# New Chris Morris show: Nathan Barley



## Skim (Jan 14, 2005)

This looks hilarious – can't wait...

From the Warp Records site:	

A six part comedy series Nathan Barley will begin on Channel 4 in February, co-written by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker, who originally created the Barley character for his TVGoHome website. It stars Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, the Perrier-award winning pair behind the Mighty Boosh, regular Morris collaborate Kevin Eldon, plus Nina Sosanya and Ben Whishaw.

Nathan Barley is 26. He is a Webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a "self-facilitating media node". He is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape Magazine - his bible of cool.

Dan Ashcroft writes searing columns for Sugar Ape style magazine, (whose editor, Jonatton Yeah?, added the "?" by deed poll). He's considered astonishingly cool, but only by those he despises. He is surrounded by idiots and practically worshipped by Nathan (whom he considers to be their king). He is 34. Why has he failed to move on?

Claire Ashcroft, 27, is Dan's sister. Like Dan she despises "cool". She hasn't met Nathan yet, but like him she is a film-maker. Unlike him she despises novelty, trash, irony and gadgets. She is furious that no one will fund her hard-hitting documentary about a choir of reformed junkies.

Nathan, Dan and Claire work in the industrial conversions of Hosegate. They are about to become spliced together in a three way split. Claire no longer listens to Dan - which is a shame since he'd be the best person to warn her about Nathan. Claire is right about Dan; Dan is right about Nathan: Nathan is just wrong. He's an absolute fucking tool.

The show's advance publicity also features clothing chain bumphuk - a must-browse for Harmony Korine, Chloe Sevigny, Julian Casablancas and Sally Gunnell; gastropub Regime, where your food is chosen for you by assessing your electrolytes on a sensor at your table and the "beer is served in gourds"; and the Chimney Exchange bar, a "mecca for would-be trespassing renegades unable to discern that no one gives a flying fuck whether they're there or not".


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## Brainaddict (Jan 14, 2005)

Wow, this looks viciously funny! Can't wait


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## Jenerys (Jan 14, 2005)

Skim said:
			
		

> ....whose editor, Jonatton Yeah?, added the "?" by deed poll


Classic


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## thestraightman (Jan 14, 2005)

Great, sounds like a uk Glamorama


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## Dubversion (Jan 14, 2005)

it's spun off from the 'Cunt' series on Brooker's old TV Go Home site from a few years back (google it!)

i've got an official Nathan Barley tshirt at home (heavy metal lettering but sadly no sequins). i'm surprised Morris is involved, i would have thought Brooker's stamp would be over it so much that there wouldn't be much room for him ...


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## thestraightman (Jan 14, 2005)

Brooker does screen burn right?


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## Dubversion (Jan 14, 2005)

thestraightman said:
			
		

> Brooker does screen burn right?



yeh. for years he wouldn't fess up that he did tvgohome, but when he started doing screen burn it was just too obvious it was the same writer.

they actually did a tv go home tv pilot about 3 years back too..


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## alphaDelta (Jan 14, 2005)

Yeah, Brooker does Screen Burn. Also check out http://www.zeppotron.com/unnovations/ for some quality work of his.

Morris wrote for TVGH, apparently, under the name of 'Peach'. Check the bottom of this one, http://www.tvgohome.com/0112-2000.html, which also features Barley!


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## pregethwr (Jan 14, 2005)

TVGoHome was amazing, remember readingt it and pissing myself over it a few year back.


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## MysteryGuest (Jan 14, 2005)

Skim said:
			
		

> The show's advance publicity also features clothing chain bumphuk - a must-browse for Harmony Korine, Chloe Sevigny, Julian Casablancas and Sally Gunnell




  Sally Gunnell - that is just soooo right to have her name at the end of that list.  Bodes well imo.


Fingers crossed...


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## innit (Jan 14, 2005)

Arrr I loved TV go home, but can't imagine the fusion of Brooker and Morris...  Am also concerned that my bf may be a bit too much like Nathan Barley for me to relax and enjoy it (not that he has tried any of that three way splicing though!).  I'm looking forward to it though!


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## alphaDelta (Jan 14, 2005)

P.S.: my favourite was this:


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## DaveCinzano (Jan 14, 2005)

good good


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## stdPikachu (Jan 14, 2005)

Chris Morris doing Nathan Barley?

: faints :

Cunt was by far the best feature TVGH ever had, although I have my doubt over just ho wmuch milage there is in it. For instance, how many exploited foreign prostitutes can Nathan fuck in one series and still remain in good taste? How many times can be be beaten to death in his pie and mash before repetition sets in? How many of avant garde art films can the audience take before tearing their TV's to pieces?

: another one with crossed fingers :

BTW, just been re-reading TVGH, and it's scary how relevant it still is. One would have hoped that trendwhorishness might have died down a bit by now


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## ernestolynch (Jan 15, 2005)

Skim said:
			
		

> Nathan Barley is 26. He is a Webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a "self-facilitating media node". He is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape Magazine - his bible of cool.



He he he. Plenty of inspiration on these boards for Brooker to use....


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## butchersapron (Jan 15, 2005)

...and they'll be the ones praising the show without realising that it's actually about themselves.


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## pk (Jan 15, 2005)

Anyone else remember the free little comic magazine they used to hand out in Hoxton in the nineties, called Shoreditch Twat, and authored by one Nathan Barley?

I'm sure I have the first three or four... if this series is a hit they might be worth a mint!


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## Skim (Jan 15, 2005)

pk said:
			
		

> Anyone else remember the free little comic magazine they used to hand out in Hoxton in the nineties, called Shoreditch Twat, and authored by one Nathan Barley?
> 
> I'm sure I have the first three or four... if this series is a hit they might be worth a mint!




I've got a copy of Twat Weekend, their Guardian Weekend spoof from a couple of years back. My favourite is the 'asylum seeker chic' fashion spread


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## Skim (Jan 15, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> He he he. Plenty of inspiration on these boards for Brooker to use....



Indeed. I read somewhere they were thinking of bringing in a new character for the already-planned second series, an angry Celt (85% preferably) who – from his swish Whitechapel loft apartment, Power Book on lap and latte in hand – plots the destruction of the British liberal press and the slow meltdown of anarchist websites. 

They've already been auditioning, and aparently one of the blokes out Coupling is really interested. Sadie Frost wants to play his wife. Watch this space, eh?


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## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2005)

Website with two trailers here


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## Donna Ferentes (Feb 3, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> ...and they'll be the ones praising the show without realising that it's actually about themselves.


_ In Oliver Twist, Hard Times, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Dickens attacked English institutions with a ferocity that has never since been approached. Yet he managed to do it without making himself hated, and, more than this, the very people he attacked have swallowed him so completely that he has become a national institution himself. In its attitude towards Dickens the English public has always been a little like the elephant which feels a blow with a walking-stick as a delightful tickling. Before I was ten years old I was having Dickens ladled down my throat by schoolmasters in whom even at that age I could see a strong resemblance to Mr. Creakle, and one knows without needing to be told that lawyers delight in Sergeant Buzfuz and that Little Dorrit is a favourite in the Home Office. _


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## LostNotFound (Feb 3, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Website with two trailers here



ooh, its got the bloke who plays Dean Learner in darkplace.. excellent


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## akirajoel (Feb 3, 2005)

i love chris morris.

(am scared that it cannot possibily live up to thi shype thou!)

anyone know when they're showing the first episode?

and am i the only one who thought that 'my wrongs' was a little, well, shite?


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## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> i love chris morris.
> 
> (am scared that it cannot possibily live up to thi shype thou!)
> 
> ...


It's on the 11th of February.


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## akirajoel (Feb 3, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It's on the 11th of February.



fuck me!


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## hektik (Feb 3, 2005)

has anyone else seen the fake adverts for what look like mobile phones etc, that have an endorsement from one 'nathan barley'

theres one at southwark tube station, it took me two or three times of walking past it to realise it wasn't actually advertising a proper product.


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## George & Bill (Feb 3, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Website with two trailers here



Looks like some Joel Veitch animation on the first trailer - how's he involved then?


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## George & Bill (Feb 3, 2005)

hektik said:
			
		

> has anyone else seen the fake adverts for what look like mobile phones etc, that have an endorsement from one 'nathan barley'
> 
> theres one at southwark tube station, it took me two or three times of walking past it to realise it wasn't actually advertising a proper product.



yeah, there's one at clapham junction - don't think any product quite like that has recieved widespread publicity since the 90s, tho


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## Loki (Feb 3, 2005)

Wahay should be a blast! (And I bet Blagsta's gonna be chuffed when he hears about this.)


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## hektik (Feb 3, 2005)

wasn't charlie brooker the guardian columnist who asked someone to shoot bush, resulting in lots of pissed off american secret service??


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## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2005)

hektik said:
			
		

> wasn't charlie brooker the guardian columnist who asked someone to shoot bush, resulting in lots of pissed off american secret service??



Well, sort of.
After Bush's re-election, he said:
'The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. -- where are you now that we need you?'
Hardly a call-out but a lot of humourless people wanted him hung, drawn and quartered.


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## sam/phallocrat (Feb 3, 2005)

He slagged me off in OTV an all.  I'm well chuffed . . .


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## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2005)

sam/phallocrat said:
			
		

> He slagged me off in OTV an all.  I'm well chuffed . . .


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## Isambard (Feb 3, 2005)

Can someone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tape this for me!

I will offer sexual favours or at the very least wicked Czech absinthe to get this.


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## sam/phallocrat (Feb 3, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

>



Said I had no personality and that I was the biggest drugs bore in the world, or something like that.  Got called 'odious' by the TV bird in the Metro an all.  Long time ago tho . . .


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## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2005)

Why? Have you been on the telly then?


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## spiralx (Feb 3, 2005)

Looking forward to this, loved TVGoHome and Chris Morris is a genius... fingers crossed it'll be good


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## Giles (Feb 3, 2005)

Click on this link where a helpful soul has gathered together ALL the original tvgohome "Cunt" episode descriptions featuring Nathan Barley on one web page:

Cunt compendium 

Excellent!

Giles..


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## Blagsta (Feb 3, 2005)

Loki said:
			
		

> Wahay should be a blast! (And I bet Blagsta's gonna be chuffed when he hears about this.)



Cunt was funny, but I can't help feeling its all a bit dated now.


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## stdPikachu (Feb 3, 2005)

hektik said:
			
		

> has anyone else seen the fake adverts for what look like mobile phones etc, that have an endorsement from one 'nathan barley'



I saw one of those the other day, and they've just put a load up near where I work (Shoreditch, appropriately) 

"The WASP phone features an extra-large 5 button!"

Genius


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## jasoon (Feb 4, 2005)

sounds too fucking good to be true


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## King Biscuit Time (Feb 4, 2005)

The alledged theme tune was up on the Boom Selection website a while ago.

The .mp3 has gone now, but the lyrics are still there to enjoy.



> Who's that walking down the street?
> He's got risible shoes on his media feet
> He's wearing twelve iPods so he doesn't look a spack
> But to be really retro he's painted the headphones black
> ...



(I have no idea if this is the real theme tune)


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## FridgeMagnet (Feb 4, 2005)

http://www.trashbat.co.uk/ for the phone thing and other stuff

I don't know, I can't see a TV series having quite the venom that Cunt had.


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## stdPikachu (Feb 4, 2005)

Me neither - Cunt was full of some of the most violent and mysogynistic imagery ever - but if Morris is at the helm it bears _some_ promise at least. I'm sure he'll find a way to subvert the censors somehow...


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## bouncer_the_dog (Feb 4, 2005)

pk said:
			
		

> Anyone else remember the free little comic magazine they used to hand out in Hoxton in the nineties, called Shoreditch Twat, and authored by one Nathan Barley?
> 
> I'm sure I have the first three or four... if this series is a hit they might be worth a mint!



I believe it has been amalgamted into the back of 'Sleaze' (formally sleazenation) and one of the creators does 'The devils dandruff' in The Grauniad Guide. There was also a TV program that was quite funny. "you are never more than 10ft away from a DJ".

I am looking foward to this program as I regard Nathan Barley as somewhat of a role model.


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## Vash (Feb 4, 2005)

Unrelated but a search of Amazon brought up this.   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-9214006-0617519?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


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## Belushi (Feb 4, 2005)

Just seen a couple of clips on Newsnight Review and it looks shit   

I think the original TVGoHome told us as much as we ever needed to know about Nathan Barley,  dont think you could ever improve on them.


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## ChrisFilter (Feb 4, 2005)

the trailers look a bit lame.. nathan doesn't look enough of a cunt.. he's not achingly posy, doesn't have a rod up his arse y'know?


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## RaverDrew (Feb 4, 2005)

I love Chris Morris's work but this looks like utter shite to me*.. I hope I'm proved wrong

*Then again I also think peep show is the biggest pile of drivel on tv


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## Belushi (Feb 5, 2005)

RaverDrew said:
			
		

> Then again I also think peep show is the biggest pile of drivel on tv



Wash your mouth out!


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## where to (Feb 5, 2005)

akirajoel. i agree, my wrongs i thought was quite empty.


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## akirajoel (Feb 5, 2005)

where to said:
			
		

> akirajoel. i agree, my wrongs i thought was quite empty.



as long as it's not just me...   

empty and not very funny. (but then i only watched it once).


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## pk (Feb 5, 2005)

Go on Saam, tell em about your TV debut mate.


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## LostNotFound (Feb 5, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> as long as it's not just me...
> 
> empty and not very funny. (but then i only watched it once).



i dont disagree as such, BUT, try watching it very stoned (or on stronger hallucinogenic drugs if youre very brave) .. it brings out the morrisian unfolding nightmare aspect in quite a disturbing manner


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## Barking_Mad (Feb 5, 2005)

http://www.thesmokehammer.com/


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## Cloo (Feb 7, 2005)

I thought Morris seemed the ideal sort of person for this. The adverts on the tube really cracked me up 'The Wasp speechtool'... but then... was I being a smug insular git by knowing that it was a spoof?


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## Dubversion (Feb 7, 2005)

the trailers do look a bit lame - although that doesn't mean it'll be shite - but i'm just worried about the whole enterprise. there's no way it'll be as good as the column, as extreme, and actually the whole thing seems a bit late somehow.. 

stdpikachu - confused about why you think it was misogynistic?


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## killer b (Feb 7, 2005)

the guys at www.cookdandbombd.co.uk seem a touch unimpressed by nathan barley...


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## akirajoel (Feb 7, 2005)

killer b said:
			
		

> the guys at www.cookdandbombd.co.uk seem a touch unimpressed by nathan barley...



oh dear.


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## onemonkey (Feb 7, 2005)

killer b said:
			
		

> the guys at www.cookdandbombd.co.uk seem a touch unimpressed by nathan barley...


to say the least


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## Vash (Feb 7, 2005)

'Barley himself comes over as a mixture of David Brent, Alan Partridge and Ali G. At least three of the scenes from the first episode reek of The Office.'  
and..
'What you expect from a new Chris Morris show is something bursting with originality and inventiveness, not lame mobile phone gags, unfunny background details and tired old sitcom cliches.'


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## killer b (Feb 7, 2005)

to be fair, they've been pretty unimpressed by anything he's done for the past few years, and i've loved loads of stuff they've hated in the past... i think they're old-morris fetishists more than anything else...


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## kyser_soze (Feb 7, 2005)

All seems about 3 years late IMO - the whole 'Hoxton twat' thing was seemingly past last time I was around that general area (altho there are still lots of people with 'ironic' mullets and other assorted stupid haircuts)...

I'm waiting to see this with trepidation - I love Screen Burn, TVGH and Unnovations and Morris is usually above everyone else but this will have to pull something out of the hat in a big way...

I also reckon they should have done 'Daily Mail Island' as a spoof reality show instead of Nathan Barley...


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## stdPikachu (Feb 7, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> stdpikachu - confused about why you think it was misogynistic?



Not so much the "moral" of the column, more the imagery associated with Cunt. There was just endless tales of woe of Barley fucking some poor prostitute, etc etc. We were never left in any doubt that he was being a complete and utter cock, but I don't think TV would let you show half of the imagery portrayed and prepetrated in the column - hence, I feel, leaving out a rather vast swathe of his cuntingdom.


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## fishfingerer (Feb 7, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> I also reckon they should have done 'Daily Mail Island' as a spoof reality show instead of Nathan Barley...


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## Clintons Cat (Feb 7, 2005)

I thought that was what Charles Clarke was up to today


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## stdPikachu (Feb 7, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> I also reckon they should have done 'Daily Mail Island' as a spoof reality show instead of Nathan Barley...



Crap, I missed this one first time around!

You're right, Daily Mail Island would be an utterly stellar concept for a comedy show (they could even smatter it with a few trailers for Mick Hucknall's Pink Pancakes and Fuck Your Felt Aunt whilst they're at it) - but I doubt there'd be any way for C4 to make it without risking a hefty libel suit.


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## MysteryGuest (Feb 9, 2005)

Right, after all the hype I'm firmly lowering my expectations on this one - when expectations are _that_ high disappointment is almost inevitable.  So I've calmed down about it all now, and will watch on Friday hoping for a little mild amusement, nothing more.


edited to add:

I was pretty underwhelmed by thesmokehammer tbh.


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## akirajoel (Feb 9, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Right, after all the hype I'm firmly lowering my expectations on this one...



yeah. me too. which can only be a good thing either way...

did anyone ever read the morris suicide journalist colume in the observer? or his 9/11 piece? fucking wicked!

uh oh! expectations raising again!!!


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## spacemonkey (Feb 9, 2005)

Wow! I think TVGOHOME is one of the funniest websites ever made. AND i'm a massive fan of chris morris. 

I'm praying it works cos the tvgohome tv series was gash.


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## ddraig (Feb 9, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Why? Have you been on the telly then?




yeah, he was on the telly on a a drugs prog bout 2odd years ago.
they followed him about off his tits iirc
a choirboy on rugs   funny as fuk   

saw that wasp poster thing somewhere in s london but sortof ignored it


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## treefrog (Feb 11, 2005)

It's tonight!
Seen two trailers, looks like the Office with dafter clothes  Still, I will reserve judgement until I actually see it.


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## Orang Utan (Feb 11, 2005)

ddraig said:
			
		

> yeah, he was on the telly on a a drugs prog bout 2odd years ago.
> they followed him about off his tits iirc
> a choirboy on rugs   funny as fuk



I've just seen a clip of it - well funny!


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## kyser_soze (Feb 11, 2005)

It's probably worth mentioning at this point that if you don't have a clue about what Hoxton or Shoreditch are, what they were like between 1999 and 2002 (less so now) and have never read a 'style' mag like Dazed and Confused or Sleaze Nation, or remember the craze for micro-scooters, mullets and 3/4 length shorts on men...you're really not going to find this remotely amusing.


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## Wolfie (Feb 11, 2005)

sounds like that counts me out then

I thought mullets were a 70's thing


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## secretsquirrel (Feb 11, 2005)

I'm going to be watching it much like a historical documentary type thingy about what life was like way back in those crazy days of nearly being run over by a sodding scooter every 3 mins.

Having had the extreme misfortune to have worked for a 'new meediiaarrr' agency during the bullshit that was the 'dotbomb' era and being surrounded by Nathan Barley-a-likes I think I'll either hate it for reminding me of the worst job of my life or enjoy it in a 'thank fuck I don't have to deal with these people anymore' type way.

Key phrase bandied about at the agency I was with: 'we're going to recontextualise the future'

No you're sodding not. You're going to build a mediocre website with too much sodding flash on it and shite navigation you bunch of cunting coke whores.

Does it still show I was a tad unhappy there?!


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## Orang Utan (Feb 11, 2005)

Many of thepeople who are going to be laughing at it are going to be the people it's taking the piss out of - I've already heard people saying things are 'well weapon'. Just you wait.


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## Griff (Feb 11, 2005)

secretsquirrel said:
			
		

> Key phrase bandied about at the agency I was with: 'we're going to recontextualise the future'



Oh dear.


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## kyser_soze (Feb 11, 2005)

secretsquirrel said:
			
		

> Key phrase bandied about at the agency I was with: 'we're going to recontextualise the future'
> 
> Does it still show I was a tad unhappy there?!



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...I remember when I was working at Fastbridge (Initiative Media's online media buying group) we had some spod from Excite (IIRC) who told us that their website

'Is helping to develop the new, node distributed informational and business tranist paradigm of the 21st century'

I then asked them that if online advertising is 100% trackable, and only 10% of my campaign get's a response do I get the rest of it for nothing. A one minute silence and lots of evil smirks on my collegues faces as the three of them presenting shuffled in their shoes...


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## kyser_soze (Feb 11, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Many of thepeople who are going to be laughing at it are going to be the people it's taking the piss out of - I've already heard people saying things are 'well weapon'. Just you wait.



Ah, but do they know this and are they simply being ultra-ironic and knowing by mockingly saying 'well weapon'? I know I was when I said it in quotes last night while trying to explain Hoxton to an Australian...


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## innit (Feb 11, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I've already heard people saying things are 'well weapon'.


    

I don't think I'm going to enjoy this... I have just had a vile flashback to how bad the tvgohome series actually was, and how much mileage they thought they could get out of the same lame jokes... morris does have a wee tendency to stretch the gag too far as well.

Obviously I will be setting the video anyway though


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## exosculate (Feb 11, 2005)

Is this on tonight? Fantastic. I love it already.


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## akirajoel (Feb 11, 2005)

only a few more hours before i get my heart-broken...

i know its probably gonna be shit and a major let-down but i'm looking foward to it anyway...

damn.


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## exosculate (Feb 11, 2005)

Shit - its pants.


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## Dillinger4 (Feb 11, 2005)

fucking hell


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## agricola (Feb 11, 2005)

Utter, utter genius.  It captured the essence of Barley's beginning on _tvgohome_ simply by making you want him to be stabbed to death every time he appeared, as did his sundry mates at SugarApe.  

The look on Dan's face when he was on the phone while the two guys were playing cock-muff-bumhole in front of his face was what made it for me though, and the general despair of his life (there were several moments when he looked like Christ on the cross, especially when he went back to SugarApe) being the only person, aside from his sister and the receptionist at SugarApe, who isnt a cunt and doesnt speak the language of cuntery.


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## butchersapron (Feb 11, 2005)

Nah.


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## R.I.C.O. (Feb 11, 2005)

*...*

Oh dear. I really expected this to be in the same league as Jam, and instead it was pure rubbish. That main character (with the long hair) looked like he really did'nt care, Nathan Barley was just plain annoying.

Channel 4 have really shot themselves up the arse in the schedules with this one - lame "new" simpsons, followed by this fetid rubbish, followed by wankstain Carr and his "chav" jokes. What a shower of shite....


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## Dead Cat Bounce (Feb 11, 2005)

Dull , dull , dull.

If it got better after the first ten minutes , someone let me know.


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## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 11, 2005)

I enjoyed it.


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## R.I.C.O. (Feb 11, 2005)

*...*

Nah - just more of the same. The characters were so wooden it was unbelievable! Maybe Chris Morris has lost his edge?


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## pinkmonkey (Feb 11, 2005)

We enjoyed it too but I do think its a love it or hate it type of programme -no middle ground.  We hated Barley though - I guess that's the object of the game.


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## Hark the Herald (Feb 11, 2005)

Someone tried to explain to me that its based around one specific person who posts on Urban75.

Any ideas who?


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## agricola (Feb 11, 2005)

Richard,

I thought they were meant to be "braying corpse-eyed puppet people" anyway?  Besides, IMHO the humour was more from Dan and his reaction to the retards around him.


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## Dead Cat Bounce (Feb 11, 2005)

Two years ago it would of been funny , and to think that I stayed in especially for this.

Arse.


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## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 11, 2005)

I thought the sugar ape office was bang on the money - I've been in a few offices like that and they were'nt stretching things that far - scarily.  Its probably the most mainstream thing Morris has done but its still a tighly observed and executed horror comedy for me.


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## exleper (Feb 11, 2005)

Didn't laugh once.  Which, for a comedy, is pretty poor.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a HUGE Chris Morris fan, and I read Charlie Brooker's column with religious-like obsession.  But this is a comedy, and it isn't funny.

Yes, it's well observed - I know people who tell me to 'keep it livid' - but just being well observed a good comedy does not make.  

I'm hugely disappointed.


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## R.I.C.O. (Feb 11, 2005)

*...*

I actually found Dan Ashcroft to be very dull and irritating myself - he was too resigned and there was very little character development. There were no moments where I laughed out loud and that's a problem when the subject is supposed to be a comedy - and the story itself was very flat. I will watch the next episode to see if its any better, but nothing has really persuaded me to watch it again....


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## George & Bill (Feb 11, 2005)

this should have been painful, but instead was just dull. it could have had all the cringeful realism of _the office_, but instead was just a catalogue of wooden exaggerations.

I'm no expert on how tv is put together, but it strikes me for that this sort of thing to be outstanding it takes an outstanding director; this was well conceived and written, but that's where it stopped.


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## Dead Cat Bounce (Feb 11, 2005)

Looking back on the show it had none of the wierdness and/or edge that I usually associate with Mr C Morris , not that the above makes a good TV show but in this case we've seen too many N Barleys powering down Soho on their one inch scoot sticks to make it a cutting / funny TV show.


----------



## Brainaddict (Feb 11, 2005)

eek, very disappointing. I think the problem is that the targets unintentionally satirise themselves so well in real life that there was no work left to do - so the writers didn't bother doing any.


----------



## nick1181 (Feb 11, 2005)

I'm not sure that it was that well observed either. I went through a phase when I was living in Ladbroke Grove surrounded by people who kindof came out of that mold and there's quite a lot of snobbery. There are all these nasty little games of one-upmanship going on the whole time.


----------



## poului (Feb 11, 2005)

*dtyrduy56*

It was ok.



Not much more though.


Will wait to see if it improves.


----------



## Brainaddict (Feb 11, 2005)

nick1181 said:
			
		

> I'm not sure that it was that well observed either. I went through a phase when I was living in Ladbroke Grove surrounded by people who kindof came out of that mold and there's quite a lot of snobbery. There are all these nasty little games of one-upmanship going on the whole time.


 I agree - there were a lot of targets it missed and didn't even make the most of what it did work with. still, it might improve - I'll probably watch it again.


----------



## spartacus mills (Feb 11, 2005)

exleper said:
			
		

> .
> 
> Don't get me wrong - I'm a HUGE Chris Morris fan, and I read Charlie Brooker's column with religious-like obsession.
> Yes, it's well observed  - but just being well observed a good comedy does not make.
> ...



What exleper said.


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 12, 2005)

it wasnt classic morris. and didnt have the same 'feel' as stuff he'd done before.

but i liked it.

 

the meeting was cool. and the sugar rape thing was cool...

but it was all very very very subtle.


----------



## kea (Feb 12, 2005)

the review in Heat this week - 



> The new project from Brass Eye genius Chris Morris (co-created with TV critic Charlie Brooker) is a sitcom revolving around a kind of young David Brent of the wanky London new media world (played by newcomer Nick Burns). His foil is a conflicted style mag journalist (superbly played by The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt) who thinks he's above it all. Full of brilliantly observed detail and, surprisingly, characters you actually care about. 5 stars.




and that's why i didn't watch it.


----------



## Sunspots (Feb 12, 2005)

I enjoyed it, and will keep watching.  

I can't believe it's taken so long for a pisstake of Hoxton to reach the screen though.      

As others have said, the subject is already so ridiculous in real life that parodying it seems almost unnecessary, and 99% of those it targets will never realise that it's talking about _them_.  Not other people they know, but _them._


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 12, 2005)

I thought it was rubbish and switched on my Spaced DVD instead half way through. Barley always struck me as some Patrick Bateman type character, not some clown. The Dan Ashcroft thing didn't work either. Very disappointing that.


----------



## WasGeri (Feb 12, 2005)

It was OK - vaguely amusing, not laugh out loud comedy. I think I would have found it funnier perhaps if I knew people who were like that, but it's not really something I can relate to.


----------



## Pie 1 (Feb 12, 2005)

So my desision to stay in the pub for another pint was the correct one then?



Remind yourselves how good it was on paper 

(Anyone know if it's repeated as I still wouldn't mind seeing it for myself)


----------



## WasGeri (Feb 12, 2005)

kea said:
			
		

> the review in Heat this week -
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I'm concerned that you chose which TV programmes to watch on the basis of reviews in Heat magazine!


----------



## Sunspots (Feb 12, 2005)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> (Anyone know if it's repeated as I still wouldn't mind seeing it for myself)[/SIZE]



Yep: it's on tonight, just after midnight.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Feb 12, 2005)

I liked it, some good moments and some where I didnt laugh but appreciated it for being 'clever' rather than outright funny.


----------



## Jo/Joe (Feb 12, 2005)

I don't think the superficial observations are the point. What struck me was the deep, deep unease, almost Jam like, of the guy stuck in a personal hell. It definetely deserves further viewing.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 12, 2005)

My sources tell me that each episode is going to be very different from the last, so keep watching


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 12, 2005)

I wasn't sure about it last night but watched it again this morning and got a lot more out of it. There are some really good gags in there (the black bloke with the tiny hat made me laugh my arse off) and Julian Barratt (aka the bloke from The Mighty Boosh) is excellent as Dan Ashcroft. It's not as flat out angry as Charlie Brooker's TV Go Home 'Cunt' stuff but near enough for me. 

Also, people on other boards have mentioned how similar at times it is to The Office and I think that's true - Nathan Barley's mannerisms are pure Gervais in at least two scenes and the bit where the editor of the Weekend On Sunday takes out an electric guitar seems similarly influenced by the Brentmeister General.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 12, 2005)

Jo/Joe said:
			
		

> I don't think the superficial observations are the point. What struck me was the deep, deep unease, almost Jam like, of the guy stuck in a personal hell. It definetely deserves further viewing.



Yeah, that's what comes through strongest in a second viewing - you can feel how trapped and desperate Ashcroft is. Amongst the idiots he's a God - which isn't what he wants - and that hurts. Great stuff.


----------



## Isambard (Feb 12, 2005)

A mate of mine who gets British TV is ripping it to DVD    so please do NOT give the plot away too much, cheers muchly.


----------



## Jo/Joe (Feb 12, 2005)

Don't read us! Just in case   

Loved the mp3 decks gag too.

I think there are two currents working, the rapid succession of superficial bollocks, and the deep despair a normal human being should feel when confronted with it.


----------



## rebel warrior (Feb 12, 2005)

Jo/Joe said:
			
		

> I think there are two currents working, the rapid succession of superficial bollocks, and the deep despair a normal human being should feel when confronted with it.



Spot on - I enjoyed it.


----------



## Apathy (Feb 12, 2005)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> I liked it, some good moments and some where I didnt laugh but appreciated it for being 'clever' rather than outright funny.



agree there...

Hopefully it will grow on me more tho


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 12, 2005)

I think those of you expecting Dan Ashcroft to somehow represent 'us' - the non-idiots  - are going to be in for a bit of a disapointment...that would be too obvious and simple i think.


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Feb 12, 2005)

I quite enjoyed it - i was pretty pissed at the time.
The characters that he satarised are those that I rub up against on a regular basis, so it was nice to have my discomfort shared with others.
I'll have to watch it again, only more sober...
Perhaps those on this thread on have given it the thumbs down are a little bit uneasy at being too close to the subject of ridicule...


----------



## Gramsci (Feb 12, 2005)

I can understand some of the criticisms posted here but still liked it.As someone posted its a "horror/comedy".With Dan living in this hell called modern life.

  I also agree with posters who have pointed out that unless you know Shoreditch/media it wont seem that good.

  I do deliveries to media/"post productions facilities" in Soho and sometimes go to Shoreditch.Though Shoreditch is not what it was a few years back.Some of the humour/horror is spot on.However ill wait for next week to see if any of the media types are chatting about it in their "facilities"(the sets in NB are accurate).It might be,as has already been posted,that the very people who its lampooning will like it.This happened to Ab Fab in the fashion industry.The media type might like it as it comes across as sophisticated C4 programming.

  My criticism of NB portrayal is that in fact many of the people who work in htis sector are very bright.The really scary thing is that they will take on board subversive ideas/counterculture and make it work for consumerist Capitalism.This takes a degree of intelligence.NB just makes them look all stupid.

  Trashbat reminded me of Banksies graffiti
  Sugar Ape reminded me of a trendy designer shop off Golden Sq called Bathing Ape.


----------



## Japey (Feb 12, 2005)

It looked quite autobiographical from Chris Morris - he's the Dan Ashcroft character surrounded by people he despises, yet is in many ways dependent on them to make a living.

If that's an accurate parody of NOrth London, then it's another reason to be glad to live in the provinces.


----------



## spartacus mills (Feb 12, 2005)

Morris and Brooker have a 3 page guide to the show's characters in 'The Guide' supplement of today's 'The Guardian'


----------



## kea (Feb 12, 2005)

Geri said:
			
		

> I'm concerned that you chose which TV programmes to watch on the basis of reviews in Heat magazine!




 
more to do with the fact that if the Heat reviewer took it seriously rather than seeing the 'piss-take', then it probably wasn't something i wanted to watch


----------



## Bernie Gunther (Feb 12, 2005)

Japey said:
			
		

> <snip> If that's an accurate parody of NOrth London, then it's another reason to be glad to live in the provinces.


 it is a reasonably accurate, but selective portrait. I lived in Camden for 10 years during the period in quesion, worked with people in Hoxton a fair bit and certainly worked with a lot of those arseholes. They're pretty useless on the whole. The key difference being, once the internet bubble burst, only trustafarians could carry on living that lifestyle. The serious and competent people all ended up working contracts for evil corporations or becoming eco-hippies.


----------



## Belushi (Feb 12, 2005)

Japey said:
			
		

> If that's an accurate parody of NOrth London, then it's another reason to be glad to live in the provinces.



Real Londoners live south of the water mate


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 12, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> I think those of you expecting Dan Ashcroft to somehow represent 'us' - the non-idiots  - are going to be in for a bit of a disapointment...that would be too obvious and simple i think.


 In fact you're idiots. Isn't it obvious?


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 13, 2005)

Why are you watching?


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 13, 2005)

*Passes Ironside the Gaviscon*


----------



## Stavrogin (Feb 13, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> I thought it was rubbish and switched on my Spaced DVD instead half way through. Barley always struck me as some Patrick Bateman type character, not some clown. The Dan Ashcroft thing didn't work either. Very disappointing that.



You like Spaced already, huh?

ANyhow, I can't imagine Private eye won't reference that 3 page 'ad' in the Guardian guide.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 13, 2005)

You're assuming I read the Guardian matey. What was the advert of?


----------



## Stavrogin (Feb 13, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> You're assuming I read the Guardian matey. What was the advert of?



Someone already mentioned this 'character guide' for the show that took up 3 pages... Charlie Brooker writes for the Guardian and it was a blatent attempt to indoctrinate people into the world of Nathan Barley

'Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker explain who and what to watch out for.'

maybe your dissatisfaction with Nate Barley stems from a deep seated lack of a guide to the show


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 13, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> *Passes Ironside the Gaviscon*


 It's true though - it's going to be flipped back on the viewer at a later point, i'm sure of it.


----------



## Isambard (Feb 13, 2005)

watching us watching you watching us watching you.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 13, 2005)

...and it's going to call us all idiots for watching us watching you watching us watching you....

Won't say much more as know you've got someone sending them out out you.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 13, 2005)

WTF?


----------



## Isambard (Feb 13, 2005)

.......but without the adverts mate cos I'm not part of the "product" like you are!          See you for a pint in March I hope.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 13, 2005)

Stavrogin said:
			
		

> Someone already mentioned this 'character guide' for the show that took up 3 pages... Charlie Brooker writes for the Guardian and it was a blatent attempt to indoctrinate people into the world of Nathan Barley
> 
> 'Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker explain who and what to watch out for.'
> 
> maybe your dissatisfaction with Nate Barley stems from a deep seated lack of a guide to the show



But I don't want to read the Guardian.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 13, 2005)

March? Excellent. Bring some of them dog rough eastrn europe fags if you can - i likes them


----------



## Isambard (Feb 13, 2005)

picture went wrong, it was very 90s anyway.


----------



## kakuma (Feb 13, 2005)

the show was ok, but whenever you hear one of your heroes is doing a new piece, you imagine how good it's going to be and it always lets you down

the first episode was a top quality sitcom, but also limited by that. i hope its not a sitcom all the way through cos his brasseye character and Jam were complete genius

optimistic: every time he does something he's shocked me, he's got a whole series to build a fucked up joke to fuck with my head

pessimistic: he's been spending too much time hanging out with the guardian and he actually is nathan barley, not doing any work and living off his 'cool' by producing the empty shells of what he once cared about


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Feb 13, 2005)

It was pretty dire.

It reminded me of that "Look around you" shite from the other week, in that just becuase something is very well observed it isn't automatically funny.


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Feb 13, 2005)

kea said:
			
		

> more to do with the fact that if the Heat reviewer took it seriously rather than seeing the 'piss-take', then it probably wasn't something i wanted to watch



Yeah, but isn't that one of the points of the programme - when Dan Ashcroft wrote the article 'The Rise of the Idiots' none of his workmates, which it was directed at, realised that he was taking a swipe at them.


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Feb 13, 2005)

grtho said:
			
		

> ...it was very 90s anyway.



Straight from the lips of Nathan Barley...


----------



## Vash (Feb 13, 2005)

Oddly enough the www.TVgohome.com website is done replaced by something called spam stop.


----------



## Ace (Feb 13, 2005)

Chris Morris is a poet, a fine impresario and the first true _ media guerilla_ who now seems to be disappearing in the hysteria of his own self-loathing...

For those of us who remember a Mr Orson Welles, the lessons are all there  

We are all to blame


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 13, 2005)

Vash said:
			
		

> Oddly enough the www.TVgohome.com website is done replaced by something called spam stop.



Luckily it's all archived here http://thegestalt.org/simon/cunt/


----------



## treefrog (Feb 14, 2005)

Was pretty good, but I think I'll reserve judgement until after I see episode 2 (or episode 1 at a decent time of day and sober)


----------



## magneze (Feb 14, 2005)

I missed this. Is it repeated at another time?


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 14, 2005)

Worth watching the second ep I reckon.

Now then...is Ashcroft MOrris/Brooker in one person? Both of them write great stuff which is devoured by a largely metropolitan audience (remember the snob value in 'getting' the paedogeddon Brass Eye thing? Secretly smirking at all the idiots that tuned in and were outraged and hoffified by it, who had no idea who Chris Morris was?); Brooker from TVgohome onwards writing funny, angry stuff on the edges of mainstream journalism that he's carried through to Screen Burn?...the main audience for both writers is 25-40 year olds who 'get' irony, who will discuss media subversion by comedy, who will laugh at Brookers long sentenced death warrants on deserving mirco-celebs...

So we have to ask...was the show actually written to be any good, or are Brooker and Morris taking the piss by creating a deliberately mediocre/crap show in order to take the piss out of the audience who will be/are split down the middle about it's merits, with some arguing that it's a well observed social satire and others that it's just a great deal of noise and motion signifying fuck all? And are Morris and Brooker sat back laughing at the audience in that not only does the show take the piss out of media types generally in it's scripting, but by being deliberately shite they are also taking the piss out of 'their' audience (who generally consider themselves to be pretty bright, have a better than 50% chance of being a graduate, probably relatively well informed about politics and generally 'aware') precisely for the fact we're having a discussion about whether it's any good, and wanky criticism and commentary like this very post, asking a question that maybe assumes too much intention and 'knowingness' on the part of the show's creators...


----------



## treefrog (Feb 14, 2005)

My brain hurts. I think I'll go and watch some Thundercats in a post-modern knowing way and have a lie down...


----------



## innit (Feb 14, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> So we have to ask...was the show actually written to be any good, or are Brooker and Morris taking the piss by creating a deliberately mediocre/crap show in order to take the piss out of the audience who will be/are split down the middle about it's merits, with some arguing that it's a well observed social satire and others that it's just a great deal of noise and motion signifying fuck all?


A very good question IMO 

Not that I can answer it of course.  I dunno, I didn't laugh once and thought on the whole that the observations were a bit lazy and not that sharp, which of course is not what you would expect from either Messrs Brooker or Morris.  I also thought that the humour of cunt was in the vicious verbosity of his tirades about NB, which couldn't possibly be translated into the script (hence presumably Ashcroft's article), and not really the content.

I really think I would have found this a lot funnier when I was first reading tvgohome as a poor student, rather than now that I have several good friends who work in the media and like buying expensive tshirts in skate shops.  As I was thinking to myself yesterday while drinking my hazelnut latte, "we are all Nathan Barley now".

(er except I'm sure lots of you aren't.  No offence like )


----------



## DrRingDing (Feb 14, 2005)

I challenge anyone after watching that to be able to walk down Brick Lane without muttering  "self-facilitating media node" under their breath.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 14, 2005)

> I really think I would have found this a lot funnier when I was first reading tvgohome as a poor student, rather than now that I have several good friends who work in the media and like buying expensive tshirts in skate shops. As I was thinking to myself yesterday while drinking my hazelnut latte, "we are all Nathan Barley now".



People watching the series will fall into one of the two main characters - The Nathans and The Dans - we're all Dans, in that we laughed at Cunt, generally rip the piss out of Hoxtonite mores and overpriced sk8r ts on 30 yr olds and 'get' that NB is ripping the piss out of them and realise that in a very real way that the Dans are just as much a Nathan for out smugness...

Hazelnut latté eh Innit? Had me a Hazelnit cappucino this morning


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 14, 2005)

actually better than i thought it would be, whilst not as good as it should have been. if that makes sense.. and shifting emphasis from Barley to Dan was a wise move, gives it some depth it wouldn't have had otherwise


----------



## Pieface (Feb 14, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> So we have to ask...was the show actually written to be any good, or are Brooker and Morris taking the piss by creating a deliberately mediocre/crap show in order to take the piss out of the audience who will be/are split down the middle about it's merits, with some arguing that it's a well observed social satire and others that it's just a great deal of noise and motion signifying fuck all? And are Morris and Brooker sat back laughing at the audience in that not only does the show take the piss out of media types generally in it's scripting, but by being deliberately shite they are also taking the piss out of 'their' audience (who generally consider themselves to be pretty bright, have a better than 50% chance of being a graduate, probably relatively well informed about politics and generally 'aware') precisely for the fact we're having a discussion about whether it's any good, and wanky criticism and commentary like this very post, asking a question that maybe assumes too much intention and 'knowingness' on the part of the show's creators...




Aaaarrrrgh!!

<bangs head on desk>

I just wanted to laugh   

I did feel that there was an in-joke that turned on me - I became the subject of the joke for getting it - part of that irony culture...."Suga Rape" for eg.  I don't particularly mind that - but I think it is an evil culture that leaves no space for sincerity and truth and makes you feel there's nothing genuine in modern life.  And perhaps there isn't??   His other stuff has the same vein running through it - it all walks a deliberately fine line between amusing and depressing by turns.

Makes me feel tired   

Edit - omg - I think I'm that Dan bloke


----------



## treefrog (Feb 14, 2005)

DoUsAFavour said:
			
		

> I challenge anyone after watching that to be able to walk down Brick Lane without muttering  "self-facilitating media node" under their breath.


 You don't do that normally?


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 14, 2005)

I unreservedly thought it was ace, after expecting to be disappointed cos of hype... just really funny, and not just "clever" funny but properly cringing funny, as good as the Office could be... but i'm quite glad i hadn't read all this analysis of it before watching!


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 14, 2005)

*The twisted brain wrong of a one off man mental*

agree with kaisers comments..  

i reckon the shiteness of episode 1 is obviously deliberate (especially the office like stuff, barley's awkward mannerisms are a direct immitation of david brent) .. either the entire thing will be like this and we're fools for talking about it, OR as I suspect, the initial blandness is a set up for a morrisian style nightmarish unfolding of events

ashcroft's column is a cunning way to get in some really vitriolic/surreal tvgohome style material that otherwise wouldnt translate to a tv series


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 14, 2005)

I thought it was just dandy. Pretentious wankers are fun to despise, hats off to Brooker for that I think. On the other hand, the shadow of Morris was obvious in some of the little details, things I didn't spot until a second viewing. The funniest part? The sight gag in the Weekend on Sunday office, with the framed magazine cover offering an insight into 'Tom Paulin: Haunted by Rumour'. Damn near pissed myself.


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 14, 2005)

wot brainaddict said..

i won't watch the second one.. unless it gets a bad review from Heat Magazine. 

(or a good review from brainy )


not that I read Heat Magazine...


----------



## George & Bill (Feb 14, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> but it was all very very very subtle.



about as subtle as a smack round the head with the fat end of a snooker cue.


----------



## spacemonkey (Feb 14, 2005)

All this show (and thread) has done is make me want to re-read tvgohome.....but what the fuck is that spam-stop thing?? How long has it been there?  that archive link is just for nathan barley.....i want to read the entries about "children being slapped with breath-taking force by santas unforgiving hand"


----------



## Random (Feb 15, 2005)

I never knew the Brookner TV reviewer was the same as the TVgo home guy  

To me his columns in the gurdian guide have the same hyped-up workaday hatred that you find in all reviews the se days.  Only real piss-ripping or real praise is intersting to much of the Grauniad's audeince, and CB' reviews seemed to be playing this by numbers.


----------



## spacemonkey (Feb 15, 2005)

Has anyone else discovered all the websites behind  "www.spamstop.co.uk"

www.thechipfactory.co.uk is one of the 'testomonials'  on the site which links you to http://www.madeinshoreditch.com/    it seems very clever, but to clever for my feeble brain so can someone else make sense of it all....

that or i've fucked up & should go to bed.....


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 15, 2005)

slowjoe said:
			
		

> about as subtle as a smack round the head with the fat end of a snooker cue.



compared to other morris stuff, yeah, sure - whatever.


----------



## our-streets (Feb 15, 2005)

people that think the first episode was _deliberately_ shit... wtf?!


----------



## DrRingDing (Feb 15, 2005)

I think a lot of people here have forgot Chris Morris has hit the mediocre middle ages and thus is never going to produce anything quite as hard hitting as previous work. IMO of course


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 15, 2005)

our-streets said:
			
		

> people that think the first episode was _deliberately_ shit... wtf?!



Think about it:

Morris and Brooker both loath and despise the NBs of this world.
NB is a piss take of those people, and one of the cetral conceits of the humour (and this goes back to Morris' fake interviews with celebs who are up themselves) is that more than one or two members of the audience (in fact probably most of them) ARE Nathan Barleys. They'll watch a programme that rips the piss out of them, possibly without knowing that they are having the piss taken out of them.
However, it's entirely possible that M&B are taking the piss out of everyone watching it - people will have tuned in because of who wrote it - and that they are turning round and saying 'Fuck you all. You're all snog head gibber hands and we're going to insult your intelligence by writing a really shite show, which you will watch, and you'll laugh at because you think it's cool, and you'll debate it endlessly on internet messageboards like it means something. In fact for you it probbaly does, sat there with your greying skin and plummeting fertility as the radiation from your VDU sterilises you, you stupid fucking spiky haired, bell bottomed piece of encrusted pre-cum flaking off the end of a badger's cock' 

Either way, having watched it again last night after Dogstar (and having the benefit of a TiVO) there is so much stuff going on in the background, the props and extras, it's truly touched by Morris genius.

And even if TVGH is down, at least Unnovations is as funny as ever...


----------



## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 15, 2005)

our-streets said:
			
		

> people that think the first episode was _deliberately_ shit... wtf?!



Yes indeed, wtf.  I'm sure Morris would love to think that the media literate have disected his work to that degree and out-doublethought him...or has he triplethought us...?.  He might possibly even manage a wry chuckle.

Ah yes Nathan Barey.  Its his first Sitcom ffs.  If anyone other than Morris had brought this to air we'd all think it was great - maybe we need to take it for what it is intead of waiting for the obligatory Brass Eye funny phrasing or Jam ultra weirdness. Its really not as bad as everyones making out!


----------



## our-streets (Feb 15, 2005)

People that think its deliberately shit and actually like it because of that are 'idiots'


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 15, 2005)

our-streets said:
			
		

> People that think its deliberately shit and actually like it because of that are 'idiots'



Yeah, you're getting it now...



> Yes indeed, wtf. I'm sure Morris would love to think that the media literate have disected his work to that degree and out-doublethought him...or has he triplethought us...?. He might possibly even manage a wry chuckle.



Why not? The logical extension of the piss take interviews is to rip the piss out of your audience both in the characters in the show and the show itself...


----------



## our-streets (Feb 15, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Yeah, you're getting it now...
> 
> 
> 
> Why not? The logical extension of the piss take interviews is to rip the piss out of your audience both in the characters in the show and the show itself...




No, I agreee with Sigmund - I actually thought it was pretty good and you're deluded if you really think it was made to be deliberately shit.  IMO.


----------



## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 15, 2005)

Because the man has had such meticulous attention to detail over everything he's done, employed the highest possible productions standards and had to stand by his work in the face of considerable media outrage and various TV executives baying for his blood...personally I don't think he's capable of intentionally making something 'shit'.


----------



## fractionMan (Feb 15, 2005)

Well it made me laugh.

Hands up anyone who's visited trashbat.co.ck?


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 15, 2005)

our-streets said:
			
		

> No, I agreee with Sigmund - I actually thought it was pretty good and you're deluded if you really think it was made to be deliberately shit.  IMO.



I was positing it as a possible since you never know with Morris. 'Deluded'? possibly. Prepared to believe that Morris and Brooker are completely taking the piss? Definitely.

I thought it was pretty good after 2 viewings.


----------



## Chorlton (Feb 15, 2005)

this thread is life imitating art and thats all i have to say on the matter


<microscooters off into the sunset>


----------



## jonead (Feb 15, 2005)

aye yep, not bad at all 

i just kept thinking 'garf, it's agrf' the whole way through.  Urban 75's own lil' NB.


----------



## Jenerys (Feb 15, 2005)

jonead said:
			
		

> aye yep, not bad at all
> 
> i just kept thinking 'garf, it's agrf' the whole way through.  Urban 75's own lil' NB.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 15, 2005)

Well I thought it was pretty funny actually.  Can't be arsed with all this analysis tbh.  Sometimes I like humour that kind of gets under your skin that you can mull over for days afterwards, and which you can go back to more than once.  Looking forward to episode 2.


----------



## moneypenny (Feb 15, 2005)

I didn't know it was Chris Morris until the end credits, being my habit only to watch television, not to read about it as well, and thought it was hilarious, and ticked off all the Nathans I know living In The Smoke

but what are the rumours haunting Tom Paulin?  Not that media-savvy, alas ...


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

Who is Tom Paulin that's what I want to know.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

Idiot


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> Idiot



Who me? That's a bit harsh, pops. Or Tom Paulin?


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

Both - you laughed at Chris Morris therefore you're an idiot. You didn't laugh? You're also an idiot. You're an idiot for not knowing or caring who Tom Paulin is. Or for knowing and caring. You're esp an idiot if you ask what the show's trying to do.


----------



## our-streets (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> Both - you laughed at Chris Morris therefore you're an idiot. You didn't laugh? You're also an idiot. You're an idiot for not knowing or caring who Tom Paulin is. Or for knowing and caring.




You idiot.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

our-streets said:
			
		

> You idiot.


 Ah, meta-idiocy


----------



## moneypenny (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> Both - you laughed at Chris Morris therefore you're an idiot. You didn't laugh? You're also an idiot. You're an idiot for not knowing or caring who Tom Paulin is. Or for knowing and caring. You're esp an idiot if you ask what the show's trying to do.



isn't he the miserable-sounding Northern Irish poet who's into suicide-bombing, or something?


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 15, 2005)

this is all well plastic.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

I fucking hate London.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 15, 2005)

And London hates you back.


----------



## our-streets (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> I fucking hate London.




But London is _deliberately_ shit.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> I fucking hate London.



You hate your pre-conceived image of London.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

No, i hate London.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> No, i hate London.



And all people from London?


----------



## Belushi (Feb 15, 2005)

I love London me   

I loathe the country, I don't even like seeing it on the telly.

Horses for courses innit.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> And all people from London?


 No.

I've never been though. Maybe i should?

Not too keen on this new literalist Ern character though.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

What does literalist mean please?

No its okay I just checked. Soz, I need a fag.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

Nor this polite one...


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> Nor this polite one...



Go fuck yrself wheels!


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

Now we're cooking!


----------



## moneypenny (Feb 15, 2005)

not helping on my nagging Paulin-worries, interesting though your views on The Great Wen are ...


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> Now we're cooking!



I hate myself when I'm sober.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

moneypenny said:
			
		

> not helping on my nagging Paulin-worries, interesting though your views on The Great Wen are ...


 That is he.


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 15, 2005)

I met Chris Morris once, he was really nice, I don't think he would take the piss out of me for liking his programme.


----------



## Gramsci (Feb 15, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> I was positing it as a possible since you never know with Morris. 'Deluded'? possibly. Prepared to believe that Morris and Brooker are completely taking the piss? Definitely.
> 
> I thought it was pretty good after 2 viewings.



  It might mean something different to you than other viewers.On your profile it says you work in the Advertising industry.

  For someone like me whose seen these kinds if people taking over local pubs etc it good to laugh at the twats.I know im not one of them.When New Labour were into Cool Britannia and the Dot.com bubble hadnt burst it looked liked these kind of people would be the new yuppies.

  However the dotcom bubble burst.New Labour went for Middle England and "Terrorism" instead.The advertising industry went into a downturn it has yet to recover from.So in some ways NB is historical as IMO.Its ridiculing a type of people who time has come and gone.

  This has not been without its effects though.Shoreditch/Clerkenwell is now full of Loft Apartments etc that the Trashbats of the world cant afford.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 15, 2005)

> The advertising industry went into a downturn it has yet to recover from



It went into a downturn for 2 years (01 & 02) but ad budgets have been on the up for the last two years, with direct mail, online and radio the main beneficiaries, with national press advertising and terrestrial TV being the biggest loosers.

And I pointed out that it's about 2 years to late a lot earlier on in the thread - if it had been produced when TVGH was running it would have been far more relevant.

And please - drop the 'taking over local pubs' bit. Obvioulsy in your world no one would ever be allowed to move house or location and everything would be great and happy.


----------



## treefrog (Feb 15, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> It went into a downturn for 2 years (01 & 02) but ad budgets have been on the up for the last two years, with direct mail, online and radio the main beneficiaries, with national press advertising and terrestrial TV being the biggest loosers.
> 
> And I pointed out that it's about 2 years to late a lot earlier on in the thread - if it had been produced when TVGH was running it would have been far more relevant.
> 
> And please - drop the 'taking over local pubs' bit. Obvioulsy in your world no one would ever be allowed to move house or location and everything would be great and happy.


 I love this bizarre idea that by moving to a new locale you can turn a spit and sawdust place into a Gastropub called the Blade and Mirror or somesuch bollocks. As a longtime nomad, I've never found that by entering a new local I've magically transformed it into the kind of place that sells chargrilled root vegetables with fruits de la mer instead of a ham and cheese toastie. Though maybe they wait until I've left...


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

Maybe there's more people than you alone?


----------



## treefrog (Feb 15, 2005)

there are? I assumed you were all figments of my imagination, with the exception of pub landlords...


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

No, people collectively taking over an area and harming the previous residents in the process is real. _Very real_ in fact.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> No, people collectively taking over an area and harming the previous residents in the process is real. _Very real_ in fact.



Rascist!


----------



## tarannau (Feb 15, 2005)

Thing is, I was there with Gramsci the day the Barleys took over the local.

Awful it was. First came the sound; an awful pounding, distant at first, but the sound of the Spacehoppers grew ever louder. And then, seconds later, a crack team of infesters burst into the pub on scooter en masse, propulsion leg pumping ever faster and Hoxton fins a'quivering. 

The locals, terrified by the slogan t-shirts and the sharply-peaked branded baseball caps, could not hold for long. They grabbed whatever they could; pickled eggs, flat caps and ancient grudges mainly, and headed for the high ground of Wetherspoons, where they could be cantankerous about the young and wee in their trews without distraction. 

It happened exactly like that. Honest. A dark day for Brixton...


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

A dark day for us all.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

Long live JD Wetherspoons.


----------



## innit (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> No, people collectively taking over an area and harming the previous residents in the process is real. _Very real_ in fact.


The town where I grew up has been "taken over" by London overspill to the extent that an ordinary house in a street where some of my schoolfriends used to live now costs a million quid (although this comes with a free side helping of Dame Kiri te Kanawa as a neighbour).  However this has made no difference (that I can see) to the local pubs, where the prices were always high anyway, and the same people are drinking there as ever did.

I have also observed this failure of people to "take over" pubs in London - I used to live near the Cambria, which was very deliberately refurbed to model itself on the Sun and Doves (unsuccessfully imo as the colour scheme looks to me as though Changing Rooms have done out a creche).  There was a lot of talk about the "demographics" of the area.  None of this affected the fact that the pub is the local for the blokes who work at the London Electricity works, and they were not about to give up their place at the bar /  pool table / fruit machine just because the new chef was making poncy fishcakes.  A fact I celebrated at the time


----------



## treefrog (Feb 15, 2005)

Ah, the stoicism of the noble flatcap, triumphing against the fishcake of adversity.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

innit said:
			
		

> The town where I grew up has been "taken over" by London overspill to the extent that an ordinary house in a street where some of my schoolfriends used to live now costs a million quid (although this comes with a free side helping of Dame Kiri te Kanawa as a neighbour).  However this has made no difference (that I can see) to the local pubs, where the prices were always high anyway, and the same people are drinking there as ever did.
> 
> I have also observed this failure of people to "take over" pubs in London - I used to live near the Cambria, which was very deliberately refurbed to model itself on the Sun and Doves (unsuccessfully imo as the colour scheme looks to me as though Changing Rooms have done out a creche).  There was a lot of talk about the "demographics" of the area.  None of this affected the fact that the pub is the local for the blokes who work at the London Electricity works, and they were not about to give up their place at the bar /  pool table / fruit machine just because the new chef was making poncy fishcakes.  A fact I celebrated at the time


 Well done - i've seen pubs taken over. One all. All your points proves is that it may not happen in certain circumstances, not that it never happens. The point you make about house prices would be of more direct relavence though:

"The town where I grew up has been "taken over" by London overspill to the extent that an ordinary house in a street where some of my schoolfriends used to live now costs a million quid"

Cue the 'how could i, on my own, do this?' You didn't.


----------



## past caring (Feb 15, 2005)

Just thought I'd butt in to say that posts 15, 16 and 17 on this thread - sheer class.

Might have to go on that urbanite funny quotes thread.....extra.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 15, 2005)

past caring said:
			
		

> Just thought I'd butt in to say that posts 15, 16 and 17 on this thread - sheer class.
> 
> Might have to go on that urbanite funny quotes thread.....extra.



Oh aye! Just seen that! 
 I had a good one with him the other day - check the Dustbin forum. We had a field day.


----------



## tarannau (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> Well done - i've seen pubs taken over. One all. All your points proves is that it may not happen in certain circumstances, not that it never happens. The point you make about house prices would be of more direct relavence though:
> 
> "The town where I grew up has been "taken over" by London overspill to the extent that an ordinary house in a street where some of my schoolfriends used to live now costs a million quid"
> 
> Cue the 'how could i, on my own, do this?' You didn't.



What do you mean by taken over though? One of the things that gets me is that the folks moaning about pubs changing in a local area are often the same ones that have been drinking in newly established, low-priced beer barns like Wetherspoons - as ruthlessly branded and cynically operated chain as any fast food giant. 

It's easy to blame the newcomers and the young for changing an area, but the established community must take up the slack and support local independent businesses too. Sadly - and I'm speaking as a Brixton local who used to be a pub (and Wetherspoons) manager - many locals are all too eager to discount their role, or their family's role, in the changes happening to the area.

Anyway, this thread's about Nathan Barley - let's take the serious crap elsewhere...


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

Agreed - but i'm not on about Brixton anyway!


----------



## tarannau (Feb 15, 2005)

butchersapron said:
			
		

> Agreed - but i'm not on about Brixton anyway!



The points stand though for other areas though. I'm just adding the Brixton reference for Gramsci's benefit more than anything.

Pubs don't generally don't get taken over and re-launched successfully unless they were failing in some way previously. Too many 'community boozers' I've known have failed to adequately reach out to anything other than their established locals - leading even to their offspring going to the horribly branded cheap beer houses elsewhere (Yeats etc)  and  accelerating the process.

A business/area/pub generally has to evolve to keep its original spirit intact - it's not about freezing the past in aspic because that's how it used to be/should be.


----------



## Giles (Feb 15, 2005)

Speaking of Nathan Barley - I feel SO sorry for people actually called Nathan Barley - and according to www.192.com there are a handful of REAL Nathan Barleys on the electoral rolls, including at least one in London.

I wonder if every time they tell someone their name there's a chorus of "Cunt!"????

Giles..


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 15, 2005)

tarannau said:
			
		

> The points stand though for other areas though. I'm just adding the Brixton reference for Gramsci's benefit more than anything.
> 
> Pubs don't generally don't get taken over and re-launched successfully unless they were failing in some way previously. Too many 'community boozers' I've known have failed to adequately reach out to anything other than their established locals - leading even to their offspring going to the horribly branded cheap beer houses elsewhere (Yeats etc)  and  accelerating the process.
> 
> A business/area/pub generally has to evolve to keep its original spirit intact - it's not about freezing the past in aspic because that's how it used to be/should be.


 Ok, so lets concentrate on the housing issue....that's whe the real social problems come in...


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Feb 15, 2005)

Didn't see the whole thing, watched about 15 minutes of it thought "oh this is someone ripping off u75 and kidults etc" and turned over. Bring back The Day Today I say.


----------



## tarannau (Feb 15, 2005)

Kid_Eternity said:
			
		

> Didn't see the whole thing, watched about 15 minutes of it thought "oh this is someone ripping off u75 and kidults etc" and turned over. Bring back The Day Today I say.



Oh, so it's not brilliant like The Day Today or Brass Eye, but it still made me giggle. And the latest trailer looks like the series could get darker and more interesting. 

More Chris Morris on TV isn't a bad thing in my book...


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Feb 15, 2005)

tarannau said:
			
		

> More Chris Morris on TV isn't a bad thing in my book...



But if it isn't very good what's the point? I'd prefer him to do things like the pedo  Brass Eye every couple of years and piss everyone off than do stuff alot and it have little of no impact (or not be very good).


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 15, 2005)

This IS the first thing he's done since BE and Jam tho, aside from nebulous stuff like creative assistance on Nighty Night IIRC.

Haven't seen the new trailer yet, but I think NBs penchant for Eastern European girls is going to sublimate itself into Dan's sisters panties...


----------



## tarannau (Feb 15, 2005)

Kid_Eternity said:
			
		

> But if it isn't very good what's the point? I'd prefer him to do things like the pedo  Brass Eye every couple of years and piss everyone off than do stuff alot and it have little of no impact (or not be very good).



But you can't redo Brass Eye can you - those shows were near perfect, but they've got a naturally short shelf life. You can't keep surprising and shocking folks to such effect. Any more would dilute a fantastic series and idea,  not add to it.

I really wanted to like Jam and Blue Jam - in many ways logical extensions of the same disturbing themes - but, frankly, they weren't particularly good fun to watch. Think of Nathan Barley as a flipside of those programmes - much more easily accessible and outwardly a little lightweight, but with the potential to say more than first appears.

I'm giving it another go at least. It's not Brass Eye, but it's still better than the vast majority of things on the small screen at the moment...


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 15, 2005)

> but, frankly, they weren't particularly good fun to watch.



No, but it was fucking funny. Dark beyond belief, and hugely disturbing, but fucking funny....4 foot car...ha ahahahahahahahahaha


----------



## tarannau (Feb 15, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> No, but it was fucking funny. Dark beyond belief, and hugely disturbing, but fucking funny....4 foot car...ha ahahahahahahahahaha



Occasionally there were some laugh out loud moments, but other times it did seem like they were trying a bit too hard. Another series of more of the same (but even more disturbing) may have been a little too much even for me...


----------



## stdPikachu (Feb 15, 2005)

Grr, not having net access and being unable to partake in conversations SUCKS! Fuck you, BT.

Anyway. When I first watched Barley, I was a tad disappointed. There weren't really any laugh-out-loud Brass Eye-esque moments, and I thought for a minute the Morris/Brooker combo had lost it.

Thankfully, my uber-cool TV machine saved it for me, and after repeated viewings I'm beginning to look on it as uber-genius in the making, particularly WRT to the way it's affected the people who've watched it. Already we're seeing people (myself included) reiterating such choice catchphrases as Well Fucking Futile and Totally Jackson. Are we doing it out of self-parody, or just cos we think it's Cool? Are we indeed the idiots Ashcroooooooooooft! is railing against? I think it's a fairly subtle way to remind us that the programme is taking the piss out of alot of people who are in fact watching and loving it from a sense of Post Ironic Normality. It's a comedy that's taking the piss on multiple levels, and the more you watch it, the mroe you notice how finely judged the whole thing is.

And instead of proving my point further, I'm going to use my remaining internet time to hightail off and post some other meaningless bollocks.


----------



## tom k&e (Feb 16, 2005)

Nathan Barley really exists;

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1462926

Stupid kid gets 40 grand of CC debt working on media projects and gets daddy to pay it off!


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

fuck me I didn't see the first one but this is pure shite....  

I normally love Chris Morris, used to listen to his mental show on Radio 1 when he got booted off...but this is dated and has barely struck a chord at all....hasn't made me laugh once.....its like something a clueless cunt would make about hoxton 3 years ago....YAWN


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

jesus christ that was a bag of shite. My dad could have made  funnier from 2 good articles about new media and old street zanyness in general. Very poorly observed and without humour....

and I've loved everything Morris has done up to this low-point. Nathan Barley: shitter than your average.


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 18, 2005)

I thought tonight's was ace. Not only was it brilliantly horrible to watch, it deftly manipulated the viewer. The scene where Clare was watching the video with that ridiculous singing guy made me titter slightly, but when Nathan started doing the same I was a bit shocked. Morris is forcing us to identify with his hateful characters. I think it was pure genius, a thousand times more subtle than his previous work.


----------



## marty21 (Feb 18, 2005)

it's getting better with every show...genius...


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 18, 2005)

marty21 said:
			
		

> it's getting better with every show...genius...



again i was in and missed it .. fucks sake !


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> I thought tonight's was ace. Not only was it brilliantly horrible to watch, it deftly manipulated the viewer. The scene where Clare was watching the video with that ridiculous singing guy made me titter slightly, but when Nathan started doing the same I was a bit shocked. Morris is forcing us to identify with his hateful characters. I think it was pure genius, a thousand times more subtle than his previous work.



no no no. It is just purely bad material. A comedy programme should make you laugh. This didn't. Once. I didn't even get close and I've had quite a few drinks and that. And yes I laughed a lot at Day Today. Jam. His Radio stuff and Brass Eye. This is just fucking shite. Like someone trying to break into telly and trying too hard or summat....
  maybe the nu meeja are too easy a target, I dunno.....


----------



## chooch (Feb 18, 2005)

I'm liking it. The last five minutes of today's was fingers on blackboard stuff.


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

marty21 said:
			
		

> it's getting better with every show...genius...



*shakes head* it is shite.....I'm shocked at you marty...please explain the appeal......

and the main person is entirely unbelievable as a character of satire or anything else for that matter.....no-one that muppet like ever existed in 'that' scene, he would have been brutally jettisoned very quickly...


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> no no no. It is just purely bad material. A comedy programme should make you laugh. This didn't. Once. I didn't even get close and I've had quite a few drinks and that. And yes I laughed a lot at Day Today. Jam. His Radio stuff and Brass Eye. This is just fucking shite. Like someone trying to break into telly and trying too hard or summat....
> maybe the nu meeja are too easy a target, I dunno.....



Well it made me laugh. Half the time I was just flabberghasted at how clever it was. But then I'm the sort of feckless student this show is probably aimed at.


----------



## marty21 (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> *shakes head* it is shite.....I'm shocked at you marty...please explain the appeal......
> 
> and the main person is entirely unbelievable as a character of satire or anything else for that matter.....no-one that muppet like ever existed in 'that' scene, he would have been brutally jettisoned very quickly...



i like the little touches, it's not laugh out loud funny true (well obviously more so for you) the "i fuck nuns" teeshirt, the cheesy 80s remixes at trash bat's gig, his awful rapping, the guy wearing a bee keepers outfit....


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> Well it made me laugh. Half the time I was just flabberghasted at how clever it was. But then I'm the sort of feckless student this show is probably aimed at.




It aint clever - it is very poorly and lazily observed.....3 years ago it might have struck a chord....but as its subject matter - dickhead achingly pretentious new media types have moved on - its scoring a big fat miss IMO....


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

marty21 said:
			
		

> it's not laugh funny...



true....
 

I dunno. Just seems like he is missing really striking what is a very easy target. And thats shit for a man of his undoubted abilities.....


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> It aint clever - it is very poorly and lazily observed.....3 years ago it might have struck a chord....but as its subject matter - dickhead achingly pretentious new media types have moved on - its scoring a big fat miss IMO....



you're just trying to look clever by saying that


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

LostNotFound said:
			
		

> you're just trying to look clever by saying that



not really. Just I thought the programme was shite. Like really shite.


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> not really. Just I thought the programme was shite. Like really shite.



You square.


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> You square.



hehe if only. I think Morris is showing himself to be out of touch......maaaannn


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 18, 2005)

This programme's what I imagine PROD/Offline/Stuff like that to be like. Someone tell me it ain't so...


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> This programme's what I imagine PROD/Offline/Stuff like that to be like. Someone tell me it ain't so...



roflmao.....
  

*no comment*


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 18, 2005)

Well I thought it was funny.  Nice to see the _other_ guy from Boosh in there too - loved his pretentious musician character.    The beekeeper thing - reminded me of Graham Lewis from Wire who had a pseudonymous "turn" as The Beekeeper, used to play records from inside a shed in the club.    Liked the way Dan Ashcroft got into the tramp racing - and how the camera lingered so that we get to enjoy it too.  Also thought it was a nice touch that the more Ashcroft tried to tell everybody to shut up and that he wasn't a preacher, the more preachery he looked.  Definite thumbs up from me.


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Well I thought it was funny.  Nice to see the _other_ guy from Boosh in there too - loved his pretentious musician character.    The beekeeper thing - reminded me of Graham Lewis from Wire who had a pseudonymous "turn" as The Beekeeper, used to play records from inside a shed in the club.    Liked the way Dan Ashcroft got into the tramp racing - and how the camera lingered so that we get to enjoy it too.  Also thought it was a nice tough that the more Ashcroft tried to tell everybody to shut up and that he wasn't a preacher, the more preachery he looked.  Definite thumbs up from me.



do you not think it plays on such old stereotypes as to make itself irrelevant? like these people do/did exist but honestly its like shooting fish in a barrel...and its so shitly observed he's blowing mostly the sides of the barrel and not the fish...it made me feel numb....


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> roflmao.....
> 
> 
> *no comment*




 

I'm just a bum who lives in Sutton whose idea of a good time is to tile his kitchen wall caned on Calvados!


----------



## chooch (Feb 18, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Liked the way Dan Ashcroft got into the tramp racing


Thought that was the main moment. Captured something ineffably awful.


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 18, 2005)

blah blah fucking blah ... its outta date 3/4/5 years out of date... that scene is so over... people are more into mp3s or whatever...

YOU ARE ALL FUCKING NATHAN BARLEYS!!!

Its not a show thats trying to be fucking 'cool' you stupid nonces!
Its not your typical sit-com...

It is very very good. I liked the 2nd episode even more than the first...

Definietly a 'grower'

The tramp vegas was brilliant. Very clever viewer manipulation. blah. blah.

You either get it or you don't... 

Well weapon.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 18, 2005)

I always find it funny when pretentiousness is lampooned - why is it so important that it has to be up-to-the-nanosecond pretentiousness?


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 18, 2005)

stupid people will think its cool. cool people will think its a joke therefore cool...

jonny depp: am i a twat?


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> blah blah fucking blah ... its outta date 3/4/5 years out of date... that scene is so over... people are more into mp3s or whatever...
> 
> YOU ARE ALL FUCKING NATHAN BARLEYS!!!
> 
> ...




jesus h christ. I get all his stuff. This is just shite.

Hey akira - no one is saying its trying to be cool - but in comedy you stand and fall by the relevance of what you 'observe'. And it is no longer relevant. In fact it is very dated. And the 'jokes' such as they are, are at very easy targets. And they are still missing. Intellectualise it all you like. It is pants.


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 18, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> YOU ARE ALL FUCKING NATHAN BARLEYS!!!



haha, nowt wrong with trying to incite a bit of board argument

ironically of course


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> jesus h christ. I get all his stuff. This is just shite.
> 
> Hey akira - no one is saying its trying to be cool - but in comedy you stand and fall by the relevance of what you 'observe'. And it is no longer relevant. In fact it is very dated. And the 'jokes' such as they are, are at very easy targets. And they are still missing. Intellectualise it all you like. It is pants.



morris has the turned the tables 180 degress and is now in fact observing YOU THE VIEWER


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> - why is it so important that it has to be up-to-the-nanosecond pretentiousness?



wot the hell is the point of pretension then if you aren't up to speed....


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

LostNotFound said:
			
		

> morris has the turned the tables 180 degress and is now in fact observing YOU THE VIEWER



yeh yeh. Thats right. He's just got me a can of ironic cider from my ironic fridge ,in ironic hackney an all....


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> jesus h christ. I get all his stuff. This is just shite.
> 
> Hey akira - no one is saying its trying to be cool - but in comedy you stand and fall by the relevance of what you 'observe'. And it is no longer relevant. In fact it is very dated. And the 'jokes' such as they are, are at very easy targets. And they are still missing. Intellectualise it all you like. It is pants.



i thought that comdey was about what was funny.

i watched it - thought it was funny. laughed out loud a couple of times...

'relevant' doesnt come into it... let it go.

easy targets - yes. but so what?

and it has a really cool, dark undercurrent... and so cool new 'morrisism's'


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> yeh yeh. Thats right. He's just got me a can of ironic cider from my ironic fridge ,in ironic hackney an all....



if you weren't worried about being so hip and up to date, maybe you'd find it funny


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 18, 2005)

LostNotFound said:
			
		

> if you weren't worried about being so hip and up to date, maybe you'd find it funny



my point EXACTLY!!!


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> my point EXACTLY!!!




* I'll give up at this point *

he did far funnier stuff before you nu fans. This is a low point. I'll expect summat better in a couple of years.....


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> * I'll give up at this point *
> 
> he did far funnier stuff before you nu fans. This is a low point. I'll expect summat better in a couple of years.....



haha .. 'nu fan'. i haven't even said i like it


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> * I'll give up at this point *
> 
> he did far funnier stuff before you nu fans. This is a low point. I'll expect summat better in a couple of years.....



piss off! "nu fans" my hairy hole!

 i remember watching the day today when it first aired...   

(althou i was very young and didnt realy 'get' most of it)

this is all just a bit to much like 'kid a' with radiohead fans...

"its not as good as their old stuff"*

*i am afraid of change.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 18, 2005)

Well fwiw I've just been moseying around on b3ta.com and they reckon the parodies are spot on.  Not that I think that matters from my point of view - I just enjoy watching pseudy artistic pretension being lanced.  (I was stone cold sober when I watched it btw.)


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> .  (I was stone cold sober when I watched it btw.)



ditto me (well had a few cans and that). And I live about 10 mins (on the 141) from where they are on about. And used to work there. And I think it is utter utter utter stereotypical lazy bollocks.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 18, 2005)

It's meant to be stereotypical.


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 18, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> And I live about 10 mins (on the 141) from where they are on about. And used to work there.



touched a raw nerve has it


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> It's meant to be stereotypical.



yeh thats fine but 

a) it has to take the piss out of the stereotype well and I don't think it does.
b) It should be current - I don't think it is.
c) making a series saying wallies round old street are wallies is dull.

What next a series saying journalists on Roseberry Avenue/Farringdon Road spout liberal toss! surely not 
 

In summary its not of the visionary quality I expect from Morris.


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 18, 2005)

Remember my Hoxton/Shoreditch Thread/Poll? I'm sure he cribbed shit off of that. Beergut/Spud will vouch for me...


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 18, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> Remember my Hoxton/Shoreditch Thread/Poll? I'm sure he cribbed shit off of that. Beergut/Spud will vouch for me...



I do, and it wasn't actually that long ago (couple of years max, if that, iirc).


----------



## ernestolynch (Feb 18, 2005)

A couple of yrs is a long time on these boards. Who remembers Oddjob?

Pissflaps?


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 19, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> Pissflaps?



mrs ernie is a very accommodating lady. Don't be so fucking disrespectful.....


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 19, 2005)

Anyway, I thought it was good and I liked it.


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 19, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Anyway, I thought it was good and I liked it.



I thought it was very rubbish and easy and lame...


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 19, 2005)

Made me laugh.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 19, 2005)




----------



## George & Bill (Feb 19, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> i thought that comdey was about what was funny.
> 
> i watched it - thought it was funny. laughed out loud a couple of times...
> 
> ...



It's not a matter of making an intellectual judgement that this shouldn't be funny, its simply that for a lot of people humour derives from relevence; NB is irrelevent and therefore unfunny.

Some people will laugh at any old shite, as proven by the success of Jim Davidson.


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 19, 2005)

slowjoe said:
			
		

> It's not a matter of making an intellectual judgement that this shouldn't be funny, its simply that for a lot of people humour derives from relevence; NB is irrelevent and therefore unfunny.



that must suck, i'd hate to be watching something funny, like a surreal comedy sketch say, and have to think 'this is not relevant, i therefore dont find it funny'


----------



## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 19, 2005)

I find it funny.


----------



## George & Bill (Feb 19, 2005)

LostNotFound said:
			
		

> that must suck, i'd hate to be watching something funny, like a surreal comedy sketch say, and have to think 'this is not relevant, i therefore dont find it funny'



 why would you deliberately make the effort not to find it funny? Comedy based on social observation simply isn't funny for most people when it's not relevent to their own experience, it's not their fault!


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 19, 2005)

Was much better this week, but veering too close to being reliant on people saying those stupid meaningless things - needs more than that.


----------



## pk (Feb 19, 2005)

Well I saw a lot in there that made me laugh... basically recognising characters that were doing the rounds in Hoxton circa 1997... I guess if you weren't in media working in London ten years ago or so - you're not going to get many of the jokes.

 

And I want a Wasp Speechtool.


----------



## Jenerys (Feb 19, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> This programme's what I imagine PROD/Offline/Stuff like that to be like. Someone tell me it ain't so...


We cant afford the accessories  




Edit: Lets not forget this is a nationally broadcast programme, not just for Londoners, who may have known this scene (pity the fools).


----------



## pk (Feb 19, 2005)

LilJen said:
			
		

> Lets not forget this is a nationally broadcast programme, not just for Londoners, who may have known this scene (pity the fools).



Who cares?


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 19, 2005)

LilJen said:
			
		

> We cant afford the accessories
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I'm not a Londoner, and I thought it was ace. Perhaps I liked it because it resonated with some of my negative stereotypes about Londoners! Or perhaps my sheltered South Downs life means I don't know that it's all out of date and terribly passe and therefore not funny. If only I knew better eh?


----------



## DrRingDing (Feb 19, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> This programme's what I imagine PROD/Offline/Stuff like that to be like. Someone tell me it ain't so...




Why don't you come to the windmill tonight to find out?


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 19, 2005)

this thread is much better than the series itself imo


----------



## Barking_Mad (Feb 19, 2005)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> ...it made me feel numb....



Precisely. Unwittingly you probably hit the nail on the head.

I think if people are expecting an easy ride with this they are missing the point. Its not only parodying people, its surely forcing you to look at yourself or at least the 'culture' you live in and see it for what it is - meaningless bollocks.

The flyers with Guantanamo captives on it, the rapping about two people falling from the twin towers....You shouldnt be laughing at the 'irony' of it, you should surely be shocked and disgusted by it. If you aren't then what does it say about you?


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 19, 2005)

Stupid people think its cool, smart people think it's a joke (also cool).


----------



## Balbi (Feb 20, 2005)

LnF when that line came out I laughed my arse off like the cliqued morris lover that I am.

Noone else got it 

I missed the first episode, but god this ones left me feeling thoughtful. The shit we do and other people do. I feel so gutted for Dan, stuck in his own personal hell, the hell he helped create. 

"theres something wrong, just shut up. im not a preacher man"

  IMVHO this is brilliant, but i don't think its a comedy. Not a conventional comedy. But its Morris all over.


----------



## exosculate (Feb 20, 2005)

TheLostProphet said:
			
		

> LnF when that line came out I laughed my arse off like the cliqued morris lover that I am.
> 
> Noone else got it




Are you taking the piss. You sound like Nathan.


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 20, 2005)

exosculate said:
			
		

> Are you taking the piss. You sound like Nathan.



we're all nathans man


----------



## Balbi (Feb 20, 2005)

i admit im a bit of a barley. but im not sure whether i would have laughed without this thread exo, it's interesting.

Poor dan


----------



## exosculate (Feb 20, 2005)

OK so I've given it another chance. It needs saying. So I will say it. This is an enormous pile of bollocks. I have no idea what relevance the target group it is lampooning has. It really is marginal and unimportant. The acting is hammy and attrocious, the plot is empty. The dialogue is tedious. I have no belief in any sense in ANY of the characters. And most importantly of all it isn't funny at all.

All this nonsense about the multi level nature of this prog is pure fantasy.

Chris Morris - you have let yourself down with this horse manure. Find some more interesting targets. And while I'm at it, satire is where you push the caricature a bit further on from the real, not half a mile down the fucking road.

For fucks sake.


----------



## exosculate (Feb 20, 2005)

LostNotFound said:
			
		

> we're all nathans man




I'm fucking not.


----------



## blamblam (Feb 20, 2005)

Just saw episode 2.

Steaming. Pile. Shit. It's all there

 But I love chris morris


----------



## Balbi (Feb 20, 2005)

I'm 19, it's good to me. Opinion though. You guys carry on


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 20, 2005)

<points and laughs at most of the posters on this thread>


----------



## jms (Feb 20, 2005)

from b3ta



> Starting on a satiric TV listings website called TVGoHome, the Nathan Barley character became shorthand for everything phony in the London new-media world. On telly the idea is expanded to mock tradition media too, although saving a few swipes at a world not a million miles from us. *Nerdy forums have been debating whether series co-creator Chris Morris has gone off-the-boil with this*, but to our eyes, the parodies are absolutely spot on. Christ, the other day, we had to pop into a design agency in Soho and the staff were sitting on exercise balls. Nathan lives!


----------



## marty21 (Feb 20, 2005)

exosculate said:
			
		

> .  It really is marginal and unimportant. The acting is hammy and attrocious, the plot is empty. The dialogue is tedious. I have no belief in any sense in ANY of the characters.




see you do get it after all...


----------



## alphaDelta (Feb 20, 2005)

I love it.

In the first one, from each and every one of the horrible twats like Barley, I could find a real-life counterpart from the people I (wish I didn't) know. Maybe it's an age thing (I'm 20).

The second one was very different; less on the characters and more of Dan's personal hell. Both the gun threat and the rap were excellent ("Malcolm X, Memorex") and surprisingly laugh-out-loud moments.

I'm easily pleased and I enjoy all Morris stuff, but I genuinely do like this, and yes I probably am a bit of a Barley.


----------



## Ace (Feb 20, 2005)

This weird _incestuous _ thread

( I am sure this has been said and I am not the first to say it )

says far more about the preoccupations/insecurities/ socio-economic make up of the posters here than it does about the brilliant but wayward Morris.

I hope a big something comes and blows you out of your stale, fetid, metropolitan, complacency.


Love

Travis Bicklexxxxx


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 20, 2005)

ernestolynch said:
			
		

> This programme's what I imagine PROD/Offline/Stuff like that to be like. Someone tell me it ain't so...




Nathan Barley is sooooo 90s - Offline's in line with dangerous accountancy now.  Total double-ledger.


----------



## Jo/Joe (Feb 20, 2005)

The thing about this show is that you can see the themes pretty much anywhere. The show focuses on the most extreme examples of surface passing as reality. We all must know people who think their life is complete with some jackshit mobile phone that wanks you off while you listen to some gabba being streamed directly from Belgium.


----------



## Isambard (Feb 20, 2005)

I'm gonna regret posting this but.

I came home in a rush last Tuesday, having a real panic. The mate I was running a bar with had the flu and couldn't make it so I had to select double the music and I'm going "oh fuck I've got to choose twice as many tunes to play!"    My ex is throwing a strop in the bathroom and when I ask what's up he's "I've got a photo shoot in 30 minutes, there some new bitch make up woman going to be there. But I'm telling her we're only using MY make up!  " During this my phone goes and its a mate wanting to check the design of the flyers for a club night I'm organising and I'm like "I'll call you on the way to the "bah" cos I'm so stressed right now picking out music".

I put the phone down. Stood back and kind of observed myself.
Oh fuck, that was a Nathan Barely moment.
Aren't we all a bit NB?


----------



## Ace (Feb 20, 2005)

grtho said:
			
		

> Aren't we all a bit NB?



No. 

What a dumb thing to say - from a poster whose work I usually admire  

Well, actually, you might be. 

Who's "we?"

I mean, I think I've got a pretty good idea -  a bunch of charmless, self-loathing,  cunts who probably constitute 1% of the population of Western Europe.


----------



## Balbi (Feb 20, 2005)

Ace is Nathan Barley.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 20, 2005)

All this concentration on the obvious taget of Barley is letting that cunt Ashcroft off the hook - employs all the jargon of authenticity - the boredom, the studied untidiness (ripped t-shirt collar), stubble, disdain for others - but ends up pimping himself out  to the Mail on Sunday, Sugarape and even fucking Barley!


----------



## Balbi (Feb 20, 2005)

He wasn't going to the trashbat.co.ck party until his sister made him butchers 

I feel sorry for the bloke.


----------



## Ace (Feb 20, 2005)

Satire only works if the satirist has some kind of distance on his object of ridicule.

I read that stupid foulmouthed link and what struck me was there was no distance.

It was unfunny because the rage was so obviously directed at a target inside the satirist himself. It was so obviously an unrestrained and hysterical product of his own self-loathing.

It probably appeals to the younger posters here because they still feel a certain _frisson_ when they hear the word 'cunt' banded about with such alacrity.


----------



## Balbi (Feb 20, 2005)

Oi! Less bashing us youngsters 

I like the hopelessness Dan feels, that whole 'oh shite. this. is. it." and last nights attempt to get out of it just adding to it. Its definitely Morris ripping into himself or rather the 'Chris Morris - creator of Brass Eye and The Day Today' who's pretty much untouchable to a certain group of people. Of course by defending him im adding to that, which might not be the aim. Oh shit, im going to go crosseyed in a minute.


----------



## Ace (Feb 20, 2005)

TheLostProphet said:
			
		

> Oi! Less bashing us youngsters
> 
> I like the hopelessness Dan feels, that whole 'oh shite. this. is. it." and last nights attempt to get out of it just adding to it. Its definitely Morris ripping into himself or rather the 'Chris Morris - creator of Brass Eye and The Day Today' who's pretty much untouchable to a certain group of people. Of course by defending him im adding to that, which might not be the aim. Oh shit, im going to go crosseyed in a minute.



Yeah, ok, that might be good.

But you have to do that with a lightness of touch, you have to know what you're doing. 

If you do that and you're shouting and screaming and frothing at the mouth you're trying to both examine a group of people/yourself and at the same time take out all your unresolved anger on them.

Its this I, and I think most people, object to. 

Being used as a sounding board for an incoherent overpriveleged tosser.


----------



## Ace (Feb 20, 2005)

The Office is a satire of genius because it has the objectivity I mentioned.


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 20, 2005)

The show is car crash television. You keep watching it because it's so brilliantly horrible, just like the tramp racing they watch on the Internet. Ashcroft's desperation and unwillingness to accept that he is nothing more than an idiot with delusions of superiority is fascinating to watch. His buffoonish colleagues are an easy mark for humour, and that seems to be what most people here are criticising.

And the moments of self-recognition are extremely uncomfortable. I'm as un- Barleyish as they come, but I was unsettled by his Prisoner ringtone, which is the same as mine! In its own way its as horrible as Blue Jam.

Or perhaps I like the show because i'm 19, and dependant on the word 'cunt' for humour.


----------



## blamblam (Feb 20, 2005)

Hmmm I've just read this thread now, cos didn't want it to spoil anything before I saw it. I'm still pissed off about how shit it was. Not one thing even made me break a smile. I mean the trailers were quite amusing...

I reckon maybe it'd be worth watching if it were full of ally mcbeal-esque thought-picture moments from Cunt with nathan picturing spunking on dan's sister's face say, and dan picturing murdering nathan in a series of brutal, horrific and amusing ways. Still wouldn't make it that great though cos the whole thing sucks anyway.

I wanna get my Spaced DVDs back off kea and watch them 

I think some people are taking this way too seriously. Like kyser, you saying the show's taking the piss out of people who'll like it, cos only they reckon they're cool enough get the joke (as if anyone would make a TV show like that!), I think is quite a funny bit of self-parody - cos *you're* obviously the only one who gets the *real* joke, which is obviously laughing at the fools who pretend to like it. (NB I don't think the makers of the show intended this, I reckon they probably thought they should do something new, couldn't think of anything so tried to drag an old thing out over a whole series, and it failed.)

And tarannau I don't remember many of your posts before but you're funny.


----------



## our-streets (Feb 21, 2005)

Enjoyed the 2nd epsiode in a cringey kinda way. I dont think its normal comedy in that its playing for laughs. In the same way Jam was often very uncomfortable and not always laugh out loud

IMO Dan is the most interesing character - esp the way he has to behave like an idiot to order to escape being an idiot, in a kind of nightmarish catch22 trap.

And I think the series may end with Dan's fall from grace. In the same way many here are lamenting the fall of Chris Morris.. hm, lots of parallels there...


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

oh no, that second episode was terrible... and i really liked the first episode, and recommended it to all my friends... now they hate me. i might not botyher with it any more. on the up side, there was a bouble bill of south park on afterwards.


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Feb 21, 2005)

It truly is a steaming pile of shite.  A great big one, with several flies buzzing round it...


----------



## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 21, 2005)

rutabowa said:
			
		

> oh no, that second episode was terrible... and i really liked the first episode, and recommended it to all my friends... now they hate me.



_Obviously_ Morris made the first episode good but intentionally quasi shit to get people to recommend it to their friends before deliberately making the second ultra shit to make those peoples friends think the recommendee was a knobber; this allowed him to laugh at you, your friends, himself, the actors for taking it all seriously and 'acting' as well as me for taking the time to explain this obvious in-joke.  An inentional 4 way ultra-bluff


----------



## our-streets (Feb 21, 2005)

Sigmund Fraud said:
			
		

> _Obviously_ Morris made the first episode good but intentionally quasi shit to get people to recommend it to their friends before deliberately making the second ultra shit to make those peoples friends think the recommendee was a knobber; this allowed him to laugh at you, your friends, himself, the actors for taking it all seriously and 'acting' as well as me for taking the time to explain this obvious in-joke.  An inentional 4 way ultra-bluff



tee hee


----------



## djbombscare (Feb 21, 2005)

Sorry joining in a bit late here.

But I thought the one last friday was absolute utter shite.

First one was good tho. So I might hold my judgement until this fridays.


----------



## Jo/Joe (Feb 21, 2005)

2nd one wasn't as good as the first. A couple of good lines 'trashbat is the couple leaping off the twin towers and fucking on the way down..'


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

djbombscare said:
			
		

> Sorry joining in a bit late here.
> 
> But I thought the one last friday was absolute utter shite.
> 
> First one was good tho. So I might hold my judgement until this fridays.


yeah, i guess you're right... it gets one more chance.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 21, 2005)

Hmmm, dunno what drugs people were on on Friday, but I thought the show really came into its own in the second episode, much better than the first episode - the party scene in particular was hilarious


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Hmmm, dunno what drugs people were on on Friday,


stella, dragon stout, k.


----------



## Fruitloop (Feb 21, 2005)

> stella, dragon stout, k.



Are you me?   

Spooky.


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

actually i watched the repeat on Saturday, not friday... so probly not you!
anyway, perhaps that combination isn't the best for getting comedy... the first episode all rang really true, the second one i just kept thinking "why?"


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 21, 2005)

I thought the second episode was better, attaining a greater comedic cogency than the first.  Looked darker too - I don't know if it was my imagination, but everything (in the programme!) looked more bleached out and bleak, with greater chiaroscuro-style contrast.


----------



## blamblam (Feb 21, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> the party scene in particular was hilarious


No, no it wasn't.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 21, 2005)

Was to me.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 21, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Looked darker too - I don't know if it was my imagination, but everything (in the programme!) looked more bleached out and bleak, with greater chiaroscuro-style contrast.


Apparently, it's Morris' intention to make each episode look different from the last.


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

The party scene made me depressed, like the writers had totally run out of inspiration and ideas... I can't even remember what happened, apart from that nerdy guy kept saying "i'm not a preacher man! you're idiots!" over and over again, just like he had been doing for all the rest of the programme. And lame mcing isn't funny just because it's lame...


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Apparently, it's Morris' intention to make each episode look different from the last.


hmm, that went right over my head tbh... though i'm not sure i would have enjoyed it any mroe than i did, had i noticed.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 21, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Apparently, it's Morris' intention to make each episode look different from the last.



That'd make sense - visual style is a big part of Morris' past stuff, especially Jaaaaaaaam.

Saw the 2nd ep yesterday, thought it was much better than the first one. 



> I think some people are taking this way too seriously. Like kyser, you saying the show's taking the piss out of people who'll like it, cos only they reckon they're cool enough get the joke (as if anyone would make a TV show like that!), I think is quite a funny bit of self-parody - cos *you're* obviously the only one who gets the *real* joke, which is obviously laughing at the fools who pretend to like it. (NB I don't think the makers of the show intended this, I reckon they probably thought they should do something new, couldn't think of anything so tried to drag an old thing out over a whole series, and it failed.)



I was commenting on a *possible* not a definite - given Morris' history, if it _was_ deliberate it wouldn't have surprised me in the slightest


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 21, 2005)

rutabowa said:
			
		

> that nerdy guy kept saying "i'm not a preacher man! you're idiots!" over and over again, just like he had been doing for all the rest of the programme.




But because nobody was actually bothering to listen to him, preferring instead to bay in mindless adulation, the more he protested, the more he looked as if he was actually preaching, and the more the crowd loved it.  A nice comment on how people can become feted for no good reason imo.


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> But because nobody was actually bothering to listen to him, preferring instead to bay in mindless adulation, the more he protested, the more he looked as if he was actually preaching, and the more the crowd loved it.  A nice comment on how people can become feted for no good reason imo.


yeah, i got how he turned into the preacher the more he protested...but i'm sure it's been done better, and a long time before... say, in "Brewster's Millions"!


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 21, 2005)

Life Of Brian, too!


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 21, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Life Of Brian, too!


yes, another one. so it's a kind of old, not-particularly-inspired idea. i liked it when chris morris' ideas were so totally fucked you couldn't even imagine analogues to them!


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 21, 2005)

It still made me laugh.


I haven't seen Brewster's Millions  and it's 15 years since I saw LoB - maybe that's why I thought it was ok.


----------



## Dask (Feb 21, 2005)

Is it actually trying to be funny or are the jokes purely coincidental.

Don't get me wrong I really want to like it, but to me everything about it is shite except the music and some of the background stuff.

The Characters are awful, I couldn't give a toss about any of them, surely if your writing decent comedy then you need to have characters that people care about, especially in a program where not a lot actually happens.

4 episodes to go.......


----------



## blamblam (Feb 21, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> But because nobody was actually bothering to listen to him, preferring instead to bay in mindless adulation, the more he protested, the more he looked as if he was actually preaching, and the more the crowd loved it.  A nice comment on how people can become feted for no good reason imo.


LOL that sounds like trying to say Titanic was good cos the boy and the girl, see they were really in love, but all these problems started getting in the way, to prevent them being together


----------



## jcsd (Feb 21, 2005)

The first episode was quite funny thesecond episode wasn't as funn. Still I can't get that song out of my head "night out in a pub with your mates that's mental..."


http://www.trashbat.co.ck/


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 22, 2005)

icepick said:
			
		

> LOL that sounds like trying to say Titanic was good cos the boy and the girl, see they were really in love, but all these problems started getting in the way, to prevent them being together




That sounds brilliant!


<makes mental note to see Titanic>


----------



## Skim (Feb 22, 2005)

Bit disappointed, really. I didn't feel inclined to watch the second show on the basis of the first, but maybe I'll give it another whirl. There just isn't much of substance in either the characters or the plot. I suppose the whole point is that the staff of Sugar Ape don't have much substance full stop, but they need more to them than a few Hoxton – sorry Hosegate – stereotypes on their BMXs. Didn't like the Nathan Barley character, he was overplayed far too much to be really insidious. 

The problem is I've got high expectations from Chris Morris. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been hoping for another Day Today/Brass Eye, or at least something with the same impact.


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 22, 2005)

i love this thread.


----------



## Biffo (Feb 22, 2005)

Mmmmmm...... Some more idiots


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 22, 2005)

Biffo said:
			
		

> Mmmmmm...... Some more idiots


My GOD! I'd NEVER thought of that!!


----------



## Biffo (Feb 22, 2005)

Hang on...... nor would I.


----------



## Dask (Feb 22, 2005)

Phantom Menace anyone?


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 22, 2005)

Nathan Barley is not exactly the rape of your childhood that is Phantom Meance...


----------



## treefrog (Feb 23, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> Nathan Barley is not exactly the rape of your childhood that is Phantom Meance...


 _nothing_ is the rape of our childhood that is Phantom Menace...


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Feb 23, 2005)

A lot of people on here don't seem to find it funny, but, what, was Jamm funny? I don't think so - it was hardly watchable.
But I find Nathan Barley quite mesmorising, so I'm sure I'll be watching the third part.
Jesus, some people take TV far too seriously -


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 23, 2005)

Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> Jamm funny?



I laughed. In places. Does that make me a bad person?

Note: Jam is really good to watch after a hard day at work. Very soothing in a slightly disturbing way.  




			
				Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> Jesus, some people take TV far too seriously -



Not TV. Just CM.


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Feb 23, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> I laughed. In places. Does that make me a bad person?
> 
> Note: Jam is really good to watch after a hard day at work. Very soothing in a slightly disturbing way.
> 
> ...



Yes, it does make you a bad person - does Chris Morris deserve this adulation - the only thing worthy in his career was Brass Eye (Oh, and that supplement/pull-out in the Guardian to commemerate 9/11).
I wonder, if Nathan Barley is taking the piss out of his audience...


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 23, 2005)

Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> I wonder, if Nathan Barley is taking the piss out of his audience...



_Oh Gawd!!!_

See: rest of this thread.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 23, 2005)

Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> does Chris Morris deserve this adulation




I think Morris is utterly brilliant, indeed a genius, but there's something about this solemn, obsessive adulation that grates.  It's why I haven't contributed to the CM quotes thread.  Just reading through all the quotes kills it off by means of trainspottery.  First there were people quoting python in the 70s/80s, now we have people quoting Morris.


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Feb 23, 2005)

Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> (Oh, and that supplement/pull-out in the Guardian to commemerate 9/11).



Quoting myself! Does anybody else remember this? Is there a copy of it on the internet somewhere?


----------



## our-streets (Feb 23, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> I think Morris is utterly brilliant, indeed a genius, but there's something about this solemn, obsessive adulation that grates.  It's why I haven't contributed to the CM quotes thread.  Just reading through all the quotes kills it off by means of trainspottery.  First there were people quoting python in the 70s/80s, now we have people quoting Morris.




yeh man, chris morris, he's like, a _preacher_ or summat!


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 23, 2005)




----------



## rutabowa (Feb 23, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> I think Morris is utterly brilliant, indeed a genius, but there's something about this solemn, obsessive adulation that grates.  It's why I haven't contributed to the CM quotes thread.  Just reading through all the quotes kills it off by means of trainspottery.  First there were people quoting python in the 70s/80s, now we have people quoting Morris.


I totally agree, quoting it sucks anything that was ever good out of it... see also Withnail &i.


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 23, 2005)

Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> Quoting myself! Does anybody else remember this? Is there a copy of it on the internet somewhere?



yeah.

google chris morris 9/11.

i would myself but i can't be arsed...


----------



## kropotkin (Feb 23, 2005)

Divisive Cotton said:
			
		

> Quoting myself! Does anybody else remember this? Is there a copy of it on the internet somewhere?


 it is on one of these threads in this forum mate.


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Feb 23, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> yeah.
> 
> google chris morris 9/11.
> 
> i would myself but i can't be arsed...



Found it
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/page/0,11821,671683,00.html


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 23, 2005)

rutabowa said:
			
		

> quoting it sucks anything that was ever good out of it...



how??

have some self RE-COCKING-SPECT


----------



## Spion (Feb 23, 2005)

LostNotFound said:
			
		

> how??
> 
> have some self RE-COCKING-SPECT



How? Cos it's cool to like something that's cool as long as you don't loook like you like it too much. And it's especially not cool if other people start to show that they like it too.


----------



## our-streets (Feb 23, 2005)

Spion said:
			
		

> How? Cos it's cool to like something that's cool as long as you don't loook like you like it too much. And it's especially not cool if other people start to show that they like it too.




lol!


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 23, 2005)

i think he meant things get a bit sad when they're quoted too much.

i.e. much of students singing the spam song or whatever...

but chris morris has such a great gift for language and he does a really good swear - even if he's a bit of a brain-wrong.


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 23, 2005)

Spion said:
			
		

> How? Cos it's cool to like something that's cool as long as you don't loook like you like it too much. And it's especially not cool if other people start to show that they like it too.


No, it's cos jokes being funny when when some fucker just repeats the punchline over and over. it makes me hate the joke and hate the person cose they've made me hate the joke. like when the same fuckers use a song you like in an advert.


----------



## Spion (Feb 23, 2005)

rutabowa said:
			
		

> No, it's cos jokes being funny when when some fucker just repeats the punchline over and over. it makes me hate the joke and hate the person cose they've made me hate the joke. like when the same fuckers use a song you like in an advert.



So the joke is no less funny, but becase you've seen other people find it funny you don't like it any more? They've "made you" not like it? Awesome power!


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 23, 2005)

Spion said:
			
		

> So the joke is no less funny, but becase you've seen other people find it funny you don't like it any more? They've "made you" not like it? Awesome power!



Nah, i think he's right. If you get some anstine fucker repeating the same thing over and over it loses its power...

see: theory of the simularum.

or: wonderwall.


----------



## our-streets (Feb 23, 2005)

yeah but no but yeah but no but


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 23, 2005)

Spion said:
			
		

> So the joke is no less funny, but becase you've seen other people find it funny you don't like it any more? They've "made you" not like it? Awesome power!


but they're not telling the joke, they're just repeating a fragment of it... over and over... the humourless cunts. if a fragment of your favourite song is used on an advert, and you hear that little bit 15 times a day for a few weeks, yes, I think it does reduce your enjoyment of the song.


----------



## Spion (Feb 23, 2005)

rutabowa said:
			
		

> but they're not telling the joke, they're just repeating a fragment of it... over and over... the humourless cunts. if a fragment of your favourite song is used on an advert, and you hear that little bit 15 times a day for a few weeks, yes, I think it does reduce your enjoyment of the song.



Yeah, you have a point with songs - I mean, you can even make yourself fed up with a track playing it too much. But I've never been in any environment where people are repeating Chris Morrisisms ad nauseam all day so I've never found it a problem


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 23, 2005)

I bet it's happening in student unions throughout the land...! if they're like i remember. it still haunts me. (as you might be able to tell).


----------



## Jo/Joe (Feb 23, 2005)

I was wondernig around London today and did keep hearing this voice in my head saying 'keep it dusty'. It was provoked by browsing magazines (design section), independent record shops, certain cafes and also the sign for a media co. called flame dog, complete with graphic of dog with a flame on its back. Great fun and involuntary.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 23, 2005)

When I was at school, somebody in my class cut out the ladybits from loads of porno mag photos, and made a big concertina style foldout from them.  Even as a hormone-addled teenager I found this odd, and not in the least bit sexual.


Comedy quote threads remind me somewhat of that foldout.  They share the same reductionist, context-removing impulse.


----------



## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 23, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> When I was at school, somebody in my class cut out the ladybits from loads of porno mag photos, and made a big concertina style foldout from them.  Even as a hormone-addled teenager I found this odd, and not in the least bit sexual.



Its a good analogy this and I hope to use it with my own kids at some point in the future.


----------



## Jenerys (Feb 23, 2005)

[hides the scizzors]


----------



## Biffo (Feb 24, 2005)

There's no zeds in scissors - otherwise Zorro would have used scizzors instead of a zword. Innit?


----------



## Jenerys (Feb 24, 2005)

I'm trying not to say s's too much unkay


----------



## akirajoel (Feb 25, 2005)

Third episode is tonight people...

I know i'll be watching it.

(if i'm home).


----------



## ChrisFilter (Feb 25, 2005)

thought tonights was wicked.. made me laugh a lot.. certainly not a classic.. but funny enough.


----------



## Jazzz (Feb 25, 2005)

just caught the last ten minutes of tonight's episode... first I've seen of it. Fucking funny in a kind of 'I can't bear to watch this' type way


----------



## Barking_Mad (Feb 25, 2005)

ChrisFilter said:
			
		

> thought tonights was wicked.. made me laugh a lot.. certainly not a classic.. but funny enough.



Ahh I thought that was superb. I found myself despising, being comepltely embarassed by, and liking Nathan Barley all in the space of 5 minutes.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Feb 25, 2005)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> Ahh I thought that was superb. I found myself despising, being comepltely embarassed by, and liking Nathan Barley all in the space of 5 minutes.


 same here, but I thought it was total fuckspunk


----------



## Jo/Joe (Feb 25, 2005)

the best so far, and barley was definitely more amusing and likeable, while I started to resent the other guy more and more.


----------



## exleper (Feb 25, 2005)

Again, I didn't laugh once.  I'm going to stop watching now and stick on my Spaced DVD instead.


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 26, 2005)

The opening scene with the Chris Morris voiceover was brilliant. Perfectly observed corporate nothingspeak.

It didn't match the sheer grim darkness of the last episode, but it was still pretty top. The constant exasperation of Dan Ashcroft is a marvel.

Line of the show? "He's well ill, 'cos he swallowed a spike"


----------



## Buddy Bradley (Feb 26, 2005)

His bedroom lines were excellent - "taking the lips, down to the nips"...


----------



## innit (Feb 26, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> When I was at school, somebody in my class cut out the ladybits from loads of porno mag photos, and made a big concertina style foldout from them.  Even as a hormone-addled teenager I found this odd, and not in the least bit sexual.
> 
> 
> Comedy quote threads remind me somewhat of that foldout.  They share the same reductionist, context-removing impulse.


Sometimes I want to marry MysteryGuest.

and sometimes I don't


----------



## stdPikachu (Feb 26, 2005)

innit said:
			
		

> Sometimes I want to marry MysteryGuest.
> 
> and sometimes I don't



Sometimes you lot worry me.

and sometimes I'm huddled safe and warm in my glitterberry shelter and don't have to fret about your mad, ferret-like souls 

Tonights was definitely the best/worst episode yet. Excruciatingly painful to watch, but still bang on the money. If it's going in the direction I think it's going, I expect myself to be cackling like an idiot by the time the series ends


----------



## exosculate (Feb 26, 2005)

Its going from the trite to the even more shite.


----------



## Jenerys (Feb 26, 2005)

My flatmate came home right in the closing minutes of the show. What was going on with Dan's article   




			
				Buddy Bradley said:
			
		

> His bedroom lines were excellent - "taking the lips, down to the nips"...


Some of those lines seemed a little too familiar


----------



## Sigmund Fraud (Feb 26, 2005)

ahem...

Only caught the last 10 minutes but I'm getting into all the charachters now and starting to enjoy it


----------



## belboid (Feb 26, 2005)

well, after last weeks seemed to be a distinct improvement on thre first, and it looked like this could go somewhere, last nights was a piece of fucking shit, and morris should be ashamed of himeself - or at the very least get someone who has ever slept with a woman in to help with his writing.

first half, okay, the dan character 'works' and is knda believable - but his sister?

Sensible, fairly confident woman with her head screwed on, I can believe she might hang around with Barley because she _needed him_ despite knowing he is an idiot, a moron, and better off dead.  However, after he had pathetically attempted to grope her - she _goes out to dinner with him???!!!_ Like fuck she would, he'd be lucky to have any bollocks left.  Second half just failed miserably.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 26, 2005)

innit said:
			
		

> and sometimes I don't




<takes classy engagement ring back to the shop>



<sobs uncontrollably>


----------



## LostNotFound (Feb 26, 2005)

belboid said:
			
		

> well, after last weeks seemed to be a distinct improvement on thre first, and it looked like this could go somewhere, last nights was a piece of fucking shit, and morris should be ashamed of himeself - or at the very least get someone who has ever slept with a woman in to help with his writing.
> 
> first half, okay, the dan character 'works' and is knda believable - but his sister?
> 
> Sensible, fairly confident woman with her head screwed on, I can believe she might hang around with Barley because she _needed him_ despite knowing he is an idiot, a moron, and better off dead.  However, after he had pathetically attempted to grope her - she _goes out to dinner with him???!!!_ Like fuck she would, he'd be lucky to have any bollocks left.  Second half just failed miserably.



the plausibility is wearing a bit thin isnt it.. doesnt ruin it, but i dont think its all intentional .. just some shit writing and acting


----------



## Maggot (Feb 27, 2005)

belboid said:
			
		

> Sensible, fairly confident woman with her head screwed on, I can believe she might hang around with Barley because she needed him despite knowing he is an idiot, a moron, and better off dead. However, after he had pathetically attempted to grope her - she goes out to dinner with him???!!! Like fuck she would, he'd be lucky to have any bollocks left. Second half just failed miserably.


People can change their minds, like this:




			
				Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> Ahh I thought that was superb. I found myself despising, being comepltely embarassed by, and liking Nathan Barley all in the space of 5 minutes.




I loved the rapping during foreplay   




			
				LilJen said:
			
		

> My flatmate came home right in the closing minutes of the show. What was going on with Dan's article


 Dan refused to write the article because he thought 15Peter20 was a prat. His boss (the editor?) wrote it instead, but put Dan's name on it.


----------



## Stigmata (Feb 27, 2005)

Dan's editor, Jonatton Yeah?, is the most ghastly character on the show. His studied 'whatever' attitude is thoroughly infuriating. However, last night we saw that perhaps he wasn't as stupid as the others.


----------



## Maggot (Feb 27, 2005)

LilJen said:
			
		

> Some of those lines seemed a little too familiar


LOL at the thought of Sig using those lines.


----------



## Termite Man (Feb 27, 2005)

Maggot said:
			
		

> People can change their minds, like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Then when Dan questioned the editor about why he had put Dans name on the article the editor replied 'because he's an idiot'*


* or something similar !


----------



## Paul Russell (Feb 27, 2005)

Maggot said:
			
		

> Dan refused to write the article because he thought 15Peter20 was a prat. .



15 Peter took pics of celebs pissing (cos that's when they're vulnerable, not vulnerable, etc.).

Seemed like a very thinly veiled piss-take of Sam Taylor Wood -- taking pics of celebs when crying or sleeping (when they're vulnerable).

Just a thought...


----------



## our-streets (Feb 28, 2005)

this last episode was definitely the best in bizarre funniness so far... 

the sex rap was fucking funny  - 'you drift off while I have a scoff...'

and his phone projecting 'massive fanny' onto that woman...

crackin


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 28, 2005)

'Broke down the brown door' the next morning to Toby...

Genius...this gets better every week...


----------



## our-streets (Feb 28, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> 'Broke down the brown door'




'... and painted it white on the way out'


----------



## pennimania (Feb 28, 2005)

I like it, 23 year old son likes it, 11 year old son likes it (yeah I know I shouldn't let him watch it) haven't asked my mother what she thinks.

It's hilarious


----------



## rutabowa (Feb 28, 2005)

i missed it this weekend, is it repeated during the week?


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 28, 2005)

Only on Sat night about midnight so you've missed it...unless it's being repeated endlessly on T4...


----------



## XerxesVargas (Feb 28, 2005)

This weeks episode (no 3) was really funny. Last week it was a bit weak.

I particularly enjoyed the rapping/cunnilingus


----------



## Biffo (Mar 3, 2005)

I missed the last episode (3) because I had to pick my parents up from an Englebert Humperdinck show. Honest. The sooner I ger my video tuned into the TV the better.

A friend of mine has a theory that Morris is making some of the programme crap intentionally to "piss his fans off". That's a great excuse for failing as an artist isn't it?


----------



## PacificOcean (Mar 3, 2005)

I don't know if it's been mentioned but according to Media Guardian last Friday's show only got 700,000 viewers and a 3% share the lowest Friday night ratings for C4 since 1992.

That slot usually gets 3 or 4 million.


----------



## Balbi (Mar 4, 2005)

I liked that


----------



## andy2002 (Mar 4, 2005)

Tonight's was the best episode so far by about a million miles - at least five or six scenes/moments that made me laugh outloud, especially the 'Terrorists Are Gay' song/video and Nathan coming out on top in the 'twist' ending. For once it was hilarious.


----------



## marty21 (Mar 4, 2005)

didn't see all of it, but liked what i saw, the cat and the scissors was class


----------



## spartacus mills (Mar 4, 2005)

Tonight's episode was very good. I loved the cat, bumphuk and NB's hair. The David Brent dance was wank though.


----------



## ernestolynch (Mar 5, 2005)

Well I stopped wacthing it after episode 2. I reckon me and Spud Murphy could have made a much better series about the wildlife of Hoxton and Brixton. V Poor.


----------



## Stavrogin (Mar 5, 2005)

Nathan Barley in comedy shocker!

It was quite amusing - I recall also:  Rapidophile!


----------



## Dr. Furface (Mar 5, 2005)

Last week's was poor but this one much better. The boring barber was spot on, the cat was funny, the hair gag was obvious yet still worked but the best bit was the pop at the everything-western-is-cool fashion victim Japs at the end.


----------



## pk (Mar 5, 2005)

"does the Pope fuck kids?"


----------



## DJWrongspeed (Mar 5, 2005)

i have to say this is getting better, if it didn't have the morris tag i'm sure everyone would be chattering about anyhow.  Loved the electrotrash song at the end with the lyrics  "fuck yourself gay."


----------



## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

Chris morris
"bernard manning for the chattering classes"


----------



## JWH (Mar 5, 2005)

Saw it for the first time. I thought it was ... OK with a couple of half-hearted and obvious jokes. The hair accident that becomes a hairstyle - like, WACKY, man! (Fuckin' Kenny Everett joke from 1983 or so).

Quite liked the scene in the handbag shop (even if it was a bit Some Monthers): "I have to take the tag off" "It's the best bit". lol




			
				swarthy thug said:
			
		

> Chris morris
> "bernard manning for the chattering classes"


Who said that? You're not quoting yourself, are you?


----------



## Balbi (Mar 5, 2005)

swarthy thug said:
			
		

> "bernard manning for the chattering classes"




Does anyone still use that term in public? 
 

I mean, Bernard Manning, honestly


----------



## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

JWH said:
			
		

> Saw it for the first time. I thought it was ... OK with a couple of half-hearted and obvious jokes. The hair accident that becomes a hairstyle - like, WACKY, man! (Fuckin' Kenny Everett joke from 1983 or so).
> 
> Quite liked the scene in the handbag shop (even if it was a bit Some Monthers): "I have to take the tag off" "It's the best bit". lol
> 
> ...



I think victor lewis smith said it.


----------



## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

TheLostProphet said:
			
		

> Does anyone still use that term in public?
> 
> 
> I mean, Bernard Manning, honestly



Bernard manning

"chris morris for the lumpen class,s"


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 5, 2005)

swarthy thug said:
			
		

> I think victor lewis smith said it.



He's got a bit of an axe to grind with Morris. No love lost between them.


----------



## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> He's got a bit of an axe to grind with Morris. No love lost between them.



Something about morris nicking his ideas or something ,esapiaclly the radio stunts.Smith said "imitation is the sincerist form of being a thiveing bastard"


----------



## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

Feuds Corner: Chris Morris v Victor Lewis-Smith 

By RUTH PICARDIE

FEUDING is a favourite pastime for men of a certain age. There are, however, isolated examples of the angry youngster, notably radio satirists and telephone hoax kings Victor Lewis-Smith (33) and Chris Morris (29). They met in September 1988, when Morris interviewed Lewis-Smith for his regular Radio Bristol show. They didn't get along. Lewis-Smith says he gave a 'non-interview'; Morris didn't find him at all amusing and 'trashed the interview because it was useless'. When it wasn't aired, Lewis-Smith began to stew. Unconsoled by the fact that Morris was subsequently sacked by Radio Bristol for doing running commentaries over live news bulletins, he became increasingly concerned by the thought that Morris was 'stealing' his comic persona. 'Basically,' said Morris 'he got it into his head that I was somehow nicking his jokes, recasting them and chucking them out myself, which, as far as I'm concerned, would be a suicidal thing to do. He reserves the sole right to recycle his own material so frequently - I don't know why anyone else would bother.'

Later, Private Eye ran a piece which described Morris's Radio 4 show, On The Hour, as 'Citizens without the jokes'. Lewis-Smith, who writes for Private Eye, says he wasn't the author. He did however write to Radio 4 controller Michael Green, in April this year, complaining that Morris was being given far more freedom in his telephone hoaxing than he ever was.

Then, two weeks ago Lewis-Smith wrote to Time Out, after another flurry of letters about plagiarism and whether Lewis-Smith was writing fake letters of complaint about the show to the BBC: 'I have not heard any of the present series of On The Hour,' he wrote, '. . . now fuck off and leave me alone.' Even Lewis-Smith admits things may be getting out of hand. 'What's the point? You take a tape into somebody's office and say listen to this - that man's a thief! And they look at you and think this is somebody with an obsession.' Morris is more relaxed about it. 'He's like an unofficial publicity agent who takes great pains to put my name in print whenever he can.' Listeners can judge for themselves next month. Morris's On The Hour is going out on Saturday mornings on Radio 4, and Lewis-Smith's new evening show is on Radio 1.

Meanwhile, the feud goes on: 'Imitation is the sincerest form of being an unoriginal thieving bastard,' says Lewis-Smith. 'It will run and run,' says Morris, 'until he has a heart attack and falls flat on his fat face.'


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 5, 2005)

Lewis-Smith is just bitter cos Morris does it so much better than him.


----------



## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Lewis-Smith is just bitter cos Morris does it so much better than him.



Just cos morris is more "hip" and is clued to whats "in" at the moment doest make him any better.Smith was doing  what morris is doing 20 yrs ago and kenny everatt before him.


----------



## JWH (Mar 5, 2005)

swarthy thug said:
			
		

> Smith was doing  what morris is doing 20 yrs ago and kenny everatt before him.


What, when Morris was 9?

(Btw, the haircut-gone-wrong-becomes-fashionable gag isn't Kenny Everett, it's Grange Hill, when Tucker Jenkins gets a Duck's Arse that goes wrong).


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 5, 2005)

I beg to differ.
Smith just did asinine pranks and Kenny Everett was just silly.
Morris' Brass Eye, Jam and The Day Today are unparalled.


----------



## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I beg to differ.
> Smith just did asinine pranks and Kenny Everett was just silly.
> Morris' Brass Eye, Jam and The Day Today are unparalled.



I dont disagree about the day today but jam and brass eye are to knowing and full of "quotation marks" for me.


----------



## Idris2002 (Mar 5, 2005)

What's Smith ever done? Invent a bullshit story about Captain Pugwash that idiots think is actually true?


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 5, 2005)

He phoned up the BBC pretending he was meeting Heile Selassie at the Babylon and Ting - guffaw guffaw.


----------



## Idris2002 (Mar 5, 2005)

While Ras Tafari had been dead for twenty odd years at the time?


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 5, 2005)

swarthy thug said:
			
		

> Smith was doing  what morris is doing 20 yrs ago and kenny everatt before him.



your efforts to appear iconoclastic and controversial are really poor. Victor Lewis Smith did an album of admittedly funny prank phone calls. he wasn't the first, he won't be the last. other than that, he's useless, as his tv shows prove..

and 20 years ago? are you sure..


----------



## Vash (Mar 5, 2005)

Lewis's shows 'TV offal' and the other 1993 one remain the most ground breaking things i've ever seen on TV.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 5, 2005)

you're kidding? there were a few decent scattered gags, but for groundbreaking i read 'ill-conceived mess'.


----------



## MrBIG (Mar 5, 2005)

Kenny everett was the master of many of the production techniques that  Lewis  
used to some effect . Everett www.kennyeverett.co.uk/ himself used , developed and perfected splicing techniques that he originally picked up from US and offshore-pirate Jingles and commercials. If you listen to some of his work it can still take your breath away with it's sheer inventiveness and mastery of the reel tape medium. 
 With such an obvious precursor it does seem a litttle strange that Smith feels/felt able to feel cheated by Morris putting his own slant on the tradition.


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## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> your efforts to appear iconoclastic and controversial are really poor. Victor Lewis Smith did an album of admittedly funny prank phone calls. he wasn't the first, he won't be the last. other than that, he's useless, as his tv shows prove..
> 
> and 20 years ago? are you sure..


 Me appear inconacalstic and conttrversail,that was not my game plan on her,but i might give a stab.Never said smith was some superguru of humour,just that morris is not as origanal as he things he is.


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## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

"jim davidson with a ironic t-shirt"


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## swarthy thug (Mar 5, 2005)

MrBIG said:
			
		

> Kenny everett was the master of many of the production techniques that  Lewis
> used to some effect . Everett www.kennyeverett.co.uk/ himself used , developed and perfected splicing techniques that he originally picked up from US and offshore-pirate Jingles and commercials. If you listen to some of his work it can still take your breath away with it's sheer inventiveness and mastery of the reel tape medium.
> With such an obvious precursor it does seem a litttle strange that Smith feels/felt able to feel cheated by Morris putting his own slant on the tradition.



 No arguements there about everatt and smith,but the way some on here thing morris humour was plucked from the water  untouched.


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## JWH (Mar 5, 2005)

Hold on, isn't it THE LAW that all discussions of Chris Morris must include the phrase "god-like genius"?


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## Bernie Gunther (Mar 5, 2005)

swarthy thug said:
			
		

> I think victor lewis smith said it.


 Can I just mention here that I went to Uni with Vic Smith and I think he's a total cunt.


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## Biffo (Mar 6, 2005)

I'm shocked Steve Wright and Noel Edmonds haven't been mentioned yet. Now those guys WERE funny.

And Benny Hill.

And Barrymore.


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## andy2002 (Mar 6, 2005)

I think Victor Lewis Smith is a dickhead, but his prank phonecall to Mary Whitehouse is one of the most evilly hilarious things I've ever heard.


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## swarthy thug (Mar 6, 2005)

Bernie Gunther said:
			
		

> Can I just mention here that I went to Uni with Vic Smith and I think he's a total cunt.


 Tell more bernie.
Are you named after the german composer bernard gunter?


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## swarthy thug (Mar 6, 2005)

JWH said:
			
		

> Hold on, isn't it THE LAW that all discussions of Chris Morris must include the phrase "god-like genius"?


 Shit phrase that ,gods a arsehole not a genius in any why.


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## JWH (Mar 6, 2005)

*comedy zombie*

No...cannot be true...man must never question "God-like genius" of Morris...TVCream...TVCream...Cookd and Bombd...


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## swarthy thug (Mar 6, 2005)

JWH said:
			
		

> No...cannot be true...man must never question "God-like genius" of Morris...TVCream...TVCream...Cookd and Bombd...



Thats it youve crossed a line now


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## Pie 1 (Mar 6, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> He phoned up the BBC pretending he was meeting Heile Selassie at the Babylon and Ting - guffaw guffaw.



This is ringing a very distant bell. Was that ever included on an Orb record/remix? or had I just been smoking weed that was far too strong?


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## Erich Zann (Mar 6, 2005)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> This is ringing a very distant bell. Was that ever included on an Orb record/remix? or had I just been smoking weed that was far too strong?



No, you're right, it was on the beginning of the orb's Tower of Dub.

Concening the fake phone calls as comedy and who copied who; I have reliable witness that they both copied the american comic from the 50's Steve Allen. Although i'm told his were a lot less offensive.


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## Biffo (Mar 8, 2005)

The only funny stuff Lewis did was wind up phone calls. This element of humour is but a fragment of Morris' repertoire. Saw #4 on E4 last night and laughed a lot. In particular at the barber's cat catching the scissors in her head and the clothes shop call Bumphuk.


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## rutabowa (Mar 8, 2005)

Nathan Barley:
episode 1: quite good
episode 2: poor
episode 3: missed it
episode 4: lame but i laughed once


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## Spion (Mar 9, 2005)

Bernie Gunther said:
			
		

> Can I just mention here that I went to Uni with Vic Smith and I think he's a total cunt.



I've never liked the guy, but his Guardian Weekend restaurant reviews have been (surprisingly) good


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## Balbi (Mar 11, 2005)

Once again, that were good. My housemate watched it and laughed his arse off for most of it.

He sympathised with Barley though  CUNT!


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## DrRingDing (Mar 11, 2005)

I thought t'other night was fookin excellent, laughed my tits off   

...and when the other week he was rapping and whilst going down on that old girl   

I've known a couple of cunts that would do that as well


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## JWH (Mar 11, 2005)

Thought it was quite good.


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## pk (Mar 12, 2005)

Last night's not as funny as last weeks, IMHO, but that may have been the effect of the arse-dull Comic Relief on BBC1... ended up watching "I Know What You Did Last Summer", and I don't even remotely fancy Sarah Michelle Gellar...


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## Maggot (Mar 12, 2005)

I enjoyed last nights one, especially the blow job noises.


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## Maggot (Mar 13, 2005)

It was technically a Polanski!


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## andy2002 (Mar 13, 2005)

Friday's was a bit disappointing after the Geek Pie brilliance of last week's. It's been a bloody odd series - all over the place in terms of plot, character development etc, but strangely likeable at the same time. There are rumours of a second series but the ratings have been terrible so I'd be surprised if Channel 4 were up for it.


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## Biffo (Mar 13, 2005)

Thir-fucking-teen!!


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## Dask (Mar 14, 2005)

Has it finished yet?

Only saw the first two episodes and thought it was dreadful, a few comedy moments, but I think they where purely coincidental.

Not impressed at all.


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## our-streets (Mar 14, 2005)

It's fucking funny


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## silentNate (Mar 14, 2005)

Next friday will be episode six, the last in the series... 
Last fridays was quite disturbing and had images which will stay with me for a while, Nathan Barley trying it on with the cokehead model wasn't amusing whilst showing this series darkest moment so far.
Episode four was the funniest, the bit where dan ashcroft goes to the barbers being the funniest moment even including Dan dressed as the 'preacher man' whilst Nathan raps... In fact there have been a whole load of cringeworthy moments like the Russian gambling site ('where does the internet go?') and Nathan's attempts to get Dan's sister in the mood with the most appalling rap yet...

Lets hope Nathan gets his comeuppance in the last episode


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## akirajoel (Mar 14, 2005)

i thought the last episode was worth it for nathan's blow-job dance alone...

 

but maybe that's just me.


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## akirajoel (Mar 18, 2005)

Best episode so far!

Well bum.


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## Termite Man (Mar 18, 2005)

Great series that was ! Bet it doesn't get another though  Most of the best programmes don't


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## Maggot (Mar 18, 2005)

I loved the junkie choir!


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## Biffo (Mar 18, 2005)

Morris remains the top man IMO. Quality stuff but to be honest the overall series was not as good pound for pound as shorter sketches a la Brass Eye & Jam. That said, it was still superior to any other shite on at the moment.


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## bigchriskelly (Mar 18, 2005)

morris is a lord. this series was really funny. thats all needs to be said


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## Jo/Joe (Mar 19, 2005)

Felt shortchanged after the last one. Overall poor, some funny stuff in it though.


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## bluestreak (Mar 19, 2005)

i saw this last night, and was amused.  some bits very good, some not so good.

the only other one that i've seen is the one where he gets the blowjob from the 13 year old girl.  that was vile and hysterical.


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## Maggot (Mar 20, 2005)

Does anyone know if the 'Really annoying ringtone' is available?


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## Stigmata (Mar 20, 2005)

Or the game 'Labour Party Conference'?


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## stdPikachu (Mar 21, 2005)

Maggot said:
			
		

> Does anyone know if the 'Really annoying ringtone' is available?



From the trashbat website credits page:



> ANNOYING RING TONE
> 
> Performed: Morris / Whitehead
> Composed: Morris Whitehead
> ...



No download link though


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## silentNate (Mar 21, 2005)

stdPikachu said:
			
		

> From the trashbat website credits page:
> 
> 
> 
> No download link though


 I have a copy of it though... Perhaps PM me 

Last episode was the best, fantastic jumping by Dan


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