As unseen on TV
So, wish us luck tonight at the first ever untelevised British Comedy Awards! Just my luck to finally get a nomination in the year that ITV drops the show due to the "voting irregularities" that are still under investigation after this summer's wave of premium rate phoneline scandals. Anyway, for your information, these are the nominations:
[NB: I was going to put an asterisk after the nominee I want to win, but I started doing this and it was a flawed project, as of course I want Not Going Out to win, and in some of the categories I am not fussed one way or the other, and I've only seen half an episode of Gavin & Stacey, so can't really judge its merits. Instead I've gone out on a limb and put the asterisk next to the one I think will win ...]
BEST TELEVISION COMEDY ACTOR 2007
DAVID MITCHELL
Peep Show (Objective Productions for Channel 4)
JACK DEE *
Lead Balloon (Open Mike for BBC Four)
KEVIN BISHOP
Star Stories (Objective Productions for Channel 4)
LEE MACK
Not Going Out (Avalon for BBC One)
BEST TELEVISION COMEDY ACTRESS 2007
CATHERINE TATE
The Catherine Tate Show (Tiger Aspect for BBC Two)
LIZ SMITH
The Royal Family: The Queen of Sheba (Granada Productions for BBC One)
RUTH JONES *
Gavin & Stacey/Saxondale (Baby Cow for BBC Three/Baby Cow for BBC Two)
BEST COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PERSONALITY 2007
ALAN CARR & JUSTIN LEE COLLINS
The Friday Night Project (Princess Productions for Channel 4)
SIMON AMSTELL *
Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Talkback Thames for BBC Two)
STEPHEN FRY
QI (Talkback Thames for BBC Two)
BEST MALE COMEDY NEWCOMER 2007
JAMES CORDEN *
Gavin & Stacey (Baby Cow for BBC Three)
MATHEW HORNE
Gavin & Stacey (Baby Cow for BBC Three)
MATT BERRY
The IT Crowd (Talkback Thames for Channel 4)
BEST FEMALE COMEDY NEWCOMER 2007
JOANNA PAGE *
Gavin & Stacey (Baby Cow for BBC Three)
RUTH JONES
Gavin & Stacey (Baby Cow for BBC Three)
SHARON HORGAN
Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive/Pulling (Jones the Film for BBC Three/Silver River for BBC Three)
BEST NEW BRITISH TELEVISION COMEDY (Scripted) 2007
GAVIN & STACEY
Baby Cow for BBC Three
LEAD BALLOON *
Open Mike for BBC Four
NOT GOING OUT
Avalon for BBC One
BEST TELEVISION COMEDY 2007
GAVIN & STACEY *
Baby Cow for BBC Three
PEEP SHOW
Objective Productions for Channel 4
STAR STORIES
Objective Productions for Channel 4
BEST NEW COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME 2007
AL MURRAY HAPPY HOUR *
Avalon for ITV1
FONEJACKER
Hat Trick for E4
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW
So Television for BBC Two
BEST COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME 2007
HARRY HILL'S TV BURP
Avalon Television for ITV1
NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS *
Talkback Thames for BBC Two
THE FRIDAY NIGHT PROJECT
Princess Productions for Channel 4
BEST LIVE STAND UP 2007
ALAN CARR
DARA O'BRIAIN *
SIMON AMSTELL
BEST INTERNATIONAL COMEDY SHOW 2007
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM *
HBO Entertainment for More 4
THE OFFICE: AN AMERICAN WORKPLACE
NBC Universal for ITV2
THE SIMPSONS
Twentieth Century Fox for Sky One / Channel 4
BEST COMEDY FILM 2007
BORAT
20th Century Fox
HOT FUZZ *
Universal
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
20th Century Fox
Of course, these things are never an exact science, so the fact that Peep Show won last year doesn't necessarily mean it, or David Mitchell, won't win again this year, although it does seem a bit old now. Gavin & Stacey is such a shoo-in for Best TV Comedy, surely that leaves the field open a bit in Best New TV Comedy.
(I have been once before, way back in, I think, 1997, when myself and Stuart's Movie Club was on, and the same production company produced Lily Savage, so we were on Paul O'Grady's table. The main thing I remember, apart from Buster Merryfield tripping up as he walked past our table, is that at the after-show, the Chuckle Brothers said a confident and warm hello to Stuart and I, even though we'd never met them before. Maybe comedians are nicer than you thought.)
Labels: comedy, Lee Mack, Not Going Out, sitcom, tv
posted by Andrew Collins @ 2:37 PM
70 Comments
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70 Comments:
Lead Balloon - I am really not keen.
Some of the plot set ups are great, but so many elements of it are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Hard to sympathise with Dee's character when he's got such a lovely home and family.
Hard to sympathise with him when he's got such a good career.
Hard to sympathise with him when he's created such a mean, stereotypical au pair character.
Hard to sympathise with him when his acting only ranges from 'mean smile' to 'grumpy grimace'.
Hard to - etc...
Having said that, the Curb Your Enthusiasm accusations are unfair. it's totally not a direct rip off. Jack Dee's not even bald!
I wish you the very best of luck tonight Andrew. Hope you win!
Chris
I love Lead Balloon.
But I think Gavin & Stacey, because it's the comedy du jour, will sweep the board. Personally I've not seen a pixel of it, but you can just tell.
Likewise Borat, which even though I've not seen, I feel like I have, and to me is tosh of the highest order.
However, Not Going Out should win something.
But of course it's the taking part, rather than the winning, and all awards are meaningless, right?
If you don't win them.
Best of luck Andrew it deserves an award!!
I love the way it takes Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr combined to constitute a personality.
Best of luck with NGO, Andrew.
Good luck for tonight! Isn't there a premium rate phone number that we're all supposed to ring, or something? ;-)
Sorry Five Centres, first time I've said out loud my thoughts on Lead Balloon, now it's off my chest I'll let it lie (it's still half decent).
NGO is good stuff, hope it wins something.
Having said that, awards ceremonies are only ever good for the bits that go wrong, or for when people misbehave.
See:
Ryan Jarman or Brand-Geldof face off at the Brats
Chris Morris or Julian Clary at the comedy awards
Brandon Block or Jarvis at the Brits.
No great loss that this ain't on telly.
Shame it's not on telly - twas one of my few fave Christmas-time progs.
I like Lead Balloon, I think the characters are good - there are plenty of people who are pretty grumpy who live in lovely large homes with nice wives and families. It's the kids characters that I don't rate much - TV teenagers have been done to death and are rarely got right. The wife is great and although Jack Dee is one-dimensional and seems to be playing himself, it really works.
I also haven't seen G&T but it's bound to win cos it has the force.
Not a fan of NGO I'm afraid. Don't think it deserves to win anything, but stranger things have happened.
Unlike (it seems) everyone else here, I have seen Gavin and Stacey, and thought it was absolutely tremendous. I really do think it deserves the accolades.
ITV's decision to drop the program is, of course, in no way related to the low quality of their output, and the resulting low number of nominations, I'm sure.
Oops, I mean 'programme', not 'program'. Too much time with computers...
How odd that Ruth Jones is nominated as a "newcomer" in 2007.
This despite being in three series of Litte Britain from 2003-2006, two series of Nighty Night in 2004 & 2005, two series of Saxondale in 2006 and 2007 and even an episode of Human Remains way back in 2000.
I wouldn't begrudge her an award as she's an excellent actress and comedienne, but "Newcomer"? Hardly!
God, please not Amstell. Surely the most smug person on TV already.
People have issues with Brand and Amstell, I think they're both great...
Bearing in mind that I really like both of them, surely Stephen Fry is more smug than Simon Amstell?
Good luck with NGO, Andrew, hope you win.
Why aren't the Mighty Boosh in there? Was their series out at the wrong time?
I agree Beth - smugness isn't a bad thing in itself. Depends what the smugger is being smug about.
Faked humility is far more irritating.
I quite like Stephen Fry and he can smug away as much as he wants. He's got good reason too what with having a humungous vocabulary.
Matt Berry has been around for ages in both The Mighty Boosh and Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, as well as Snuff Box (but I think I might of been the only one to have seen that).
I find Dara O'Briain unbearably smug. Conversely, I absolutely adore Simon Amstell and Russell Brand, mainly because they were the only two acts who actually said thank-you to me when I was briefly working the door of a comedy club. Be nice to people on the way up...
I would like Sharon Horgan to win Best Newcomer as Pulling was an unexpected joy to watch.
Was it only me that noticed this huge Stephen Fry backlash weekend that happened a couple of months ago, where people in the media were complaining that he was everywhere, and saying 'oh not him again', and then it just all died down.
Also for Best Newcomer, Rasmus Hardiker has been criminally ignored.
He's in Saxondale but his fleeting appearances in Lead Balloon often steal the show (in my eyes anyway).
Lead Balloon is unremittingly miserable. Clearly Dee thinks he’s got himself a Fawlty or a Brent or a Partridge or maybe even a David. But all those characters had some redeeming qualities and you did root for them. Spleen is a horrible, shallow, bitter thoroughly unlikeable man who shafts everyone within his reach. And Raquel Cassidy doesn’t fair much better as his wife. Will she ever get to play a character who isn’t a smug self-satisfied know all?
Catherine Tate is a great actress (brilliant accents) but a piss poor comedian.
The Royal Family strayed into over-sentimentality long ago and the Liz Smith dying episode was the worst example yet. Manipulative and lazy.
Justin Lee Collins? What is there to say? Prick probably. How do these people get on TV?
Simon Amstell saved The Buzzcocks but is on the cusp of ruining it again
Gavin & Stacey is just okay. There is nothing special going on there at all. ‘Just Good Friends’ territory. Which is fine but there’s some serious emperors new clothes hype going on surrounding it. And Alison Steadman. Why are we duty bound to praise her everything she does when she’s not done nothing to compete with Candice Marie or that Abigail character for decades? Her and Brenda Blethyn play the same character in every bleeding thing they do.
Matt Berry is great because he’s the cousin of my friend Rosemary. And the second series of the IT Crowd was brilliant in parts (the first episode in particular).
Peep Show should stop while its ahead.
Star Stories was a giggle in places
Fonejacker was funny for two episodes but you realised it just another Trigger Happy TV with no future.
Al Murray needs a new character. The landlord could become his Dame Edna and nobody deserves that.
The Office An American Workplace deserves to win something simple because its emerged from the shadows of the British version and works in its own right.
NGO is good.
In a perverse way I’m glad Flight of the Chonchords or The Boosh didn’t make the list. It would sully them.
Curb Your Enthusiasm? Total rip-off of One Foot In The Grave, er, init?
I'd like to see Sharon Horgan win - Annually Retentive is hugely underrated in my opinion. And I'd like to see Liz Smith win because, over-sentimental or not (emphatically not), her performance was fantastic. Actually, I'd like to see whoever wins, but I won't, will I?
O.K.
"Good Luck"
NGO is good and could certainly bag something.
lead balloon however, is truly awful. yet to see a single joke amongst the smug spoilt shite that dee continues to peddle without a shred of shame or remorse. ditto boosh, a tidalwave of hype and indie sleb cred that masks the fact that it contains very little of worth. these dire 'comedians' should watch about 10 seconds of the wonderful flight of the conchords. particularly those boosh misfits, perhaps then they could pen a decent tune.
rant over (probably). night!
Lord, it's probably all over by now!
Good Luck !
AC was Principal Talking Head on the BBC3's Heroes special tonight, I thought. Talked sense too. A sort of Heroes fan Antichrist to the truly, utterly, dreadful human being that is Fearne Fucking Cotton.
Well done Andrew. But if you were recording your bits in the same studio why didn't you write TWAT on her forehead with a marker pen?
Oh dear!
That's just not right. Always next year etc..
And at least the telly wasn't there so you didn't have to adopt the traditional 'magnanimous' fixed smile as the results were read out..
Did your table say 'c', and 'f' and 'w' a lot? I hope so.
Personally, I can't stand that smug fool with the fright wig who has taken over at Buzzcocks. tut.
Surely any awards show that includes Graham Norton in the nominees list is deeply flawed at the outset!
Some thoughts:
Simon Amstell is a lovely young man and a frighteningly good stand-up, better than Alan Carr (who won the Best Stand Up award). He's made Buzzcocks a show worth watching again, after Lamarr became vile and rude without charm or humour.
Alan Carr incidentally is also very nice and funny, and should really get away from the Friday Night Project before JLFuckingC drags his career into the gutter.
Stephen Fry is a genius and you can never tire of him.
Simon Pegg doesn't really deserve the Writers Guild Award, IMO.
Gavin & Stacey was very good and won the correct awards - it really didn't deserve to sweep the board. And even though Corden and Jones aren't really Newcomers, this was a breakthrough show for them.
Liz Smith deserved best Actress, easily. Queen of Sheba was sentimental, but since when was that a bad thing?
Lead Balloon - I like. Not perfect by any stretch, but it's similarities to Curb are shrinking in this second series. It is made better by a great supporting cast, particularly Antonia Cambell-Hughes as his daughter, the aforementioned Rasmus Hardiker, and the much used but never remembered Tony Gardner as the cafe owner.
NGO was better this second series but probably not quite a serious contender for a winner. It was consistant but never had a buzz around it like G&S. (Not that a buzz is always a good thing - Peter Serefinowicz...ouch) Better luck next time, Andrew.
Thing is, industry awards don't celebrate the right kind of success, do they? If the boundaries of comedy have been pushed and something has been changed, it goes unnoticed. Brass Eye didn't win a British Comedy Award.
For the record, then (and I'm pleased that a number of my predictions were right, albeit not "those two"):
BEST TELEVISION COMEDY ACTOR 2007
DAVID MITCHELL
Peep Show
BEST TELEVISION COMEDY ACTRESS 2007
LIZ SMITH
The Royal Family: The Queen of Sheba - first standing ovation of the night; the second was when ex-BBC1 controller came on to present an award!
BEST COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PERSONALITY 2007
SIMON AMSTELL *
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
BEST MALE COMEDY NEWCOMER 2007
JAMES CORDEN *
Gavin & Stacey (Baby Cow for BBC Three)
BEST FEMALE COMEDY NEWCOMER 2007
RUTH JONES
Gavin & Stacey (Baby Cow for BBC Three)
BEST NEW BRITISH TELEVISION COMEDY (Scripted) 2007
GAVIN & STACEY
Baby Cow for BBC Three
BEST TELEVISION COMEDY 2007
PEEP SHOW
Objective Productions for Channel 4
BEST NEW COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME 2007
AL MURRAY HAPPY HOUR *
Avalon for ITV1 - so at least Avalon, who'd shelled out for three tables, didn't go home empty handed
BEST COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME 2007
NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS *
Talkback Thames for BBC Two
BEST LIVE STAND UP 2007
ALAN CARR
BEST INTERNATIONAL COMEDY SHOW 2007
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM *
HBO Entertainment for More 4 - not even a recorded message from Larry David
BEST COMEDY FILM 2007
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
20th Century Fox - but even though Hot Fuzz lost out, Simon Pegg got the Writers' Guild Special Award, which was much deserved, and his entire family were there to share it with him
I agree with Paul about the skill of Rasmus Hardiker in Saxondale and LB. I wasn't drunk, but he was one of those people I approached and told him how much I liked his work. I do this at awards ceremonies. He seemed very nice.
Rob Bryden summed the evening up. He was behind me at the cloakroom at the end of the night, and said, in his best Rob Bryden voice, "Andrew, comedy was the winner tonight."
Even though it would have been nice for NGO to win, we weren't exactly robbed, were we? There's a tidal wave of goodwill toward G&S, and at least we had two well-chosen clips shown.
It was quite spooky to be in the same room as Faye Dunaway, who presented the final award. And JK Rowling, who read the citation for Stephen Fry's Special Award. His speech came live from Key West and was unremmitingly serious and sincere. A nice moment.
I'm sure the party went on long after I left at 11.45, but it was good to feast upon the cream of British comedy talent, to be a humble peer and to say hello to some of them. No Chuckle Brothers this time.
There was a rumour ITV may show it next week.
I think that the results were pretty fair, apart from the Al Murray show which is just dire in my opinion. I love Simon Amstell, Curb, Stephen Fry, and Alan Carr so I'm really pleased that they all won. Sorry you didn't win anything Andrew, hope you had a good night though.
Zoe
Bad luck, Andrew. Still, there will be another chance next year with series 3.
Re: Faye Dunaway, I was once at an event where she presented an award. I was behind her in the queue in the ladies loo and when she disappeared into a cubicle, we all nudged each other, amazed that a Hollywood Goddess had to pee just like us mortals.
Oh dear, did I lower the tone?
There’s nowt wrong with sentiment but The Royal Family turned up Mawkish Avenue with the episode where Denise went into labour and it appears to have been a one way street. Which doesn’t stop Liz Smith being an excellent actress (she is) and if she won then good.
Ever since the brilliant final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth (still gives me goose pimples) it seems that comedy writers can’t resist trying to pull the heartstrings before they’ve barely made us laugh.
Has The Boosh become the new Little Britain already? A show that’s jumped straight from cult classic into one that everyone thinks is overrated in the space of just three new episodes? I don’t think it deserves that. Last weeks was a corker. And I love the Chonchords but if you don’t think that the decision to sign them up has been influenced by the ‘success’ of TMB then you are... no I can’t be bothered to be rude. You’re just wrong. Last weeks Sailors song was terrific too.
Simon Amstell is not a patch on Mark Lamarr.
The only good thing about not televising the awards was one less programme with Jonathan Ross on (although I heard the two digs he made about Sudanese branch of Hamleys and being worth more than 1000 journalists).
I hope it's never, ever televised again.
machine levine
The odd thing was that the evening played out exactly as if it was being televised, with ad breaks (cue: bottleneck of men in dickie bows at gents) and cables everywhere. And yet it wasn't.
It may be televised Andrew. It was recorded for possible broadcast. I expect to see it somewhere in the Christmas schedules around midnight in BBC2.
You were on telly last night, anyway, talking about Heroes. You and Fearne Cotton; I just know that she hasn't seen more than one episode, if that. I know it's a rude question, but how much does the BBC pay per talking head on a show like that? Is it more than £1000?
Mark Lamarr is a talentless cretin, Simon Anstell has made Buzzcocks watchable- if they could only get rid of Phil Jupitus and Bill Bailey, it might be quite funny.
Did Jonathan Ross make any jokes about his brother's wife whilst presenting last night Andrew?
Zoe
Simon Amstell is great on Buzzcocks but was even better on Popworld where he had more scope to do different things with his comedy. I was particularly fond of the items 'Lemar from Afar' and 'Will (Young) on a Hill'. Alex Zane is good as his replacement but he is just copying Simon's style to the letter.
It's so annoying that Simon never tours nationally though! He only ever gigs in London on weekdays, or at the Edinburgh Festival. Neither are any good to me!
I'm also looking forward to seeing Alan Carr's stand up DVD this Christmas as we had tickets to see him but couldn't go as my husband went into hospital on the day of the show. He's really underused on the Friday Night Project.
Zoe
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Ever arriving at the party just as "True' is fading out, here are my comments:
1. Lead Balloon. I really liked the first series but I don't think the second is anything like as good. Spleen is now too much of a twat. Comedy characters like this need to keep a foot in reality and some other body part in a place where we are moderately sympathetic to them. We need to at least a little bit care that they should extricate themselves. Even Brent did this a little - or at least had other characters that we could like in his place. Basil Fawlty is a chauvinistic snob, but the comic tension works because we still care about him, and, however extreme the situation, we can see how he gets there. Not so with the latest Spleen.
2. The South Bank Show Awards were announced yesterday too. I don't know anything about them but they a) feature above discussed output such as Hot Fuzz, Gavin and Stacey, and Alan Carr, as well as This Is England and Control, and b) are set to be televised, in an astonishing coincidence by the South Bank Show, next year.
ps the word verification is ZZauf which should be postmodern rock band from the 1980s.
As I went into labour laughing at the Royle Family, sentimentality is fine by me! Liz Smith is an absolute gem, god love her.
I love Gavin and Stacey and can't stand all the posh boy smugness of some of the other characters mentioned here.
I would have liked to have been there to boo loudly when JR made his joke about being "worth 1,000 BBC journalists."
How frightfully amusing for someone to post a comment as "Andrew Collins". You should get some kind of Comedy Award. Idiot.
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Heard? You always look like a trim fellow to me Andrew. But God your arse must be huge if Jiminy knows what he's talking about.
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Equivalent of posting comments on someone's blog under their name, as a joke: sticking bits of old chewing gum on the faces on adverts - ideally just where their nose is.
I'm not trying to take the gloss off whoever won Best Stand Up 2007, but the nominations (Alan Carr, Dara O'Briain and Simon Amstell) have clearly been safely chosen because they're faces 'off the telly'.
I'm not doubting that those three are good at stand up comedy, but I would safely say that they are not the three most outstanding stand up comedians in the country over the last twelve months.
Stepping away from it all though,
I suppose comedy is just like that when it comes to some of the general public. For my sins I bought a copy of Nuts a couple of years ago and found it odd that they described Lee Mack as an up and coming comedian, but maybe just like the readership, their held understanding of modern comedy starts with Peter Kay and ends with Ricky Gervais, while Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr are seen as naughty and a little bit different.
Also, why no radio prizes? I'm sure there used to be a couple of awards and it's just a valid medium for comedy as television. Infact, some might say it is better.
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Yes, it's still funny. Every time you post under my name. Very, very funny.
Thanks:)
Old Nathan, I think you'll find the Mighty Boosh has been going for three series, not just three episodes. Keep up Grandad.
Tangentially, I watched Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps last night on the grounds that it couldn't *possibly* be as bad as everyone says. I was wrong. Its popularity makes you despair for British comedy. The Extras Xmas special (there's a trailer doing the rounds) looks great though.
Hang on I'll just put me teeth in.
Yes I know there's been three series you cheeky pup. And if you bother to look back you'll see that I've referred to it on many ocaissions prior to this series (yes I'm dangling my yoof credentials in front of you!)
My point was that the first two series were 'cult classics'. But the backlash has started since the first episode of the third and, although I don't think we've had anything up with the quality of 'Milky Joe' so far, it really hasn't been that bad.
How rude.
I love the Boosh, they really are fantastic.. I also watched all of Snuff Box when it was on (last year / this year?!?) which was also great, surreal and a little more dark than I would usually watch.
One thing, I am also a Nathan, how old is 'Old Nathan' as I am 32 and I need to know if I am 'older Nathan' 'Younger Nathan' or just Nathan...
Come on man, you are allowed to have the same name as me, but you have to let me know where I stand!
I do hope you are older than 32 so I can just be 'Nathan' but 'Slightly Older Nathan' could be a cool new name for me.
In real life as well as in the web..
Not sure this is the place for such badinage YoungerNathan (am I also addressing ‘Tonk’ ? – see above) but I’m sure AC will boot us off if we are using his blog improperly.
You’ll be relieved to hear that a) I’m older (46, fought all the punk wars and all that) b) I don’t consider that to be ‘old’ at all but clearly I am ‘older’ than you and c) I’m not called Nathan.
My name is Richard I just adopted Oldnathan it when on the BBC MBs a while back and stuck with. There was at least one ‘Richard’ already on there who appeared to be more like a ‘dick’, and I didn’t want to get blamed for his rubbish or vice versa.
Oldnathan (all one word) wasn’t an arbitrary choice; there is a reason but I suspect we’ve gone on too long about ourselves already and I won’t bore you any longer.
Where do you stand on The Chonchords? The series on BBC4 is reaching the end and although a little patchy in the middle I do think it’s been generally very very good indeed.
Old Nathan, I wasn't being rude, you are my Grandad- remember Jeanne, Paris 1944?
Actually Oldnathan/Richard,I didn't mean to be rude, it was supposed to be slightly tongue in cheek. You're actually one of the few non-'stick up their bum' types on here, so I wouldn't want to offend you.
Arr yes the lovely Jeanne. She'd had her head shaved as punishment for collaborating with the Nazis and I took pity on her. Well I say pity…
I gather Morrisey knew her intimately too – hence the most glorious B-side to one of the best singles ever. I wonder if it was that experience that ‘turned’ him.
No worries Tonk (ooh I've come over all Australian). Although I have an over sensitive underbelly to compete with the best I rarely find the need to fall out with anyone on this sort of thing.
Well Mr Richard Smith, I can see why you chose oldnathan as your online moniker (not monica, we are not getting back to Friends here).
I must confess I have not seen any of the series Chonchords, I must have a look out for any repeats as it seems to get good reviews from most - so probably funny then. But not as funny as a name you could have, instead of stealing my (very real) name of Nathan.
Ever considered 'dicksmith'? Could link in very well with the spam / viagra thread..
Back to the comedy, Simon Amstell is excellent on Buzzcocks, Noel Fielding should be a permanent resident on there too - the last three weeks have been great with him there although not sure I would sacrifice Bill Bailey, maybe Jupitus could go.. Not sure though, he is also funny, but not Fielding funny.
Also - Have I got news for you.. Excellent show - but have you noticed how grumpy Paul Merton is looking lately - he is amazing and shouldn't be allowed to quit, but he needs some kind of injection to get him going. The slaying of Anne Widdecombe was excellent, if not a bit cringeworthy at the blatant hostility dressed up as comedy..
I find Merton gets grumpy when some other comedian steals the limelight- such as Russell Brand did last week.
Didn't he just! He was funny though, sometimes I feel he's too much then you realise there are real brains behind the humour and it's good stuff. I just have to get over the fact that he gets so very well laid all the time.
And I really hate his hair, but I wont hold that against him, it's obviously trendy (does using that word automatically make me 'Very Old Nathan'??)
Good on you Brand, you are a funny guy. I'd say keep it up, but he obviously does. Phnar phnar.
Not sure I have noticed that with Paul Merton, no. I think you see it more with Ian Hislop to be honest. And actually I admired PM for kind of coming to Russell Brand's aid a bit last week.
I bow to no know one (yes, I'm not bowing again) in my admiration of Ian Hislop and I think Charlie Booker's Screen Wipe is unmissable on BBC4 (couldn’t give a monkey’s about Jack Dee). But, regardless of how you stand on Russell Brand (and in the right context I think he's a real talent), I didn't like the way those three clearly had decided before the show started that Brand ‘wasn’t worthy’.
I mean fair enough, if he acts like an arse on the show (like Widdecombe) then feel free to give him a hard time but he wasn’t like that at all. So to start from that position was not on and spoilt the show. Brand was okay, much better than a lot of guests. I half wonder if the toilet break was a really an opportunity for him to get himself together because I thought the tension on set was palpable. And how dare Jack Dee look down his nose at any fellow comedian?
Ian Hislop really is the ultimate conservative with a small ‘c’ isn’t he, regardless of whatever his personal voting habits may be?
How did you know I was a ‘Smith’ as well as ‘Richard’. Are you watching me?
I do actually agree with you on this Mr Smith, Brand was great and they had already decided not to like his brash personality.
I thought when he actually explained why his book is called what it is it actually shut them up as it was fairly clever, and they hadn't considered this had they eh?
I'm not watching you, but I was trying to find out why you chose oldnathan and it turns out you have left an E-trail a mile long on various blogs.. Just happened to read the one where you invited Mr Collins to dinner.. Did he ever come over?
No?
Thought not.
He would have come if you were really called Nathan, he comes over here all the time for a nice broth. (He doesn't, in case AC kicks me off for telling lies)
I like Dee though, despite his snobbishness when it came to Brand, maybe he felt threatened by a new style.. people on tv are still just people remember. It just so happens they are people who can't go shopping in peace, poor souls. Hopefully internet shopping and all the cash makes up for it though.
Once more, just to return to comedy, I would like to salute the Boosh, some hate it, others such as me, love it. You can't please everyone all the time, and if you could, well wouldn't we be a boring lot??
Can't say I'm a fan of Ian Hislop- his humour seems to be on the level of Christmas cracker. How on earth Peter Cook saw anything in him, I don't know. I've gradually got to like Charlie Brooker on TV (always liked his writing), after getting used to his onscreen persona.
Some of them did seem to be looking down there nose at him (I think a lack of ignorance about him- they probably just read the headlines). I liked the bit when they started taking the mickey of his book's childish title, and he turned the tables on them by saying it was taken from A Clockwork Orange.
Jack Dee's probably just jealous- he looked equally put out on Jonathan Ross when he and Brand were on together.
I imagine Merton admires Brand's humour but he does like to the centre of attention on there.
I would just like to apologise for my poor grammar on the above comment.
Yeah Dee is capable of being funny but I just didn't like his attitude on HIGNFY last week (and I think Lead Balloon is up it's own arse so he isn’t on safe ground). He hasn't earned the right to look down on anyone just because he’s made a career out of pretending to be miserable. And, unlike Brand, he can't ad lib for toffee. But that hardly makes him the worst comedian knocking about at the moment (Judging from what I saw last night, that award should go to Patrick ‘I’m dangerous I am’ Keilty) so I’ll lay off him now.
And don’t get me started on grammar. It must be my great age but I do hate spotting my own spelling mistakes after I’ve posted (fancy going to the trouble of writing ‘know’ when you mean ‘no’). Can’t there be an edit facility on these things for tits like me?
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