according to a TV ad just now, "The Best of Peter Kay is available on CD!"
surely that could fit on a floppy?
or a .sig?
Posted by
WarHead, around 25th November 2005:
Hur hur.
You're not a fan, then?
the sheer comedic POWER of his work just...
no. tedious and miserable as fuck.
Posted by
cal_DUPE1, around 25th November 2005:
now if it were paul kay, that would be a different matter...
I dont mind Peter Kay. Amarillo was/is annoying but most of the time it's like sitting down for a bit of a nostalgia-fest. Some people like it, some people dont. Being an aussie probably doesn't help.
From other thread, put here for tidyness:
I would also "do" Sue but not at the same time as Salty - lets face it, if she doesnt want 1 cock she's going to really hate 2.
I'd probably "do" Mel also but that's 'cause she looks funny and I'd like to tell people about it.
I find catchphrase comedy more annoying than anything else right now (except for that annoying-to-another-level Broken News).
Little Britain, Catherine Tate et al, reuse the same punchline over and over! That's like getting the same email joke every week with only the setup having changed yet you still thinking it's the funniest thing in the world.
It's funny the first time. It's not after that. And it DEFINATELY isn't funny you repeating the catchphrases for your own gags... over and over again.
"Look at me! I claim my crown as funniest bastard in the world for I can relate this situation we're in to a much overused sketch on the telly and have made it clear by repeating the catchphrase. Why aren't you laughing. I'm not sure you get it, maybe it was too subtle. Have you seen the show?"
Posted by
ellipse, 25th November 2005:
i prefer danny kaye
Sul, you have precisely described exactly my problem with most "modern" english comedy: each has one joke or one set of jokes. repeated over and over and over and...
that's broken news's problem, for example. the first show was great. but it was not Topical, it was just a general satire on general news-programmes' presentation trends. and they ran through most of their options by about halfway thru the first show. so i couldn't see how they could sustain that. and sure enough, second show: identical. even down to the news tickers, sadly (these were one of the best bits about the first show).
"Supernova" is a lovely pisstake on both the aussies and the brits atm, but done without the usual weak malice. check it out, you might like it.
Posted by
Sul_DUPE1, around 25th November 2005:
I watched it though not religiously, missed a few eps. Enjoyed it. Esp' that chick who looked like Serena from neighbours' older sister.
Posted by
Sul_DUPE1, around 25th November 2005:
Oh and Re: Broken News. I had to turn off half way through the first episode due to nearly having a fit caused by that ultra annoying change-mid-sentence for a sorta-gag.
I wish my telly was punchable sometimes.
Posted by
Sul_DUPE1, around 25th November 2005:
It's a shame but I suppose you could say most
telly based comedy from here at the moment is a bit shit, yes. Channel 4 have hired these young fresh faced little fuckers and are struggling to find a laugh out of any one of them. The BBC are so eager to please that anyone remotely funny seems to
have to earn their spurs going through radio first and ITV... well they've got Frank Skinner and Chris Tarrant innit.
Still, off the top of my head, we've got:
HIGNFY (Will always be funny as long as you've got Merton and Hislop)
QI (Just Brilliant)
Newsnight (Squirming politicians are always funny)
Ideal (Who can't feel sorry for Johnny Vegas? Even if he is dealing)
Supernova (Rob Brydon is welsh... but he's in Australia! ROFL)
Peep Show (Because it's always funnier in your head)
Two Pints of Lager... (Its funny 'cause I know these people... well people like them)
There are more but I'm just trying to think of stuff that is or was very recently on.
Posted by
Sul_DUPE1, around 25th November 2005:
Popworld (irreverent fun)
Supernova was ok. I watched it all. A little bit slow and gentle for my liking. Also a lot of old setup gags. But then I watched the whole series, so can't have been that bad.
Posted by
Grim..., around 25th November 2005:
I like Scrubs, Fact Hunt and 'How Big Are My Balls' (or something - I never caught the beginning, but it was the one where the woman got Tom Cruise with the water-pistol / mic.).
Posted by
Sul_DUPE1, around 25th November 2005:
Argh Balls of Steel was TERRIBLE! I cant remember who described it as such but someone said it was Bully TV. And it was. It was awful.
Scrubs isnt British... just so you know, like. Though it is good.
Havent seen Fact Hunt yet but the punnage in the title is nicely subtle.
Posted by
WarHead, around 25th November 2005:
I watched the first episode of "Supernova" but couldn't bring myself to watch subsequent ones because I hate that Welsh twat Rob Brydon and everything he does. He plays the same fucking inadequate character in everything he's in. And the thoroughly irritating 'Worst Day/Week/Month/Year/ Decade/Eon Of My Life' makes me want to kill someone, preferably him. I find nothing at all funny about plots where people screw up everything they do. Father Of The Bride is another good example.
Posted by
Grim..., around 25th November 2005:
Fact Hunt is great, mainly because Al Murray presents it.
If the players get the final big question wrong, the crowd shouts "Fact Up" at them.
Awesome =]
Oh, and Balls of Steel was great. Especially 'Bunny Boiler' or whatever she's called.
Posted by
Grim..., around 25th November 2005:
Especially because
oh
you
would
is ballsofsteel the one with a lot of "setups" which just relied on normal people NOT being cunts (ie, treating the setteruppers as fellow human beings and giving them normal leeway). humiliation tv.
scrubs rocks, so does have i got news for you. ditto the american two-and-a-half men but possibly there are cultural references there that brits might not appreciate (similar to me/aussies re northern "misery" humour like Bread or Peter Kay)
on an american note: father of the PRIDE is friggin AWESOME: cartoon lions working for siegfried and roy. "siegrfied, we need a new sundeck! i want to be the colour that is cinnamon; this one only goes up to gypsy!" [rattled out v.fast in a faux-euro accent]
& Family Guy and American Dad. And Drawn Together.
& Just Shoot Me is pleasant enough.
UKly: Grand Designs is accidentally hilarious as the architects each week inadvertently reveal their professional incompetence and overwhelming neediness to be viewed as society's arbiters of taste
and Nathan Barley was the dog's bollocks. (replaying again from monday week on C4)
ditto Spaced, prob.my all time favourite
i've put the other suggestions here on for tivo to grab. that "worst week etc" got a foaming review on the weekend so i've already booked it, but from sound of wh's comment i'm going to loathe it. we shall see.
Just Shoot Me? Really? Its not awful but hardly something I'd put on my off the top of my head American comedy list.
Do you fancy someone in it perchance?
From ABC1:
Rodney
8 Simple Rules
Less than Perfect
Sports Night (This was awesome and I've no idea why it was cancelled)
If you want a visual definition of dire please sit yourself down in front an episode of Hope and Faith.
Others:
Arrested Development
Veronica Mars (not strictly comedy but it has a vein of it and it also has the photographer from Just Shoot Me in it so I'm claiming the right to note it)
Monk
Everybody loves Raymond
There's loads of American stuff I could list.
And I like that Australian gem, Kath and Kim.
Posted by
Grim..., 25th November 2005:
Is Just Shoot Me the one with David Spade?
I liked Everybody Loves Raymond, but I don't think it will get into my top list.
David Spade's in it, yes.
it was the first one which popped into my head of the ones currently on tv, since there are a few of it on the tivo list
you should definitely check out family guy and american dad this saturday
I like monk. It's like a cross between Rainman, Diagnosis Murder and Jonathon Creek.
They're already on the download list ;)
Posted by
WarHead, 25th November 2005:
Sorry, but imo Al Murray is a waste of space as well.
Nothing I've ever seen him do has raised a smile for me.
for me he redeems himself in the noncomedy stuff, where he comes across as a genuinely nice bloke.
but he was bloody funny in ONE thing: he appeared on gordon ramsay's The F Word and he and gordon competed to do the best possible bread&butter pudding. gordon gave him lots of sneering stick for doing such an ugly basic effort, al just said he liked it best when it was simple. much huing and decrying by gordon when the effort finally came out of the oven.
then in blind taste tests, every.single.person preferred al's simple ugly one to gordon's fiddled-around-with one.
shoulda seen gordon's face...
Posted by
WarHead, 25th November 2005:
Fairy nuff.
oh two other humorous yank programs to set the tivo for:
• MythBusters
(LOVE this!)
• Porn: A Family Business
(Seymour Butts is a nice bloke running the shop with his jewish mother and his crazy uncle. another show i LOVE, tho it's not strictly speaking a comedy: it's a reality documentary in an unreal environment)
Posted by
Grim..., 25th November 2005:
Christ, I love Al Murray.
We shouldn't be nasty about the French - they're not here to defend themselves.
And we all know how good they are at that, don't we?
I don't think that's funny /:
MythBusters is indeed fucking awesome!
I like P:AFB too. Though the Cousin Stevie stuff seems scripted most of the time.
avoid "Blessed" (i just discovered)
not funny even when drunk
like "Spaced" in style but with none of the wit, none of the reality. cargo cult comedy.
And the thoroughly irritating 'Worst Day/Week/Month/Year/ Decade/Eon Of My Life' makes me want to kill someone, preferably him. I find nothing at all funny about plots where people screw up everything they do.
that "worst week etc" got a foaming review on the weekend so i've already booked it, but from sound of wh's comment i'm going to loathe it. we shall see.
good call, wh. more "misery 'comedy'".
hey sul, what did you think of "Family Guy" on the weekend?
here's the creator's student films -- i'm in the middle of the first one (still... after an attempt to rewind re-started me then another window crashed netscape) but so far: brilliant
i LOVE the "english drive-by disagreements"
gorillamask.net/larry1.shtml
then clickthru
& insight into the dull old humdrum day-to-day misery that is life in the legion of superheroes:
www.vsocial.com/video/?d=160
oh, and new favourite as of seeing episode 1 this arvo:
The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin
That's weird watching the jokes before they were on Family Guy. Nice viewing.
That superfriends thing is fucking ACE! Office Space is a great film.
Posted by
bumdog, 2nd December 2005:
Oh, Reggie Perrin's ace.
REMINDER: Nathan Barley's being replayed on Channel 4 ~11:30pm each night this week (11:35 tonight)
bitingly savagely observational ripping-into of the nyoomeedja/hoxton/etc crowd, but done well. same chap who did brass eye.
set yer tivo!
Posted by
WarHead, around 6th December 2005:
A strange programme indeed.
Chris Morris directed it although I don't think he wrote it.
out of interest Salty, are you a member of uknova.com? They host lots of torrent files of pretty much everything that's good on TV (and a lot that isn't) but they also have forum requests for old shows (a lot of TV and radio comedy in the list) that people have on old tapes. Some good stuff in there.
They also have a policy of only putting up material that isn't currently commercially available. Which is good.
sounds good! alas, they're not open to new users atm
mmm... the goodies would be good to see again...
keep checking, as they are often opening their doors to a few new users. I had to wait a week or two I think but it's well worth it.
