[UK] The Great British programme discussion: Piers Morgan Memorial Pier

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > [UK] The Great British programme discussion: Piers Morgan Memorial Pier

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Good thing the topic is about standup at the moment because that's what I came here to ask. Stewart Lee is my favourite standup artist going and I love his brand of alternative comedy. In that regard I love Richard Herring's shows too due to it being a different kind of humour, aside from the usual observational standup.

What I want to ask is which alterative standup artists I look into next, with Stewart Lee being a favourite? I know he's getting quite popular again but his style is still really something else (and I absolutely loving love it).

Speaking of Jimmy Carr, I did watch his latest the other day, as by now you can go into his show with reasonable expectations knowing it's going to be an easy-watching one-liner fest, and is it just me or was he really struggling with his style this tour? There's so much recycled material, poor jokes and basically no evolution (understandable) or actual improvement of jokes from his previous works. He was also way softer on the audience.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2010 17:30

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:58

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

While there were a handful of more tasteful jokes (though that's not a comment on their quality), I was also pretty speechless when I saw the Japanese schoolgirls. There wasn't any subtext, the actual joke was that they had slanty eyes and talked funny (... because they're Japanese, lol).

Here's a related article by Johann Hari ranting about Little Britain, with much of the same reasoning.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2010 18:15

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

wickles posted:

If you're a Stewart Lee fan get his book (How I Escaped My Certain Fate). It's amazing.

Reading this at the moment, it's great for any fans who've seen all of his releases - lots of backstory and explanation of the weirder jokes through his routines. It comes as no surprise that he's so well versed in written English. I got the book signed by him when I went to see Vegetable Stew just before Christmas, too - it was great, though it would have been much better if I hadn't seen "If You Prefer A Milder Comedian", as there's a lot of repeated "jokes".

I saw Richard Herring's Christ on a Bike two days later too, which was also highly entertaining. His analysis on the first page of the New Testament had me (and the audience) in loving stitches - probably the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

edit: I got his book signed too as my Secret Santa got it for me not two days prior!

Idioteque Dance fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Dec 27, 2010

# ¿ Dec 27, 2010 15:14

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

I really enjoyed that show and also think it was far more entertaining than his recent TV series/specials. I'll try to see him live.

About his second-last live show (I think), An Evening of Wonders, he did the oracle trick where he just heard an audience member shout out and he immediately identifies their name, profession, hobbies, etc. Really impressive - I'm not exactly sure how it was done but from reading his book I gather it's about getting the momentum and pressure so great that the audience simply have to say "yes, that's right" to everything otherwise they'd feel like they'd be ruining the show? He mentioned a lot of his hypnotism acts are similar - some people are completely suggestible, some people not, but most people somewhere in between are too embarrassed to be a buzzkill during a great show so they go along with it.

Or am I off-base with that?

# ¿ Jan 8, 2011 16:29

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Dicky B posted:

Game Network, hells yea. We have that channel to thank for pioneering the concept of televised sex lines such as Babestation. Ah, memories...

Not to mention spending at least 50% of their air time just watching somebody play some boring isometric no-name RPG that they were obsessed with.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2011 14:03

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Did this video get posted yet? It probably did but let's make sure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qdNBrzAQjo&feature=player_embedded

Russell Brand gets grilled by Paxo and handles every question amazingly well. In fact it's hard not to respect the guy way more than I used to.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 12:59

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Monster w21 Faces posted:

Stewart Lees Comedy Vehicle starts again tonight. Don't forget.

I almost did. Shame on me.

Here's a funny promo

# ¿ May 4, 2011 20:42

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Plain.

# ¿ May 5, 2011 00:03

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

When I saw his Vegetable Stew show he did do a half hour piece on charity, which was the """theme""" of last night's episode but actually didn't do much stuff verbatim and was different to the episode. He started with the "I do 45-50 charity gigs a year" and casually increased the number through the show, for example.

Also, only Stewart Lee can tune a guitar for 2 whole minutes and make it absolutely hilarious.

All that aside, he is as ridiculously funny as ever and it was well worth the wait.

# ¿ May 5, 2011 17:33

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

SeanBeansShako posted:

Like somebody said, Peepshow as well as The Smoking Room, 15 Storeys High, Ideal and Him And Her all mostly recent so you might have a chance of buying or importing from EU Amazon.

I like how three of those shows are all set in a single room or small set, like a permanent "bottle episode" format. All really entertaining and funny considering though (and Peep Show and 15 Storeys High are great obviously).

# ¿ May 17, 2011 23:47

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Gasmask posted:

The new series of Comedy Vehicle is pretty great.

I really prefer this format than the last series' format. The sketch (I'd say they're more short films now) at the end of the latest episode was brilliant.

# ¿ May 21, 2011 20:41

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Metrication posted:

Time Trumpet was brilliant. Might seem a bit dated now due to it talking about years that have already happened.

Considering its age, I think its predictions hit close enough to home.

Armando Iannucci Shows is really worth a watch too, I love how it takes surreal comedy in absurd situations and makes them oftentimes pretty touching and emotional as well as funny. Also, Hugh.

# ¿ May 25, 2011 13:29

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Yeah whenever somebody wants to start a word-of-mouth rumour that somebody's died, they always seem to default to Barry Chuckle. I swear that's happened to me at least 3 times over my life, from school to camping to music festivals.

It's probably harder to pull that off now with mobile Internet being so popular.

# ¿ May 26, 2011 15:29

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

I'm just going to post this great Adam Curtis parody in the middle of all of the Sci-Fi and Lawyers Of A Certain Percentage talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1bX3F7uTrg

I do hope it hasn't been posted here already.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2011 12:24

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

dimebag dinkman posted:

If they did a one-off special that tackled this whole debacle and maybe a bit of WikiLeaks, it could be amazing.

A one-off of Absolute Power (getting News Corp as clients) would be great too.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2011 14:59

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

cloudchamber posted:

He's shooting a three episode miniseries for Channel 4 which he's said is going to be like the something like the Twilight Zone taking on Social Networking.

He's also doing one called "A Touch of Cloth" which is supposed to be a sendup of ITV police/detective dramas, though I guess that won't come until much later.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2011 16:36

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

The past couple of tours he did weren't as funny, but I'm still really looking forward to Life's Too Short. Seems writing comedy series is his strong point, though working with Stephen Merchant is probably a big reason for that.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2011 16:03

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

thehustler posted:

If you didn't watch Holy Flying Circus you're an idiot.

It was the best 90 minutes of television I've seen this year, and Darren Boyd as John Cleese stole the show completely. Wonderful casting all round.

Yeah why only one guy mention this yesterday? I caught it on iPlayer during the witching hour last night and loved it, one of BBC4's all-time highlights surely. The absurdity and fourth wall breaking was just right, although one thing I was really surprised by was that there wasn't a similar payoff to the Life of Brian gag with the tourette's and the stuttering guy who I really expected to start talking normally to each other at the end. Maybe they were just against lifting jokes from the film, which is fair enough, but it seemed so set up for it.

iPlayer link
iPlayer link in HD!!!

Watch it, else you are a silly silly fool.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2011 12:16

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Veep, the upcoming american adaptation should be coming before any new The Thick of It, which as I understand is being pretty heavily overseen by Iannucci and Blackwell, and has a couple of actors from In the Loop so that should be worth checking out while we all wait impatiently for more TTOI.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2011 12:41

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Z-Magic posted:

Think Herring has a new BBC radio show starting this week too

Is that Objective series 2? That was fun, even if it's mostly just bits and pieces of his standup. Hardly a bad thing though considering it's free.

Would like to see his new show, but I couldn't go to see him while he was here in Bristol. Any good?

# ¿ Nov 6, 2011 16:59

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Wow, I can hardly disagree with this piece in the Independent more. Did "belly laugh, live in front of a studio audience" sitcoms even go anywhere? Wasn't My Family really popular around the time of The Office and whatnot? I doubt this kind of Miranda-esque comedy is going anywhere soon but it still seems apparent to me that we're slowly going further away from studio audiences in our comedies. They also mention Mrs Brown's Boys - my mum tried to show me some of it, and in the end of the episode the whole cast unironically burst out into a big musical number. :smith:

Can't wait for Black Mirror and 2011 Wipe, next month should be a good time for TV, though Christmas time also means I'll be going back to stay with my parents and therefore be unable to avoid our awful, awful adverts. Again: :smith:

On a less complain-y note, I started re-watching the new Alan Partridge series, Mid Morning Matters - somebody put them back up on youtube. No plot, just pure Alan. Absolutely pissing myself laughing, jaw aching.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 12:04

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Kraxis posted:

I really enjoyed Mrs Brown's Boys, I'm not sure whether it was genuine or not but there were parts when the guy playing Mrs Brown would just snap out of character and it didn't seem as though the supporting cast were expecting it. Cue the others actors or a cameraman or someone struggling to maintain composure. Those bits were brilliant.
We don't seem to do much on food programmes in this thread. Probably because most of them are boring but I've just binged through Jamie's Britain and and I reckon it's a great return to form after Jamie at Home. Anyone else watching it?

Fair enough, I might give it another go just to be fair, then. I really like subtle out-of-character gags like that but we'll see.

You gotta be joking about the food thing, though. This thread might as well be called "The Great British Bake-Off programme discussion"

# ¿ Nov 9, 2011 12:11

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Hoops posted:

With the continuity announcers Simpsons thing, it seems clear to me that they're just having a laugh with it because they've been introducing old episodes of the Simpsons every day for years now and neither they nor their producers give a poo poo.

All this talk about a Derren Brown mind experiment is really far-fetched, first of all because it doesn't reach anything like a large, targeted audience and isn't a suggestion of any kind, and secondly because all that stuff he claims to do to hypnotise people isn't real, he uses magic tricks and dresses them up as psychological manipulation.

Just playing Devil's Advocate here (I do actually think it's what you wrote in your first sentence), but if it were indeed Derren Brown's doing then he could comment about how much media and Internet attention the continuity running joke got, but also has somewhere put in a "hiding in plain sight" continuity goof which nobody noticed, as some kind of commentary on... suggestibility or whatever.

Personally, Snuff Box is one of the only series that come under "must-watch dark/cult comedy" lists that I really didn't get along with. It was imaginitive, at least the first episode was, but not very funny barring a couple of exceptional sketches.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2012 14:01

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

GordonTheDeadFish posted:

This is a really bizarre way of seeing it. As I see it, magic tricks are inherently psychological manipulation dressed up with mysticism.

I think he definitely does a lot of quite typical magic, but performs them in such a way that it appeals to people who consider themselves more intellectual and above the mysticism aspect. That way, even people who do not believe in anything supernatural can still believe in his magic as it looks like there's a rational explanation for this guy with an incredible ability. A good example is when he is told a random page, column and line number of a dictionary and pretends to concentrate on (and eventually remember) what the word is.

It's a really smart way of bringing back magic after people kind of got over the traditional way of presenting them in recent years.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2012 14:06

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Captain Mediocre posted:

Yeah seriously its time for some of you to find an outlet for your thieving gypsy stories elsewhere it clearly doesn't really belong in this thread.

Thanks for the radio recommendations a few pages back I am totally loving Down The Line, it travels so wonderfully close to plausibility I keep forgetting it isn't real. Reminds me a lot of Chris Morris' stuff.

I had a go with the Armando Ianucci programme too, and while I love that man, starting from series 1 and listening to people from the 90s make Blair jokes is a bit weird. I may just skip ahead a couple of series.

Is that the fake call-in show with Paul Whitehouse and Rhys Thomas? In which case I�m glad to have discovered it the right way: by tuning into radio 4 in the car and taking those couple of minutes to figure out if it�s a satire/pisstake or if it�s actually what society has come down to. Better than Bellamy�s People, which I believe had the same main fictional character.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2012 21:23

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Captain Mediocre posted:

That's the one. I've been meaning to give Bellamy's People a go, was it no good?

Not no good by any means, just not really incredibly memorable or up there with the classics. Think I only watched a couple. Definitely worth a go at least.

I really enjoyed Homeland too. You can tell it shares some staff with 24 with its atmosphere and high-up conspiracy plots but is generally lot less silly. I enjoyed the second half of the series a lot more too, after it got its devious hooks in me.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2012 23:41

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Leon with a Zero posted:

The "city on crystal meth" and the American superjail theroux docs are great watches, there is just something about him that makes people open up.

Especially considering who he is talking to and the situations he's in (with a camera crew)

It's a simple technique but you notice that when people are done answering his question, he just stays silent and the camera stays on the interviewee. Generally the brain goes haywire when there's a few seconds of silence without interruption during a dialogue (that's why we "um" and "ah" when we're trying to think of what to say next) so you feel pressured to carry on. There might be other forces he has at work there but he has definitely nailed getting people to open up. I guess having such a soft voice has to help.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2012 08:57

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

I've gone a bit Alan mad lately. After rewatching the hilarious Mid Morning Matters I was jonesing for more, so I've been powering through KMKYWAP and IAP, and I, Partridge was my first purchase when I got my new kindle. After I'm done with all that, it'll be Saxondale next!

Really happy mid morning matters is returning though. My favourite Sidekick Simon moment:

"Mm, this wine really lingers on the palate."
"Yeah much like a lazy forklift truck driver"

# ¿ May 18, 2012 15:41

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

What's a Walkabout?

# ¿ Jun 11, 2012 15:33

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

John Charity Spring posted:

It was incredible. Adventure Call had me in stitches, the whole Dream Scheme thing, 'MARGARET, PUT IT IN YER MOOTH', god. Basically all of it. I love Limmy in spite of usually finding his show hit and miss, but this was almost all hits.

The tourist camera sketch was easily the highlight for me. So glad I caught up on this show recently.

And my personal favourite Adventure Call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qammSSEwhiE

# ¿ Nov 29, 2012 13:07

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

The arctic sleigh ride on BBC4 right now is the best thing you'll see on TV all Christmas. Real time, no narration, no extra sound.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2015 22:06

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

netally posted:

So what Xmas day telly will you all be watching? I'm going to have to sit through Stick Man and Dr Who, sort of looking forward to Eastenders because it's always batshit over Xmas. Doesn't seem to be much else of interest unless you're a child or elderly lady.

There's no real-time arctic sleigh ride on TV today soooooo I guess nothing?

I've fallen into a Parks & Rec binge on my mum's Amazon Fire TV stick which I think is sufficiently funny and delightful and heartwarming for Christmas

# ¿ Dec 25, 2015 14:48

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:58

Idioteque Dance: Jun 19, 2004; Dinosaur Gum

Nighty Night was a BBC3 show. Oh how times changed

# ¿ Feb 16, 2016 00:53

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > [UK] The Great British programme discussion: Piers Morgan Memorial Pier