Marcus Brigstocke on Graham Norton's show last night

[Neil]

Did anyone see this?  I'm not that familiar with his comedy, but he seemed to get constant rounds of applause last night, despite making the most obvious, hackneyed responses possible.  He would also reference Twitter at every oppurtunity, which I think is a good example of why people get irritated at jokes that cluster around certain types of zeitgeisty topics;  you just get these cheap, hollow laughs of recognition.

The bit I found most nauseating, though, was when he boasted of being on a train with Phill Jupitus.  No, wait, there is actually more...  he was boasting about how he did a twitter, asking for fans to deliver cornish pasties to his train carriage, and lo and behold, fans were falling over themselves to meet him and Jupitus at every stop, waving cornish pasties through the carriage window.  In what way is it acceptable to turn your fanbase into a meals-on-wheels service?  What sort of a cunt exploits their fans in this manner?  Obviously, he also mentioned they would be "handsomely rewarded", which made him sound like even more of a self-satisfied, decadent, pasty-scoffing pig. 

Would you actually turn up to the train carriage of a lazy celebrity you follow, after doing their shopping, just so they could foppishly hurl pennies at your stupid, subservient face?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Amazingly I actually watched this, which really shows that there was nothing on at that point.

I think the audience's reaction needs to be tempered by the other guest Janet Jackson being such an appallingly humourless individual, and Graham Norton's ability to get an audience all hyped up (even if it is over a whole load of infantile crap).

I'm not sure I remember the twitter bit. Perhaps I just tune out, I'm not sure. I vaguely remember Iannucci going on about twitter tediously. It must be a sign of what most British comedians seem to get up to in their free time.

[Neil]

I'm not sure I remember the twitter bit. Perhaps I just tune out, I'm not sure. I vaguely remember Iannucci going on about twitter tediously. It must be a sign of what most British comedians seem to get up to in their free time.

There must be interesting/funny things to say about it, but "anecdotes" like the above are purely self-serving, and are all centered around Marcus Brigstocke pointing out just how popular he is.

As for Norton, I really enjoyed his early C4 chat shows, but his humour was seeming a little tired last night.  He seems as capable of great ad-libs as ever, but the introductory monologue seemed mostly to consist of putting up pictures of people who looked a little bit like other people.  He milked the living fuck out of a catholic priest joke*, too.

There was a really jarring bit with Eric Idle, too, where they'd planned to have him break off mid-interview to start performing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."  So, they're talking about a Python performance on The Tonight Show where NOONE laughed, and Idle mentions how things like that just don't phase him at all - in fact, he said that when they got outside, they all pissed themselves laughing, as such a reaction was the funniest thing in the world, and there was really nothing more amusing than a gig being met with stone-cold silence.  'So, Eric...how do you actually cope when something like that happens...?'

* _{please, don't}

[thepuffpastryhangman]

It never occured to me that the likes of Brigstocke have fans of their own. I always assumed folks just tolerate him on TV and R4 rather than tune in specifically to see/hear him. I know he's toured but put ticket sales down to awkward first dates between people who'd met online both wanting to prove how familiar they are with Radio 4 and being equally afraid to say they detest Brigstocke believing him to be common ground. Not everything he says is wrong, but we'd all have a pasty in every port if that were the only criteria for collecting fans. Fans, of his own, that's just weird.

[Snied]

Twitter is just a cunt's playground. No human being that has not cured a major disease deserves that kind of attention.

[gatchamandave]

Obviously, he also mentioned they would be "handsomely rewarded", which made him sound like even more of a self-satisfied, decadent, pasty-scoffing pig. 

And indeed they were - they were the subject of a comedy routine Brigstocke performed on Graham Norton without him putting in any effort at all except bash off a quick tweet. No doubt the folks who waved the pasties felt an inner glow that their "hero" recognised and "handsomely rewarded " their efforts, allowing them to nudge their partner of choice in the ribs and say " Hey, I was one of those...I bought him and Phil Jupitus a pasty" and thus have a fleeting kiss of fame. Meanwhile he trades off on their Pavlovian responses

But that's Brigstocke all over - if you've ever listened to his stuff on The Now Show you might notice that there's never any attempt by him to convince you of the merits of his position, and thereby run the risk of entangling himself with people who might not. He just assumes that if the audience has turned up to see him they already tacitly agree with him, thinking him a right-minded sort of fellow, and applaud when he calls Blair a war criminal - yet again - or suggests that it's the gun-owning Republican idiots in Congress who have rendered Obama impotent. He's riding on the coat-tails of the likes of Mark Steel without doing any of the work Steel puts in. Tweeting from a train  probably knackered him, which is where the pies come in...

[thehungerartist]

Didn't someone from here once call him out on an hilarious joke he made about northerners, and he was delightfully reasonable about it all?

Still, worra cunt though - Twitter's clearly his natural habitat.

[Little Hoover]

Did anyone see this?  I'm not that familiar with his comedy

Well, you and everyone else.

[Ronnie the Raincoat]

Didn't someone from here once call him out on an hilarious joke he made about northerners, and he was delightfully reasonable about it all?

Still, worra cunt though - Twitter's clearly his natural habitat.

That was me, and yeah, he was reasonable, but still depressingly ill-informed and Daily Mail about it.  He called people from Liverpool, where there are a lot of people on benefits, "self-pityists" and said depression wasn't a real illness and they should just work etc and that incapacity benefits for mental health problems are composed of liars and scroungers.  Apart from the incredibly fucking tiresome and predictable fashioable jab at Liverpool, he was just wrong.

I will never understand the mentality of people who spend their time tweeting celebrities on Twitter in a desperate bid to get their oh-so-fucking-glorious attention.  I actively lose respect for people when they do it.  I know there is a thrill in it, the kind of thrill you get when you see someone famous on the street, or meet them after a gig, but that's incidental, it's not the same as waving a pasty in their face because they said heel to.

Marcus Brigstocke is never funny, never has been, and I do not understand why he persists in being on television.

[Rowlands]

I just don't like the shape of his head.

[Natnar]

Does Marcus still have an arse the size of Belgium?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I liked the stand-up show he did when he subtly wore corduroy, thus allowing him the opportunity to reference the fact he was wearing corduroy. We could do with more of that in British comedy.

[Rowlands]

Does Marcus still have an arse the size of Belgium?

He has one of THOSE bodies. There's a teacher at my school much the same. A really fat arse and fat upper half, lumbering height but a thin rectangular head like a chip.

[mini goatbix]

For anyone feeling angry about Twitter, on Brooker's radio show So Wrong It's Right Lee Mack got very frothy about how inane and arrogant Twitter is, it was quite satisfying to listen to. There seems to be a lot of self congratulation that goes on in the media world - presumably it always happened but we didn't get to hear about it. Now not only do celebs get to splatter every inane thought out to the world, but they get constant adoring feedback for it - to be honest, if I was in a situation like that I'd find it difficult to keep to keep my ego in check. As it is whenever I start voicing my inane thoughts on the bus people look at me tetchily so I quickly learn to keep my mouth shut.

[An tSaoi]

Most of me thinks Brigstocke is a vile, smug, snobby comedian with some seriously questionable views and an unpleasant demeanor. However, part of me admires the fact that we would shamelessly use his fans like that. If people are so fawning and subservient that they'd go to the trouble of bestowing gifts upon their idol to suit his every whim, then they deserve to be exploited if only to show what absolute morons they are.

I can't tell how Brigstocke intended this pasties business because I didn't see the show; if he really was being a spoilt, decadent twat then he's, well, a twat - but if he was making a point about how easily led some fans are and how sad the whole thing is, then he might have illustrated something worthwhile. All depends on how seriously/subversively he meant it I suppose, and whether he deserves the benefit of the doubt. The An tSaoi Jury™ is out on this one.

Of course mentioning Flavour of the Mmonth things like twitter in comedy to seem relevant is till unacceptable.

[Little Hoover]

I think it's about time I came out with the old "people criticising twitter has become just as boring as twitter itself" Also the people who criticise it are smug.

But seriously it has it's uses, it's mostly inane but then so is everything on the internet.

[Steve Lampkins]

To be honest, I think the pastie thing is pretty neat, in a 'look at what stage we are with the internet and mass, mobile communication' way. Bit like marvelling at all the songs in your iPod.

[eluc55]

as boring as twitter itself.

it's mostly inane but then so is everything on the internet.

Well, with reviews as enthusiastic as that, maybe I am missing out.

Seriously though, people like myself aren't objecting to Twitter persay - after all, twitter itself has no effect on us. Rather its the way something "as inane as everything on the internet" it constantly referenced and quoted in the most boring, unimaginative ways, not just by the comedians, or celebs, but all branches of the media - even the way the constant drip feed of nothingness seeped onto here during series 3 of The Thick Of It was frustrating at times. That attitude is something worth criticising, and when I'm attacking Twitter, I've always acknowledged it has its uses.

[Neil]

I liked the stand-up show he did when he subtly wore corduroy, thus allowing him the opportunity to reference the fact he was wearing corduroy. We could do with more of that in British comedy.

So...does he actually wear that same outfit at most of his gigs, so he can then make 'geography supply teacher' gags?  His live DVD even seems to be called "Planet Corduroy."  Every clip on the YouTube sidebar seems to have him decked out in that same outfit, too.  I know curduroy is famously hard-wearing, but it appears that Brigstocke has made a point of ripping the arse out of it.

I can't tell how Brigstocke intended this pasties business because I didn't see the show; if he really was being a spoilt, decadent twat then he's, well, a twat - but if he was making a point about how easily led some fans are and how sad the whole thing is, then he might have illustrated something worthwhile. All depends on how seriously/subversively he meant it I suppose, and whether he deserves the benefit of the doubt. The An tSaoi Jury™ is out on this one.

[noembed]It's up on iplayer, 7 minutes in.  He talks about how you can 'do amazing things with Twitter', and you think, oh right, he's going to talk about those protests in Moldova or something, he's going to outline how it was used as a means of effecting social change, and caused people to band together and rise up... wait, no, he's actually just describing how lazy, hack comics can use it to avoid bakery queues.[/noembed]

[tcm77]

I don't even like Cornish pasties. I think they're shit.

[DJ One Record]

Most of me thinks Brigstocke is a vile, smug, snobby comedian with some seriously questionable views and an unpleasant demeanor. However, part of me admires the fact that we would shamelessly use his fans like that. If people are so fawning and subservient that they'd go to the trouble of bestowing gifts upon their idol to suit his every whim, then they deserve to be exploited if only to show what absolute morons they are.

I can't tell how Brigstocke intended this pasties business because I didn't see the show; if he really was being a spoilt, decadent twat then he's, well, a twat - but if he was making a point about how easily led some fans are and how sad the whole thing is, then he might have illustrated something worthwhile. All depends on how seriously/subversively he meant it I suppose, and whether he deserves the benefit of the doubt. The An tSaoi Jury™ is out on this one.

I'm actually with you on this. As deplorable as all this stuff with Twitter, comedians and fanbases can be and has been over the last few months - Brigstocke getting fans to deliver pasties, Baddiel stealing gags for use on a panel show - a much larger part of me is interested to see where it all goes from here: to what extent other comedians might use and abuse twitter, or even if and when comedians start trying to subvert the whole Twitter fad from within. Personally I'm finding the whole thing very exciting for comedy, even if thus far the only notable stories round these parts have been cunts proving that they're cunts.

[Little Hoover]

Well, with reviews as enthusiastic as that, maybe I am missing out.

Seriously though, people like myself aren't objecting to Twitter persay - after all, twitter itself has no effect on us. Rather its the way something "as inane as everything on the internet" it constantly referenced and quoted in the most boring, unimaginative ways, not just by the comedians, or celebs, but all branches of the media - even the way the constant drip feed of nothingness seeped onto here during series 3 of The Thick Of It was frustrating at times. That attitude is something worth criticising, and when I'm attacking Twitter, I've always acknowledged it has its uses.

Oh absolutely there's plenty to be criticised about it, but at the same time there's something about the default sneery setting that CaB sometimes has towards these sorts of things that seems a bit "grumpy old men" And that attitude is worth questioning. I mean I was very cynical about twitter until I actually explored it a little further. But I've no problem with what you've said; I know you always have rational and balanced opinions on these things.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Luckily, footage of the incident survives:

The Great Pasty Hunt (PART 1)

[Rowlands]

Just look at his stupid bloody head.

[Icehaven]

Admittedly I just watched a few bits and didnt listen but those 'fans' looked suspiciously like railway employees to me.

[scarecrow]

I couldn't be bothered watching the whole clip, but I think there's something really charming about Jupitus, obese and complacent, making pasty couriers of his fans. Shame Brigstoke was involved. I know that regarding people as smug is totally subjective, but I really cannot imagine how anyone could find him anything other than smug. He's just so smug, you know?

[padougy]

I'm actually with you on this. As deplorable as all this stuff with Twitter, comedians and fanbases can be and has been over the last few months - Brigstocke getting fans to deliver pasties, Baddiel stealing gags for use on a panel show - a much larger part of me is interested to see where it all goes from here: to what extent other comedians might use and abuse twitter, or even if and when comedians start trying to subvert the whole Twitter fad from within. Personally I'm finding the whole thing very exciting for comedy, even if thus far the only notable stories round these parts have been cunts proving that they're cunts.

I remember people on here going on about this, but I never knew to what it referred. Could someone explain?

[Neil]

Check out the first page of the You Have Been Watching - series 2 thread for the story on that one. 

[Lfbarfe]

I liked the stand-up show he did when he subtly wore corduroy, thus allowing him the opportunity to reference the fact he was wearing corduroy. We could do with more of that in British comedy.

He's a fucking charlatan who doesn't have any right to claim corduroy as his own. I live in the stuff and I wanted to burn all I had when I heard he'd appropriated it. The fact that I wouldn't have any clothes left stopped me.

[Uncle TechTip]

Twitter is perfect for comedians of ego as well as everyday "look at me" types as it's perfected the art of people talking at rather than to each other. Interesting article here on the demise of instant messaging, once a proper form of communication but now relegated behind those tools which favour one way communication. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8698174.stm