN & DB's agents at the time, and notably still Baddiel's) attempted to make out of the tours and the live videos (there are plenty of them) there must have been a rights issue with the TV series for them not to release them?
Who knows?
They're all in the top of my wardrobe at my mum's, condemned to a pre-dvd, pre-internet graveyard... ah how did we ever cope before "listen again" and all this new fangled bit torrenting?

― Pandas At War (pandas at war), Thursday, 1 September 2005 11:28 (twenty years ago)

we were a lot happier. we just used to remember things being much, much better than they ever were :)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 September 2005 11:31 (twenty years ago)

(Colin's Sandwich on UK n0va now if y're mental enough S T Azzahole.)

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Thursday, 1 September 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

pandas, drop the dead donkey is still piss-funny if you watch it now. it helps that they've always preceded the repeats with little "this was first broadcast when such-and-such was in the news for being caught with their pants down" and whatever, but also all the character-based story arc stuff is hilarious.

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 1 September 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah I always liked Drop The Dead Donkey... the topical stuff was just incidental, just not something I knew was out on DVD until I saw it in a shop...

― Pandas At War (pandas at war), Friday, 2 September 2005 10:13 (twenty years ago)

DTDD is always on Paramount anyway.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Friday, 2 September 2005 10:58 (twenty years ago)

I made an arse of myself with another comic this week, this is getting to be a habit...

― leigh (leigh), Friday, 2 September 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

Last night I found myself wishing they would show Colin's Sandwich again.

YAY!!!!

― piscesboy, Friday, 2 September 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

The back of my head features in a Newman and Baddiel tour video.

― Lara (Lara), Friday, 2 September 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

that's funny: newman and baddiel catchphrases feature strongly in the back of my head.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 2 September 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

Robert Newman's History of Oil was on More4 just now, and it was fucking fantastic, one of the best things I've seen on TV all year. It was a pitch-perfect example of what-Mark-Thomas-should-be-like, only funnier and cleverer too. I don't know what his Edinburgh show was like last year...it's possible this was the same thing. But yeah, pandas is right upthread, he seems to have found his calling. You should all look out for repeats, I'm sure it'll be on again.

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 6 July 2006 00:13 (nineteen years ago)

Ooh, just checked UKNova and apparently it was first shown in April, so they've got a cap of it up there already.

I RECOMMEND.

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 6 July 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

I enjoyed the radio show on R1.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 6 July 2006 01:57 (nineteen years ago)

Londoners can see the next installment of Robert's stand up at Tricycle Theatre til 15 July...Called No Plan B...
*shameless plus ends*

― Pandas At War (pandas at war), Thursday, 6 July 2006 09:02 (nineteen years ago)

yeh i am going to see it next thurs!

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 6 July 2006 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

is there a UK Nova copycat now that is less subscribed? there really should be.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 6 July 2006 10:35 (nineteen years ago)

The show on more4 was pretty much the same as his Edinburgh show last year. I hope he brings No Planet B to Edinburgh.

― leigh (leigh), Thursday, 6 July 2006 10:38 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, UKN is problematic these days, there's enough people there that maintaining a ratio is virtually impossible...even if you're happy to keep seeding for weeks, there'll always be enough other people doing the same to prevent you getting your ratio back up to 1:1.

(xpost)

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 6 July 2006 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

> is there a UK Nova copycat now that is less subscribed? there really should be.

isn't the whole point of BT that many hands make light work?

more4's web site search feature is rubbish. look for 'robert newman' or 'history of oil' and it'll return *everything* because it was listed in the 'today on more 4' listings box on every page when the index was made, ie yesterday. no idea when it'll be repeated again.

― koogy wonderland (koogs), Thursday, 6 July 2006 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

isn't the whole point of BT that many hands make light work?

my point is just that it'd be good if there were two or three Britcentric portals as well as known/popular as UK Nova rather than just the one.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 6 July 2006 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

i have a +1 for this http://www.tricycle.co.uk/htmlnew/whatson/show.php3?id=92 tonight. my friend who was coming can't make it. anyone wants?

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 13 July 2006 08:50 (nineteen years ago)

It's really good - saw it last Friday. There's a particularly fantastic joke about hippies and regression which made me larf like a drane.

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 13 July 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)

don't think I remember the hippy joke, yet

haven't seen him since newman & baddiel

some of the long jokes were a bit bad but I do think he is funny

I pretty much laughed a few times

also, he can really, really talk, which is, usually, quite impressive, and it was interesting, too

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 13 July 2006 12:05 (nineteen years ago)

also, he can really, really talk, which is, usually, quite impressive, and it was interesting, too

yeah. i always leave his shows with my head spinning, he gets so much information in, so many facts. how were the songs?

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 13 July 2006 12:28 (nineteen years ago)

no wonder I don't remember the hippy joke, yet--I didn't read the last few posts and assumed people were still talking about the history of oil one that I saw just recently. sorry

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 13 July 2006 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

Man, Newman was _really_ talented before he became I AM POLITICAL COMIC LISTEN TO MY INSIGHT.

― Carrie Bradshaw Layfield (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Friday, 31 October 2008 14:38 (seventeen years ago)

― snoball, Friday, 31 October 2008 14:39 (seventeen years ago)

disgraceful filthy lairy hairy louty indecent filth bring back hope and keen's crazy bus

― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 14:52 (seventeen years ago)

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