HAZEL BLEARS STAND-UP.
Who says the Today programme is dumbed down? We have chirpy “Communities Secretary” Hazel Blears and political author Michael Dobbs having a chat as to whether British comedy is anti-politics and whether we may need a British “West Wing”! British comedy, as seen on the BBC, is not anti-politics, it is institutionally anti-conservative. BBC programmes overflow with unfunny comedians with hard left sympathies so the idea that we may need a Brit West Wing to restore balance is surreal since the “West Wing” itself is more big leftist yawn.
I have always been amused at the present crop of commie comics who attack everything but the Brown government. The BBC has not commissioned any anti government comedy programme since Labour got into power. Compare this with the anti-Thatcher “Spitting Image”, the lefty leaning Vicar of Dibley etc etc –to be honest we are all the poorer for the BBCs weakness. The USA will attack Obama I hope in the same spirit –it keeps the stupid bastards who misrule us in their place.
frankos 9:26
The only comedian I have seen making fun of Obama, so far ,was Robin Williams at Prince Charles’ 60th birthday show and all credit to him.
I would have thought that at least one of the multitude of cloned, identikit “comedians” paid by the BBC would step out of line, but not so far. They are still doing Sarah Palin jokes.
And I thought the BBC was meant to be “cutting edge” !
cutting edge my arse –check out the lack of jokes about chavs, leftie nutters and the PC brigade etc. Modern humour has never been so out of touch with ordinary people. It’s as if the Guardian commissioned BBC comedy
The Thick of It was in a league of its own. Marcus Brigstock, Marcus Brigstock – unbelievable. He was given a fully funded weekly show to completely plagarize Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and couldn’t make it funny – Norman Tebbit could make it watchable and he’s a barrel.
Who’s your favourite out of Stephen K Amos, Jeremy Hardy, Marcus Brigstock and Sue Perkins?
The first one who dies.
Spitting Image was on ITV.
More alarming than this pointless piece of programming was the interview with the Chief Inspector of West Mercia Police, in which he made the astonishing claim that British police are trusted by the people because of the separation of police and state.
Jim Naughtie failed to challenge him on this claim, when he must be aware of the high state of politicisation within the modern police force, as manifest by its formal denouncement of certain political parties, its exclusion of certain political parties from employment, and its harassment of their members, a la banana republic.
He must be aware of the current police force’s highly questionable ideological obsession with the political mantras of “multiculturalism” and “diversity” to the detriment of their commitment to impartial law enforcement.
And yet he said nothing.
Spitting Image also did, if I remember rightly, a very good job on Kinnock, Hattersley, Owen, Steel – I remember it as being distinctly impartial. I came away from it rather admiring its portrayal of Thatcher’s stubborn ruthlessness, and after watching Spitting Image I wanted to be Norman Tebbit.
The discussion that DV refers to simply reinforces, in my opinion, the notion that being anti-Palin (Sarah, not Michael), anti-Bush, anti-Thatcher – anti-everything-right-of-centre – doesn’t even count as politics in the BBC’s eyes – it’s simply the statement of the default beliefs of all normal human beings and therefore as apolitical as breathing.
frankos 10:08
BBC comedy is cutting edge, but it only cuts one way.
I saw Marcus Brigstocke on telly the other week and he really made me laugh. He was on the BBC’s new cutting-edge game show called “Hole in the Wall” on Saturday evening, jumping through odd-shaped holes in an advancing wall made of polystyrene while wearing a skin-tight silver lurex jump suit being cheered on by Dale Winton the while. I must say that Brigstocke not having a speaking part made him so much funnier than he is when he opens his mouth.
I think Jeremy Hardy could do that gig too.
I’d prefer to see Jeremy Hardy put up against a wall, RR.
I have a great idea for a TV comedy called “Those Who Are About To Die”.
A guillotine would be erected outside Bush House,comedians and presenters would all get to give the performance of their lives in front of a selected audience.Each would be given 30 seconds to amuse to be extended for as long as they keep the audience laughing.
“Now live from Bush House,over to you Madame Defarge”.
There has been some intelligent political comedy on television over the years:
‘Yes, Minister’ /’Yes, Prime Minister’,
‘Spitting Image’,
‘The New Statesman’ (anti-Tory, but a stage version was anti- New Labour),
‘The Thick of It’
‘Bremner, Bird and Fortune’
Of these programmes, only Bremner’s is running at present, of course.
There may be room for an additional programme in the near future; there’s plenty to go at.
Perhaps a lively series could be screened next year, before the upcoming general election.
Talking about political comedy:
“Gordon Brown sells the nation’s soul to Satan” (inc 55 secs. video clip)
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2008/11/gordon-brown-sells-nations-soul-to.html
The quality gap between British and American drama is huge (obviously in favour of the US). I think the BBC has to take much of the blame.
always remember when new labour came to power and one of the parties had Blair walking up a flight of stairs surrounded by luvvies,no doubt they’ll be in for the six figure action on the brit west wing.
a few years ago, Al beeb brought you Ben Elton, with his extreme left wing “jokes”
at the same time, in Northern England, we had “the fat slags” and Viz
Al Beeb dont do humour, unless its anti thatcher and reminds people of the dangers of climate change
Garden Trash, what a great idea, worth paying the horrific licence fee for that !!
As an aside, I watched one of Rory Bremners satires on the current financial crisis and I was quite impressed. Bremner covered the robbing of the private pension funds, the sale of gold at its base value, and generally he didn’t hold back on the unreported irresponsibilities of Brown when times were good.
Why does it take a comedy show to educate the people about these things? Because I’ve sure not heard a sniff of any of this from the BBC over the past 11 years.
Yes, MikeWineLiberal, I know there’s an apostrophe missing in my first sentence above. I can assure you it’s a typo rather than irrefutable evidence that the statist left are better educated. Just thought I’d get my revenge in first. 😉
Random punter, in our society the only way to get close to the truth about politics is through comedy.
Politicians lie so much and media parrot them that
if you said what Bremner said without humor people would treat you like an extremist.
People in the soviet union did something similar.
I was discussing a new show concept with a friend the other day. BBC Trolls please feel free to steal the idea – I am willing to grant the rights to you on the condition that it is faithfully implemented.
Basically it is a blatant homage to Kirk era Startrek. It is called “Arena” where selected lefties (biased – the BBC know all about that – towards ‘comedians’) are forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena a la Spartacus to the sound of Startrek “fight” incidental music. The baying crowd are urged to wager “Quatloos” on the outcome.
Frederick Forsyth to provide blow by blow commentary.
Prog 1
Hardy Vs Brigstock
Toynbee Vs Toksvig
Brand Vs Ross
French Vs Murray
Marr Vs Pestis
(please feel free to add any others to the list)
Those who refuse to entertain the crowd dumped into a “I’m a celeb” style pit of fermenting faeces and kept there until the audience laughs at one of their jokes.
Ho ho, fantasy, but I would be willing to pay the telly tax to see that
sorry did I say Spitting Image was BBC –I actually meant “Last of the summer wine” by Anton Checkov, a meaningless tale of drivelling Northern Folk..
frankos | 26.11.08 – 9:26 am |
The USA will attack Obama I hope in the same spirit –it keeps the stupid bastards who misrule us in their place.
Don’t hold your breath. Obviously there’s nothing to say until he’s actually anointed…um…I mean, inaugurated, so it’s still all Sarah Palin. The media dopes are now spending lots of ink and air time speculating on just how big a media star she might become. The irony of it is lost on them, of course.
But I expect the late night comedians and the rest of them to direct their humor away from anything that might be critical of The Obamessiah. They’ll continue to do what they do now, which is make little digs at those surrounding Him.
The only time Jon Stewart attempted a joke even slightly critical was months ago when he did a quick segment on how all the various candidates were pandering at their rallies. When he got to The Obamessiah, the silence from the audience was so complete that Stewart felt compelled to say, “You’re allowed to laugh at him.” This was also met by complete silence.
I expect this trend to continue for some time.
David Preiser (USA): I just can’t wait ot see what Obama does about Guantanamo and the Taliban bases in Pakistan.
Too right, and I note that those who rule us seem to have the name of the multimillionaire African King already firmly welded to the word “historic”, as in “Obama’s historic election victory”, “Obama’s historic White House visit”, his “historic January 20 swearing-in” etc..
Googling the words “Bush historic”, for instance, yields a total of 3,650 hits. These cover two presidents and three terms of office, and 456 of them, at least, are negatively historic, concerning an “historic abuse of power”. Googling the words “Obama historic” a mere six days after he ascended to the throne yielded an amazing 239,000 hits ! Supposing he were to complete two full terms, this would ultimately work out to a staggering 116,313,333.333333333333333333333333 historic events over 8 years. Truly amazing! Historic!
See http://thethoughtsoffrit.blogspot.com/ for more comment
It’s all too much:
Toynbee Vs Toksvig can we have them mud wrestling instead?
Ron Todd,
Marquis of Queensberry Rules,No kissin below the belt.
Ron Todd:
It’s all too much:
Toynbee Vs Toksvig can we have them mud wrestling instead?
Ron Todd | 26.11.08 – 6:39 pm | #
——————————————————————————–
EURGHHH
You could arm a third of the Beeboids with knives, a third with spears and another third with machettes. Get them fighting in the Millenium Dome for two hours while you place bets with the bookies over which team will win.
Then hang the survivors.
Ron,
you need help I am afraid.
This is pretty much what I have in mind. No mud (other than Harcourt Fenton of course…)
“I wager three Quatloos on Brand”
“..a meaningless tale of driveling Northern Folk..”
I represent that remark.
Having been at the recording of Top Gear when Fiona Bruce and Kate Middleton were doing their ‘We’re more than just close friends and we touch each other just a bit too much’, I can think of a new show for them……
It’s All Too Much 4.12 p.m.
Marr vs Pestis
Would that be Y-Pestis ? ‘Cos that opens up a whole new world of light entertainment fun !! 😉
Martin 4.56
Heyyyyyy ! Guess who’s shifting his principled position ?
Go on, you’ll never guess.
http://michellemalkin.com
(Under Game Boys At Gitmo)
Ron Todd – you need to seek help NOW.
Chuffer – even as a Beeboid I found myself having guilty thoughts about that interview as well, there was more than a touch of ‘all girls in the dorm’ together about it (at this point I feel honour bound to point out that ‘Sarah Jane’ is a pseudonym).
DV – I heard the interview, and boring though it is, I am think I have to point out that you are not representing it fairly with this blog.
Blears was complaining that British political comedy should be a bit more glamorous and positive and that it is overly cynical. Evan Davies and Dobbs both said that is your fault as politicians (for being ugly and behaving in a manner that begets cynicism) then laughed at her. So not really biased at all then.
I imagine she was thinking of an uplifting political drama focussed on the heroic journey of a mid-ranking Cabinet Minister of something derisory and PC was played by someone with the jugs of Angeline Jolie but with the wit of Carrie Fisher.
Oh dear.
Chuffer – the news in brief!
Zog (Your Imperial Highness)
Yes, plague. I thought it an appropriate adaptation given the speed with which Peston spread the infection around the markets a few weeks ago. He is as appealing as a disease.
btw Chuffer – well done for getting into Top Gear – there is a 23 year waiting list apparently. I hope you enjoyed that bit of oyur license fee at least.
I only got in when they fecked up the guest license and thousands of beeboids had to be bussed into live shows to make up the ‘audience’.
Opens door to inevitable QT audience gags…
Hazel Blears stand up,but she is standing up,it’s just that she is a dwarf.
Sarah Jane,
As with all the best things in life, I got the tickets almost by accident -a chum had wangled them after doing some fantastic charity work with one of the Sacred Three. He had planned to give them to his children till he leart about the, ahem, adult language that gets used. You’d love it, Martin!
The whole thing was like a religious experience; we were the worshippers at the sacred shrine of Top Gear. You can spot us as the slightly middle-aged gits not looking like petrol-heads, and without adoring looks on our faces. You can see me because I’m trying to hide a bulge in my trousers when Fiona and Kate were turning up the Sapphic suggestiveness.
As is the 23 year wait thing true? I assumed it was a myth.
There is a terrific sketch on youtube by Rory Bremner impersonating Gordon Brown which really shows up the ‘towering intellect’ (yes, Brown has been called a “towering intellect” – google it for a laugh) for the squandering maniac that he is. For sime reason, that sketch is “no longer available”. Has anybody got any idea why that would be unavailable and how it could be made unavailable?
Maybe one of these?:
http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodBrand=bremner-bird-and-fortune-silly-money
Dobbs is almost as much of a waste of space as Blears, except he hasn;t got any power, just a crappy internet TV operation. Funny how these old stagers go on and on.
Chuffer – the 23 year list is true to the best of my knowledge, although if it wasn’t true, I suspect it wouldn’t be denied.
I think about 20 of those years are made up from Impreza Owner’s Club members.
Glad you enjoyed it anyway.
I remember seeing David Mitchell on Question Time some time ago. Talk about a mouthpiece for the Labour Party! Put me right off him.