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Misfits is the best thing on British television at the moment, make sure you watch that. Did anyone watch the Penn and Teller thing on ITV?
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Jan 7, 2011 23:35
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Derren Brown yesterday, Penn and Teller tonight, good times! Not sure Penn and Teller really were fooled by the second winner, but hey the ending was hilarious, just like you'd come to expect from them.
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Jan 7, 2011 23:39
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Flatscan posted:Tramadol Nights. I couldn't actually decide if this was humour. I was on the fence with Frankie on Mock The Week; anyone & everyone looks good next to Russell Howard. I didn't know Newswipe ran again this year. I got the review of the year and it's put me in a mood for a comedy weekend.
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Jan 7, 2011 23:39
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midge posted:I left the UK a year ago. Does it have any decent comedy from the last year I should download? Gary: Tank Commander is pretty enjoyable
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Jan 7, 2011 23:42
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midge posted:I left the UK a year ago. Does it have any decent comedy from the last year I should download? The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margret (but amazing but had it's moments) The new on-line Alan Partridge shorts. Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jan 8, 2011 |
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Jan 8, 2011 00:14
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Trickjaw posted:Watching BBC3 How drugs work: Cannabis/ Good god, has the Daily Mail comissioned this? I don't even bother with it but the idea of dna profiling people who should be allowed to smoke it. loving hell. Not watched it yet, but I've been told it's pants. Getting a bit political, the new Mark Thomas - Manifesto is on iPlayer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x44lw/Mark_Thomas_The_Manifesto_Series_3_Episode_1/ I loved the suggestion of free recreational-drugs for senior-citizens.
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Jan 8, 2011 00:21
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Mongrels was good too. I imagine its a love it or hate it thing but drat everything marion says cracks me up.
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Jan 8, 2011 00:27
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The Trip was great. Back to Boyle. I enjoyed his appearance on Buzzcocks the other day, so out of morbid curiosity decided to watch his new DVD (his last one was tired, reused, poo poo) and I have to say I think it meshes well with my existing image of him as a quickwitted man who has allowed his ego and his persona to run wild. Some of the audience interaction was funny, if obviously one-size fits all, but there were a couple of bits involving young teenagers which I thought were verging on cruel. Funny, but even as I was laughing I thought it was borderline. Of the poor taste stuff some was genuinely very funny, but then he descends into, as described by Herring, jokes which are essentially the same as '70s racial stuff. There's no actual joke there, it's just saying "look at those spastics and their stupid spastic limbs". I felt much the same reaction to that material as I feel when I hear genuine unironic racism. It isn't serving a narrative or making a point, it is just being nasty so that people will laugh at the Other. It shouldn't be acceptable in this day and age, and he wouldn't do the same material if it were about blacks or Jews or whoever. I guess what I'm saying is, that Frankie Boyle is a oval office and I hope in a few years time he is looked back upon in the same way as Bernard Manning.
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Jan 8, 2011 00:32
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midge posted:I left the UK a year ago. Does it have any decent comedy from the last year I should download? Inbetweeners.
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Jan 8, 2011 00:35
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Bandamyion posted:Getting a bit political, the new Mark Thomas - Manifesto is on iPlayer.
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Jan 8, 2011 00:53
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Pablo Bluth posted:The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margret (not amazing but had it's moments) This show is simply too difficult to watch.
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Jan 8, 2011 00:55
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What was that slightly dark and depressing, yet weirdly endearing and jolly thing with Dawn French getting back from work? I saw a couple and thought it looked worth giving a proper run through but then promptly forgot about it. Until now. Worth tracking down? e: Roger & Val Have Just Got In, that's what it was called. Ben Soosneb fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Jan 8, 2011 |
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Jan 8, 2011 00:55
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There's also Psychoville which was an excellent dark comedy from the League of Gentleman guys. The Halloween special and Rope parody in particular were fantastic.
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Jan 8, 2011 01:00
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Squalitude posted:This show is simply too difficult to watch. Sharon Horgan eases the pain a little. Also seconding Whites.
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Jan 8, 2011 01:13
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Rapey Joe Stalin posted:but then he descends into, as described by Herring, jokes which are essentially the same as '70s racial stuff. There's no actual joke there, it's just saying "look at those spastics and their stupid spastic limbs". I felt much the same reaction to that material as I feel when I hear genuine unironic racism. While I agree that his ego has turned him into a massive oval office, I think you, Herring and most of the other people that have commented on this particular aspect of his act are being short-sighted and falling prey to the epidemic of "I'd better loudly denounce this as racist, sexist, whatever -ist is applicable in a knee-jerk fashion in case someone noticed me smirk just then" which seems to be spreading from the US. In his standup (not looking at the sketches he did in Tramadol as they were poorly thought out poo poo), every single one of his "discriminatory" jokes directly relates to the media. They are the heart of the media laid bare. His constant jokes about Kerry Katona? Those are the news reports and newspaper stories reduced to their fundamental "laugh at the nutter" roots. Jokes about Jordan's son? The "Look at my retarded kid" intent of every time she parades him in front of the the cameras made explicit. The tourettes and downs jokes? Direct responses to the so called "documentaries" they show these days that are no different than paying your shilling to bait the inmates of Bedlam. When Boyle chuckles at his own jokes, it's not because he's so enamoured of his own wit (or at least it didn't used to be). It's because he knows drat well that the same people furiously writing to the Mail or Ofcom are the same people that hungrily consume exactly the same sentiments in sugar-coated, media packaged form in their morning papers and evening TV schedule.
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Jan 8, 2011 01:17
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Flatscan posted:His constant jokes about Kerry Katona? Those are the news reports and newspaper stories reduced to their fundamental "laugh at the nutter" roots. Jokes about Jordan's son? The "Look at my retarded kid" intent of every time she parades him in front of the the cameras made explicit. The tourettes and downs jokes? Direct responses to the so called "documentaries" they show these days that are no different than paying your shilling to bait the inmates of Bedlam. Really? Really? "Direct responses"? This interpretation is beyond generous to Boyle. This is like saying that because racism exists in the media, any racist joke is simply a satire of the current media climate.
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Jan 8, 2011 01:23
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Beeswax posted:Really? Really? Like where he says "Did you see that Channel 4 documentary on tourettes?" I'd call that pretty loving direct. I bet you're one of the retards that denounces In Sickness and in Health as racist.
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Jan 8, 2011 01:29
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Explain how a joke about how a "spastic" is funny when he reads stuff aloud is a satire on the media. [edit] The exact line quote:My dad is one of the funniest people I know. He's the sort of man who can make you laugh just by reading out of a telephone directory...He's a spastic.
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Jan 8, 2011 01:36
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Flatscan posted:Like where he says "Did you see that Channel 4 documentary on tourettes?" I'd call that pretty loving direct. I'm not from the UK, and I have no idea what In Sickness and in Health is. But good to see you're keeping a a high level of discourse, going with "retard" after one post questioning your point? 
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Jan 8, 2011 01:43
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Beeswax posted:I'm not from the UK, and I have no idea what In Sickness and in Health is. But good to see you're keeping a a high level of discourse, going with "retard" after one post questioning your point? Then you respond with a smiley which looks like a retarded person! YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM TOO, MAN!!
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Jan 8, 2011 01:54
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Brown Moses posted:Explain how a joke about how a "spastic" is funny when he reads stuff aloud is a satire on the media. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/tags/documentaries Look through the list. I couldn't find a decent one for Channel 5 or Sky, but 4 are bad enough. Some of them are genuinely insightful well-made documentaries. Many of them boil down to "Awww, look at the cripples and spastics, they think they're people". "Crip on a Trip", classy as gently caress and not at all treating a disabled person like a performing monkey. Beeswax posted:I'm not from the UK, and I have no idea what In Sickness and in Health is. But good to see you're keeping a a high level of discourse, going with "retard" after one post questioning your point? A) Try google. B) Try addressing my point rather than my idiolect.
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Jan 8, 2011 02:05
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Ben Soosneb posted:What was that slightly dark and depressing, yet weirdly endearing and jolly thing with Dawn French getting back from work? I liked it. It was quite funny in a subtle, melancholic sort of way. Both actors were very good in it, and the depiction of a reasonably happy, middle-class, middle-aged marriage was spot on (the episode spent hunting down the Hoover guarantee certificate was undoubtedly lifted from my own parents marriage) Plus, anybody who has a soft spot for Alfred Molina should enjoy it.
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Jan 8, 2011 02:07
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Did anyone ever watch the rather obscure adult puppet show Fur tv? It was on mtv uk/tmf a while back, and whenever I see mongrels I can't get into it because it just seems like a less funny version of it.
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Jan 8, 2011 02:15
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Was that the one with the suicidal parrot?
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Jan 8, 2011 02:17
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goatface posted:Was that the one with the suicidal parrot? No, it had three weird puppets that weren't any animal, just odd creatures, Mervin, Lapeno and Fat Ed. It was absolutely hilarious. Completely childish humour for most of it but in the best possible way.
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Jan 8, 2011 02:24
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Re Derren Brown, does anyone know how the spirit cabinet is done? Know the original was just the medium but I can't work out how Brown's version is done, at least one must be a stooge. Also, does anyone else get the impression that Brown is just a new type of magician except instead of convincing people he's magical he just plays off simple tricks as this amazing psychology? I know some of it relies on his being a Savant and I can believe that but I can spot a lot of his leads that he gives for his tricks and sometimes pick out where it's going but it seems too obvious, like it's left there to fool anyone who's looking for it and make it seem like more than it is. Regardless, he's a great showman and great fun to watch, one of the greats.
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Jan 8, 2011 02:38
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Flatscan posted:A) Try google. Strangely, I don't feel inclined to jack poo poo for you after you come out all guns blazing acting like a loving idiot. Algol Star posted:Re Derren Brown, does anyone know how the spirit cabinet is done? Know the original was just the medium but I can't work out how Brown's version is done, at least one must be a stooge. Yeah, Derren's greatest masterstroke is presenting himself and his tricks as some sort of nearly superhuman psychological tricks when they are in fact mostly about misdirection and obfuscation. I usually really like him but he seems to have made his mannerisms even more full on in Enigma, which gets annoying.
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Jan 8, 2011 02:44
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Honestly, it's no insult to Derren even if it's true because doing what he's done in an age where the majority are cynical (I know mysticism and natural medicine etc have had a resurgence but his audience extends beyond that) is quite a feat, I'd consider myself a cynic but it's only recently I started to really doubt him, like I said because a lot of it just seems a bit too obvious. edit: As I think the Prestige says, you don't work out the secret because you don't really want to know and I think people who would normally scoff at magic want to believe in the power of this psychology, their own little bit of magic in the universe. Algol Star fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Jan 8, 2011 |
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Jan 8, 2011 02:54
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Flatscan posted:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/tags/documentaries Like most things, I think it's about context. Not that I'm bothered either side too much, but when people watch those kind of documentaries it's a modern day equivalent of the freak show with it being okay as there is a compassionate element. Although most of the time when I've watched them with groups of people it boils down to 'would you rather have a massive head or a tiny head' and poo poo like that. But there's the illusion that the documentary is showing some kind of human story and once in a while I care what's going on. It's pretty straightforward really. I get the impression that Frankie Boyle plays on this, which I don't mind that much either as language should be free and easy, especially in comedy. Though the way he conducts himself, on stage at least, winds me up a bit. Not everyone watching will be analyzing his jokes, they'll just be laughing because they see those jokes as funny. It's less Andrew Dice Clay and more Bernard Manning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIpO8rR95iM I think Manning is funny sometimes though. He's ridiculous.
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Jan 8, 2011 03:51
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Flatscan posted:While I agree that his ego has turned him into a massive oval office, I think you, Herring and most of the other people that have commented on this particular aspect of his act are being short-sighted and falling prey to the epidemic of "I'd better loudly denounce this as racist, sexist, whatever -ist is applicable in a knee-jerk fashion in case someone noticed me smirk just then" which seems to be spreading from the US. I can see where you're coming from, and will allow that it is possible. But if that is his intention, then I think he fails in the execution because with a lot of his jokes in the latest DVD (and presumably Tramadol Nights if it really is the same material) Boyle fails to set a context for what he's saying, and his intent beyond causing offence is opaque. Which comes back around to him needing someone to edit his work for the good of both Boyle himself and the act. Like when he appears on panel shows, where he is at his best.
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Jan 8, 2011 05:22
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Flatscan posted:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/tags/documentaries I'm not sure what you are trying to argue. Your saying that because some documentries use that language it's okay for Frankie Boyle to make a joke whose punchline is about how funny people with cerebral palsy sound when they speak? I understand that the context of stuff is important, and Frankie Boyle does use that sort of language to make satirical points, but saying stuff like "my Dads a spastic, don't they sound funny?" isn't any different from Jim Davidson or Bernard Manning saying "don't pakis talk funny?". If the joke was "My friend is one of the funniest people I know. He's the sort of man who can make you laugh just by reading out of a telephone directory...He's a friend of the family." the response would be very different, but it's still mocking a group of people for cheap laughs. But, again, that's not to say when Frankie Boyle has used that language in some of his other material he wasn't trying to make a satirical point in the proper context, it's just a small part of his material is based on mocking disabled people for the sake of cheap laughs.
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Jan 8, 2011 11:06
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NaDy posted:Did anyone ever watch the rather obscure adult puppet show Fur tv? It was on mtv uk/tmf a while back, and whenever I see mongrels I can't get into it because it just seems like a less funny version of it. I hope you've seen the documentary film A Complete History of My Sexual Failures by the creator of FurTV. If not, do so at your first opportunity.
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Jan 8, 2011 11:08
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Brown Moses posted:I can't believe that was really vinegar, surely it would give you terrible indigestion? I think this is where the trick lies. Rather than making the woman under the trance believe vinegar is water, perhaps he was tricking the helper that coloured water was vinegar. You see him making exaggerated 'oof' faces when he opens the bottle, and she sniffs it from the top. Perhaps it is a trick lid that contains a small amount of vinegar and is separated from the rest of the bottle. Once she's convinced it's vinegar, Derren then goes to pour the rest into the glass - but obviously using the lid would take too long. So he gestures trying to pour it in with the lid on, and then takes it off casually. He then pours the coloured water in. Derren's new book talks a bit about his methods and misdirection, so I've avoided the obvious and thought about it another way.
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Jan 8, 2011 11:57
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Beeswax posted:Yeah, Derren's greatest masterstroke is presenting himself and his tricks as some sort of nearly superhuman psychological tricks when they are in fact mostly about misdirection and obfuscation. I usually really like him but he seems to have made his mannerisms even more full on in Enigma, which gets annoying. He also explains in it that all of his tricks are a combination of traditional magic (ie misdirection, sleight of hand, mechanics, etc) and the auto-suggestion, cold reading, etc. he is famous for. The extra layer to the trick is that because he presents it all as being the same thing, the audience never knows what percentage is done in each way. Reminds me I need to book tickets for this year's tour. edit: ^^^^ This is how I thought that trick was done as well. FreakyZoid fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Jan 8, 2011 |
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Jan 8, 2011 12:05
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FreakyZoid posted:If you're a fan of his, read his Tricks of the Mind book, if you haven't already. It explains some of the tricks he does, in very loose terms. Indeed. I'm a huge fan and have seen all of his shows live. He does a lot of traditional magic tricks but redresses them in his style, then mixes in all the mentalist stuff. In fact a lot of the "obvious" mentalist stuff is in its self a double bluff to reinforce the fact that he is some mental dude, but the actual trick is just a simple card trick. A good example is the previous tour (not the one that was on last night) where he does a thing where he "stops" his heart and walks across broken glass. Both of these are pretty standard stage magician tricks, but the way he combines them together and dresses them up is all part of the fun 
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Jan 8, 2011 14:20
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One interesting bit in watching Penn and Teller right after Derren Brown, one of the "Fool Me" acts was a bit like Derren Brown's acts, pretending that he had convinced his mark to choose the ten of hearts, using terms like "often" and "heard" frequently to insert the message into the mark's psyche. Penn and Teller didn't fall for it and both performers stated it was bullshit! together. It was, in fact, simply a trick deck (and quite an obvious one, too). This is a lot like Derren Brown's, remember one of his stage shows (On TV) with his insertions of things like "Hammer Daily Nail 14" (to "make" people choose P14 of the Daily Mail), although the Penn and Teller show pretty much gave it away that these little terms thrown in aren't to help trick the participants, but so the mentalist can go back afterwards and point them out, thereby misdirecting the audience away from the real trick, whatever that is...
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Jan 8, 2011 14:53
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Squalitude posted:One interesting bit in watching Penn and Teller right after Derren Brown, one of the "Fool Me" acts was a bit like Derren Brown's acts, pretending that he had convinced his mark to choose the ten of hearts, using terms like "often" and "heard" frequently to insert the message into the mark's psyche. Penn and Teller didn't fall for it and both performers stated it was bullshit! together. It was, in fact, simply a trick deck (and quite an obvious one, too). This is a lot like Derren Brown's, remember one of his stage shows (On TV) with his insertions of things like "Hammer Daily Nail 14" (to "make" people choose P14 of the Daily Mail), although the Penn and Teller show pretty much gave it away that these little terms thrown in aren't to help trick the participants, but so the mentalist can go back afterwards and point them out, thereby misdirecting the audience away from the real trick, whatever that is... Indeed, I always assumed a lot of the "mentalist" stuff was just another layer of misdirection to draw people away from the fact many of the tricks are actually performed using very traditional methods (sleight of hand, stooges etc). It's all very meta. Not that that makes the tricks less impressive or clever, in many ways creating this complex frame narrative makes it MORE fun.
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Jan 8, 2011 15:58
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My favourite thing about Derren Brown is how he'd introduce a trick, like mediumship for example, by explaining all about cold reading and exactly how these frauds do it, and then go on to do the best, head-scratching reading I've seen, that puts all those Living TV creeps to shame. The ghost special was similar (can't remember its name) where he began by telling everyone there that ghosts definitely do not exist and that everything that's about to happen to them is a trick, but still manages to scare the poo poo out of the participants anyway. It's why The Events pissed me off so much, especially the lottery one which basically went completely against what he did in The System. I kept waiting for some massive twist at the end of them all, but it never came.
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Jan 8, 2011 16:22
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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?
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Jan 8, 2011 16:29
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Idioteque Dance posted: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. I'm not a magician, but yes I was under the impression that this is how stage hypnotism works.
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Jan 8, 2011 16:37
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